That brought a sliver of a smile to his lips. The first he’d entertained since learning that his sister was in-system and headed for Donovan.

Dek dropped his flaps, lowered the landing gear, made his approach to the landing field. Having the only operative airplane on the planet, he pretty much had the skies to himself, and the aircraft’s VTOL abilities allowed him to come in low over the shipping containers and settle next to the fence just down from the gate. The familiar sensation of the quetzal part of him came aware, as though the alien presence in his mind suddenly stirred and shifted within him. That the quetzal presence went dormant and hid while he was in the air still amused him. But then, fear was what let him thwart Demon’s attempt to kill him in the first place.

The location beside the gate put his precious airplane well out of the blast radius of either the PA or Corporate shuttles, as well as close enough to the fence that he could run a charging cable and check the craft without having to leave the security of the compound after dark. No one wanted to be outside the fence after the sun went down.

Dek followed the shutdown procedure, retrieved his bag, rifle, and other gear, and locked the cabin behind him. After plugging his bird in, he made his way through the growing shadows to the gate.

“Home safe,” Rocket’s voice whispered in his head.

“Should have crashed into the forest and died,” the Demon voice rasped in return.

“Oh, go suck toilet water, you little beast,” Dek muttered under his breath. Talina had given him the Demon TriNA. Hadn’t meant to, but he’d been dead. Tal gave him mouth-to-mouth, got his heart started again. He found a certain irony in the knowledge that after that, the Demon TriNA had done everything it could to kill him.

“Came close.”

“Yeah, you did, you little shit.” But Dek had won, figured out how to dominate the new personalities in his head.

Ko Lang was on duty at the man gate and gave Dek a smile. “How’s life in the wild these days?”

“Never a dull moment. Found a great new prospect. Have to get an assay on it, then I’ll register the claim. After that, went hunting again with Kylee Simonov.”

“Still looking for that thing that killed her folks?”

“Call it a reckoning, Ko.”

“Been years, now.” Ko shifted, his dark eyes looking past Dek to the landing field.

“Yeah? And I heard that Tal has found sign that Whitey’s back. That’s been years, too.”

“Point made.” Ko cracked a sort of smile. “We’re all on double alert. That son of a bitch cost us too much.”

“Yeah, same with the treetop terror.”