High Flyer - Michelle Diener Page 0,50
standing. He was leaning against the ramp, his head a little higher than his colleague's prone form.
“You don't believe him?” She sat up, leaning back with arms extended behind her.
“He's intelligent enough to have some doubts. A secret mine in a society where secrets are almost always considered illegal or suspicious?” The big man shrugged. “I blamed the need for secrecy on Sugotti, and now he's dead--”
“Didn't you hear the news from Luki?” The woman swung her legs over the side of the ramp. “Sugotti lived through the first assassination attempt, but Luki said Simon got hold of him before he could make it into Touka City.”
“Shit.” The guard turned, and Iver could just make out his beard and the bulge of his massive arms as he crossed them over his chest. “He's dead now, though?”
His colleague shrugged. “So Fraen says, but he wasn't there for it. That was just the plan he heard before he left Touka to come here with the supplies.”
“Damn.” The second curse was drawn out and soft. “This is not good, Grimms.”
“I'm sure it'll be--” She stopped talking suddenly, and beside her, the other guard went still, arms dropping and then coming up again, this time with a SAL in hand.
They were staring over the wall, in the direction the lander had come in from earlier, and eventually Iver heard the sound of two men talking.
“We've been this way.” The whine in the voice that floated over to him told Iver the speaker was Tillis.
He shifted from his spot against the tree trunk to get a better look and went still at the sight of two small handlights pointed at the ramp from the outside of the shield. The backwash of light lit up two faces.
Tillis and Barre.
They stood on the other side of the wall, looking straight at the guards.
“There's something about this place.” Barre seemed to lean forward a little, staring straight at the guards as if he was looking right at them, then turned away without another word.
“Let's go right. We've only looked at the river about a hundred times.” Tillis turned away more slowly, and then started off across the rock-strewn ground. “I'm sure that's not enough.”
“Fuck you, Tillis.” Barre stood for another moment and then turned to follow him. “All you do is whine.”
They disappeared into the darkness, and after a minute had passed, the guards blew out a breath in unison.
“Close,” Grimms said, voice very low.
“Too close. They'll hit the wall one day soon, just stumble into it. I'm not sure why they haven't already.” The guard shook out his shoulders.
“Bret thinks it's because there's something in the shield that repels people. Like a vibration or sound wave that's too high or low to hear, but warns you off.”
The guard glanced at her. “Then how did he find it?”
“Don't know. Maybe it doesn't work if you're...” She made a gesture with her hand, as if to imply Bret was crazy.
That was good to know.
“It's not just us, you know, not talking when they come by, even though Bret says they can't hear us on this side of the wall. Jeera and Luki don't talk, either. I asked them.”
The man snorted out a laugh, shaking his head. “I'll track them as far as I can on this side of the wall. You keep watch here.”
She nodded and the guard headed straight toward Iver, then veered off through the trees.
Iver waited for the sound of him moving through the undergrowth to fade, then took a last look at Grimms, who was standing on the ramp to give herself some height, looking out toward the valley.
He melted into the darkness created by the trees and headed back to the camp along the rough road the lander had used.
He wouldn't need to worry about the guards behind him for a while at least, they were too shook up by their near-miss. The fact that there was only two of them also told him Bret was keeping things very tight when it came to his crew.
Either Bret couldn't find the right people, or he was trying to keep the number of people who knew about this place to a minimum to stop leaks.
Given what had happened to Lancaster, it looked like someone already had leaked. Iver thought it likely that person was Lancaster himself, though. The double-crosser had had the bad luck of being double-crossed.
Lights bloomed out of the darkness up ahead, and Iver could make out the three big camp buildings by their