Simon was the first through the door. He threw himself into the familiar starfish dive profile and watched the altitude drop away on his HUD.
“Initiate parachute,” the suit AI called out.
Reaching across his chest, Simon hit the parachute release. The canopy belled above him. He grabbed the guidelines and tracked his descent onto the Apple store. Fifty-three Templar landed on the building’s rooftop. Four missed and ended up in the street below.
Without a word, the Templar set up the rooftop charges while Simon and others climbed into rappelling lines. He checked his weapons a final time.
“Lord Cross,” a female voice said over the comm-link.
The intrusion didn’t come as a complete surprise. Simon had deliberately used a frequency he knew Leah had access to. He’d hoped that somewhere along the way they could connect up.
“Yes,” Simon answered.
“We haven’t met,” the woman said. “My name is Lyra Darius. I’m a friend of Leah’s.”
Simon smiled. “I take it you’re not out after an evening constitutional.”
“No. I was in contact with Leah earlier tonight. I learned where she was. We’ve surrounded the building, and we’re prepared to go in after her. Failing that, we’re determined to blow it up.”
“And kill Leah?” Simon didn’t like thinking about that.
“If we must. I have to say, when I saw the helicopters and then those armored suits, I started to feel more optimistic about our chances.”
“I didn’t come here to kill Leah.”
“Nor did I. I have hopes it won’t come to that.”
“It won’t.”
“How do you want to do this?”
Simon watched the Templar step back from the rooftop charges. “By now the demons have to know that we’re here, so I thought we’d try the direct approach. See how much confusion we could stir up along the way.”
“You’re going through the roof.”
That surprised Simon. “Yes.”
“If we carried the armor you do, we might have tried that. We don’t.”
“We do,” Simon said. “We’re going inside, getting Leah and the others, doing as much damage as we can, and then we are going to get out of there.”
“You’re going to have the demons at your heels.”
“Probably.”
“It’s a good thing we’ll be set up in the streets ready to defend you.”
“That sounds good.”
“We also found a few of your stragglers that missed the building. We’ll take care of them until you’re able to care for them again.”
Simon smiled again. “If we make it through this, I’ll stand you to a drink.”
“I’ll do the same. I’ve got a feeling that we’re going to need it by then. Good luck.”
Simon thanked her, then gave the order to blow the rooftop charges. The explosions rang out in quick syncopation. Plumes of dust jetted into the sky, and the roof came apart.
Before the Hellgate had been open, one of the Cabalists had been a city worker who had used HARP technology to clear some of the collapsed tunnels under London to make more routes possible. His name was Jernigan, and he was a wizard with the portable HARP trenching tool that they’d liberated from the city offices.
Almost sick with fear, Warren trailed the man as he carved a new passage from a utility tunnel that ran across the street. With the HARP carving the way, taking out all inorganic matter in seconds, they made good time.
After measuring the distance a third time, Warren knew they were under the Apple store. Since the woman had contacted him in his dreams, Warren had thought about her a lot, wondering what she was like. The plan to get her had come relatively quickly to mind.
Warren directed the Cabalist to take them up. That was harder because he had to cut the tunnel at a slope that took them up without making the incline too hard for them to climb.
The Cabalists followed somewhat eagerly. All of them now had something from Kareloth that enhanced their powers. They wanted to know how strong they’d be in a fight. None of them wanted to die, but they were willing to risk death.
Personally, the woman—Leah—was the one that drew Warren there. The nightmare he’d had about his stepfather was different than anything he’d ever had before. He didn’t want to repeat that.
Then there was Merihim. If this was something truly put together by the demon, as Lilith said it was, there was a debt owed that only blood could pay.
He followed the tunneler up the grade, finding it steep enough to be difficult. A moment later, the final layer between the floor and the store beyond evaporated. The way was clear.
Warren fully expected that they’d come up in the middle of the Darkspawn that had put the machine together. That didn’t happen. The Cabalist group came up in the back of the building where merchandise was stored.
At the doors, Warren peered out and found that most of the demons had their attention locked on to the ceiling. They surrounded a large machine that was nearly as tall as the store’s interior.
In the next instant, thunderous blasts echoed throughout the building. A large section of the roof tumbled down. Behind it, dangling from rappelling cords, eight Templar descended into the building. They opened up with their weapons at once.
Attacked from above, the Darkspawn quickly got hammered before they could set up into positions and free their own weapons. The Templar rappelled to the floor, drawing fire, but even as they got set up in defensive positions, another wave of Templar descended the rappelling lines.
Even so, the Darkspawn weren’t giving up without a fight.
“We’re going to be trapped between the Templar and the Darkspawn,” Warren said.
“The Templar aren’t our enemies,” Daiyu said. “The demons are. If this is as important as you say it is, we have no choice. The Templar will only benefit our efforts.”
Unless they kill us, Warren thought. His own experiences with the Templar hadn’t been stellar. Still, he waded into the battle.
Simon was one of the first Templar on the floor. He saw the machine ahead of him, less than fifty feet away. It had been located
