High Flyer - Michelle Diener Page 0,62
some of the stink out.” Iver edged back a little more and coughed.
Bret grabbed the back of his jacket collar and pulled him back even further, as he started to cough as well.
Roj turned suddenly and vomited.
“I'm sure I've got a mask in my pack. Let me at least bring them out of the clearing.” Iver didn't like the gray hue of Roj's skin.
Bret took Iver's pack off his back and retreated a few steps. “Don't move.” He set the pack on the ground and opened it up, keeping his arm raised, the SAL pointed at Iver, his gaze jumping from Iver to the inside of the pack and back.
“All right. Here it is.” He tossed a mask to Iver. “You carry them out here, and if you try anything, I swear I'll shoot you and leave you lying in the after-burn.”
Iver nodded, secured the mask.
Roj fought him, batting at him like he'd forgotten how to throw a punch, and eventually Iver got him on his feet and wrangled him away from the clearing.
Luki was still unconscious, and Iver didn't dare move him alone, not with his wound still sluggishly seeping blood from around the patch Baxter had put in place.
Instead, he lifted the women up, one by one, carrying them to where he'd put Roj.
“Set Jeera down here,” Bret said when he brought the woman who'd been on patrol with Grimms. “I don't want her close to the other two.”
Iver did as Bret asked, then went back for the last man, whose name he didn't know.
“Russ can be laid down next to Jeera.”
When Iver stepped back, something brushed his ankle, and he looked down, found Roj trying to grip the bottom of his pants.
“Sick.” Roj turned, vomited again, and Iver held out a hand to Bret.
“My pack. He needs some water.”
Bret didn't hand the pack over, but he crouched beside it again, and tossed Iver a water bottle.
Iver carefully held it to Roj's lips, let him sip at it.
“What now?” he asked Bret.
Bret angled his body, so he could keep an eye on everyone as well as the path from the river.
“Now we wait for my people, and then we find out who these people sent that TellTale too.”
“How you going to do that?” Iver had a bad feeling he knew.
“Any way we have to.” Bret's gaze rested on Roj and Lia, and Iver was glad Hana was no longer in his clutches.
Chapter 22
Something had happened.
Something violent.
Hana could think of no other reason for the four people from the camp running along the path Iver had taken, carrying two stretchers between them.
If Iver was one of the people hurt . . .
She took a deep breath. If he was, she couldn't do anything to help him right now.
She needed to watch and see what was going on before she ran down and got herself recaptured.
It didn't take long for the group to come back around the curve of the hill again.
One of the people holding the end of a stretcher was Vras, the medic who'd tended to her the day before. He and the other two men and one woman helping him all seemed ill at ease.
They negotiated the river carefully, all four of them carrying first one and then the other injured person on the stretchers over the rocks.
Iver wasn't on either.
Hana focused back on the path again.
Two people came limping into view.
One of the woman who worked at the camp was supporting a fellow guard.
He was unsteady on his feet, his hand to his temple.
The woman looked in better shape, but her stride was uncertain.
Behind them came the woman who'd followed Grimms and her friend along the river and discovered the camp. Now that she was facing Hana and walking slowly, Hana recognized her as Lia, Brynja's friend from the valley ambush. Her hands were clasped behind her head.
Iver came behind her, doing the same.
Hana swallowed back bile as a heavy weight settled in the pit of her stomach at seeing him captured.
He seemed all right, though. Uninjured at least.
She would have to get him out and it would be a lot harder for her than it had been for him to rescue her.
They would be on alert now.
Especially because the smugglers had sent a TellTale. Bret knew the camp's location was no longer a secret. They'd be on their guard now.
Finally, last in line, came Bret. He was holding a SAL, pointed at Iver's back.
He obviously thought Iver was the more dangerous of his two prisoners,