Using the shield was his call.
“Energize shield.”
“Energizing,” Danielle replied.
A distinct keening whine echoed throughout the control compartment. For a moment, when the HARP discharged, Simon’s HUD went blank. The charge waspowerful enough to temporarily take the HUD and comm offline. Only a second afterward, though, the AI brought the HUD and comm systems back up.
, Nathan had kept the wheels churning through dead demons and broken landscape. A moment later, he burst through the line and raced to the other two ATVs.
The demons followed and fired volley after volley that lit the surrounding forest on fire and scored intermittent hits on the ATVs. They weren’t going tobe able to keep up.
Simon ran a quick aerial reconnaissance with the sensor drones but no airborne demons were detected. For the moment, they were free and running safe.
“We could dog them for a bit,” Jennifer suggested. “Take down a few more ofthem.”
Knowing they had the upper hand, even if only for a short time, made the idea attractive. Simon give it consideration. They hadn’t had a truly decisivevictory against the demons in months.
“It would be foolish to pursue that course,” Borden said. “We’ve got a job todo it we need to see it done.”
Almost regretfully, Simon agreed. But he knew that it wouldn’t take long forthe demons to call in reinforcements. Then the battle advantages would change again. They were lucky they had been able to handle the seven Blood Angels.
“Withdraw,” Simon said. “Let’s stick with the game plan.”
SEVENTEEN
An hour and seventeen minutes later, they reached the rendezvous point at Dover. Simon positioned the ATVs in a triangle with his own vehicle heading up point. Sensor drones swept through the surrounding mountains and even out over the English Channel.
They weren’t far from the cliffs at the point which plunged down fifty feetand more to the sea below. It was the perfect place for an ambush, and Simon and his Templar would be their targets.
The uncomfortable itch at the back of Simon’s neck told him he was beingwatched even though none of the sensors showed the presence of anyone.
“Leah,” he said.
“Yes.” Her voice was small and quiet.
“Are they out there?”
She hesitated. “I don’t know.”
They sat in silence a moment longer.
“Well, mate,” Nathan said, “there’s really only one way we’re going to knowfor sure.”
“Cover me.” Simon reached up for the roof access hatch and released the lockwith his retina print and voice. When the vacuum-seal hissed open, he shoved the hatch up. It fell open with a clank.
He reached up and hauled himself through the tight opening. Had he been much broader chested, the ATV wouldn’t have been anoption for him.
When he was outside the ATV, he stood on the rear deck to take advantage of the low profile if it came to that. He fisted his sword hilt as he scanned the surroundings.
“I’m Simon Cross,” he said. The suit boosted his voice.
A preliminary search of the area had revealed no demons, but he still felt the people he’d brought there were exposed and vulnerable. More than that, hedidn’t know what was happening back at the camp he’d established. The demons hadsystematically destroyed most of the ground-based satellite relays to the network out in space. Access to those satellites was difficult and uncertain at best.
Losing those satellites had been one of the hardest things Simon had been forced to adjust to. All his life he’d grown up with technology that allowed himaccess to the world. Despite his Templar training, he’d taken that access forgranted. Everything now felt too separate, too far apart, to make any sense.
A shadow moved to Simon’s right. Even with the advanced vid capabilityavailable to the suit, Simon barely made out the figure.
“Mr. Cross,” a man’s clipped voice greeted. “Welcome. We were told you mightbe joining us.”
Simon remained on the deck. It would be easier to get back inside, and he could use the tank’s bulk for defense if he needed to.
“Maybe you could join me down here,” the man said. His voice held a tinnyquality that let Simon know it was being amplified.
“I can hear just as well from here,” Simon countered.
“I thought perhaps we could at least be civil about this.”
“Hiding in the shadows isn’t my idea of civil.”
The figure hesitated, then reached up to his head. The tight-fitting helm split at the back and he pulled it forward off his face.
The man looked as if he was in his thirties. His black hair was cut short, a military high-and-tight style that had been around for decades. His face was thin and gaunt, and old scars that looked like wear marks webbed his left cheek and temple.
“Forgive me,” he said. “I don’t like being unprotected these days.”
“Neither do I.” Simon stepped off the ATV and dropped to the ground with thesame ease a man would have stepped from the lowest rung of a stepladder. He commanded the faceplate to iris open and immediately relished the cool sea air blowing in from the Straits of Dover. After the effects of the Burn, it had been a long time since he’d felt an honest chill. “I especially didn’t like the demonarmy we ran into not far from here.”
The man grimaced. “Sorry about that, but we’re under orders not to breakcover.”
“Whose orders?”
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.”
Secrecy seemed to be second nature to Leah and her cohorts. Simon understood that, though. The Templar existed in the same environment. He continued walking toward the man, but he was sure the man wasn’t alone. But that was all right; hewasn’t alone either.
“I have Leah Creasey with me,” Simon stated.
The man regarded Simon without expression. “I don’t know anyone by thatname.”
Simon couldn’t tell if the man was lying. Neither could . his armor’s AI, andit held programming to detect falsehoods in most people. Even before the technology had been invented, Templar had been trained in body language to detect lies.
There was a rumor, among those who had believed in the
