by Mel Odom
Warren shook his head in an effort to clear some of the narcotic from his system but only succeeded in throwing his balance off. He dropped to one knee and slammed his hand—the hand that Cornish wanted—against the floor barely in time to keep himself upright.
At Cornish’s order, the guards closed on Warren.
Twelve
Leah luxuriated in the shower. It was the first time in months that she’d had more than a chem-bath. The water was hot and no one had mentioned any short supply.
She guessed that Simon and his Templar had tapped into an underground stream or lake, or had drilled several wells. It was possible, though, that the water supply was pre-existing and the Templar had merely taken advantage of it.
The underground structure they were in showed signs of previous, earlier, habitation. A few storerooms held furniture and books from decades before. She’d assumed the Templar hadn’t thrown it away because they hadn’t yet needed the space. The physical debris would also be hard to get rid of. And, if left lying around, it could draw the demons to them.
Leah felt certain Simon had chosen a base outside of the city to protect the civilians he’d gotten out of London. That was how he’d operated for the last four years. He’d risked his life on a daily basis to save the innocents that had been trapped in the city.
Even from the short times she’d been with him over those last few years, Leah knew Simon Cross wasn’t a man who would easily change his nature. His whole goal was to protect the defenseless.
The way he’d thought he’s been protecting you.
Leah sometimes felt guilty about the way she’d deceived him in order to get inside the Templar organization. But it was what she did and she was good at it. Normally, though, the organizations she penetrated offered some threat to Great Britain. The Templar had become a target solely because no one knew anything about them.
And if it hadn’t been for Thomas Cross dying on All Hallows’ Eve and being recognized by a police inspector who’d had previous dealings with him, no one would have known about Simon Cross and his ties to the Templar. Leah wouldn’t have picked up Simon’s trail in South Africa. And if she hadn’t already been assigned there, she’d never have crossed paths with him.
It was all a matter of luck. Some good and some bad. As it was, the Templar posed no threat to England and, in fact, might well be her greatest weapon against the demons.
Except that the Templar who were left were reluctant to engage the demons.
All but Simon Cross and his fellow warriors.
And if he accepts the mission you’ve put before him, he’ll be in harm’s way again.
Leah told herself she wasn’t going to feel any guilt. She knew that was a lie, but if she couldn’t feel it till after she was gone, till after Simon was gone, that would be best.
Finally, feeling guilty about the water, she turned the faucets off and stepped from the shower cubicle. Simon had assigned her room within the underground complex. He had also assigned guards to watch over her.
She toweled off, then walked to the mirror and wiped a patch of it free so she could see her reflection. She wasn’t happy.
You look gaunt and tired, and not attractive at all. Then she chided herself for being foolish. She wasn’t there to be attractive. She was there because she had a message to deliver. Now that it was delivered, she needed to go.
If she was allowed. And if she wasn’t allowed, she’d leave shortly after that. No matter how good the Templar were, they couldn’t hold her if she didn’t want to be held.
* * * *
In the sleeping quarters, Leah dressed. She pulled on the spandex “onesie” that insulated her from the rough interior of her stealth suit. She knew that the Templar armor had fluid that rejuvenated the wearer’s skin and provided antibacterial topical medications. The fluid also helped cushion impacts and drastic changes in the outside temperatures.
The door opened just as she reached for the armored pants. Simon stopped immediately.
“Sorry,” he said. “I should have knocked.”
Unselfconsciously, Leah stepped into the armored pants and pulled them on. She wasn’t embarrassed about her near-nudity. From her short time in the Templar Underground, she knew that nudity was accepted as necessary with so many people living so close together in a constant state of readiness to go to war. She had seen Simon naked and it hadn’t fazed him.
Of course, with the way he was built he had nothing to be ashamed of.
Thinking like that is going to get you into trouble, Leah told herself. She reached for the armored blouse.
“It’s all right,” Leah said. “I’m almost dressed.”
“You look better,” Simon told her.
“Inferring that I looked terrible earlier?” Leah was conscious of her effort to secure a compliment as soon as she spoke. She felt embarrassed and a little put out with herself. It wasn’t like her to be like that. She had known men before. But none of them were ever like Simon Cross. The Templar was as deadly and dangerous as any of the men Leah knew, but something vulnerable and innocent clung to him.
Those were qualities that Leah wasn’t used to. He was exactly what he acted like. Not one of the social chameleons that Leah worked with.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Simon said. He even had the decency to look embarrassed. “I just meant you looked rested and healthier.”
“I owe that to you. So thank you for caring for me. And for the compliment.” Leah prodded the inside of her left forearm with the fingertips of her right hand to activate the suit’s circuitry.
Immediately, the onboard electromagnetic generators locked the armor pieces together. The suit almost became another layer of skin and fused at the seams so the pieces couldn’t be easily separated. Once she pulled on her helmet, that would lock in as well.
“That armor’s very interesting,” Simon observed.
