She felt foolish.And stupid.And really, really pissed off.
Fyrtoldher this would happen.
Kira was momentarily distracted by the sound of someone approaching.Their footsteps measured.Steady.As if they had all the time in the world.
“I guess it no longer matters.”Lothos extended his claws toward her throat.“You’re going to be dead soon.”
Maybe.Maybe not.
Taking a risk, Kira let go of the edge with one hand, latching onto Lothos’s wrist in a split second.She jerked him to her.He jolted forward a few inches before he managed to dig his claws into the ground, preventing her from yanking him over the ledge.
“So close,” Kira grunted.
Lothos’s features showed the effort it took to stay anchored.“I suppose it was too much to ask for you to go quietly and peacefully to your end.”
“You got that right.”Kira put her lips next to Lothos ear, speaking so only he could hear.“Babylon, mother fucker.”
Jin
Jin tried to access the shipyard feeds, growing increasingly frustrated as the station’s system resisted his efforts.“I swear if you’ve gone off somewhere to get yourself killed, Kira, I will never talk to you again.”
Something—or most likely someone—was interfering with his connection to the station’s systems.
What was of more concern to Jin was that they’d also somehow managed to break his link to his spawn.Jin hadn’t thought that was possible short of the spawn’s destruction.And yet, there the spawn was in his mental landscape.Safe and existing but not responding to any of his instructions.
“Dearie, dearie me,” Jin mumbled.
Their enemies got smarter every day, and as always, they were left scrambling to keep up.
“Something wrong?”Dylan asked from his corner of the room.
“You could say that.”
Jin lifted his head to listen to something only he could hear.
Ah, there it was.Right on cue.
“There are mice in our walls.”Jin threw off the cozy blanket Dylan had procured for him, setting it aside with a touch of regret before collecting his scroll and a few of the other odds and ends that littered his bed.
He’d kept his bargain with Torvald, not creating any spawn despite the pressing desire to do so.But nothing in that deal precluded the creation of weapons.
He now had a stockpile of them.All made under Dylan’s watchful eye.
“What are you doing?”Dylan asked.
“Preparing for a mouse hunt.What does it look like?”
Really, these Tuann could be so dense sometimes.Kira would have had things figured out before he tossed off his blanket.
For that matter, so would Raider.
Finn’s response was something of a question mark, but Jin was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.He’d lasted this long with Kira.The Tuann had to have something going on between those ears of his.
“I am not familiar with that term.Mouse hunt.What does it mean?”
Jin tapped the side of his bag and opened the top.“Wake up, my dears.It’s time to go to work.”
The chitters and squeaks that came from inside made Jin smile.As did the scrambling of tiny feet and the buzzing of wings as his spawn poured out of the opening.
