High Flyer - Michelle Diener Page 0,2

somewhere flat to land.

And her little edge, her secret that she never talked about.

It had saved her more than once.

It looked like it was saving her again.

She watched the soft curve of a rise on the ground below disappear beneath them, and then dropped them down into the hollow beyond it. The plains didn't leave much place to hide, but this was better than nothing.

It wasn't flat, but it was relatively rock free, and they thumped down and tipped left, the nose digging into the soft, dry soil and flinging turf in all directions until they came to a halt.

The Sig groaned a little, as if in relief, in the absolute quiet that came after she disengaged. And then it was just the tick tick tick of the engine cooling down, and the quiet sound of water flowing in the stream she'd somehow noticed as she'd taken them down.

She leaned back in her seat, and turned her head to Sugotti.

His gaze was already on her, and for a moment, for the first time this trip, she looked straight into his eyes.

She turned away, frightened by what she saw there. What she'd suspected she'd see there from almost the beginning, which is why she'd never looked in the first place.

“Better get going,” she said, lifting her helmet off. “They seem to be serious about killing you, so I'm betting they're on their way to finish the job.”

Chapter 2

Someone was, most definitely, serious about killing him.

Iver hauled himself out of the relatively unscathed Sig and gave it a grateful pat. The extra investment in the guns had really, really paid off. Lancaster had talked him into it, and for that alone, he should get a raise.

But the star of the show, the real reason he was standing on the sweet soil of Faldine, was clambering out the other side, unzipping herself from her fireproof jump suit. It was standard procedure to wear it, and he'd always wondered what she had on underneath.

Had spent rather too much time wondering, actually.

He watched her wriggle out of it, and found out it was a close-fitting white top with tiny flowers on it and a pair of shorts.

She reached into the Sig, behind her seat, and pulled out a backpack. The one she presumably had planned to take on her hike up the Spikes.

“You going to call Lancaster or shall I? The magfield is weak enough here, we should get a signal.” She was already pulling out her comm unit.

He held up his own in answer and walked away from the Sig toward the outcrop of rocks nearby, giving the audio command.

Hana got into step with him, her head swiveling from side to side as she checked for any sign of pursuit.

Lancaster was on another call, and as Iver waited for him to switch across, he watched as Hana ran up a large rock almost as if gravity didn't apply to her and shielded her eyes as she swept the landscape from the top of it.

“Boss?” Lancaster's voice was as dry as ever.

“Someone took a shot at us. Two, actually. We're down.”

There was silence, as if Lancaster was taking time to process the information.

“Two what?”

“What were they?” Iver called up to Hana.

“SD3s.” She dropped lightly to the ground on the other side of the rock and he walked around it to join her.

They were now out of sight of the Sig.

Hana stopped walking and cocked her head, listening, and he stopped as well.

“You on the move?” Lancaster's voice was calm.

He didn't know why he took the extra precaution--Lancaster had made sure his comm unit was secure--but he always listened to his gut. “Not yet,” he said. “We came down pretty hard.”

Hana gave an approving nod at the lie, and he was ridiculously pleased by it.

He'd been trying to steer clear of his pilot since the first day he'd met her. She'd made it obvious she wasn't interested in anything personal with him, and he'd respected that, and respected Lancaster's hint that ex-military pilots of her caliber were almost impossible to find, but his restraint had burned away with that little look they'd exchanged when she'd brought them down.

At last he heard what she'd obviously already picked up on a few seconds ago, the roar of a runner's engine. He froze, and Hana grabbed his jacket and pulled him down, tight up against the base of the rock, as a whump shook the ground.

Another SD3.

And this time, it didn't miss the Sig.

They shared a look, and Hana