I didn’t have time to ponder that last one. My stomach fell upward into my throat as the feathered serpent folded its wings and dived. The ground rushed toward us and the wind tore at my clothes and hair. I closed my eyes, opened them, and closed them again as the dragon thrust out its wings and we swooped into a steep U-curve. Canyon walls flashed past us on either side as the dragon’s flight leveled out a few dozen meters above the bottom of the canyon and I fought to hold down my supper. Then I heard the sound of a chopper engine overhead. Looking past the feathered serpent’s narrow torso, I saw a dark shape that must have been an Azzie helicopter gunship. Even though my cyberear seemed to be working again, the dragon had heard the threat a few seconds earlier than I had. Its hearing and night vision must have been sensitive indeed. Sensitive enough for us not to have a hope of escaping the thing.