It hadn't been that loud, had it? She caught it on the rebound, and pulled it down. Not nearly as loud as the door had been -- not that much louder than his harsh breathing had been at times. Anything up here had already heard them. She glared back, her face expressionless, until it sunk in.

She could understand fear. Unarmed, untrained, deep behind enemy lines...if he wasn't scared, he was an idiot, and von Karma was no idiot. "Sorry," she whispered, her voice barely more than a puff of air. She tucked the ball back into the box. She didn't want it -- she didn't want anything that reminded her that a young woman might still be caught in limbo somewhere, waiting to go back to a home that missed her. Back to a life that seemed more alien than a hundred different worlds around a hundred different suns, but had been hers.

Katherine had packed it as a good-luck charm; as charms went, it was pretty unwieldy, but maybe there was something else. She could look later; right now, von Karma had a point. This wasn't the place to dawdle. Her voice was still just loud enough to be audible. "C'mon. You ready?"