There was silence. “There is nosalt.”
“Except yours.”
He was looking at her askance when shefinally pried an eyelid up.
And she felt a knot form in herthroat.
When had he become so dear to her, shewondered abruptly.
All of them?
They were half dressed she discoveredwhen she looked around for Xi and Quan, sleepy eyed, and trying toeat.
Irritation warred with amusement.They’d been working day and night to complete the machine thatwould end the war and fucking her during ‘rest’ breaks. No wonderthey looked half dead.
And she felt more than halfwaythere.
Tau looked amused when she met hisgaze again. He made a fist of his hand and measured her eye socketswith it. “Looks like I punch you. Here and here.”
Ultima rolled her eyes. “Gosh thanks!”she said wryly. “And here I was thinking about how beautiful my menare.”
Tau looked skeptical. Heglanced at Xi and Quan. “Youare beautiful. They look like hell. I look likehell, also. I know because I feel like hell. But we have finished.Soon Eml will come and we will destroy him.”
Ultima felt her pulse leap with acombination of fear and excitement. “Y’all finished it?”
Xi and Quan exchanged a look. “Mostly.We will need to tweak it and test what we can and then we willknow.”
“Know what?”
“If we will die—or hewill.”
Ultima lost her thrillimmediately.
Tau pulled her onto his lap and putfood in her hand. “Eat.”
They give her that kind of news andthen expect her to eat?
“Stupid,”Tau growled at Quan in theirtongue. “It is not enough to bring badluck with such talk? You must tell it as if it is ajoke?”
Quan glared at him.“I meant it jokingly. That is why I said it thatway! It is better to joke than weep when you know you are likely todie. It helps morale.”
“Do not joke,”Xi growled.“You arevery bad at it and you have upset our woman so that she can barelyeat.”
Quan was pissed off, but alsouncomfortable when they pointed out that he’d upset Ultima. “I wasjoking.”
Ultima glanced at him sharply, feelinga surge of hopefulness. “It’ll be ok, then?”
Quan looked at Tau and then Xi.Finally, he shrugged. “We have not tested it, yet. Very likely wewill need to make some adjustments.”
Ultima struggled with her emotions andfinally managed what she hoped was a neutral look.
Because she didn’t think she had ahope in hell of carrying off happy and excited and completelyconfident it was going to go well for them.
It was just stupid to be so emotionalabout it.
She’d known that it was far morelikely they were on a suicide mission than it was to go well oreven not too badly.
She thought the guys had arrived withthat knowledge—that they were very likely on a suicidemission.
