High Flyer - Michelle Diener Page 0,36
driver wanted him to sign something, and I'm betting it was an inventory approval.”
“You think the driver's making a supply run to whatever is happening out in the Spikes? The place Lancaster was afraid you'd find when you started the sky lane route survey?”
“We've been off a sealed road for some time, so yes.” He lay back down, ran a bold hand over her breast, down her side. “I wish we had time and the guarantee of privacy.”
She smiled against his cheek, even scratchier after three days of scruff. “Me, too.” She wanted to rub herself against him, resisted the urge with difficulty. He was right. This was not a safe place for what they wanted to do.
He sighed and lifted up reluctantly. “Are you hungry?”
She nodded, and he rose to a crouch, reaching for a small stack nearby and taking two boxes with intertwined letters on the front.
“R-Meals.” She gave a resigned shrug as she took one. “Nothing I haven't eaten before.”
“They aren't good,” he agreed. “We should really do something to fix that.”
She smiled. “Tell the admiral that you'll solve the transportation problem on Faldine only after you've managed to create delicious army food.”
“As food science is not my area, why don't I just get someone else to do that at the same time as I'm building the sky lane?”
She pointed the spoon that she'd unclipped from the side of the box at him. “Of course. I sometimes forget you're head-of-planet.”
He raised his brows and grinned at her. “I'd like to forget it, most days. It was a hard lesson on deferring my public service obligations. By the time my deferment had expired, they needed a head-of-planet.”
She cocked her head. “Isn't head-of-planet one of the few voted roles?”
“Yes, but that's on a full VSC planet. Faldine is technically still a vassal, so the VSC decided who got the job. They picked me, and generously decided to count it as my public service duty.”
“Poor baby.” She leaned across and kissed his cheek.
“You say that, but I don't think you mean it.”
She grinned and shrugged. Forced herself to swallow some more of the congealed food on the disposable tray.
Beneath them, the engine sound changed, from a steady rumble to a sudden, higher whine. The whole vehicle lurched.
Hana exchanged a look with Iver and packed away her food. He had been busy while she slept, she saw. There were two packs stacked against one of the crates and he rose to his feet and lifted them off the floor.
He must have put them together from the supplies in the back.
She took the one he offered her, testing the weight of it before she strapped it on.
The lander had slowed and Iver moved to the doors. “It's going slow enough now that it should be safe to jump out.”
She nodded. Better escape while they could than stay and possibly be trapped inside in an enemy camp later.
Iver opened the doors, and she saw they were traveling over rocky ground, the vehicle battling with the uneven terrain.
The whole vehicle suddenly slowed further and tipped upward, and Iver jumped out, the ground just an easy step down.
He turned for her, hand outstretched, and she took it, hopped out, and carefully closed the doors behind her.
They both crouched down at what she saw was the foot of a rocky outcrop, and the lander disappeared from sight above them.
“Follow it?” Hana asked.
Iver nodded. “The speed it's going, I think we can keep up easily.”
Hana smiled at him. “That's because the head-of-planet hasn't fixed the transport problem yet.”
She heard his laughter behind her as she hauled herself up the rock.
Chapter 15
This deep in the Spikes, the mid-morning sun was muted as it reached down to the valley floor.
Iver looked up to see searing blue skies above while they walked in the shadow of the mountain.
“There's something about this place.” Hana looked over her shoulder at him. “My warning systems are on full alert.”
He thought she looked genuinely worried, as if there was more to it than just a feeling.
“It's the strange effect of the light.” He agreed with her, though, it felt like more than that. The back of his neck prickled. “I've had a few submissions regarding bringing VSC tourists here to experience the atmosphere.”
She muttered something under her breath, which sounded like 'good luck to them'.
Despite the eerie sense of something watching them with ill-intent, he grinned.
She delighted him.
Up ahead, the lander's engine changed pitch, and he slowed, just as Hana did, waiting for it