Simon squelched his immediate impulse to tell the quiet man that he had asked only out of politeness, not out of necessity. After all, no matter how many men were hidden in the forest, the Templar still had three armored ATVs present.
“I’d suggest keeping him sedated,” the quiet man went on. “He travels betterthat way.”
“Giving him more drugs isn’t going to help his frame of mind,” Simonobjected.
“Agreed, but it might just keep you alive. He’s been fairly lucid tonight.That isn’t always the case. While we were traveling with him, he becameextremely agitated and attacked two of my men. We were on a ship and there wasn’t anyone to hear. You’re traveling overland through dangerous country, anddemons’ hearing is acute.” The quiet man shrugged. “It’s just something for youto consider. I’m not telling you how to do your job.”
Simon nodded.
“I hear you people have some pretty well-equipped medical facilities,” thequiet man said. He touched a section of his armor over his heart. A hidden pocket opened up and he took out a small data chip. “A gift. To show goodwill onour part.”
Simon took the chip but didn’t point out that he wasn’t overly interested inslotting the chip into any hardware the Templar possessed.
“I know you’ll have your suspicions about this,” the quiet man said. “And Idon’t blame you. What you got there are Macomber’s complete medical records.Maybe it will help you get him straightened away.” He smiled sadly. “Before allthis mess happened, I had an uncle who had Alzheimer’s. I knew him before andafter the onset. I hate to see somebody in Macomber’s shape.”
“Thanks.” Simon closed his hand over the chip. “We left a lot of demons backthere. Are you and your men going to be okay getting back to London?”
The quiet man grinned. “Didn’t say I was going back to London, now did I?”
They were, Simon reflected, as secretive and directed as the Templar. In a way, it made him respect them more. However, it also made him more wary of dealing with them.
“What about Leah Creasey?” he asked.
The man shook his head. “Like I said, I don’t know anyone by that name.” Helooked back the way Simon had come. “You’ve got a long way to go. Good luck andgodspeed.”
Simon watched as the man folded his helmet back over his face. The armor sealed immediately and Simon’s own armor registered the slight flicker of theenergy signature.
The man offered a brief salute, then turned and walked into the treeline. Within three or four steps, with Simon watching him, the man faded from view and disappeared from his armor’s sensors.
Just like a ghost, Simon thought.
Simon carried Macomber back to his ATV. Nathan and Danielle helped take the man aboard. They stowed the professor, still sleeping, in one of the sling-seats.
Leah looked curious, but she didn’t ask any questions. As Nathan wheeled theATV around, she pulled her helmet up over her face. It sealed and she was once more expressionless.
With a final look at Macomber, Simon temporarily pushed past the problem the professor presented and focused on getting back to London alive. That would be problem enough for all of them tonight.
Nathan contacted him on a private frequency. “So what’s the skinny, mate?Have we got something here, or have we just picked up extra baggage?”
“I don’t know,” Simon answered honestly.
“If this man is for real, what does he have to offer that makes them worththe risk?”
“He claims to know where Goetia is.”
“The book of demons?”
“One of them,” Simon agreed.
“Do you believe it?” “I don’t know.”
“And if it is true, is that book’s existence going to make matters better orworse?”
That was the question, Simon thought.
NINETEEN
“What do you know about the demon Fulaghar?”
Warren hunkered under the eave of a three-story building near his destination and waited out the rainstorm that had blown in shortly after they had returned to the city. He had never much cared for the rain even before the demons had invaded. Melancholy by nature, he felt that the rain seemed to make his moods even darker and more desperate.
Now, though, the rain could often be deadly. Tainted by the Burn, rain usually carried harsh and caustic acids that scorched skin and caused rashes that could chafe to the bone. Warren had seen instances of both cases. People and animals had died from the rain.
Fat raindrops splashed pools out in the uneven streets and tapped incessantly against the metal eave. Nothing else seemed to move throughout the city. Warren suspected that even most of the demons, the lesser ones at least, avoided contact with the acid rain as well.
“I’ve heard the name,” Warren replied in answer to Naomi’s question. “He’ssupposed to be one of the more powerful demons in the lower hierarchy.”
Naomi pulled her raincoat more tightly about her. During the long walk back from Ponders End, she hadn’t spoken much. That had suited Warren perfectlybecause he hadn’t wanted to talk. He had spent those hours trying to wrap his headaround everything Merihim had commanded him to do.
“He’s evil,” Naomi whispered just barely loud enough to be heard over therattle of the rain.
“All the demons are evil.” That ability of the Cabalists to distinguish oneevil from another had always confounded Warren.
“Some of them are more evil than others.”
Warren didn’t bother to argue the point. When it came to matters like thisamong the Cabalists, he’d found it to be a losing proposition and a waste oftime.
“Fulaghar is dangerous,” Naomi said.
Warren refrained from pointing out that all the demons were dangerous. The fact that the majority of the Cabalists chose not to acknowledge that was sheer stupidity and had gotten more than a few of them killed.
“He’s called the Shadow Twister because of his ability to alter perception,and because he’s rumored to have caused people’s shadows to attack and killthem,” Naomi said.
“Sounds like that would be a good reason to live in the dark,” Warren pointedout.
“How are you going to destroy something like that?”
Warren let out a breath and was relieved to see the rain finally
