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But this--he had triggered it. He was sure of it. And he was sure this was just the start. He laughed. Put up his arms in triumph and brayed like a fool.
The lamp in the middle of his circle had burned out. The clay was cold. Its power had all gone into the mountain. It was working!
He scooped up the lamp, the charcoal, the candles, knife, wicks, and other tools and shoved them into the bag. Then, before the sun rose, he raced back to Herculaneum, and from there to safety.
He had arranged for a boat to wait for him. He had given careful instructions to the captain: however strange and chaotic the world became, they should not leave until Gaius Albinus was on board, or they would forfeit their very large fee. The galley had a cabin belowdecks, a cupboard that Gaius sealed up with waxed leather and blankets until the place was perfectly dark. He paid enough that the captain asked no questions.
In the middle of that day, Vesuvius exploded. While he was sorry he'd missed the main of the eruption, asleep in his sealed cabin, that night from the safety of the boat at sea he watched the fires light up the darkness. It was glorious.
In the centuries after, he collected eyewitness testimonies. Pliny the Younger and other historians gave a great accounting of the disaster that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum. Some eighteen hundred years later, the first excavations of the cities revealed grotesqueries, shapes of despair frozen in ash and preserved in plaster by archaeologists. Gray husks of mothers bent over children, of dogs chained helplessly to walls. They had known they were going to die. They'd had moments to prepare, to wait. Squeeze shut their eyes, hold their breath, and hope that they would survive the flood of ash. Seeing photographs of those cast figures so many years later, Gaius felt that stab of triumph all over again. That thrill of realization: he had done it, he had caused this terrible thing to happen, this explosion of the Earth.
And he could do it again.
Gaius Albinus emerged from the basement of Diocletian's palace with the lamp, which he had named the Manus Herculei, safely in hand.
He had heard and read the speculation of philosophers on the topic of immortality. Did humankind need the challenge of mortality? A limited span of time in order to feel the drive of ambition? Would ambition even exist without the need to leave one's mark on the world before one died? If granted immortality, would a person become bored? Would they long for death? Would they cease to even remember all the time they had experienced? Would they become little more than ghosts?
Gaius held the two-thousand-year-old clay lamp in his hand and could declare that immortality did not cause forgetfulness, did not dampen ambition. He remembered everything. He could smell the musk of goat and the tang of dried grass of that field; he remembered the fires of Vesuvius lighting up the night, the last of the screams that came from the town as the ash flow settled. The satisfaction, knowing that hideous old vampire was likely burned to nothing and buried under a ton of ash. The touch of clay against his skin was like a spark that transported him through time.
The power of the lamp had not diminished. No, by hiding it he had allowed it to sleep as its power grew. The next disaster he triggered with this artifact would make Vesuvius seem like a candle.
He was securing the gates as the archaeologist had instructed when he sensed a presence, an eddy of power in the night. Several of them. Enemies.
A call echoed on stone and through shadow. "Dux Bellorum! Your time is done!" Arrogant laughter followed.
Gaius knew the voice, though he had not heard it in decades. Not every vampire chose to follow Gaius, to join his army. Some rebelled. This man was an upstart, Master of the city of Barcelona with centuries of power pr
essing from him. Still a child, really. Nothing to worry about for Gaius Albinus, known as Dux Bellorum, also called Roman. Last of his people.
Gaius slapped the crowbar against his hand and waited, mindful of the precious artifact wrapped in cloth and tucked in his pocket.
Early on, there had been those who recognized what he was doing and opposed his quest. Even if they didn't entirely understand the nature of his quest and its origins. That he was merely a general, following orders from his Caesar. Everyone who had opposed him, mortal or monster, full of power or merely earnest and naive, had failed. They would fail now, and he would enjoy putting them down.
One more hurdle, then, before leaving Split. Then he could begin his journey to the park called Yellowstone, in North America.
ALTAR BOY
JONATHAN MABERRY
"Altar Boy" is set in the world of the Joe Ledger weird science thrillers. The series began with Patient Zero, and the more recent Dogs of War is the ninth volume. Joe Ledger is a former Baltimore cop recruited into a covert Special Ops group tasked with confronting terrorists who have cutting-edge science weapons. This story, however, does not feature Ledger but instead focuses on Toys, a character introduced in the first volume as a villain and who continues in the series as a "recovering bad guy," fighting for his soul every step along the rocky path to redemption. Toys is no one's idea of a hero, but he isn't quite the villain he used to be. Maybe . . .
1.
Saint John of Patmos Catholic Church
Pacific Beach, California
It was a small church, which was good because he felt small. It was old, and that was also good because the young man felt old. Used up, spent, wasted, overdrawn, weathered, and past his sell-by date.
It was a Catholic church, and that was good. Not only because he was Catholic--or had been, once upon a time--but because the Catholics kept the doors open all day. Anyone could come in and sit. Anyone.
Even someone like him.
Even one of the damned.
2.
His name was Alexander Chismer, though everyone called him Toys.
