Dark Defender Page 14

  Still, nobody, but nobody, brought civilians into the Center. The place had security that rivaled the Pentagon, but leave it to Blake to do the unexpected.

  “I’ll come down myself.”

  He took his time, knowing he would draw more unwanted attention to the breach in security if he rushed down to the gate. He’d rip Trahern’s head off when he got him and his unwanted companion back to his office.

  The guard stood with his gun aimed squarely at Trahern’s chest. Jarvis scowled in disgust. Only a head shot would have stopped Trahern from entering the compound if he wanted to. The only reason he’d held back was because that would have put Brenna Nichols at risk.

  Trahern saw him before the guard did. “Can’t say much for your hospitality, Jarvis.”

  The guard remained stationary, but his stance was more relaxed. “Sir, Blake Trahern has clearance to enter, but the woman does not. She claims to be Judge Nichols’s daughter.”

  “That’s exactly who she is, so you can stand down. I’ll take responsibility for the two of them.”

  He waved them through the security arch, ignoring the warning alarm that Trahern was packing weapons. Every Paladin set the alarms off regularly.

  “Glad to see you up and about, Ms. Nichols.” He didn’t miss the way she stayed close to Trahern; evidently Blake had convinced her to trust him. Lucky bastard.

  “Follow me and we’ll go to my office.” He quickly got them into an elevator, getting her out of sight before the nosy Regent found her, and pressed the codes that would take them deep into the Earth.

  When the elevator settled on the lowest level with a gentle bump, he was the first out of the door. The gods were smiling on him, because the immediate area was empty.

  “We’re in the clear, so hustle.”

  Before they reached the end of the corridor, though, Trahern grabbed his arm and he angled his head to the side. Someone was coming down the hallway to the right. The three of them backed away, taking refuge in a weapons closet. Brenna looked horrified, although not surprised, at the sight of all those swords and axes. How much had Trahern told her?

  When the two guards passed by without incident, the three all but ran the short distance to Jarvis’s office. When the door shut behind them, he took a deep breath and let it out. They were safe for the moment.

  “What’s so damn important, Trahern, that you’d be crazy enough to bring her here? You know the rules. If anyone finds out what you’ve done, they’ll slap you in chains and turn you over to the Handlers.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

  Trahern’s eyes turned to silver ice. “The judge was killed by one of our own.”

  Jarvis glanced at Brenna. “And she knows who and what we are?”

  “She can answer for herself.” Brenna moved to stand beside Trahern. “I know what Blake’s told me. And my father told me to trust him.”

  “What about me?”

  “You, too.” She nodded. “Despite the wild stories I’ve been hearing, it was my father’s wish that I trust you two to find out who killed him.”

  Jarvis turned his attention back to Trahern. “I assume you’ve got some proof that one of our own is behind the attacks.”

  Trahern held out an envelope. “According to the judge, it’s all in here. That’s what got him killed. I figure it will kill us, too, if we aren’t careful. Are you in or out?”

  Jarvis didn’t have to even think about it. “In.” He took the package.

  “We’ve got to go back in.”

  Detective Swan took a swallow from his over-size soft drink. They were parked in the alley behind the judge’s house. “No matter what that Mr. Knight says, we have to at least act like this is a normal murder investigation. If we don’t give the lieutenant something soon, he’s gonna be riding our asses. He’s under a lot of pressure from the top to get this case solved.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.” Montgomery wadded up the last of his burrito in a napkin and tossed it back in the bag. He should have known better than to eat spicy, greasy food when he was this tense. He kept a bottle of antacids in the glove box, but if they didn’t get a handle on this situation soon, he’d have worse than a case of heartburn.

  “We’ve been through that damn house so many times, I feel like I live there.” He leaned back against the headrest and closed his eyes. “We need to find that guy Brenna Nichols took off with, not to mention her. She knows more than she told us at the hospital.”

