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 wasbecause 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 toraise vegetables, and we’re mining leftover coal from some of the areas toprocess fuel.”
“I thought the mines in the area had all been abandoned because the coal hadbeen 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 protectedwould 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’sshoulder. 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 ofsociety.”
“The Templar organization tried to keep a low profile,” Simon agreed. “Butthey 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’sinception, 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. “Youdon’t obey the letter of the law when you’re at war. If you do, you’ll just dieslower. The Templar succeeded from the beginning because they were politically, economically, and technologically savvy. They help create the idea that became incorporation. They’ve also apprenticed to engineers and designers.” He gazed atthe ATV. “This was designed by a Templar engineer. The design was given to themilitary 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 youneed 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 communicationscenter, 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 andthe 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 wasa healthy warrior’s greatest enemy.
Only a short distance farther on, Leah peered at the vidscreen above Simon’shead. 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.
The vidscreen showed night all around the ATV, but the onboard infrared systems lit up the landscape. Sensors constantly swept the rolling countryside for any signs of life.
In the distance, the dark clouds above London hung heavily over the tall buildings. Seated in the sling seat, Leah kept watch and silently hoped all of them made it back from the coast alive.
THIRTEEN
As the guards closed in on him, Warren tried to stand his ground, but the drug in his system kept his senses spinning. He couldn’t focus enough to directan attack. They were on him in seconds and beat him to the ground. Their hard fists slammed into his face and body. Even though it shook him physically, he didn’t feel most of the assaults. Likely, the same drug that weakened him alsoremoved most of the pain. It was an unexpected benefit, but not one that was going to save his hand from being cut off.
They forced him prone, facedown on the floor. Men sat on his legs and his back to keep him helpless. Someone screwed a pistol into the back of his neck. The barrel was cold and hard.
“No one said you have to be alive when they remove your hand,” a man yelledinto Warren’s ear. “They’ll take it off your dead body even easier.”
The Cabalists had never truly taken