“I’ve always thought so,” Leah agreed. “Beyond that, however, I can’t tell you anything.”
“Can’t?”
“Won’t.”
“Same difference?”
Leah shrugged. She knew she presented a puzzle and a worry to him. Part of her enjoyed that. In addition to being brave and loyal, Simon was curious.
“What are you going to do about Macomber?” she asked.
“If we don’t go get him, what would your people do with him?”
Leah recognized the question as a feint. Simon couldn’t pass up the chance for more information about the demons. As informed as the Templar were, they didn’t know the demons’ complete history.
“I’m not privy to that information,” she answered. Calmly, she sat on the bed and waited. The Cluster Rifle she’d used was nowhere to be found, but she had several defensive and offensive measures built into the suit.
“Will your superior be with Macomber?”
“I don’t know who’ll be with Macomber.” Leah understood immediately that Simon was fishing for information about the architecture of the organization she belonged to.
“What guarantees do I have that Macomber will be at the rendezvous point?”
Irritations chafed at Leah. The longer she stayed at the Templar Underground, the more questions she’d have to face and the more trouble she would be in. Her supervisors already had doubts about her when it came to Simon Cross, but she was the only one who could approach him.
“Paranoid much?” she asked. Before he could answer, she sighed. “Ignore that. I’m not in a good mood. Paranoia is pretty much the state of the world these days.”
“If you want to stay alive,” Simon agreed.
“You’ll have to trust me that Macomber will be there.”
He was silent for a moment. “You know where this base is. If you send me off on a wild-goose chase, you’ll split the defensive forces here.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“I don’t know. Why did you follow me back from Cape Town? Why did you go with me to the Templar Underground?” Simon
shook his head. “I have a lot of questions about you.”
“Mostly, I’ve helped you,” Leah reminded.
Simon took a deep breath and let it out. Then he nodded. “I know.”
“Can I just walk out of here? Or am I being held?”
Simon hesitated for a moment. If he hadn’t, Leah would’ve been suspicious. His nobility and honor had placed those he was trying to defend in a precarious position when he’d refused to leave her behind. He had to trust her more now than he had at any in the time in the past.
And that was without the information about Ma-comber hanging in the balance.
Most of the men, and many of the women, whom Leah worked with would have preferred simply putting a bullet through her head either when she’d gone down or when she’d proven difficult here. Death came with unconditional trust.
Unless a demon found the body and reanimated it, she thought sourly. Of course the body can always be destroyed as well. People within her organization had already thought about that and often destroyed their dead when they couldn’t take them with them. There was no need to supply the enemy with additional weapons. Ultimately, with the powers the demons wielded, that was what corpses were. And no one wanted to see their friends or family desecrated in such a manner by the demons.
“You’re free to go anytime you want,” Simon said.
Leah stood. “Then I really should be going.”
Simon’s eyes locked on hers. “If you don’t go with us, we’re not going after Macomber.”
The ultimatum stung. Leah hadn’t been expecting that. “That’s mad. I’ve told you that what he knows can help you.”
Simon said nothing for a moment, but his gaze held steady. “That’s the way it’s going to work, if it’s going to work at all.”
“You need the information Macomber has. He’s not going to give it to anyone else but you.”
“You don’t know that he’s going to tell me anything. You’re just guessing.”
That was true. She was guessing. So were the people who’d passed that information on.
“You don’t even know if Macomber has anything of value to tell.”
Leah couldn’t refute that either.
Simon put his hands together in his lap. “Your people need and want that information as well.”
“So what? I’m to be a hostage?” That possibility angered Leah even further. She hated feeling helpless. What right did Simon Cross had to usurp her freedom of will?
“Not a hostage. Our negotiator.”
“Simon, look. I was never supposed to be here. The people I’m responsible to wouldn’t have wanted me here. Both of us are going to face problems as a result of this.”
“But I’m having to trust you more,” Simon said softly. “I’m not just trusting you with my life, Leah. I’m trusting you with the lives of every man, woman, and child that are noncombatants in this war against the demons. If your people decide that revealing the location of this place will do them any good—either as a bargaining tool or a delaying tactic, or even as bait in a trap like those two Templar were yesterday—it’ll be my fault for trusting you.”
Leah wanted to assure him that none of those scenarios would happen. She couldn’t. The lie wouldn’t slide past her lips despite all her training. She could have lied to anyone else in the world.
She took a deep breath and considered her options. Her primary objective had been to get Simon Cross to pick up Macomber. After all the medications, shock therapy, and other horrible things that had been done to the man in the Parisian sanitarium, no one in Leah’s organization was fool enough to believe that Macomber could stand up to more of the same.
Therefore, the primary objective on this mission hasn’t been completed. Leah felt guilty because she knew she was skating the rules.
“All right,” she said. “When do we leave?”
“Now. Everything has been made ready.” Simon stood and carried his helm in one hand.
* * * *
None of Simon’s warriors trusted Leah. She understood that perfectly and quickly. The way they lined up around her, boxing her inside a loose two-by-two formation that somehow wasn’t quite aggressive enough to trigger a response, told her that.