  Swan laughed. “We already know who killed the judge. Knight wouldn’t be greasing our palms if he weren’t the one who wired the bomb into the ignition of the judge’s car. The real questions are why he did it and why this Trahern fellow is sniffing around.”

  Montgomery added, “And why Brenna Nichols took off like a scared rabbit. If she didn’t have something to hide, she would have asked for police protection like anyone else would have.”

  Yeah, that was a definite puzzle. But the one Swan was interested in solving was the identity of Mr. Knight. If that was the man’s real name, he’d eat his badge for breakfast. So far he hadn’t been able to get the guy’s prints, but the man had to slip up sometime. When he did, Montgomery would coerce his buddy in the lab to run the prints ahead of the pile of cases waiting.

  “Let’s run a check on Trahern’s bank card again,” he said. “The man can’t be made of cash. At some point either he or the woman is going to have to hit an ATM or a bank. When they do, we’ll know where to start looking.”

  Swan wolfed down the last of his tacos. “You check those. I’m going to call a few more rental agencies and see if I can come up with what kind of car he has now.”

  “Good idea.”

  He liked it when his young partner came up with an idea on his own. Swan might have the makings of a good detective yet, but Montgomery wouldn’t be around to find out. Either he was going to retire with the money that Knight paid him, or he was going to dig a hole to hide in when Knight decided he and Swan were no longer of use.

  “Let’s head for the office.”

  The thought of seeing their commanding officer had Montgomery reaching for the antacids again. He was going to need another bottle soon.

  Brenna looked cold. He should have thought to tell her to bring a jacket. Paladins didn’t notice the constant chill of the tunnels, but humans didn’t tolerate the low temperature as easily. He upped the thermostat in Jarvis’s office a few degrees.

  How much longer was Jarvis going to be gone? He was tired of pacing the room, while Brenna sat dozing in a chair. The bruises from the explosion were fading rapidly, but the dark circles under her eyes reminded him how much she’d been through the past few days. He reached out to run a lock of her hair through his fingers, wishing there was something more he could do for her.

  He’d certainly played his part in turning her world upside down—both in bed and out. He’d carry the memories to his grave of how damn good she’d felt underneath him, panting his name as he pushed them both over the edge.

  She’d made him feel warm and human again. If Jarvis hadn’t been due to come back at any moment, he’d have given in to the temptation to kiss her awake and convince her to try out the top of Jarvis’s desk. Would she find it a cut above a picnic table? Somehow he doubted it.

  He frowned just as she shivered again, reminding him again how unsuited she was to his world. With a muttered curse, he stripped off his outer shirt and draped it over her.

  Her eyes opened and she gave him a sleepy smile. “Thanks. Are you sure you don’t need it?”

  “If I did, I wouldn’t have given it to you.”

  She frowned and then closed her eyes, shutting him out. He knew he was snapping at her, but this constant waiting was eating at him. Maybe he should have explained that Paladins quickly adapt to the ambient temperature, from severe cold to severe heat—but she already looked at him like a particularly interesting bug. The last thing he wanted to do was give her any more examples of how strange he was.

  She s
nuggled down in the chair, wrapping his shirt closely around her. He thought she was going to drift to sleep, but she opened her eyes again. “How long will he be gone?”

  “Wish I knew. If he doesn’t come back soon, I’ll go looking for him. He won’t freak too much if I go wandering, but you’ll have to wait here.”

  “Why was he so upset about me being with you?”

  “I broke my vow of silence when I told you about the Paladins and Regents. In doing so, I outed Jarvis, too, without asking him if that was all right.”

  She sat up straighter. “What’s the big deal about all this secrecy? You guys don’t sound much different than any other special operations troops.”

  “They don’t fight with swords, for one thing. Then there’s the little matter of us being almost impossible to kill. And if we do die, we come back. When the Paladins were first organized into a fighting force against the Others, society had an unfortunate tendency to crucify anyone who was different. We went underground, both literally and figuratively, because that’s where our battles were. The less anyone knew about us or the Others, the better.”

