He climbed back to the top of the building long enough to pick up her rifle, then carried her against his chest as he went quickly down the fire escape stairs. With the armor boosting his strength, she was practically weightless.
At the bottom of the steps, the 360-degree vision allowed him to see the zombie lurch out of hiding. Its right arm was missing below the elbow. Its face was a wreck. It drew back the long knife it fisted in its remaining hand.
Effortlessly, Simon spun and delivered a reverse kick that crunched through the zombie’s chest and knocked it to the ground. He stepped close to it andraised his foot, intending to smash its head and put an end to the twisted arcane power that gave it a semblance of life.
The thing’s head suddenly shivered and melted. It reformed almost immediatelyas new features rose from the bloody mess of diseased, dead flesh.
The new face looked angular and raw. The jawbone was long and ridged with a row of bony scales. The mouth was a knife-blade slash. Black eyes glinted with cold indifference beneath a forehead of twisted horns.
“This isn’t over, Templar,” the zombie said.
The voice reminded Simon of the demon down in the basement. He was certain whoever had possessed the man in the building and raised the zombie was also possessing this body now.
“I will find you again,” the demon threatened.
“Tell me where you’ll be,” Simon replied. “I’d be happy to meet you halfway.Until you have the courage to face me, don’t make hollow threats.” He rammed hisfoot down and smashed through the zombie’s head. When he turned to go, he didn’tlook back.
One more demon looking to kill him in a city full of them wasn’t going tomake a difference.
Leah continued to breathe all the way to the Bond Street tube station. Simon listened to her, but knew it wasn’t what it should have been.
Bond Street had once been an affluent part of the May-fair District. It had risen to prominence during the May Fair market days, when the annual trade fair was moved there for a time; then it had evolved into one of the most prosperous places in all of London.
Simon had gotten to visit the area a few times with his father. The Templar had invested their money and speculated in the markets. Thomas Cross had dabbled in some of those investments.
As a boy, Simon had enjoyed the arcades on Old Bond Street and, later, watching the pretty young women that shopped along Savile Row. Now he wished he’d spent more time listening to his father. After four years, the pain oflosing his father on All Hallows’ Eve while he was squandering his rebelliousyouth in South Africa remained sharp.
He pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he descended the tube’s stairs.He kept Leah from banging against him.
The tube no longer operated. He was pretty certain that since he’d gotten thetrain loaded with escapees out of the city four years ago no other trains had moved.
Several of the tube lines led to Underground complexes. Many of the Templar areas remained hidden, but the demons remained on the alert for them. If the Templar hadn’t maintained an interest in the city’s architecture, abovegroundand below, those hiding places and underground fortresses wouldn’t have existed.
Those places remained hidden for the most part, though the demons had ferreted out some of them. The sacrifices the Templar had made at St. Paul’s onAll Hallows’ Eve had been to protect those resources. By dying in such greatnumbers, they’d hoped to lull the demons into believing the Templar threat wasgone.
For the most part, the Templar threat was. Except that it hadn’t beeneradicated as the demons would have wanted. They’d merely moved more deeplyunderground to reconvene the war at a later date.
When Simon had seen the proposed plan in action, he hadn’t been able to follow through on it. Too many helpless people hadremained in London and merely waited to die. In the end, he had taken his leave of the Templar Underground to follow a more proactive stance in helping the survivors reach the ships that ran the coastline in those days.
Those times were long gone now. Other Hellgates had opened up in other parts of the world. The struggle was no longer just for the survival of London, but of the planet.
Danielle and the others waited in the tunnel. They stood ready and waiting around two ATV trucks that had been specially modified from gasoline-powered engines to electromagnetic springwheel power plants. They were based on the Panther MLV but sported several upgrade packages. As a result of the conversion, the ATVs had more power, ran silently, and supported anti-aircraft guns and cannon. They were only one small step removed from tanks.
“Is she still alive?” Danielle asked as she reached down for Leah.
“Yes.” Simon handed her up. “Be careful with her.” He vaulted up into thecargo area after her. “I need some O2 from the medkit.”
One of the other Templar opened the medkit and took out the O2 tank anda mask.
“Open helmet,” Simon ordered. His faceplate dissolved in front of him as itreceded to the reservoirs inside his helmet. He suddenly couldn’t see as well inthe dark, and the noises in the tunnel sounded different. The air stank and felt hot and doughy against his face.
Leah’s breathing sounded more raspy and desperate to him, but he heard itwith his own hearing, not the amplified sound pumped through his sensors. Her efforts sounded strained, but he could better judge how she was doing.
He lifted her head gently and fitted the face mask over her mouth and nose. He knew from past battlefield experience that the suitwasn’t self-contained like his armor. Her mask filtered out a lot
