High Flyer - Michelle Diener Page 0,14

guard beside Iver, not looking at Iver at all. “Get him into the Dynastra, ready to go.”

He turned away, but instead of going back to the runner, he turned toward the river, his gait impatient and self-important. He'd been tasked with rounding up the last straggler, Hana guessed, and the thought of wielding a little more power than someone else excited him.

She followed him into the darkness, leaving the glow of the campfire behind her.

When she caught up with him, he was standing on top of a rock in the water, an easy jump from the bank. He called to his missing teammate with hands bracketing his mouth.

“Lunn!” There was an anger in the guard's voice now. His mission had gone from being a power trip to being boring.

Life on Faldine, which often had no working comms, gave most Verdant Stringers a newfound appreciation for what they'd taken for granted on their home planets.

And places on Faldine like this one, where the magnetic field wasn't very strong but had enough juice to interfere were the worst. Everything was temperamental, cutting in and out. Working and then not working.

It was something the scientists were still looking into.

A strong magfield wasn't good for whatever was responsible for her upgrade, either, though. She felt much more like her old self, pre-upgrade, when she was in an area with a strong magfield.

It had given her a theory about just what had managed to invade her body, but there was no way she was prepared to get someone to test it for her.

And while the plains around Touka weren't the worst on the magnetic scale, they were strong enough to dampen her advantage.

But only dampen it. She was still more than she had been.

“Lunn!”

Obviously the comms weren't working for Lancaster and his team. Which meant the guard couldn't signal someone for help if she didn't manage to take him down immediately.

At last someone called back, a faint call from downriver, and with a huff of impatience, the guard put his hands on his hips. “We're waiting for you.”

He was fully focused on looking downriver, peering into the darkness for a sign of his colleague. It was easy for Hana to jump onto a rock downriver from him undetected.

There were two rocks between them, and she didn't hesitate. She accelerated to full speed, jumping from one to the other, pushing off the last one to get herself airborne and landing right behind him. She shoved him down, her hand going straight to his SAL, holstered on his hip.

She pulled it out as he shouted in rage, and then shot him in the back. He twisted, trying to see who'd attacked him, then collapsed on the rock.

Hana leaped down and started downriver, the guard's SAL still ready in her hand.

Lunn walked toward her in the darkness, making no effort to be quiet or stealthy.

She couldn't blame him. He had his colleague bellowing for him to hurry, as if it were all wrapped up.

These people truly were amateurs. They should never had taken Iver's word that she was dead. Even Linnel, who didn't want to believe it, hadn't carried out even the most perfunctory search for her.

They would pay a price for that.

She considered hiding and waiting for Lunn to pass her, but he was moving too slowly, walking in the river itself rather than making the more dangerous jumps between the rocks sticking above the waterline. She didn't have time.

She ran straight at him, leaping rock to rock. She expected him to react in some way to her speed and the fact that she was clearly a stranger, but he kept his head down, looking at where he was putting his feet on the uneven riverbed.

Sometimes she forgot how well she could see at night. Forgetting things like that would trip her up in the end. It was inevitable.

As she got closer, she could see Lunn was soaking wet and had a bleeding cut on his forehead. He must have slipped and fallen into the river, which was why he was the last one in, and why he was being so careful of his footing now.

“I said I was coming, asshole.” Lunn looked up as she made the last jump onto the rock he was about to wade around.

His eyes widened when he realized she wasn't his colleague, and then his hand went to the cartridge she'd just shot into his chest. As soon as his fist closed around it, he lunged forward, trying to grab her.

She