“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. Hersupervisors 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 thesedays.”
“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 offon 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 withme to the Templar Underground?” Simon shook his head. “I have a lot of questionsabout 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 nowthan he had at any in the time in the past.
And that was without the information about Macomber 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 downor 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’ttake 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 afterMacomber.”
The ultimatum stung. Leah hadn’t been expecting that. “That’s mad. I’ve toldyou that what he knows can help you.”
Simon said nothing for a moment, but his gaze held steady. “That’s the wayit’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 anyoneelse 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 thatinformation 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 thatinformation 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 towouldn’t have wanted me here. Both of us are going to face problems as a resultof this.”
“But I’m having to trust you more,” Simon said softly. “I’m not just trustingyou with my life, Leah. I’m trusting you with the lives of every man, woman, andchild that are noncombatants in this war against the demons. If your people decide that revealing the location of this place will do them any goodeither asa bargaining tool or a delaying tactic, or even as bait in a trap like those two Templar were yesterdayit’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. Shecould 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 andquickly. 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 needit 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’teven try faking reasons for why they too had stopped. They’d been caught andthey 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 changethe 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’ssuit 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
