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  Biggs’ niece, Chantal, a silver-haired beauty a little younger than Rush, with gray eyes and red lips, had always been interested in the Circle of Doom.

  Not or the same mercenary reasons as her uncle – she was fascinated by the mystery – the scientific conundrum.

  She’d studied the moon, the solar system and the stars of the known universe throughout her school years, and was ready to go out and actually see some of it for once – so this trip was something she just couldn’t pass up.

  Not to mention that dreamy pilot, Avery Rush.

  Her uncle had warned her of the danger of this trip, but as soon as she saw who she was going to be spending the next several days with, danger left her mind, replaced by arousal and curiosity.

  Curious how he kissed. Curious about that new wedding reception hall that just opened up in Earthview. Curious what their children would look like.

  She knew she was getting ahead of herself, but she also knew she was just like that.

  After over an hour of silent flight over the pock-marked lunar surface, Chantal decided to venture up to the pilot’s alcove.

  “Hey there, Avery,” she said, leaning on the co-pilot’s vacant seat.

  The Shifter was built to be flown by two, but Rush could handle it by himself – maybe that’s why her uncle was willing to pay him so well – he was saving the cost of a co-pilot.

  “Hey, Chantal,” said Rush, unconsciously running his right hand through his shiny black hair. “Take a seat, if you like.”

  “Sure,” she said, flopping into the black, swiveling, high-back chair. She gazed at the instruments. “So, when are you going to teach me how to fly this crate, anyway?”

  Rush tapped his screen to switch to rear view. “Hmm. Nobody around for hundreds of kilometers. Like anybody would follow us into the land feared by the superstitious and misunderstood by the scientific.” He stood up and said, “Come over here, then.”

  He pointed at the pilot’s seat. Chantal hesitated, her eyes widening as she took in a sharp breath. “What, you were serious, weren’t you?” asked Rush, smirking.

  “I, uh, well, yes, of course I was serious. I just didn’t expect – well anyway.” She stepped over and settled into the pilot’s chair, wriggling her rear as if she was preparing to settle in for a cat nap. “Niiiice. Very nice. Oooh, what’s this button here, do, Avery?” she asked, reaching for a switch beside a blinking red LED.

  “Don’t touch that!” Rush said, reaching out.

  Chantal pulled her hand back and looked up at him sheepishly.

  “That is what we call the afterburner. You really don’t want to mess with that under the atmospheric canopy. Look, let’s just start with the basics. That there, that’s the low-rev throttle.”

  This close to Rush, Chantal could smell his cologne – a fresh yet musky scent that was very masculine. “And to the right,” said Rush, leaning even closer, reaching over Chantal to point, “is the-”

  “Rush!”

  “Captain Biggs!” said Rush. He tried to step away from the pilot’s chair, but instead his hand slipped off the back of the chair, throwing him off balance. He struggled to grab the chair to stay up, but ended up falling right into Chantal’s lap.

  She tried to stifle a giggle.

  “Rush!” Biggs bellowed again. “What are you doing on top of my niece?”

  Rush scrambled up and stood at attention. “Sorry, Sir, I was just showing Chantal a little about flying.”

  “Uh huh,” said Biggs, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. “Nice landing. How close are we to our destination?”

  Chantal vacated the pilot’s seat and Rush climbed back in. He glanced at his chartscreen, then looked out the window ahead. “Close enough to see Dragon’s Ridge,” Rush said, pointing out the front of the craft toward the nearly-flat horizon. Directly in front of them was a jagged outcropping of gray rock that resembled its namesake. “It’s only a few hundred kilometers beyond that.”

  “I want you to send up a beacon,” said Biggs, “as soon as we’re within a hundred kilometers of the Circle. Set it to pull a location from us every minute and send it back to my home workstation in Earthview. I want there to be a record of our telemetry that’s stored in a safe place – just in case, well, you know.”

  “Aye, Sir,” Rush said, and started preparing the beacon protocols from his helm screen.

  “Um, is it all right if I stay here?” Chantal asked her uncle.

  “Fine. Just stay in the co-pilot’s chair, and don’t touch anything,” said Captain Biggs. “And stay out from underneath my pilot.”