  Jarvis picked that minute to come back in. “Sorry I was gone so long.”

  “No problem. I was just giving Brenna a short lesson in the history of Paladins and why we keep a low profile.”

  Jarvis yanked out his chair and dropped into it, propping his feet up on his desk. “While you’re at it, do you want me to print out a roster, so she can expose all of us at the same time?”

  Brenna sat upright; righteous indignation making her ready to do battle. Although it would have been amusing to let her rip into his friend, there wasn’t time for a debate.

  “I had to tell her about us so that she’d know what we’re up against. She’s an intelligent person. Once she understands our situation, she’ll protect our secret.” He glanced over toward Brenna. “I trust her.”

  That pronouncement had Jarvis’s boots hitting the floor and Brenna staring at him with her mouth open.

  Finally, Jarvis shook his head as if to clear it. “Well, that being the case, let’s go.”

  “Where to?”

  “The tunnels.”

  He picked up a pad of paper and scribbled a message on it. Blake read it upside down from across the desk.

  We think our computer server is being monitored. My boys have set up shop down in the caves where we can control who has access to our system. A couple of them have been working on the judge’s disk and spreadsheets. We’ve also rigged my office to interfere with any unwanted ears. I can only run the equipment for short times to avoid arousing their suspicions.

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  Brenna slipped on his shirt and followed them to the door.

  “Do caves bother you, Brenna?” Trahern asked. If she was claustrophobic, they definitely had problems.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never been in one.”

  Jarvis looked incredulous. “You grew up in the state that has about the most caves and caverns in one place in the world! How did you manage to avoid visiting Onondoga or the Meramec Caverns?”

  She shrugged.

  “Well, get ready, woman. You’re about to see one of the best unknown wonders of the world.” Jarvis led them back to the elevator and keyed in his identification.

  As the elevator slid farther into the depths of the Earth, Blake stood close to Brenna in case the depth of their destination bothered her. She leaned against the elevator wall and closed her eyes. It had already been a long day for them both, and it didn’t seem likely to end anytime soon. He was used to going long periods of time without adequate rest, but for her sake, after Jarvis showed them what they’d gotten from the disk and spreadsheets, he would ask if there was room for them in the underground quarters.

  They reached bottom with a soft whoosh. When the doors opened, Brenna stepped into the cavern, her eyes full of wonder. The barrier ran along the far wall; its shimmering light lit the caverns with a soft glow. Closing his eyes, Blake let the energy of the barrier thrum through him and soaked up some of its power. He knew the instant that Brenna spotted it. She latched onto his arm and pointed at the natural wonder as if he couldn’t see it for himself.

  “It’s beautiful.”

  So was she, taking in all the amazing wonders in front of her.

  “Can I touch it?”

  “Only if you like playing with high voltage wires. It packs quite a punch, which is why the Others only cross if the barrier comes down.”

  “I wish I had a camera.” Realizing what she’d just said, she made a sound of disgust. “I’m sorry; I didn’t think.”

  She glanced at Jarvis. “Studying the history of people and their daily lives is what I do. Writing a history of the Regents and the Paladins is the sort of thing that we historians would give our right arm for.”

  Jarvis nodded, accepting both her apology and her explanation. Trahern could understand why the history of the Paladins would appeal to a scholar, and he thought about all those file cabinets of records stored below the Center in Seattle. Most women wanted sparkly jewelry or a night out on the town, but Brenna would prefer a week among the dusty old files. Like that was ever going to happen.

  Jarvis led them through a labyrinth of tunnels, some narrowing and twisting, others wide open with wonderful views of the big cavern where the barrier pulsed and glowed. When they reached a bank of cubicles built in one of the lesser caverns, Trahern was reminded again how strange it looked to see high technology surrounded by the ancient rock.

  A Paladin he didn’t recognize sat hunched over a keyboard, his fingers a blur. Jarvis waited until the man sat back to let the computer do its thing before making introductions.

