The peace didn’t last, although Ultimawasn’t really aware of the fact that they were encapsulated in aplace of peace until it was disrupted.
The guys worked from daylight tilldarkness on whatever their project was—a weapon of some kind,Ultima was certain. And the scavenging of parts for it were almostas time consuming or maybe more.
And also the search for food wasconstant. They had no way to preserve anything for any length oftime even if they could have gotten something large enough to feedthem for days. Or even more than one meal.
But they returned toward evening a fewdays after they had claimed the little shack with the giant antennacarrying two cyborgs that were either dead orunconscious.
Tau said the latter. Both were bound,blindfolded, and gagged.
They were placed side by side in themiddle of the building and Tau summoned her with a hand motion,cautioning her not to speak.
Confused, she approached and Tausignaled her to link with them and give them the data feed, AIprogramming.
She wasn’t certain what he thoughtmight come of it, but she settled between them and downloaded thedata stream to each.
Quan produced a strange stick thatUltima finally recalled was a cattle prod—had been. She couldn’t becertain they hadn’t modified it. It produced a fairly powerfulshock, although she had no idea how it could when there was nopower source now.
She supposed they were using it as abludgeon.
She discovered she’d guessed wrongwhen they took the first outside the following day and disappearedwith him.
They returned without him and took thesecond and disappeared.
“What was that about?”Ultima asked when they returned around dusk with food and no signof the cyborgs.
“Testing,” Tau returnedcoolly.
Ultima stared at him while that slowlysank in and she felt her throat tighten with pity.
Tau captured her face in one hand.“They had none for you.”
She swallowed, nodding with aneffort.
He seemed to hesitate and then he drewher closer and captured her mouth beneath his. A jolt went throughher that was purely from the pleasurable shock of the connection.Heat flowed through her, wound itself tightly in her belly as hisessence invaded her lungs and spread throughout her body. Shereached out blindly to curl her fingers into his flesh, strugglingto pull herself closer to the source of pleasure and soak upmore.
It was a disappointment when he brokethe kiss and left it at that when everything on her was demandingmore, screaming for the promise of release.
She looked down at her food,struggling with conflicting emotions. “You didn’t say what youdiscovered with the tests,” she managed finally.
“It seems … possible thatit will work as you had designed it to. However, we will need adifferent method of delivery. The traitor has created manythousands of them now.”
Dismay flickered through Ultima, butit wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen the problem before. She just hadn’thad time to try to find a solution.
Wouldn’t have had any time left to tryif they hadn’t come along when they had.
They treated themselves to a bath whenthey had finished their meal. Ultima managed to walk most of theway on her own steam, but then again, the spot where they took herwas fairly close to their sheltering place. She thought it was thesame waterway they’d used before, but she couldn’t besure.
That time, since she was feelingbetter, she took a stab at cleaning her uniform and underclothingwhile she was at it.
Tau took her wet clothing when she’dfinished, balled them up and handed them back and then scooped herup to carry her.
She didn’t object.
She was pretty worn out. She thoughtif she’d left it at the walk, she would’ve been ok, but the heavyfabric, wet, was enough to whip her ass.
He set her down on the threshold onceQuan and Xi had checked the shelter and the perimeter and she tookher wet clothing inside and hung it up to drip dry.
Apparently, the guys decided to taketheir own clothing back to the creek. They disappeared one at thetime and came back with their own soaked laundry and hung itup.
