The Ruins of Karzelek (The Mandrake Company series Book 4) by Ruby Lionsdrake

wasn’t a small man; it wasn’t as if she could simply grab him and haul him up with her.
    “ I’m waiting for you,” he said, and waved for her to climb past him.
    “ Oh. You’ll catch me if I fall?”
    “ Absolutely.”
    “ I had no idea that was included in your fee.”
    “ We aim to exceed expectations.” Sedge glanced toward the compound—they had flown over the wall, but another craft floated in the air, perhaps thinking of soaring after them, guns blazing. This wasn’t the time for banter.
    Kalish scrambled the rest of the way up the net. Before she had to figure out how to grab the side of the hatch and haul herself inside without falling, a hand clasped her wrist. Sergeant Tick pulled her up, then pushed her into the interior.
    Kalish aimed for the back row of seats, but her thighs were quivering from the climb—maybe from the entire night. She collapsed against the side of the hull and decided that was good enough for the moment. She tugged her legs in, so they wouldn’t be in the way and looked back, wanting to see Sedge make it in too. All of the mercenaries. Even if her dad’s life was at stake, the number of lives this mission had already consumed was far too high. And she had just gotten started.
    Striker and Sedge pulled themselves inside, the wind rifling through their hair. Striker slammed a control, and the hatch rose, snapping shut with a thud-hiss . Sedge collapsed next to Kalish. Maybe she wasn’t the only one with quivering leg muscles. Quivering everything.
    “ Thomlin got himself shot,” Striker announced, striding past them and up to the front of the craft where Thatcher and Val sat in the pilots’ seats. “Anyone got a first-aid kit?”
    Tick had already taken a seat, but he dug into a bin that folded out of the wall. He yawned, as if this whole adventure had bored him. He hadn’t even lost his gum.
    The pained crease to Sedge’s brow said it was not quite as boring for him. He had his eyes closed, probably hoping someone would bring a sedative soon.
    “ Which shot is it that your sensitive little blood cells can handle again?” Tick asked.
    “ The imuglosarfrin,” Sedge said, opening his eyes and giving Kalish a sheepish shrug. “Allergies,” he added, as if it pained him to admit it.
    “ Thank you for covering me back there,” Kalish said. “Do mercenaries always risk their lives for their clients?”
    “ Uhm.” Surprisingly, he blushed. “Well, we hadn’t finished our Crucible game yet.”
    “ Ah, that’s all it was, eh?”
    “ I like closure.”
    Tick’s brows drew together as he crouched on Sedge’s other side, an injector in hand, but he didn’t comment on the conversation. Kalish looked away as the sergeant gave the shot, applied some regenerative salve to the wound, and dug out a repair kit. Once they returned to camp, she would take a closer look at the images she had scanned. And hope she had found something that would make all of this worth it.

Chapter 3
     
    Sedge woke up on a cot, the air cold enough that puffs of breath formed in front of his face. He blinked a few times, trying to figure out where he was. Instead of the gunmetal gray hull of the shuttle, he was staring up at a beige poly-fabric ceiling. A tent? He couldn’t remember an attack that might have damaged the shuttle, but he had passed out after Tick had injected him with the painkiller.
    He shifted slightly, and a twinge came from his side below his rib cage, though it was nothing like the pain he had experienced before a repair kit had knitted the flesh back together. He was still in his boots and the clothes from the mission, but someone had draped a blanket over him. A camp light hummed on a compact desk, the only other furnishing in the tent, though a folded cot and some other gear had been dumped in the back. A small tablet sat next to the lamp and projected a large display in the air, one that took up most of the space in the tent. Sedge recognized several of the maps Kalish