Danielle and three others stood guard while Simon, Nathan, and the other four Templar gutted the deer. Simon worked quickly. Steaming entrails piled at his feet.
“Warning,” the onboard AI gently interrupted. “Perimeter invasion imminent.”
Simon shifted his attention to the HUD and studied the approaching shapes. They were long and lean. Before the demons had invaded the world, he felt certain he would have known what they were immediately. Now there were too many opportunities for him to be wrong. Even four years into the invasion, they hadn’t managed to identify all of the demons because new ones kept arriving.
“Identify invaders,” Simon instructed.
“Canis lupus,” the female AI voice responded.
“Wolves,” Danielle said.
Simon watched the shapes come closer to the Templar. Normal wolves couldn’t offer a threat. Their claws and teeth would never penetrate the armor. But creatures didn’t always remain the same after the demons were through with them. The shambling corpses that crawled from graveyards to attack proved that.
Nathan stood nearby in his dark gray armor trimmed in red. At five feet eleven, he was six inches shorter than Simon and considerably lighter because he wasn’t as broad in the shoulders. He wore a gunfighter mustache, had short-cropped black hair, and had the tattoo of a dragon from shoulder to elbow on his left arm.
“Think they’ll attack?” Nathan asked. His faceplate remained impenetrable and blood-red, so dark in the moonlight that only red highlights now and again hinted at the color.
“No,” Simon answered quietly. Their voices couldn’t be heard outside the suits, so the wolves wouldn’t know for certain that they were human. “They’re just hungry. Maybe curious.”
“It’ll be better if they don’t attack. I don’t feel like killing anything else.” Nathan’s voice sounded hollow. Patches of dried blood stood out on the armor.
Simon silently agreed and turned his attention back to the next deer. He used a short knife to open its belly. “According to the sec stats, the wolf population in the area has increased since the time we moved into the redoubt. The jury’s still out on whether they’re increasing through reproduction or being crowded into the region by the expansion of the Burn.”
“Does growth of the wolf population mean anything?”
“There was a time back in the early part of this century that the gray wolf had to be reintroduced into Europe. Civilization had almost rendered them extinct.”
“But the predator population is growing again.”
“In just four years since the Hellgate opened,” Simon agreed. “Things are going to be even more different a short time from now. If the deer population thins, the wolves may decide that human flesh is tasty.” He concentrated on his blade and tried not to think about the ramification of what he was talking about. “If they do, it’s going to be even harder for escapees from London and the suburbs to survive out here. But—given the paradigm we’re seeing here—I’m wondering if that increase is everywhere.”
“You’re wondering that if the predators here—the natural predators—are increasing in numbers, then what does it mean for the rest of the world?”
“Something like that,” Simon admitted.
“Maybe you should hope that the wolves develop a taste for demon flesh.”
“I am. I just don’t see it happening. I think the wolves and other predators like them may become more of a threat outside the Burn. We’re not exactly the dominant species on this planet anymore.”
Although they hadn’t gotten any news in years, Simon knew that other Hellgates had opened around the world.
“You win a war one battle at a time,” Nathan said.
“I know. We just need an edge. Something that puts us on a more equal footing with the demons for a while.”
“Professor Macomber is still translating the Goetia manuscript. He and the other members of the geek squad seem to think they’ll come up with something.”
Professor Archibald Xavier Macomber was a specialist in dead languages. He’d also become something of demonologist as a result. Until the Hellgate had opened, he’d been a prisoner in an insane asylum in Paris. When those people had been released, they’d been turned out into the streets or killed outright.
Macomber had been one of the lucky few.
Someone connected to Leah Creasey had negotiated delivering Macomber to Simon. The professor had known Simon’s father, Thomas Cross, and about the Templar Order enough to know that no one there could turn away from the fight. For a time, Terrence Booth—the present High Seat of the House of Rorke among the Templar still living in the Underground—had taken Macomber prisoner. Simon had been forced to try to get Macomber back, and in doing so had gone head-to-head against Templar that he should have been treating as his brothers.
Macomber had reputedly found information in the ancient Goetia manuscript, written by King Solomon, that detailed how to build arcane and scientific defenses against the demons. In all the annals of the Templar, there had never been mention of such a thing.
Simon dared not get his hopes up too high regarding those defensive fields, but it was hard not to wish for the knowledge to exist. There were too many men, women, and children who depended on him. He couldn’t fail them.
“Let’s get back to work,” Simon said finally. “Danielle and the others will watch over us.”
“Maybe the wolves will be patient and wait for the leftovers.”
Simon hoped so. He turned back to the deer he worked on. His knife blade slid easily through the flesh, and he focused on his work.
“Simon,” Danielle called softly.
“Yes.”
“We’ve got trouble.”
“What?”
“We’ve identified a small group of Ravagers coming from the east.”
FOUR
Leah sighted the Poseidon in on the Blade Minion that was only now yanking its spikes from the young engineer’s corpse. She had no doubt that Baker was dead. If he wasn’t at this minute, he would be before someone could get to him.
And the demons would get to him before any
