Warriors of Poseidon 05 - Atlantis Redeemed

way free and killed them all.
    The guards outside the cells were hooting and making lewd remarks, but most of them shut up when Brennan slowly turned his head and trained his gaze on them. Marking them. One by one.
    Smitty held his hand through the bars, and Tiernan, stumbling, took her clothes to him. He took them and shook them, then patted them down for weapons.
    “If you’d turn around, miss,” he said, still emotionless. “I think you can keep your knickers if I can see all the way around that you’re not concealing anything in them.”
    She hesitated, then held her hands out to her side and turned in a single revolution until she faced Smitty again.
    “That’s fine, then. Thank you,” Smitty said. He handed Tiernan her clothes back and she yanked them away from him and moved farther back in the cell before scrambling into them.
    Smitty turned to Brennan, saying nothing, and held out his hand. Brennan weighed the odds of Tiernan’s survival if he grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him tight against the electric bars until the high voltage fried the thug.
    “Don’t even think about it, mate,” Smitty said, glancing from Brennan to the bars. “All those guns are trained on the two of you, and she dies first.”
    Of course the man knew what Brennan had been thinking. It’s what Smitty would have considered had the roles been reversed, Brennan realized. His estimation of the man as a threat—which was already high—grew. He tossed his clothes at Smitty, then lowered his head and coughed, holding his hand over his mouth. When he straightened, Smitty was feeling along the seams of Brennan’s jeans.
    “Let me see your hands, and turn around,” Smitty said.
    Brennan glared but did as he said, spreading his fingers wide so Smitty could see that he concealed nothing. “You have my daggers, and nothing else would get past your metal detectors,” he snarled from between clenched teeth.
    “You look like the sort who could appropriate what he needed,” Smitty told him. “You’ll have to tell me how you got those daggers past my screener, though.”
    Brennan laughed. “Sure. Just let me out of here, and we’ll have a long conversation about all sorts of things.”
    Smitty’s grin was a dead thing, like his eyes. “Right. You keep on hoping.”
    He tossed Brennan’s clothes back to him. “Now, if I were the bastard you think I am, I’d keep Atlantis Redeemed – Warriors of Poseidon 05
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    your clothes, and take your girl’s lovely underthings, too, and let my men here enjoy the view.”
    “You’re a real hero,” Tiernan said bitterly, and Smitty turned to her and laughed.
    “Ah, the little bird has a bite, does she? No matter. After what the doc has in store for you, I think you’ll be chirping a different tune. Maybe even want to get to know me a little better.”
    Smitty swept a long, appraising look up and down Tiernan’s body, and the rage threatened to burn through the ice in Brennan’s mind, but his control won out.
    By a thread.
    Smitty grinned at Brennan, then tossed him a mock salute. After that, he herded all but two of the guards from the room, ordering others to set up shifts in the monitoring room. Tiernan had been right about the video surveillance, then. Brennan decided he’d wait until Smitty left the room to try to find the cameras. The man was too sharp.
    “Until later, mate,” Smitty said, and then he sauntered out of the room.
    Brennan toyed with the idea of trying to call water in the shape of ice spears, but the constant buzz of electricity reminded him of how futile the attempt would be. He’d have his chance. He’d simply have to be patient.
    “Brennan,” Tiernan said, moving closer to the bars separating them. Her face was still pale, pale white, as if fear had drained the blood from her head. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it.
    I’m afraid that if you hit those bars again, it might incapacitate you, and—I know this is selfish—but I’m afraid to be here alone, if they knock you out. Especially since”—her voice, which had already been quiet, dropped even further until he could barely hear her—“when you wake up, you won’t know me.”
    She stared up at him, and her eyes were enormous in her pale face. “I can’t do this without you.
    I can’t.”
    Brennan took a deep breath. “You will never, ever have to do anything without me, ever again,”
    he swore.
    “Now what?” She looked over at the guards, who were