Simon studied the image and saw a monstrous demon take shape. The giant creature in the picture confronted a glowing shield. Half of its arm had been melted away. “I don’t remember seeing this in those pages.” He’d studied the manuscript as well.
“The picture was encrypted in the manuscript,” Brewer said. “Professor Macomber found it.”
“I wouldn’t have found it if you hadn’t caught on to the code.”
Brewer shrugged modestly, but he stood up a little straighter. “It was a joint effort. And a lot of work. The code was set up to emulate the points on a graph, which—when connected—gave us this image. Quite ingenious, actually.”
“What’s happening to the demon?” Simon asked.
“As near as we can figure it,” Macomber said, “this harmonic can be adjusted not only to defend an area and establish a defensive perimeter but also can be used as a weapon. Contact with the Node causes the demons to discorporate on a cellular level.”
“Or transports them elsewhere,” Brewer said. “Until we see it actually function, we’re not going to know.” He shrugged. “It’s possible we won’t know then.”
“Is it portable?”
“No,” Macomber said. “You were thinking of using it as a tactical weapon?”
Simon nodded.
“A demon death ray would be a very brill thing,” Nathan said.
“When a Node is built,” Brewer said, “like this one, it locks into the earth’s electromagnetic fields. The harmonic projection depends on the stability of that field. If you move this Node”—he reached through the lights and moved the Node slightly, and the bright energy field disappeared—“even slightly, you will lose it.”
“So when you get to the point that you could build a field big enough to protect people or a structure,” Nathan said, “you’re going to have to make sure the Node is settled in permanently.”
“Yes,” Macomber said. “And it can’t just be one Node. In order to protect something as large as a building, it will necessitate several Nodes working together to create a field large enough to handle the demons.”
“How long before you can create a Node that I can take out and field test?” Simon asked.
Brewer and Macomber looked at each other. “A few days. Surely no more than that.”
“All right. Let me know when it’s ready. We need to know where we stand with this before we spend any more time on it.”
Three days later, the doctor released Leah from the hospital. She was glad of that because lying abed as a patient had never been easy for her. Simon visited her when possible, but his visits were infrequent and short. And he always seemed distracted. She didn’t fault him for that, though. She knew he had his hands full trying to take care of his Templar and those they’d sworn to protect.
Being ambulatory again meant she could spend more of the day with him. But not all of it. There were still a lot of things that he did without her. That was frustrating, but she understood it. If he’d been the only one at risk, she felt that he would have trusted her. The other Templar wouldn’t have been quite so generous, though.
In the mornings, they had breakfast together and Simon made the rounds of the complex. Then they had lunch, which was generally interrupted by someone who needed information or permission. After that, they separated. Leah worked with the rehab teams to get her eye/hand coordination and depth perception back in sync.
One of the interesting conundrums of having the replacement eye was that it became her dominant eye. Shifting her reactions to that eye took hard work and diligence, but it came quickly.
In the evenings, Leah met up with Simon as he drilled and worked with the young Templar. She didn’t take part in the sword classes because she had no urge to take up the sword. The Agency believed in guns, the bigger the better, and she was trained on all of those. While Simon put his young students through their paces, Leah worked out, regaining strength she’d lost after her initial injury and the follow-up surgery.
Afterward, she and Simon worked on martial arts forms and ran through self-defense sparring matches. Being physical with him felt good and right. He didn’t hold back. He used his size and strength against her, and she knew that he went at her with everything he had because the demons were even bigger than he was. If she couldn’t defend herself against him, she wouldn’t be able to hold her own against a demon.
She got her shots in because she was quick and creative. But time after time, Simon’s prowess in close was too much for her to handle.
“I’m much better at a distance,” she said during one of their rest sessions. “Give me a rifle and you wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Simon grinned at her and wiped the back of his neck with a towel. “That depends on whether or not you saw me coming.”
“I’d see you,” Leah told him. “A big, heavy-footed oaf like you would be easy to spot.”
“‘An oaf,’ is it?”
“You heard me.”
“When we get back on the mat,” Simon promised, “we’ll see who’s the oaf.”
Leah toweled off for a moment. It felt good to concentrate on just the physical exertion for a while. When she sparred with Simon, she had no room in her mind for any thoughts other than survival and getting as many shots in on him as she could.
Now, however, she couldn’t help but think about the assignment she’d been tasked to do. She hated that it was going to interrupt and potentially spoil the friendship that they’d shared.
“Have you been in contact with the other Templar?” she asked.
Simon looked at her. Pain and wariness showed in his eyes. He hung his towel around his neck and kept hold of it with both fists.
“No,” he answered. “Not since you and the others rescued me.”
Leah tried to go carefully. “As you know, I’m with an organization myself.”
“I do. Military or spook in origin, I should assume.”
Leah didn’t answer, not knowing what
