have been allowed into battle with the demons if they appeared. Thereafter, he’d forged new gear as he’d grown out of what he had. When he’d reached his full growth and had found his best fighting weight, he’d forged the armor he now wore.

The dark blue and silver armor glinted in the light. In bright daylight, without the stealth mode activated, the mirror-bright surfaces could prove blinding.

All that was missing was his father standing behind him.

Simon turned and left the vault. The door swung closed behind him, locking tight with a loud bang.

I hope you can hear me, Dad, Simon thought. I’m going to be everything you raised me to be. I’m going to make you proud.

But that was only, Simon knew, if he was given the chance.

Outside the weapons complex, Simon stood for a moment and looked around. Inside the suit now, he felt bigger and more powerful. Leah looked incredibly small.

“Simon?” Leah looked surprised. She took a step back from him.

“Yes.” Her voice and his sounded normal to Simon, but he knew his would sound different to her.

She stared at him. “It’s just…you look a lot different.”

“I know.” Simon felt different, too. The HUD had him connected to the world in ways he’d forgotten. The sensor relays that had activated once they’d come into contact with the skin over his spinal column gave him a lot of feedback. He could touch and feel, but he had a lot of control over what sensations he experienced. True pain would never touch him as long as the suit’s integrity hadn’t been breached and the healing wards and drugs remained intact.

“Is that everything?” Derek asked.

“Yes.”

“What about personal belongings?”

Simon thought about the other items his father had left in the vault. Images and vid, keepsakes they’d gotten from different places they’d gone to, all of those things were still within the vault.

“Nothing that I want to carry with me,” Simon said. If he fell, he wanted those things to remain intact. The Cross family had dwindled over the years. His father had had a younger brother, but the brother—Robert Cross—had died in a tragic accident.

Simon was all that remained of his family.

Derek hesitated. “You might not get to come back for it.”

“Yes,” Simon said, “I will. If I live, those things are the only inheritance my father left me. I won’t be denied what little there is.”

Graydon dropped a heavy hand on Simon’s shoulder. The old Templar’s metal-gloved hand clanked.

“You’ll come back and fetch what you need, lad,” Graydon said. “Whenever you’ve a mind. I’ll give you my word on that.”

Simon took the old man’s hand and shook it. “I appreciate that.”

“No trouble, lad.” Graydon smiled. “You just be careful out there.”

Simon said he would, then he followed Derek back out of the House of Rorke Underground.

The trip back from Baker Street tube station was vastly different for Simon than the trip to the area. Even though he’d been wearing night-vision goggles, Simon hadn’t been able to truly see.

With the helmet in place, though, the interior of the tube line was lit up as brightly as daylight. Simon walked fearlessly. He was a predator in his natural environment now.

But he was more able to see the carnage that had been left behind by the marauding demons. The HUD was so sophisticated it matched the real colors around him instead of rendering them in green.

He worked so hard on not seeing what he saw that he almost missed the start of the attack. The HUD painted the figures hanging upside down from the tube ceiling green as he turned the corner.

Other twisted and misshapen figures lay in wait behind the overturned cars of the tube train. Once he saw them, though, Simon knew they were Darkspawn.

“Ambush!” one of Derek’s men yelled in warning.

Out of habit, Simon reached for his sword and the Spike Bolter. He spotted Leah behind him in the HUD view. Backing into her, he growled, “Get to cover.” Then he had the Spike Bolter up in his fist and was firing. A string of detonations ripped away the quietness inside the tube.

The palladium spikes ripped into one of the Darkspawn hanging from the ceiling, pinning the creature to the stone surface. The demon yowled in pain and anger as it tried to rip itself free. Its thin body whipped and twisted, tearing the wounds in its flesh even larger.

Upon closer inspection, Simon saw that the demons had woven a web of cargo netting they’d undoubtedly scavenged from the overturned tube cars, on the ceiling. They’d worked awfully quickly to have set the ambush up on the Templar’s return.

A moment later, the Darkspawn Simon had nailed to the ceiling braced its feet and pulled through the spikes. Dark blood ran freely from the wounds. Snarling, the demon landed only a few feet in front of Simon. It lifted a weapon and took aim.

Whirling, Simon dodged out of the way of the deadly beam. The beam struck the wall behind him. Through the HUD, Simon could plainly see that Leah was in hiding beside one of the overturned tube cars.

Simon attacked before the Darkspawn could fire again. He swept the sword cleanly through the demon’s neck. The headless corpse stumbled around for a few moments, then collapsed in a broken heap.

Beyond the demon he’d slain, Derek and his men were hard-pressed to keep up. Swords flashed and occasional firearms filled the tube tunnel with bright light and noise. Stepping over the obscene corpse stretched on the ground, Simon moved forward to engage the enemy further.

Four Darkspawn launched themselves at Simon. He lifted his foot and smashed it into the face of the center one. “Spikes,” he ordered out of reflex.

Spikes popped out of his boot soles and tore into the demon’s face, slicing through two of its eyes and leaving them in ruin as it staggered back.

Firing the Spike Bolter into the face of another Darkspawn, Simon nailed the creature to the side of an overturned tube train car. The third creature

Вы читаете Exodus
Добавить отзыв
ВСЕ ОТЗЫВЫ О КНИГЕ В ИЗБРАННОЕ

0

Вы можете отметить интересные вам фрагменты текста, которые будут доступны по уникальной ссылке в адресной строке браузера.

Отметить Добавить цитату