“Does it matter to you if I’m still alive?”
Her nose flared then, proving that she was once more breathing in her withered body. Warren wondered if that made her more vulnerable.
“It does matter,” she answered.
“Then it matters if I’m prepared. I’ve just lost my hiding place. We’re going to be vulnerable.”
“There are other boltholes in the city. As for how Korhdajj found me, I have taken care of that. I’ve masked myself. I hadn’t thought myself powerful enough to have warranted attention.”
“You obviously have a list of enemies I don’t know about.”
“Demons have always been a jealous breed. You don’t think humans invented that emotion, do you?”
“How many other demons will want to kill us?”
“Many. For a time, I was favored by Sydonai. There are many who never knew his beneficence.” Lilith turned and floated away. “Come. We have much to do. I need to further regain my strength, and you have to raise a host of disciples to follow me into battle.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“You’re creative, Warren Schimmer. That’s why I chose you. You’ll think of a way.”
Warren followed her, but part of him wished he were still inside the Book.
THIRTY-SEVEN
We’ve got an inexperienced crew here, Leah.”
“I know that, Marrick, but it’s what we have to do the job with.” Leah knelt in the shadows draped atop a building that offered a view of the Apple retail store on Regent Street in the West End.
“For something like this,” Marrick grumbled, “it seems like upstairs would have found more to send than wet-nosed pups.” He was in his fifties, a slim, dapper man who’d spent most of his years in the killing fields of foreign countries.
“We don’t know if this is anything yet.” Leah scanned the front of the building. Back when it had opened in 2004, the computer store had been all the rage. Her father had taken her there to pick out her first tri-dee player when she’d been just a girl.
The once-fashionable building was now a wreck. The large, ornate glass windows were shattered. Computer parts littered the sidewalks, either dropped by the early looters or cannibalized by survivors trying to find a way to make contact with the outside world.
“Upstairs reported organized demon activity here?” Marrick asked.
“Yes.”
“What’s that supposed to mean, exactly?”
“It means that we’re here watching for organized demon activity.”
“And we’d recognize it?”
“Upstairs seems to think so.”
“Jolly good for them.”
Undeterred, Leah kept surveying the building. They’d been there for over an hour since sunset. So far there’d been no demon activity.
“The demons are building new things,” Leah said.
“Like the weapons plant.”
“Yes.”
“You have to wonder why they waited so long.”
“I don’t think they believed it would take quite so long to terrorize and take over this world,” Leah said.
“Meaning we’re fighting back harder than they expected us to?”
“Perhaps.”
“It’s not like they gave us any bloody choice.”
“Nor any place to go,” Leah agreed. Activity down on the street drew her attention. She refocused the binoculars.
Regent Street was a curving boulevard designed to take advantage of the Crown Estate lands, and to set off the disreputable Soho District from the shopping elegance of Mayfair. As a barrier between the haves and have-nots, it hadn’t succeeded too well. Pickpockets simply lived across the street from their work environment.
Through the binoculars, Leah watched as a group of Darkspawn led four humans in chains toward the Apple building. Two of them were women. One was a man. And the fourth was a teen that might have been either.
“They’re bringing them in alive,” Marrick said.
Leah said nothing.
“It would be better if we killed them now than let the demons torture them. They’re as good as dead already.”
“If we do that, we give away the fact that we know this place.”
“You’ve seen what the demons do with their prey, Leah. Putting a bullet through the heads of those four people would be merciful.”
“I know, but they’re going to be inside that building before we could get ourselves into position to fall back to safety. We’d just lose our team.”
Marrick sighed. “I know.”
Below, the Darkspawn herded their prisoners into the building. They disappeared into the darkness.
Leah opened the comm-link. “Red Raven Six, this is Red Raven Leader.”
“Red Raven Six reads you, Leader,” came the prompt response. The young woman’s voice was confident and ready.
“You’ve got Spy Eyes, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you navigate that building? Let’s see what’s around it.”
“All right.”
Even though she looked for it and knew where Red Raven Six was, Leah barely spotted the drones speeding across Regent Street. She tracked her binoculars constantly, but didn’t see anything amiss.
“Negative, Leader,” the young woman reported.
“No guards?”
“None.”
“Set up eyes overlooking the area. Let’s give it a few minutes.” Leah muted the broadcast and glanced at Marrick. “Why wouldn’t they have sentries?”
“Because they’re not afraid of anything,” the older agent replied.
“I know.” That answer irritated Leah more than she was prepared to deal with.
Forty minutes later, with no demons in evidence and no return of the hostages—after all that time spent trying not to be consumed by thoughts of what had happened to those people—Leah decided to lead a small team into the building.
“My advice,” Marrick said, “is not to do it.”
“Upstairs sent us out here for answers. We’re not going to get them sitting on the rooftop.”
“We’re not going to get them quickly,” Marrick replied. “Doesn’t mean we’re not going to get them. Going inside that place is risky.”
“So is coming back to this rooftop—”
“Doesn’t have to be this rooftop.”
“—or one like it, seems at the very least as risky.”
Marrick scratched his jaw through his tight-fitting mask. “Then my next bit of advice is to let one of the young pups lead the insertion.”
“They don’t know enough.”
“Then send your seasoned pro.”
“You?”
Marrick shrugged. Due to the faceless appearance of his mask, the effort looked strange. “That’s what we underlings are for.”
“Sending other people to do my scut work isn’t my way.”
“You’ll never get into an upstairs position.”
“I see that you didn’t, either.”
“No, ma’am.”
“I’m depending on you to get
