Simon’s gaze flitted toward Rosie to see what her reaction was. Seeing nothing there, his attention returned to Glen. “Let me think about this for a couple of days. Maybe talk to some of the people I respect most.”
“That’s all I can ask,” Glen said.
“Very well. That’s all for now.”
Glen and Rosie stood at Simon’s polite dismissal and said their goodbyes. Rosie snapped the handcuffs on Glen to make sure she didn’t lose him in the passes on the return trip to Jefferson Unit, where they would, no doubt, have a more private sharing of their thoughts on Glen’s change of heart and his proposal to Simon.
EPILOGUE
WORKING IN THE LAB LATE ONE NIGHT
Torn and Sher decided they would search for a world with a copy of her New Forest home, but uninhabited. And there they would build the home they’d share away from the Abbey. Sher wanted to model it after the royal family’s hunting cottage. Torrent Finngarick was happy when Sheridan O’Malley was happy.
Bryce Paladino was one of Monq’s brightest assistants. She’d been living at Jefferson Unit and working in the lab since graduating M.I.T. with a doctorate in biomedical engineering ten years before.
Prior to the Deliverance project, she’d worked on developing nutritional supplements for the vampire hunters. In other words, her field of specialization was performance enhancers. It had been rewarding to know that the hunters were at their very best. She took pride in knowing that, in some way, she helped give them a fighting chance against carriers of the vampire virus. But nothing could compare with having been instrumental in developing a formula that actually turned people into demons.
The very idea of it sounded more like primitive folklore than modern science. But then vampirism was primitive folklore reinterpreted by modern science in practical terms.
Knowing that she could turn an ordinary person into a demon with an injection was… well, god like.
So, when she overheard Monq telling his right hand that they were probably going to be ordered to scrap the entire project, which would include destroying every journal note and scrap of evidence, she actually felt her soul recoil.
They couldn’t possibly destroy the stuff of fantasy. It struck Bryce that even carrying on a discussion about the prospect of such a heinous deed was evil. And she knew in an instant what she had to do.
No one should have the right to ‘undo’ scientific progress. Not even Black Swan. Not even if they conceived of it and funded it.
She shook her head without realizing she was doing it. Indeed. She would rescue the project including the how-to’s of recreation.
Once that decision was made, it was a short distance in her mind to mulling over practical applications. After all, wouldn’t people be willing to pay millions, even billions, for a greatly extended life and a virtual ticket that enabled them to slip dimensions at will? No external devices necessary?
When it came to the hunter division, Black Swan had always been concerned with more than physical training and academics. Words like character, honor, ethics, morality, and the like were commonly heard in classrooms, training rooms, on the playing field, and in Chamber gatherings.
Long before the vampire hunters were knighted, they’d proven themselves to be exceptional. Teachers were charged with keeping an eye out for character flaws during the training years. If a student proved to have a less than stellar understanding of the standards and principles of Black Swan, they were released and returned home. It didn’t happen often because recruiters had a keen eye for prospects. But it did happen.
All that is to say that nothing of the sort could be said about other personnel. Before being hired in any capacity, potential employees had to pass a test indicating satisfactory confidentiality scores and they had to take an oath pledging confidentiality. But their personal morals were not subject to the same intense scrutiny as future knights.
That, combined with Bryce’s complete freedom of access to everything on the science level, was what made it easy for her to copy everything onto a thimble drive. In addition she took three vials of the serum and a half vial of the original sample of demon blood collected from Deliverance. Those she stored in a sports drink container in the refrigerator in her apartment.
When she had days off, she would look for a place of her own in the city. The sort of place that featured a doorman and key entry elevators. Since she’d banked her most excellent salary for a decade and spent very little, she could afford to live anywhere. She’d store the fruit of her industrial espionage there until she’d decided how to proceed.
Author’s Notes:
I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading Irish War Cry.
If asked the party question about what superpower I’d like, I might say elf turned demon wouldn’t be bad. What could be wrong with being permanently young and so gorgeous you could stop traffic, incredibly strong and fast, able to freely move between dimensions like a demigod, quasi-immortal, and essentially invincible? Yes. Please.
I don’t know if this will eventually mean that the last knight that will ever be recruited for Black Swan has already been recruited. We’ll have to see where the story goes.
Meanwhile, there are fifteen new demons with adventures on the horizon and each one may end up with a story to tell.
Reviews are enormously helpful to me. Please take the time to follow a link back to the book you’ve just read and post your thoughts. A few words is often as powerful as many.
Victoria Danann
NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
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THE KNIGHTS OF BLACK SWAN
Knights of Black Swan 1, My Familiar Stranger
Knights of Black Swan 2, The Witch’s Dream
Knights of Black Swan 3, A Summoner’s Tale
Knights of Black Swan 4, Moonlight
Knights of Black Swan 5, Gathering Storm
Knights of Black Swan 6, A Tale of Two Kingdoms
Knights of Black Swan 7, Solomon’s Sieve
Knights of Black Swan 8, Vampire Hunter
Knights of Black Swan 9, Journey Man
Knights of Black Swan 10, Falcon
Knights of Black Swan 11, Jax
Knights of Black Swan 12, Deliverance
ORDER OF THE BLACK SWAN D.I.T.
D.I.T. 1, Simon Says
D.I.T. 2, Finngarick
D.I.T. 3, Irish War Cry
D.I.T. 4, The Wild Hunt
ORDER OF THE BLACK SWAN NOVELS
Black Swan Novel, Prince of Demons
THE HYBRIDS
Exiled 1, CARNAL
Exiled 2, CRAVE
Exiled 3, CHARMING
THE WEREWOLVES
New Scotia Pack 1, Shield Wolf: Liulf
New Scotia Pack 2, Wolf Lover: Konochur
New Scotia Pack 3, Fire Wolf: Cinaed
New Scotia Pack 4, Brandish
THE WITCHES OF WIMBERLEY
Witches of Wimberley 1, Willem
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
SSMC Austin, TX, Book 1, Two Princes
SSMC Austin, TX, Book 2, The Biker’s Brother
SSMC Austin, TX, Book 3, Nomad
SSMC Austin, TX, Book 4, Devil’s Marker
SSMC Austin, TX, Book 5, Roadhouse
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Irish War Cry (Order of the Black Swan D.I.T. Book 3) Page 10
