Damali smirked. "I hear you. Just glad you're back in one piece. We really appreciate everything you did back there." "Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?" Marjorie asked. "Hot flash?" Marlene said, joking to relive the tension. "Comes with the territory, lady . . . but I thought it was me from helping with a healing."
"No," Delores said quietly as she brought Ayana's limp body to Damali and Inez. "The baby is burning up. She won't wake up--she's all fevered."
"I noticed Delores felt warm," Monty said, "and then I went to go get her some water and it wasn't cool like before."
Inez grabbed her child from her mother's arms and held her tightly as Guardians got to their feet and stared at the steaming reservoir.
Damali held out her arms at each side, turning around slowly, sensing, listening. It was quiet above them; the hail, fire, and brimstone rain had stopped. She looked up. There was no breach at the mouth of the tunnel entrance.
"Demons can't get in here because of the prayer barriers, demon rats will fry on contact, and the tunnel is barricaded against the walkers . . . they won't fry because they aren't technically demons--just reanimated humans with feral, rabid qualities awakened within their dead nervous systems," Shabazz said as sweat trickled down his temples.
"But they can heat the rocks and earth all around this shaft and turn it into an oven," Damali said, watching steam rise as the water in the reservoir begin to bubble. "I've gotta get you all out of here."
"But where?" Frank Weinstein said, panicked, holding his wife closer. "If the demons have enough power to melt the rocks around us and our weapons are almost spent--where do we take women and children?"
There was only one place she knew of from her team's tour there before that was nearby, hallowed ground that they might not violate so terribly by stumbling across the threshold unwashed, with men and women and children all in one huddled mass.
Damali called her Isis into her palm. "Church of the Holy Sepulcher."
Cordell kept his head down and his hands clasped in prayer as his eyelids fluttered with Carlos's strong mental transmission. The images hit his mind so hard and fast that his eyeballs stung and a piercing, clear voice filled his mind.
I can't go in there without violating the cleansing laws and we don't need any variables right through here, Carlos said. Once you're in the cave, you've gotta sense for it. Can you make it?
I don't know, Cordell's mind whispered back. Can you use my eyes to see? There's chaos all around . . . the entire complex has been turned into a giant army hospital and refugee camp here, but they are monitoring movement very heavily. They're shooting walkers that try to breach the perimeter, and there might even be some in the cave.
Okay, Carlos said on a hard mental exhalation. Lend me your eyes; let me see what you see as you try very carefully to make your way to that side of the building. If I see a walker or someone coming for you, I'll pull you out of there. Trust me, if I could see exactly where the relic was without having to send a pair of human hands to go get it, I'd pull it in without putting you in this position . . . but that's just the thing--this weapon has been so hidden and prayer sealed that only a righteous human with a pure soul can actually retrieve it. Maybe that's also why Hern said to send the baby . . . but you can understand why me and Damali weren't even trying to go there, right?
I want to do this--
I told you that before. Cordell got up slowly, and continued his prayers aloud, passing military guards. Take over my eyes. Use my sight.
Carlos wrapped his arms around his knees as he sat on the floor. Tobias kept a lookout and covered Carlos as silver �filled his irises and his gaze became distant. Soon the two seers joined as knighted Templars, sharing the same vision, with Carlos's vision being slightly bowled and distorted, but accurate nonetheless.
"I'm in," Carlos murmured aloud, and then sent Cordell the same message in a mental barb.
It took Carlos's complete concentration to follow the scenes being sent from Cordell's mind into his. Everything coming to him was in a grainy stream of continuous impressions that was like watching a very badly handheld-camera-filmed silent movie.
Pallets, bodies amid Byzantine architecture loomed like a sea of writhing, wailing misery. The triage camp seemed to go on for forever as Cordell navigated his way to the Dome of the Rock. Then the images stopped. Flashed in and out. An angry Palestinian guard halted Cordell. There was a flurry of words that Carlos couldn't hear. A weapon was raised. There was no image. Carlos stood quickly, ready to do a jettison, but Cordell's words stabbed into his mind. Not yet. Images came back. A weapon in his focus slowly lowered. Images vanished again for a moment.
I can't talk to them or you and keep my concentration of letting you use my eyes--takes a lot of energy.
It's cool, Carlos replied, sending Cordell protective vibes. You take care of you, first and foremost. If you need me to pull you out, drop the visual and holler.
No, no, I'm okay, Cordell shot back quickly. They said I was on the wrong side, but I said my wife and children were on their side. I told them we'd gotten separated and I just wanted to bring them back to where they belonged. They have so much going on, guarding anything or anybody is futile and those guys are tired. That's the advantage of being my age; folks always underestimate you and let you pass.
Carlos's shoulders relaxed. Okay, man, as long as you're good.
Tell you what would be a big help, Cordell finally said as he crossed the large courtyard.
Name it.
If you see a walker, rather than jettison me and not get what we need--send that sucker into a tunnel or somewhere . . . you keep them things off of me, I can work on frightened human beings by using diplomacy.
Carlos rubbed his hands down his face. Done.
Chapter FOURTEEN
She could not afford to have any members of her team accidentally shot by nervous soldiers as they came out of an energy fold-away. Damali kept her focus keen. Marlene was sent in first as her remote vision. Once the two seers were on lock and in sync, Damali tried to bring the members into the sanctuary in small groups jettisoned behind pillars, doing that all from the memory of their pilgrimage to the site more than a year ago. Before she could actually see through Marlene's eyes, she could only pray that things within the holy location hadn't been decimated and hadn't been overrun by the walking dead. Even worse was the potential of scaring some trigger-happy MP who'd unload a clip out of reflex.