High Flyer - Michelle Diener Page 0,20

to her. Even without her strange upgrade, she was a different person.

She shook off the thought.

“Nowhere else I'd rather be than here.” Iver reached out and touched her cheek.

“I feel the same. Well . . .” She suddenly grinned. “Not here, here. I'd prefer to already be in Touka City.”

She was tired, and if she was any judge of distance, they were still at least three hours from Touka, but somehow the fact that Iver wasn't planning on leaving Faldine in a hurry gave her a boost.

There were no paths in the scrubby plains they'd been walking across and the going had been tough since they'd been walking last night. They'd only stopped to rest a few times.

She started walking again and Iver fell into step beside her. She couldn't tell if he was as tired as she was. He didn't look it.

Her own secret well of energy and focus was having to work harder than usual. The magnetic fields under the plains around Touka were obviously a little closer to the surface than the ones under the city itself.

Touka was as good as it got on Faldine as far as magfields went, with the exception of Iver's headquarters and Bero, the small village that serviced it. The city sprawled across a magnetic field buried so deep that it only interfered a little with day to day comms, although it was enough to make reaching up beyond the atmosphere difficult.

Satellites weren't much good here, which was why Iver lived where he did, in the middle of nowhere but with absolutely no magnetic interference at all. The one satellite circling Faldine was solely for him, connecting him to Admiral Carina Valerian, head of the VSC fleet in the Faldine System.

Most would assume that the admiral's job had been pretty easy for the last year and a half, with the war over, but Hana knew the Caruso had been circling, looking for a way to get to the rich resources on Faldine.

When Admiral Valerian had proved too difficult an obstacle to get around, they'd pretended to give up, when in fact they'd turned their attention to the VSC breakaway planets, Garmen and Lassa, and as had just been revealed, to Veltos as well.

The VSC had shut that down and gotten back control of all its vassals, but it was possible the Caruso were making a play for Faldine again.

And using someone like Lancaster to help them.

“You never told me what the Caruso offered Lancaster to make him betray everything he knew.”

Iver gave a slight shake of his head. “He never actually confirmed it was the Caruso. Whoever it was, and honestly, the Caruso are the most likely, they were blackmailing him.”

“Blackmailing him?” She stopped, her mouth open. “What were they threatening?”

“They were threatening to reveal details that would get him arrested.”

“So not money. Freedom.” She gave a slow nod. That made so much more sense. Money wasn't the motivator she understood it had been over a century ago, before the VSC restructured its society to be almost completely equal when it came to wealth. The Citizen Dividend had changed the VSC completely. Some earned a little more than others--most likely Iver was paid more for his job as head-of-planet than she was paid for piloting his Sig--but everyone had what they needed. There was no reason to betray their people for material wealth.

“Whatever the reason, I can't believe he was prepared to restart a war to keep his position and his reputation.” Iver slid his hands into his pockets, hunching his shoulders.

Hana reached out, hooked a hand around his bicep, interested and not a little flustered to find her hand didn't even cover half of it, and gave a sympathetic squeeze.

“I know he was your friend. I'm sorry he's dead, and that he betrayed you.”

He pulled his opposite hand out of his pocket and placed it over hers.

It should have been awkward, walking so close together, linked as they were, over the rough ground, but it didn't feel that way.

Hana felt herself settle a little.

They hadn't touched much since last night. They'd concentrated on getting as far from the wreckage of the Dynastra and Lancaster's crew as they could, pushing themselves through the night.

But this was . . . nice.

Like the moment on the river bank where they'd both been brushing their teeth.

She opened her mouth to say something, and then tightened her grip on Iver's arm and stopped walking.

“What?”

She lifted a finger to her lips, cocked her head. “Land runner.” She