High Flyer - Michelle Diener Page 0,45

as if five or six buildings of different heights and sizes had been joined together. All the buildings had a similar architectural style, but they looked like they should be set apart, rather than put together to form a single unit. Two of the roofs had collapsed, and one wall had a gaping hole in it.

A crescent of twelve windowless huts formed a semi-circle to one side of it, and guessing they were the camp accommodations, Iver headed toward them, still reeling at the sight of the ruin.

Faldine was a rare, habitable planet with no upper-level sentient life to claim it as theirs.

Even so, it should still be subject to a VSC Do Not Disturb order, but the smugglers had shot that to hell when they'd settled in, using Faldine as one of their hiding places while the VSC hunted them down after the Halatian disaster.

By the time the VSC had tracked them to Faldine, the damage had already been done. Every Do Not Disturb protocol had been smashed.

He'd come to Faldine specifically to make sure the smugglers and the VSC's impact on the planet was as low as possible, and still, he knew it had been changed irreversibly.

What he also knew, though, was every thou of ground on the planet had been mapped and nowhere--absolutely nowhere--did an ancient ruin appear.

A shout from behind him pulled him out of his shock, and he glanced around, keeping the move casual, keeping his pace steady.

One of the men he'd seen approaching the lander was hailing him, and he simply lifted an arm in a wave and vaguely indicated toward one of the huts.

When he reached the small dwelling he was headed for, he put the box down in front of the door and then moved around the side, keeping his pace steady until he was completely out of sight.

The man hadn't called again, so he still had a small window of time to hide.

Behind the huts was a low wall made of the same material as the ruin, and then beyond that stood an energy array that looked like it was harnessing power from a fast moving stream, the wind and the sun.

A cable ran from the array, over the wall, and disappeared into a power unit, in what had to be one of the most ancient tech solutions Iver had seen for a long time.

They were either making do with whatever they could find, or nothing else worked out here.

He wondered if they were sitting on an extra strong magnetic field.

He looked along the curve created by the layout of the huts, toward the ruin, and turned from it with regret.

Hana was here somewhere, and she was hurt and in danger.

He realized his hands were trembling, and he gripped the straps of his pack tighter to still them.

He'd caught a glimpse of a few people through the crumbling wall of the ruin--so there were people inside it. Looting it, studying it, whatever it was they were doing, they had tried to kill him to prevent him from finding this place.

Whoever these people were, they hadn't declared their profession when they'd arrived on planet, and they would not be reputable experts.

He forced himself to let go of the fury he felt at the deception involved to hide this from him and his VSC superiors, and instead hunkered down to get a better view of the lander and the buildings on the other side of the camp.

There were actually three buildings, much larger than the huts, and all made of plasti-cast. He guessed they comprised the canteen, the common areas, as well as whatever management offices this operation needed.

The two men unloading the lander had been joined by two other people, and they were carrying crates to the middle of the three buildings.

There was no hover cart here, and they were carrying boxes by hand between them.

His suspicion about the high magnetic field seemed to be accurate.

No one seemed interested in coming after him, and from their body language and the way they were joking with each other as they carried the supplies, they didn't seem to be on alert.

Even when the lander had arrived at the camp's entry point, no one had looked in the back.

Things might change a bit since the smugglers had issued a challenge, but for now, their complacency made Iver's life a lot easier.

He needed to use the time wisely.

He hadn't been able to see where they'd taken Hana, and now that he was tucked behind the huts,