Simon glanced up at her. “This isn’t going to hurt the armor. The armor cantake a whole lot more than this. If it didn’t, I’d have been dead years ago.”
Leah dropped to her knees. She’s moved her armored hands over the floorsurface a few times. “If you hit the concrete and splinter iteven if you don’thurt the armoryou’re going to make a bloody lot of racket.”
Simon couldn’t argue that.
“With the stairway open below this, sounds will travel a long way.” Leahstopped moving. She placed her hands flat on the concrete. “How wide would yousay the stairway opening is?”
A quick glance at the schematic gave Simon the measurements. “Forty-seven,one-half inches.”
Leah spread her hands again. She leaned forward to put her weight on her shoulders. “Watch yourself.”
“Why?”
“Because if you’re wrong about those measurements, or the placement, you mayjust get a freight express ride to the bottom of the next room.” Despite thesituation, Simon heard the grin in her voice.
Before he could move, the floor seemed to shake violently beneath him. Jagged cracks suddenly showed in the concrete section between her hands. Some of the cracks ran between Simon’s knees. Others ran for the Templar standing watch.
Nathan and Danielle stepped backward quickly.
The measurements had evidently been off. One of Simon’s knees sank throughthe floor. As he started to fall, he slapped his right hand against the wall next to him and ordered the suitAI to anchor him. A spike drove into the wall and kept him from falling into the abyss below.
Leah wasn’t so lucky. She dropped like a rock. Before she could fall into theroom below, though, Simon grabbed her and held her suspended.
“Guess those measurements were off a little,” Simon said sheepishly.
“Do you think?” Leah asked sarcastically.
Simon took the fact that nothing launched out of the darkness to try to kill them was a good sign. Effortlessly, he pulled Leah up and sat her on solid ground again.
“I suppose you’ve got sonic pulsers in those gloves?” Nathan asked.
“You’d be surprised how many times they come in handy getting into and out ofplaces,” Leah applied.
“Bloody brill.” Nathan surveyed the hole in the floor. “Can you go throughwalls with those things?”
“I found them to be good for up to a foot of concrete.”
“I’ve definitely got to start thinking about some upgrades on my armor,”Nathan said. “Maybe I could work in sonic pulsers of my own.”
“Yeah, it works great on regular concrete,” Danielle said sarcastically.“Throw some rebar into the mix, and you’ll have a much different turnout. Andnow, if maybe we’re through with mutual admiration society? It would be justnifty if we could follow Simon.”
As soon as he was certain that Leah was safe, Simon had retracted the anchor from the wall and started down the steps. His thermographic vision revealed nothing waiting below. Anything that had of an internal temperature above or below the ambient temperature in the rooms would have registered.
Concrete debris littered the steps as they corkscrewed down into the lower levels. In the HUD, Simon saw the others fall into stepbehind him. Their order had been prearranged and they followed it now. Two Templar always waited behind to hold the rear guard in case they had to retreat in a hurry.
The HUD map has overlaid what Simon was seeing with what he had downloaded from the blueprints. There were inconsistencies and irregularities, but for the most part everything was the same.
The cages the mental patients had been kept in were horrifying. Many of them were still there. Skeletons occupied most of the cages.
“Do you think they just left them here?” Danielle asked. The somber tone inher voice was unusual. “Just let them starve to death?”
“They would have thirsted to death first,” one of the other Templar said.
Gradually, the conversation fell to a close. Simon led the way through the first level into the stairway to the second. The underground sections were laid out in ovals that were basically circular tunnels with holes cut in the outer walls and rooms hollowed out of the center sections.
The room they had come to find, the one that Macomber had insisted was there given the clue as to where the Goetia manuscript was, was on the second floor below. Simon took the steps and headed down.
TWENTY-EIGHT
The skeleton wrapped his bony fingers around Warren’s throat and squeezed.Black spots danced in Warren’s vision. He almost passed out at the shock and asudden pain. His demon hand rose almost of its own volition and clapped onto the skeleton’s skull.
“Back!” Warren rasped through his bruised throat.
Shimmering force hammered the skeleton backward and broke its grip on Warren’s neck. Warren sucked in a deep breath and heard it whistle into hislungs. He stepped back as the skeleton lunged at him again.
This time the chain around the creature’s ankle drew him up short.
“Warren, are you all right?” Naomi asked.
Warren took another breath before he answered. “I’m fine. Stay out of my headand let me work. I’ll call you if I need you.”
With single-minded purpose, the skeleton lunged again and again at Warren. The undead creature’s naked palms and bony fingers snapped together like barewinter branches in a high wind.
“Don’t stand back there, boy,” the skeleton snarled. Since it had no lungs orvoice box, the effort was quite impressive. “Come closer.”
“I brought you renewed life,” Warren said. It hurt to speak. “You will obeyme.”
The skeleton lunged again.
Warren gestured and another wave of shimmering force slammed into the creature and knocked him back into the cave where he had died. Before the skeleton could get up, Warren gestured again. This time the slack length of the chain wrapped around the skeleton and pinned his arms to his sides.
The skeleton cursed cruelly.
“How are you able to think and speak?” Warren asked. Over the last four yearsof he and raised dozens of zombies to do his bidding. Most of them had served as guards and ended up getting destroyed by demons or the knights.
“The same way I always have,” the skeleton answered.
“How long have you been down here?”
“Since Dr. Featherstone ordered me placed
