I hit our private relay and added, I’ll leave you some drones. I cut a squad of eight out of my cloud and told them to stay with her. Her eyes widened and she hesitated. For three seconds I didn’t understand why. She hadn’t been afraid when I’d grabbed Ras; her expression had been more annoyed than anything else. Then I realized she didn’t want to separate. She took a sharp breath and said, “All right.” On the feed relay, she added, Good, drones. That’s what I’ve always wanted. I could have said “Don’t say I never gave you anything” and we could have had reassuring sarcastic banter, like one
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