nervous?”
“I’ve got nothing to hide,” he said, with false bravado.
She showed her hand, and a look of delight crossed his
face.
“Full colours,” he said smugly, and spread his cards.
Taz stared at the cards, then at him. She swung her legs
off of the desk, then walked toward him, slowly, one step at
a time. It was a little tricky to keep her feet moving in a
straight line. His eyes grew wide as she approached.
“What should I take off first?” she whispered. It was the
liquor talking.
Pedro swallowed.
She leaned in close, her lips brushing his ear. Slowly,
slowly, she reached up to her neck, his eyes following her
every move. Unhooking the chain that held her dog tags,
she slipped it off and dangled it in front of him, dropping it
into his lap.
The ferocity with which he seized her arms startled her.
“Why are you so cruel to me, Taz?”
The Brighteye hovered protectively over the Cazadora,
taking its hits, giving the ship and its precious last weapon
all the protection Commander Li could spare. Up watched
another G.L.E.E. ship explode in the viewscreen and closed
his eyes. “Get Lieutenant Taz on the line,” he said. “I need
good news.”
She didn’t have it. “It’s the trigger, Up, it’s faulty. We’re
going to have to do it manually.”
Manually? “No, there have got to be other options. I’m
not sending one of my Rangers in to die for this.”
“For the destruction of the whole fucking robot armada?
If we don’t do this we’ll all die today. You know that, Up.”
“Five minutes until ship separation,” said the Cazadora
calmly.