High Flyer - Michelle Diener

Chapter 1

Hana had been flying for Iver Sugotti for nearly six months, so she knew the drill.

As she approached the house, with the green hills and wooded valley blurring beneath her feet, Lancaster sent her a comm, telling her to come straight in.

She swooped the Sig in over the part of the roof Sugotti had modified to take a landing pad, and instead of landing as she'd been told, she executed the little dance she'd come up with, moving the Sig left, then right, then in an elegant pirouette before settling down on the tiny red square.

If anyone had been holding a gun to her head, or had already killed or removed her, and had taken the comm instead, they would have given themselves away. And knowing Lancaster, they would have been dead one second after landing.

As it was, Lancaster raised his hand in greeting as he stepped out from the atrium on the roof where he and Iver waited. Iver followed him out, and they exchanged a few words before Iver bent low to avoid the turbulence of the blades.

While he ran the few meters to her, she glanced up at Lancaster. His eyes were on his boss, his face unguarded, and what she saw there made her blink.

Iver reached the door and pulled it open, hauling himself in next to her.

She waited for him to slam the door closed and then lifted off, banking right, and then punching it up so they shot over the gardens and were on their way before he'd even finished clipping his belt.

She said nothing until he looked settled. “Not working today?”

He'd sat up front with her a few times in the six months she'd been his pilot, she assumed to get to know her better at first, and once after that when his screen had gone on the blink.

She liked it better when he sat at the back, absorbed in his work, but she liked this job, so she was prepared to make small talk if he wanted her to.

“No. Don't feel like it.”

She looked sidelong at him, and wondered if it was snowing somewhere on the plains of the Argin Desert. He hardly ever didn't feel like working.

“I thought Lancaster was coming with you on this trip to Touka.”

“He was. Something came up I needed him to deal with.”

She wondered what it was that had put such a look of fury on Lancaster's face as Iver had run toward her.

“Nothing serious?”

He shrugged. “No. Just needs doing.”

She had no comeback for that, so she concentrated on the job, the challenge of flying on a planet that seemed to fight tech at every turn, tried to pull every ship out of the air. It was why the runners on Faldine had air blades. They had to go very old school here.

She banked again as they blasted out the valley, a sharp left, going low, just to keep things nice and unpredictable.

The military had drummed that into her, and Lancaster had asked her from the start of the job to keep flying as if she was still in combat. She was happy to oblige.

All the thrill, and so far, none of the danger.

In her last job, nearly a year with the mining giant HRP, she'd been under strict orders to always fly as level and smooth as possible. Some of the top HRP execs didn't fly so well.

Sugotti, on the other hand, perked up when she did the bob and weave. Sometimes, when she looked back to see how he was coping with her maneuvers, she could see him smile down at his screen when she did something particularly wild, even if he had to hang on and couldn't work as well while she did it.

Yeah, she could handle some chit-chat for those smiles.

“So, how are you doing, Hana? Got anything planned for the days you're waiting for me in Touka City?”

“A few things.” She didn't remember chit-chat getting this personal. She wanted Iver at arms' length. Wanted him sitting behind her, working, and giving her a nod of thanks as he came and went, leaving the briefings, the comms, to Lancaster. She didn't want him right next to her, his shoulder rubbing hers as she took them up and over the range of low hills. “I was thinking of heading up the Spikes. One day up, one day down. I should be back, ready to take you where you need to go, before you need me next on your schedule.”

She never knew where he