Reacting to the unseen threat, Simon raised his shield. The webbing appeared out of the darkness, lit up by the night vision. The strands had two-inch squares. The webbing flared out in an eight-foot by eight-foot square that just raked the ceiling and the floor.
Simon knew he couldn’t avoid the net. It came too fast, and it was too big. He pushed his shield forward, hoping to create some room as it closed round him. Instead, the net struck his shield, wrapped around him in a cocoon, and drew tight with a metallic hiss.
“Templar weapon,” the suit AI said. “Extraction attempts useless.”
Despite already knowing that, Simon struggled. The net tightened around him, trapping him. He couldn’t believe he’d been caught so flat-footed.
Footsteps rang against the concrete floor. In the next moment, lights flared to life in the tube station and revealed an armored figure.
She was—or had been—a Templar. Judging from her features, revealed through her faceplate, she was about Simon’s age. Her brunette hair was pulled back and severe brows arched over her ice-blue eyes.
“Hello, Simon,” she said in a low, seductive voice. “Or should I call you Lord Cross?”
“Miriam?” Simon said, recognizing the woman. He hadn’t seen her since he had last been in the Templar Underground, over four years ago.
“I was.” Miriam drew her sword and squatted in front of him. She rested the blade across her thighs. “And I am.”
“Why did you do this?”
“Because I came hunting you.”
For the first time, Simon noticed the greenish tint to Miriam’s features. She’d always been more a handsome woman than beautiful, but the greenish cast to her skin made her look striking.
“Why?” Simon asked.
“My master wanted you.”
“What master?”
The familiar rumble of a train suddenly filled the tube. Simon knew the sound, but he couldn’t believe it. No trains had run since the night he’d escaped with survivors from the city.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Miriam said.
A train roared into the station and screeched to a halt. Sparks flew from the steel wheels as the brakes bit and took hold.
Simon struggled again, but the net grew so tight that it made it hard to breathe even with the armor.
“Warning,” the suit AI said. “External pressure now dangerous. Suit integrity may not hold.”
The train door kicked open automatically. Steam boiled from inside the cars. Miriam took hold of the net in one hand and lifted Simon from the ground. She walked toward the car.
“Where are you taking me?” Simon asked.
“Just wait,” Miriam said. “It’s a surprise.” She stepped through the doors and dropped him in the middle of the car. She took a seat and opened an electronic reader as if she were a regular traveler.
Simon struggled again, but only got the warning once more. His mind raced as he tried to figure out how he’d ended up in the tube station, and how the train remained operable with all the power grids shut down.
It was madness.
“Then you’re mad,” Miriam said, as if she’d heard his unspoken conclusion. She gazed at him over the reader. “Have you given any thought to that?”
Unable to free himself, Simon lay back as the train hurtled through the tube.
FORTY-THREE
Shrieks pierced Simon’s ears as the train’s brakes locked down. Sparks sprayed high in the windows and sent flashes of light reflecting inside the car.
“Time to go.” Miriam stood and reached down for Simon, catching a fistful of the net near his neck with her hooked fingers. She dragged him from the car as if he were a sack of potatoes. The action caused the net to squeeze more, and some of the strands cut into his armor.
“Warning. Armor integrity breached,” the suit AI said.
The train doors shrieked open, and a huge splash of bright light flared into the car. Pain stabbed into Simon’s eyes till the faceshield could polarize and counteract the illumination.
When he could bear the light again, barely, he stared out at his surroundings in surprise. Instead of a tube station, Miriam dragged Simon into an open field of burned grass and diseased trees. It was like no place Simon had ever before been.
Miriam tossed him forward effortlessly. He bounced and skidded across the ground, digging divots into the scorched earth as he hit. He rolled into a shallow lake and sank into the mud three feet below the scum-covered surface. Wicked, barbed plants stood above the lake and curled beneath it. They immediately whipped into motion, drawing back and surveying Simon.
“Danger,” the suit AI said. “Flooding through suit breach.”
Simon felt the water invading his armor at his waist. Instead of cool or cold as he’d expected, the hot water threatened to boil him. Pain climbed his midriff.
“Seal breach,” Simon ordered.
“Attempting seal,” the suit AI responded.
The water gurgled into the armor. The noise echoed in Simon’s ears. The hot water continued to spread, filling up his chest cavity, then trickling into his helmet.
“Failure,” the suit AI said. “Failure. Failure. Failure.”
The barbed plants struck without warning. Needle-sharp points rapped against his faceplate. Fissures splintered across the surface, but it held for the most part. Beads of hot water formed along the cracks and dripped inside his helmet.
Panic rose inside Simon. He fought to hang on to his composure. Struggling, he managed to rock and roll enough to roll over in the lake. The movement only mired him more deeply in the mud. Then he saw that it was alive with thorny creatures equipped with questing mouths that latched on to his armor. His helmet continued to fill.
You’re dreaming, he told himself. You have to be. Since he couldn’t remember coming here, the tube station and this strange world all had to be figments from a nightmare.
But he couldn’t wake.
Something dark and sinuous slithered out of the scummy shallows. It looked like a snake, but he quickly realized it was a tentacle of something much larger. The tentacle rooted under him, then wrapped round him and lifted him from the lake bottom.
“Do you know what this place is,
