Before Simon could respond, Pettibone slammed the pacifier home against the base of the armor’s helmet. Then a series of electromagnetic bursts sweptthrough the armor and along Simon’s neural pathways. He tried to hang onto hisconsciousness, but he fell into a deep, black well.
FORTY-FOUR
Leah stood on one side of the conference table in the small room she’d beentaken to after Tech Ops had finished the image recovery of all the burned pages.
Jenkins had uploaded the images to a file, then uploaded the images of the secret text as a separate file. He’d given copies of both files to Lyra Darius.Lyra had asked Leah to wait for her in the conference room.
As she waited, impatiently, Leah studied the constant vid feeds pulsingthrough the monitors on all sides of the room. All of them would go silent at the touch of a button, but anyone in the room also had access to other rooms in the compound as well as to many street level views around the Ellis Building. Some of them also showed nearby neighborhoods.
Night had fallen on the city hours ago. The demons hunted everywhere.
As she watched them, Leah wished Command had given the order to emplace weapons in different parts of the city. At one time that had been part of the plan to deal with the demons. They could have killed them from a distance.
Unfortunately, those weapons would have been found and destroyed almost immediately after use. And Command had worried that the demons might find a way to trace the wireless communication back to the compound. Losing weapons was aproblem too, because they hadn’t yet found a way to quickly produce them foroperatives in the field.
On one of the screens, a group of stalker demons chased a man and a boy. The demons caught up with them in seconds. Leah made herself watch their deaths so that it would be burned into her mind why she would give the demons no mercy when she had them in her sights.
Then the door opened and Lyra entered.
“Have a seat,” Lyra invited.
“I don’t want to sit,” Leah said. “Sitting means staying, and staying meansdelaying. One way or the other, I need to be somewhere that I can be doing some good.”
“All right.” Lyra sat on the corner of the table. She looked tired andexhausted. “I ran your suggestion to take a copy of the Goetia manuscriptto the Templar”
Leah started to object.
“to Simon Cross,” Lyra amended, “by my advisors. To a person, theyall vetoed the idea.”
Leah’s heart sank. You betrayed Simon’s trust. Despite the setback,she immediately began coming up with plans to strip the files from the computers and get out of the compound with them. None of them seemed particularly easy, but she wasn’t going back to Simon without something in hand.
“I pointed out that we would still have a copy of the manuscript to work onourselves,” Lyra went on. “Their response was that the Templar would have ahead start on us because they’d be more familiar with the language.”
“Which is exactly why we should give it to Simon,” Leah said.
“I made that same argument. I also pointed out that unless we were preparedto keep you on permanent lockdown, we couldn’t guarantee the control of the Goetia files.”
Leah didn’t say anything, but a tingle of fear ran through her. She’d beentrained to handle incarceration. Out in the field it sometimes happened. But she couldn’t imagine being locked away while Simon was still battling the demons andto save those he could in the city.
“I know you could promise me that you wouldn’t go near those files,” Lyrasaid.
“I would never do anything to hurt this organization,” Leah said immediately,going for the opportunity. “I give you”
“Stop.” Lyra held up a hand. “You lie prettily, but you still lie. You’ll doexactly what you think you need to do in this matter. You’ve got plenty ofprecedent set up in that regard.”
Leah quieted. Her mind busied itself with ways to get out of lockdown. She’dbeen trained to handle that as well.
“Fortunately for you,” Lyra said, “my advisors are that only: advisors. Mydecisions are mine in this place, and they’re not open to review. Therefore,it’s my decision that you be allowed to take this information to the TemplartoSimon Crosswith the understanding from you, and I know you can’t guarantee anagreement from him, that we share information that becomes pertinent.”
Leah couldn’t keep the smile from her face.
“Stop grinning like a loon,” Lyra ordered in mock-seriousness. “I’ve justgiven you orders that put you in harm’s way again.”
Making her face grim again, Leah nodded. “Yes, ma’am. When can I go?”
“I thought maybe you might want to rest and grab a bite before you”
“Begging your pardon, ma’am, but I’m rested. And I can eat on the way.”
A sad smile twisted Lyra’s lips. “Somehow I thought you’d say that Let mehave your hand.” She offered her own.
Leah took the other woman’s hand.
“Ready for transmission,” Lyra said.
“Ready,” Leah replied. She closed her helmet and watched as the downloadapplication appeared onscreen.
“Transmitting.”
The transfer took several minutes because none of the files had been compressed. When the upload bar hit 100 percent, a beep sounded. Leah knew about the AIs that drove the Templar armor, but suits worn by her group and the military didn’t feature those.
“Don’t make me regret this, Leah,” Lyra said. “Don’t hold information back onus and bloody well don’t get yourself killed.”
“No, ma’am.”
“You can go. Motor Pool has a motorcycle for you as well as nutri-sub you caneat on the way.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Minutes later, Leah threw a leg over the twenty-year old BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Enduro motorcycle she’d been assigned and keyed the big engine tolife. The roar filled the neat garage.
“Command said you were used to this model,” the compact mechanic said as hegave the petrol tank a final wipe with a towel.
“I am,” Leah agreed.
“I hope it takes care of you.”
“I’m sure it will, chief.”
“Well, try to bring it back. You’ve lost two of them and they’re gettingharder and harder to
