With an effort of will, Warren looked away and closed the book with his human hand. “No.”
Naomi looked at him for a moment, then said, “You don’t lie very well.”
“I’ll get better at it,” he replied.
NINE
Leah came to with a start. Almost immediately a headache throbbed between her temples. The bright light shining down into her eyes didn’t help. Somethingbound her above her breasts, at her midsection, and across her knees.
When she tilted her head up and opened her eyes, she discovered she was lying on a hospital bed in a sterile white room. Thick leather bands held her against the bed. She was still clad in her black armored one-piece.
She attempted to gain leverage against her bonds and either break them or slither out through them. Either was possible. Her one-piece, besides being bullet-and impact-resistant, also accentuated her strength and speed. It was nowhere near what the Templar armor did, but she was a lot lighter on her feet and could hide easier.
The door opened and a young woman in scrubs walked through. She was pretty and demure, with short dark hair and freckles across her nose.
“Easy there, miss.” The young woman’s tone was officious but nonthreatening.“I’ll have you loose in a minute. If you’ll give it to me.”
Leah powered up a taser charge in her right glove. One slight flick would send an electrified dart winging across the distance and deliver a fifty-thousand-volt charge that would drop the woman in her tracks.
“Where am I?” Leah demanded. Her voice sounded muffled through her mask.
“Simon Cross brought you in, miss.” The woman unfastened the belt acrossLeah’s chest. “We only belted you in so you wouldn’t fall off the bed and injureyourself further.”
Leah made herself lie still and take calm breaths. Her throat was sore and her lungs ached. “You didn’t say where I was.”
“You’re in the retreat. Outside of London.” The woman unfastened the lastbelt. “Do you need help sitting up?”
“No. I can manage.” Leah felt incredibly weak. If her strength hadn’t beenboosted by her suit, she knew she wouldn’t have been able to bring herself to asitting position on the bed. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” The woman stood nearby.
Leah tried to get off the bed and fell. Enhanced strength didn’t help hersense of balance, and accelerated reflexes only meant she could grab for the bed twice and miss both times.
The woman caught her. “Easy does it, now.” Gently, she eased her back ontothe bed. “Maybe you’ll want to go slowly for a minute.”
As she sat on the edge of the bed and waited for her head to stop spinning, Leah chafed to be up and moving. She’d been gone too long. Her supervisor wasgoing to have a proper fit. She couldn’t blame him.
“Maybe you could remove the mask, miss,” the nurse suggested. “We weren’table to do that. It made getting you enough oxygen troublesome.”
“Not yet. I want to see Simon.”
The young woman nodded. “All right. He’d asked to be notified as soon asyou’d regained your senses.” She started to turn away, then turned back. “I’d like to suggest that you allowus to check you over before you get too active. We weren’t able to x-ray youthrough your uniform.”
Leah nodded. She wanted to make sure she was physically fit as well. “As soonas I talk to Simon.”
The nurse left.
As she sat up straighter, Leah tried to draw breath deeply into her lungs and breathe it out. She remembered being on fire, and trying to breathe the acrid smoke. Nightmares had haunted her while she’d been out.
“Time,” she said.
Her ocular flipped into place and brought up the current time. It was 3:43 p.m. She was long past checkin time. Anxiety thrummed through her. The increased blood pressure intensified the pain in her head and the pounding in various bruises scattered around her body.
The armor held an inner layer of HardShel nanobots that worked together like fluid. They were a step upa big step upfrom the liquid body armor thathad been brought out twenty years ago for military forces. Those garments had weighed in the neighborhood of four pounds apiece. The one-piece she wore weighed ounces more than the normal clothing would have.
The nanobots were designed to keep a constant flow around the body of the wearer. Any sudden shock, such as a bullet impacting against the one-piece or someone stabbing the one-piece, would be absorbed.
Leah kept breathing slowly. Smoke had to have gotten down into her lungs and she had to work to breathe it out.
“GPS location,” Leah said.
The ocular flashed almost immediately. Tiny letters printed out on the screen but she could read them.
UNABLE TO ACCESS
Great, Leah thought, irritated. GPS is blocked. She had no idea where she was, other than at Simon Cross’s hideaway. In the last few years, he’dgotten better at being hidden. She had no idea where she was.
“Simon.”
Waking instantly at the touch, Simon briefly touched the sword sharing his bed. He gazed up at the belled underside of the hammock above him.
Space was at a premium in the redoubt. This particular bunker hadn’t beenbuilt with long-term occupancy in mind.
When he’d set up general quarters, he’d devoted most of the room to women andchildren who were noncombatants and support staff. In the Templar Underground, everyone had lived with cramped space because room was at a premium. .
In addition, the Templar Underground had had hundreds of years to make bigger places and train all their people to use space efficiently. Simon had to balance everything carefully in a camp that held both refugees and soldiers, where disciplined Spartans ate and slept side-by-side with frightened civilians.
“Simon.”
“I’m awake,” he said, and pushed himself out of sleep to a sitting positionon the side of the hammock. The concrete floor was cold against his feet.
The Burn heated London up, but the rest of the world seemed cold these days. The magic reshaping the city had disastrously affected weather patterns. A light frosting of snow covered the ground outside the bomb shelter they were currently holed up in. Normally, there wouldn’t
