Read Online Hammer Down: Children of the Undying: Book 2 by Moira Rogers - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Moira Rogers
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are the rifles the guards carry. The guns they set up around the perimeter and at checkpoints are hard to miss too.”
He pulled up a map of the countryside stretching between Rochester and the remains of what had once been Minneapolis and Saint Paul. “One thing we don’t know is how many of these roads are being maintained. I have a few people who make trips to nearby settlements, but most of us stay off the main routes as much as possible. Hopefully they’re not going to be able to bring an army offroad, though.”
She couldn’t deny the capability. “They have the vehicles and the ADS equipment to do it, I’m afraid.”
He sighed, as if he’d expected as much but hadn’t wanted it confirmed. “Can you show me which roads are still passable?”
“That I can definitely do.” She unzipped the bag, withdrew the maps two at a time and laid them out on the bed. “Come closer.”
He obeyed in silence, moving to stand so close that his arm brushed her shoulder as he bent over the bed and studied the first of the maps. “You drew these yourself?”
“Mmm.” He was warm and he smelled good—two things she didn’t usually associate with bloodthirsty monsters. “I worked from pre-Fall renderings. I used to mark old maps, but after a while they just look like a jumbled mess. Sometimes starting fresh is better.”
He traced a finger over one road. “There’s something to be said for physical copies. Nothing is secure in the network. Or real.”
“Cache has scanned them all, of course. She had to in order to integrate them with the trucks’ navigation systems.” Devi unrolled another map and smoothed a wrinkled edge. “But these…remind me of my dad. He and my grandfather had whole books of them, road atlases with every highway and interstate route marked. I didn’t have storybooks, but I had those maps.” She’d spent hours poring over them, tracing all the lines, blue and yellow and red, and asking questions about the places at the ends of those roads.
The corner of his mouth twitched up. “My mother loves printed books. My stepfather never thought much of how inefficient they are, but it didn’t stop him from building her a tidy little library of them. What he could find, anyway.”
She laughed at the thought of trying to haul that sort of thing around on a rig. “The electronics don’t bother me, really, not even the maps. This is all just me being a sentimental fool.”
His smile made him seem more human. “We’re all sentimental about something.”
Her heart hitched, and the heat flooded back with a vengeance. It seemed that nothing could distract her from his appeal for long, and that made him more dangerous than if he had been a monster.
Devi took a deep breath. “So what’s the deal? The information in exchange for what?”
“Fuel.” Was it her imagination, or was his voice a little lower? Rougher. “We can provide as much as you need, and you can pay us in information instead of credits or goods.”
An arrangement that certainly worked more to his advantage. “I think the information is worth both. Fuel and credits.”
Fire sparked in his eyes—not all anger, but enough to give his fierce expression a sweet edge of danger. “I can always send men out to look at the roads. You’ll have a harder time getting fuel. Supply and demand, my pretty little hauler.”
She reached for the nearest map and began to reroll it. “It’d take you months to map these routes. It’s worth it and you know it.”
His hand shot out and caught her wrist, fingers trapping without digging too deep. “How many credits?”
He was touching her, and her brain drew its own conclusions about the sensuality inherent in that touch. It didn’t matter if he’d intended it as a flirtation—it became one as soon as his fingers closed around her wrist, and her body throbbed.
A smile curved his lips, and the callused pad of his thumb scraped over her pulse. “How many credits, Devi?”
The low
He pulled up a map of the countryside stretching between Rochester and the remains of what had once been Minneapolis and Saint Paul. “One thing we don’t know is how many of these roads are being maintained. I have a few people who make trips to nearby settlements, but most of us stay off the main routes as much as possible. Hopefully they’re not going to be able to bring an army offroad, though.”
She couldn’t deny the capability. “They have the vehicles and the ADS equipment to do it, I’m afraid.”
He sighed, as if he’d expected as much but hadn’t wanted it confirmed. “Can you show me which roads are still passable?”
“That I can definitely do.” She unzipped the bag, withdrew the maps two at a time and laid them out on the bed. “Come closer.”
He obeyed in silence, moving to stand so close that his arm brushed her shoulder as he bent over the bed and studied the first of the maps. “You drew these yourself?”
“Mmm.” He was warm and he smelled good—two things she didn’t usually associate with bloodthirsty monsters. “I worked from pre-Fall renderings. I used to mark old maps, but after a while they just look like a jumbled mess. Sometimes starting fresh is better.”
He traced a finger over one road. “There’s something to be said for physical copies. Nothing is secure in the network. Or real.”
“Cache has scanned them all, of course. She had to in order to integrate them with the trucks’ navigation systems.” Devi unrolled another map and smoothed a wrinkled edge. “But these…remind me of my dad. He and my grandfather had whole books of them, road atlases with every highway and interstate route marked. I didn’t have storybooks, but I had those maps.” She’d spent hours poring over them, tracing all the lines, blue and yellow and red, and asking questions about the places at the ends of those roads.
The corner of his mouth twitched up. “My mother loves printed books. My stepfather never thought much of how inefficient they are, but it didn’t stop him from building her a tidy little library of them. What he could find, anyway.”
She laughed at the thought of trying to haul that sort of thing around on a rig. “The electronics don’t bother me, really, not even the maps. This is all just me being a sentimental fool.”
His smile made him seem more human. “We’re all sentimental about something.”
Her heart hitched, and the heat flooded back with a vengeance. It seemed that nothing could distract her from his appeal for long, and that made him more dangerous than if he had been a monster.
Devi took a deep breath. “So what’s the deal? The information in exchange for what?”
“Fuel.” Was it her imagination, or was his voice a little lower? Rougher. “We can provide as much as you need, and you can pay us in information instead of credits or goods.”
An arrangement that certainly worked more to his advantage. “I think the information is worth both. Fuel and credits.”
Fire sparked in his eyes—not all anger, but enough to give his fierce expression a sweet edge of danger. “I can always send men out to look at the roads. You’ll have a harder time getting fuel. Supply and demand, my pretty little hauler.”
She reached for the nearest map and began to reroll it. “It’d take you months to map these routes. It’s worth it and you know it.”
His hand shot out and caught her wrist, fingers trapping without digging too deep. “How many credits?”
He was touching her, and her brain drew its own conclusions about the sensuality inherent in that touch. It didn’t matter if he’d intended it as a flirtation—it became one as soon as his fingers closed around her wrist, and her body throbbed.
A smile curved his lips, and the callused pad of his thumb scraped over her pulse. “How many credits, Devi?”
The low
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