She deliberately paused to adjust one of her boots even though it didn’t need it to see how they would react. All four men stopped dead in their tracks and maintained the two-by-two formation. When she looked up at them, they didn’t even try faking reasons for why they too had stopped. They’d been caught and they knew it.
Okay, Leah thought. Now everybody knows we’re all wise to the game.
That knowledge brought her a little peace of mind and more than a little self-satisfaction. She wasn’t stupid, and now they knew that. It wouldn’t change the rules of the game, but it felt good knowing that the players were now meeting on equal footing.
Simon led the way through a twisting tunnel at least two miles long. Leah’s suit generated an infrared beam that she picked up through the lenses of her helmet. NanoDyne capacitors built into the suit allowed her to charge the infrared beam simply by walking. Kinetic energy was an important source for the suit, but there were backup systems that allowed continued use for dozens of hours without movement.
The initial tunnel had been a short one directly from the underground area. It had looked new. The section they were in now looked positively ancient.
“Is this part of a coal mine?” Leah asked over the suit’s radio frequency.
“It is,” Simon replied. “One of the reasons we chose this location was because of these mines. Only a few tunnels were required to give us access to miles of underground hiding areas. We’ve since instituted hydroponics farms to raise vegetables, and we’re mining leftover coal from some of the areas to process fuel.”
“I thought the mines in the area had all been abandoned because the coal had been exhausted back during the Industrial Revolution.”
“It was,” Simon agreed. “For conventional tools of the nineteenth century. Also, the mining companies needed a lot of coal. We only need a little.”
Leah was impressed. She’d guessed the Templar and the people they protected would be living a hardscrabble existence. Instead, the Templar seemed to thrive when the situation got hardest. It was easy to understand why the people Leah worked with feared and mistrusted the Templar.
* * * *
Only a little farther on, the tunnel widened into a cave. Electric floodlights lit the cave. Three sleek ATVs with matte black finishes occupied center stage. All of them had six wheels that stood at least as tall as Leah’s shoulder. Clearance beneath the vehicles was nearly three feet and they were built low and sloping at both ends so they were very few surfaces for brush or anything else to cling to.
“Where did you get these?” Leah asked.
“One of the primary developers on this design was a Templar,” Simon answered. “Three of the manufacturers were Templar.”
“But these are military vehicles.”
“The military wouldn’t have had them if it hadn’t been for the Templar.” Simon swung a duffel up onto the forward deck of one of the vehicles.
“I thought the Templar were strictly hands-off regarding the rest of society.”
“The Templar organization tried to keep a low profile,” Simon agreed. “But they also knew that the only way to keep abreast of emerging technology was to be part of the research and development companies. Ever since the organization’s inception, Templar engineers have been part of every major undertaking regarding weapons of war and medicine. Those two fields generally overlap in a huge way.”
“The Templar stole the technology?”
“Sometimes. When they had to.” A pained expression filled Simon’s face. “You don’t obey the letter of the law when you’re at war. If you do, you’ll just die slower. The Templar succeeded from the beginning because they were politically, economically, and technologically savvy. They help create the idea that became incorporation. They’ve al
so apprenticed to engineers and designers.” He gazed at the ATV. “This was designed by a Templar engineer. The design was given to the military so that Templar vehicles wouldn’t be so noticeable.”
“Do you really expect me to believe that?”
Simon shook his head and gave her a thin grin. “I don’t see that it matters. Believe what you want. But these ATVs are armored in palladium, not steel or reactive armor.” He gestured to the step hanging down from the deck. “Do you need a hand?”
Instead of replying, Leah grabbed the handhold and pulled herself up in a lithe vault. She turned and offered him her hand. “No, I’m fine. Do you need a hand?”
Simon leaped to the deck easily. The faceplate on his helmet irised shut.
* * * *
The cramped quarters of the ATV promised misery. Simon took the chair in the center at the top while four other Templar took stations. One of them sat in the driver’s seat, and others in the weapons control center, the communications center, and the gunner’s mate position.
Leah was familiar with the setup. Although she had never occupied a fast-attack vehicle, she had been trained on FAV simulators.
She was impressed, even though she knew she shouldn’t have been. Simon and the Templar were incredibly well equipped.
Simon quickly went through a pre-ops checklist that included weapon readiness and communications with the other vehicles. When he was satisfied, the convoy started.
Leah sat back in the sling-seat with the other six Templar who made up the crew. All the Templar sat relaxed and slept, talked, or played games built into the suits’ AIs. Leah had similar software built into her own armor. Boredom was a healthy warrior’s greatest enemy.
Only a short distance farther on, Leah peered at the vidscreen above Simon’s head. The vidscreen was a redundant system that backed up the Templar HUDs. Normally the crew operated the ATV from inside their armor and used those systems rather than the ones provided for regular military operators. The FAV simulators she had trained on worked in the same fashion.