Bez was conversing with a woman on a set of stairs part way up the hill.His face serious as he listened to whatever she was relaying.
Like Bez, she wasn’t wearing synth armor.Her outfit was a combination of browns and greens.Colors that wouldn’t make her stand out among the trees of the forest.Her hair was dark and pulled back from her face in a messy bun.
Maksym waved madly up at the woman, not bothering to keep his voice down since the steep hills of the ravine made it unlikely that sound would escape.“Az!Over here!”
The woman looked down at them with an expressionless face.
Maksym lowered his arm.“Thought that was you.How are you getting along?”
The woman said something in a low voice to Bez before heading up to the ridge line.
“Friendly bunch,” Kira remarked.
Movement among the trees at the top of the ravine showed that they weren’t alone.There were others up there.Tuann, Kira realized a second later as they exposed themselves to address Az.
One of them glanced into the ravine before repositioning themselves in the shadow of the nearest tree.
An overwatch.
At a second’s notice, they could turn the ravine into a kill box.Kira and the rest would incur heavy losses trying to escape.
Raider shot her a disgruntled look as he came to the same conclusion.
She offered him a helpless shrug.It was a good tactical move.One they themselves would have made in the same position.
“If you’re done lollygagging, can we get a move on?Caius doesn’t have forever,” Bez called.
“Sheesh, so grouchy,” Jin grumbled.
“Someone he cares about is missing.You’d be grouchy too,” Finn pointed out.
“I guess you’d know from experience,” Roderick quipped.
Everyone stopped and stared.
“Wow, you’ve got a big mouth,” Jin drawled, sounding impressed.
Maksym trained his gaze on the treetops, seeming like he was fighting against a smile.
Raider’s “what the fuck” look had Roderick gazing back in pure bafflement.As if he didn’t know what he’d done wrong.
“You’re correct,” Finn confirmed.“I do know that from experience.”
“I’ve already apologized,” Kira responded stiffly.
Many times.
When was he going to drop it?
“Have you?I don’t remember that.”Finn’s smile was savage.“Maybe the next time there’s a situation and you refrain from going off on your own, I’ll finally be able to accept that apology.”
Kira let out a softtsk, knowing this wasn’t an argument she could win.“We should get going.Bez doesn’t seem like the patient sort.”Kira snagged Jin by the back of his shirt and pushed him in front of her.“Let’s have that chat we didn’t get to have before.”
Jin was looking a lot better as they began to make their way up the hill to the first set of stairs.It petered out into plain dirt a quarter of the way up.Long dead leaves crunched underfoot as they were forced to pick their way along the slippery slope to the next flight of stairs.
“What chat?”Jin wiggled in her grip.“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The one where you explain how you’re able to still control your mini-mes.”