  “Blake Trahern and Brenna Nichols, this is John Doe. Oddly enough, everybody who works here is named John Doe. If we had time, we would love to do a statistical analysis of something like that happening.” He grinned.

  If the man was surprised to hear that his name had changed, he gave no sign of it. “I was sorry to hear about your father, Ms. Nichols. He was a good man.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Doe. That means a lot to me.”

  The Paladin turned back to the computer and let his fingers dance over the keys. They watched in silence for several minutes. Finally, Trahern had had enough.

  “Jarvis, is there a place we could get some shut-eye? We’ve been on the road all day and last night wasn’t exactly restful.” Brenna’s face flushed bright pink. Son of a bitch, he’d worded that wrong. “I got shot yesterday coming out of the Nichols’s house. It wasn’t bad, but it hurt like hell.”

  Jarvis frowned. “Do you need a Handler to take a look at it?”

  “No, Brenna did some rough first aid, and she talked to Devlin Bane and Dr. Young. They told her what to do.”

  His friend looked suitably impressed. Studying Brenna with a thoughtful expression on his face, he told her, “You’re holding up quite well, considering you’ve been shot at, kidnapped from the hospital, and trapped all night with a wounded Paladin. I know battle-trained guards who wouldn’t have borne up under that kind of strain.”

  “Thank you…I think.” She gave him a puzzled look, as if wondering if he were serious.

  “And yes, Trahern, I can fix the two of you up with a room just down the hall. The accommodations aren’t anything to brag about, but the sheets are clean and there’s plenty of hot water.” He reached for a telephone. “I’ll have your bags brought down.”

  A single room. It probably had two beds, since the rooms were meant to house Paladins needing a break when the barrier acted up, but even that would be too close. How was he supposed to sleep, knowing she was only a few feet away? He closed his eyes and remembered again how it felt to have their bodies joined, and to hold her in his arms when passion left them both exhausted and exhilarated. His body reacted immediately and he shifted his position, trying to hide it.

  Brenna turned her head to meet his gaze. Those eyes of hers saw way too much, because she immediately bl
ushed again before turning away. But she didn’t demand separate sleeping arrangements.

  Jarvis hung up the phone and motioned them to follow him. “I wish I could offer something a little farther away from the barrier, but I don’t think it will bother you much, Trahern. You’re more acclimated to the one in Seattle now.”

  That was true, but he could still feel the soft hum of this one purring through his blood. The longer he was near it, the more he would feel its fluctuations and mood swings, unless he had something else to occupy his mind. He suppressed the urge to grin. Brenna wouldn’t appreciate him bedding her just so he could ignore a throbbing wall of energy.

  She’d given him a glimpse of paradise burning up the sheets with him, only to snatch it all away just because he’d healed overnight.

  And now he was going to spend a long night, lying awake wanting her, when what he needed was some serious sleep.

  He tapped the mysterious Mr. Doe on the shoulder. “If you find out anything worth knowing, wake me up no matter what time it is.”

  Mr. Doe looked past him to Jarvis before nodding. Trahern resented Jarvis outranking him, but Devlin Bane was the same way in Seattle. No one had cast a vote, electing them the leaders, but they’d both earned the respect of their fellow Paladins. Trahern would just have to live with the pecking order.

  “I’ll get you settled so I can get back to work.” Jarvis led them into one of the side tunnels that branched off to the right.

  The three of them walked in silence, Brenna still shivering despite Trahern’s shirt. He’d put his arm around her for the warmth of his body, but he wasn’t sure how she’d react. The last thing he wanted was for her to shove him away in front of Jarvis or the others. In private he’d put up with her hot and cold moods, but that was the limit of his patience.

  Jarvis unlocked a door and tossed Trahern the keys. “As I said, it’s nothing fancy, but it’s safe. If you need me for anything, push zero on the phone by the bed and then tell them to page me. Since cell phones don’t function worth crap this close to the barrier, the land line is your best bet.”