“Princess.”
“I don’t know. It just fits.” It was then that his mouth took off and started saying things without his brain’s permission. “The first time I saw you in a sari, I thought you looked like a princess. You were so beautiful. You blew me away.”
She stopped stitching, her eyes looking into his. “Really?”
“Yeah.” If she hadn’t had a needle in his scalp, he might have kissed her. “When you met with Dr. Khan, you had all the dignity of royalty.”
She went back to work. “I was nervous.”
“It didn’t show.”
“Three.” She started the fourth suture. “So, you like women in saris?”
“I don’t know about women, but I sure as hell likeyouin a sari.”
Her lips curved in a smile. “I’ll remember that if we make it back to The Hague.”
He caught her wrist. “Not if, Shanti.When.”
It took a dozen stitches before Shanti had finished. She bandaged the wound and sat back, looking relieved. “I hope I never have to do that again.”
He felt the stitches through the bandage. “You did a good job.”
After that, he gathered together all of their food supplies—the emergency rations in his backpack, the stuff he’d taken off the pilots, the snack bars, and the almonds Shanti had in her handbag. “It’s going to be a hungry seven days.”
Each MRE had 1,250 calories. That meant they’d be getting about six hundred calories each per day—barely enough to keep going.
He split the spaghetti and beef sauce entree from one of the five MREs with her but saved the rest of the meal—chocolate chip toaster pastry, peanut butter, breadsticks, raisins, grape jelly, and Accessory Packet B, which turned out to be Skittles—for later.
“This is what you eat when you’re deployed?”
“Only when I have no choice.”
She licked her plastic spork. “It’s not too bad.”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “You must be very hungry.”
After they’d finished their meal, he went down for another bucket of water, which he treated andthen set aside to cool while he reorganized his gear.
“Use this for a quick sponge bath. Save some for me if you can. I’m going out to walk the perimeter. I’ll be back in ten.”
He checked his weapons, put on his rain gear, and went out in the downpour, leaving her to her bath.