“The Unreconciled? They’re out at Tyson Station.” Kylee shrugged. “After a day on Freelander, maybe a bunch of self-mutilated cannibals might come across as mean, median, and mode normal.”

“Your homestead and Derek’s claims are out there, too, aren’t they?”

“What are you getting at, Falise?” Kylee crossed her arms, one foot out.

“Too bad you can’t fly Derek’s airplane.”

“I can. But I won’t.”

Falise frowned at the girl. “You can fly an airplane?”

“Duh, yeah. But like I said. I won’t. It’s Dek’s. I’d have to call and ask him before—”

“What about the airtrucks? Some are Corporate, right?”

“Yeah, two of them. Used to be four. One’s down in the bottom of Best Pass, and the other was torn up by a lollypop tree.”

Falise figured she didn’t need to know what a lollypop tree was. “Can you fly an airtruck?”

“I have. But just for short hops.”

“I want to go to Tyson Station.” Falise raised her chin, the action resolute.

“Why would I fly you out there? It’s after dark, and we’ve got a whole night to go before we get to morning.”

“Anyone told you that you couldn’t?”

Kylee seemed to be considering. “No. But just like Dek’s airplane, those aren’t my airtrucks. Talina and Dek told me. Everything here belongs to someone else until I buy it.”

“Girl, have you still not figured it out? I’m Falise Taglioni. And if I want to take a Corporate airtruck, I’ll fricking well take an airtruck. If Kalico Aguila, or IG Soukup, or anyone else on this damned rock has a problem with that, they can take it up with my father or Chairman of the Board Miko.”

Chapter 47

  47  

Kylee stood at the wheel, her attention fixed on the canyon walls as she flew through Best Pass. Too close on either side, the vertical rock had a ghostly look as the stone reflected in the IR spectrum. The good news was that the winds weren’t bad. She’d heard bone-shivering tales about the howling gales that blew through the narrow crevice. If she lost it in here, hers wouldn’t be the first airtruck to plummet into the canyon’s depths. Even so, the sheer walls rising to either side were scary enough. Imposing, humbling. No wonder people hated flying between these implacable cliffs.

“I can’t see a damned thing,” Falise said where she stood holding the grab rail and peering through the windshield. “It’s pitch black out there. How do you know where you’re going?”

“Quetzal vision.” Kylee turned the wheel as a gust tossed them sideways. Long distance in an airtruck was easier than she’d expected. “TriNA in your body is a pain in the ass, but there are some advantages to being, what did you call me? A half-breed freak?”