“You’ve come far afield of your normal stomping grounds, haven’t you, Booth?”Simon asked. He offered no sarcasm, but it was there in his words all the same.
Booth frowned. “I don’t want to make this complicated. And you don’t have tobe egregious.”
“No, I don’t have to be. I throw that in for free.” Simon muted the comm fora moment. “Nathan, see if you can break this interception path.”
Immediately, Nathan took a new heading. The ATV crashed through underbrush of an over small trees. The ride became decidedly more bumpy.
On the HUD, Simon watched as the other two ATVs changed course to follow Nathan’s lead. They plunged through the night in single file.
Just as quickly, though, Booth’s vehicles altered course and again pressedfor an interception.
“You’re not going to get away that easily,” Booth threatened.
“I wasn’t aware that I was trying to get away,” Simon said. He motioned forLeah and Macomber to resume their seats. “The last time I saw you all, I wasunder the distinct impression you never wanted to see me again.”
“If I had my way, I wouldn’t see you again.”
“What can I do for you, Booth?”
“Since you haven’t seen fit to die fighting the demons, and you haven’t leftwell enough alone, I’m forced to have this little meeting with you.”
“And if I should decline?”
“That’s not one of the choices,” Booth said.
The indicator figures showed that 0.473 miles remained between the two groups of vehicles. That distance diminished quickly.
“It’s come to my attention that you’ve been dealing with that young woman youbrought to the Underground,” Booth said. “I’ve been told that you’ve got a mannamed Archibald Xavier Macomber with you. A professor of linguistics who was, until late, a guest of a Parisian sanitarium.”
Simon was surprised that Booth knew who Macomber was. As a young man growing up, the current High Seat of Rorke hadn’t been one to study. He hadn’t had to.The position was hereditary and his father had been young. At the time, Booth hadn’t figured on becoming High Seat until he was an old man himself.
“That’s none of your business,” Simon said.
Booth shifted in his command chair easily, then leaned forward so that his face filled the vidscreen. “Tonight it is my business. I’m making it mybusiness.”
A chill threaded down Simon’s spine despite the even heating and coolingsupplied by the armor. Anger wrenched at his stomach and made his head hot.
“What do you want?” Simon demanded.
Booth shrugged. “I want the professor.”
“Why?”
“For the same reasons you do, of course.”
Simon doubted that. During the last four years the Templar Underground had chosen to remain invisible. They remained hidden within the vast subterranean complexes and kept separate from the living and dying that happened within the ruins of London.
“You’ll understand why I choose not to believe that,” Simon said. “I haven’tseen you take part in striking out against a demon in the last four years.”
Anger mottled Booth’s features. He didn’t like being castigated, much less inpublic. It hurt even more, Simon supposed, when what was said was true.
“You don’t have a choice about turning the professor over to us.” Booth’swords were cold and threatening. “If you don’t turn Macomber over to me, I’lltake him by force.”
Simon broke off the communication with Booth’s vehicles. He looked around andhis team. He couldn’t help wondering if one of them was Booth’s informer.
“Someone sold us out, mate,” Nathan said.
“That isn’t the problem we have to deal with right now,” Simon replied. Hewatched the progress of the two waves of vehicles approaching each other. They were less than thirty-seven seconds apart.
“You can’t give me to them,” Macomber said hoarsely. Panic echoed in hiswords. Terror widened his eyes. “I don’t know them.”
“Can we outrun them, Nathan?” Simon asked. Then he activated the defensiveshields.
“We’re evenly matched,” Nathan replied. “And if Booth really wants to pushthis to a physical encounter, we’re outnumbered three to one. Not only that, butafter that encounter with the demons, we’re limping back home.”
“Warning. Impact imminent.” The AI’s voice sounded strangely calm in spite ofall the tension that filled the command center.
Before Simon had time to say anything, the proximity numbers relaying the distance between his vehicle and the lead ATV of Booth’s forces zeroed out. Thethunderous crash echoed within the command center.
Simon knew from the sensor drones that the collision pushed the ATV up on its side. The onboard computer revealed that the armored vehicle rose up to a twenty-nine degree angle. Despite the impact, the command center revolved within the nanofluid environment, keeping everyone inside in their upright positions.
The ATV’s defensive shields took a seventeen percent loss. Even as heregistered everything going on with his own vehicle, Simon saw the other two ATVs get struck as well.
The vehicle that had hit him stayed locked on and pushed the ATV sideways into a copse of trees. Some of the trees shattered on impact and bared white flesh under the bark. Others stood firm.
The seat restraints bit into Simon’s shoulders as they called him up short.The ATV came to a sudden stop.
“Weps ready,” Danielle reported angrily. “I have a target and can fire onyour mark.”
“Warning,” the AI said. “Other vehicles have target lock on this vehicle.”
Before Nathan could reverse the electromagnetic engines, another ATV slid in behind them and blocked them. Nathan tried to break free of the trap but couldn’t. The tires chewed the turf but couldn’t find enough purchase to dig out with theextra weight of the other ATV.
Simon opened the hail he received from Booth.
The High Seat grinned. “Give him to me. You don’t have a choice. Give him tome and I’ll let you and your people go free. Fight me and I’ll take you alldown. That’s a promise.”
A glance at the HUD’s radar image relayed from the sensor drones showedBooth’s ATV well back of the firing line. Disgust weighed heavily on Simon. He’dhad no way to expect what had happened, no way to prepare. He had been blindsided.
“We can stay inside,” Nathan pointed out. “They’ll still have a hard timepeeling us open.”
“They don’t have to peel us open,” Danielle
