Gods of Manhattan (33 page)

Now was the hour of final battle.

El Sombra breathed in, focussing on the task ahead.

"
Hot dogs! Hot dogs! One dollar five! Wrap a nickel in a bill and eat your fill!
"

El Sombra breathed out, laughed his magical laugh, and turned away from the docks and towards the yelling voice in the distance. Well, what choice did he have?

Who could go to their death without a last hot dog?

And somewhere in Langley, Virginia, in the deepest part of a bunker owned and operated by S.T.E.A.M. for the purpose of storing the most dangerous artefacts in the world, there was a large crate and a smaller bottle. Inside the large crate, there was the corpse of something that had once been the son of a mediocre salesman. Something that had grown up to be the most dangerous man in the world, and that had thrown its humanity away to become more dangerous still.

Floating in the bottle, sealed in a solution of formaldehyde, was the creature's head. It floated, eyes closed, the neck ragged and burned from the explosives used to separate it from its body.

It floated that way for a very long time.

And then it opened its eyes.

And if anyone had been there to see the head, they might have been able to read its snarling, sneering lips as they moved behind the thick glass of the jar, showing its fangs. They might have worked out what it was saying, in its dark formaldehyde tomb.

Next time, Thunder.

Next time.

The End

Al Ewing
was born in 1977, three days before Elvis died on the toilet. Indoctrinated into the loathsome practice of comics at an early age by his disreputable brother, the child progressed from his innocent beginnings to the despicable depths of sin represented by the British comic
2000 AD
, long known as a haunt of depravity. He remains ensconced there to this day as a writer of the bizarre and fantastic, when not involved in even more sordid past-times. His previous contributions to the sordid, populist medium of adventure novels include
I, Zombie
,
Death Got No Mercy
, and the first El Sombra novel,
El Sombra
, all published by Abaddon Books.

Now read the first chapter of
Blood Royal
by Jonathan Green...

Chapter One

The Handover

Four hours after curfew - in the shadow of the St Paul's Cathedral - an unmarked hansom cab rattled to a halt. The door opened and Dr Victor Gallowglass stepped down onto the street. His heart beat a nervous tattoo against his ribs, although he was concentrating hard so that his nerves and his fear did not show in his face.

A gang of five men, skulking in the shadows, watched him from the other side of the street, their dark clothing making them almost invisible. Except for the debonair gent who stood slightly apart from the others.

"Good evening, Doctor," the man said.

He was immaculately turned out, wearing a fine green frock coat, charcoal grey trousers, spats and a silver-embroidered waistcoat. A gold silk cravat finished off the ensemble, held in place with a ruby-tipped pin. In one hand he swung an ebony cane as if keeping time, like a metronome. His face was as sharp, his brown hair - greying at the temples and slicked back from a pronounced widow's peak - glistened with a copious helping of hair oil.

He looked from the grim face of the doctor to the pall of Smog that hung over the city like a shroud, the glowing yellow streetlamps turning its clammy mantle a sallow tinge. The hazy white disc of the moon struggled through the banks of pollutant cloud that still plagued the city, despite former Prime Minister Valentine's best efforts. Its milky luminescence added an eerie, unsettling quality to the night's illicit proceedings.

"A fine evening, is it not?" the man continued, as if they were all there for no other reason than to pass the time of day.

"Where is she?"

The man raised an eyebrow. "Do not worry, Dr Gallowglass, your daughter is safe."

"I want to see her."

The debonair gent regarded Gallowglass for a moment, an incalculable expression in his eyes.

He turned and nodded to one of the suspicious-looking characters waiting in the darkness behind him.

The darkly dressed ruffian took a step forward. He was of burly build but weighed down by the large sack he was carrying over his shoulder. Carefully, he set the sack down and fumbled with the rope tying it shut. He pulled the sack down around the body of the small girl bound inside.

The girl looked terrified and, on seeing her father, fresh tears began to stream from her eyes, but she said nothing. She couldn't - the gag prevented her from doing so.

"Oh, Miranda, my poor darling," Gallowglass gasped. Tears welled in his eyes too. "It's alright now. It's going to be alright, my darling. This will all be over very soon, I promise." Blinking the tears away he fixed the kidnappers' spokesman with a look of black, unadulterated hatred. "If you have harmed a single hair on her head..." He did not need to say any more.

"I can assure you that she has been as well looked after as Her Majesty might expect to be," the other said, his voice oozing charm and charisma despite the direness of the situation.

Gallowglass reached out his arms to the frightened child but didn't dare take a step towards her.

"I doubt that distinctly," he growled. "Now let her go." His tone was more pleading than he would have liked.

"All in good time, doctor. All in good time." The debonair gentleman slapped the shaft of his cane into his hand. "But before we hand her over to your care you must give us certain assurances."

"What is it you want from me?"

"Your continued, faithful, patriotic service. That is all, Doctor Gallowglass. All that we ask is that you see your vital work through to completion."

Gallowglass's expression didn't change.

"I will continue with my research until my labours bear fruit," Gallowglass conceded.

"And we have your word on that?"

"You have my word."

"Well, we can't ask for more than that, can we? After all, an Englishman's word is his bond, is it not?"

At another nod from their leader, the ruffian freed the girl from her bonds.

An expectant hush hung over the street, the shadowy silhouette of the cathedral on the other side of the barricade a threatening presence nonetheless. It was a silence disturbed only by the Smog-muffled clatter of Overground trains - although there were a lot fewer of them running on the elevated tracks now at this time of night - and the sudden clatter of roof tiles above.

Anxious glances shot to the rooftops of the burnt out buildings on the other side of the wall.

"What was that?" the debonair gent demanded.

"Don't know, boss," one of his unshaven lackeys replied.

The man put a steadying hand to the shoulder of the one still struggling to free the girl and turned cold, black eyes on the equally anxious-looking doctor. "You were told to come alone!"

The debonair dandy took a step back towards the wall, eyes fixed on the rooftops on the other side of the road. His companion took a step back too, pulling the girl after him.

"I did!" Gallowglass screamed.

The unshaven lackey suddenly shot an anxious glance up at the wall behind them. "Here, boss, you don't think it could be -"

"Silence!" the other snapped, never once taking his eyes from the buildings on the other side of the street. "I thought I heard..." The dandy's words trailed off into silence and then: "Look! Up there!"

All eyes followed his trembling finger.

At first Gallowglass could see nothing amongst the shadows shrouding the rooftops, not until one of those shadows detached itself from the darkness and unfurled bat-like wings.

Like some animated gargoyle it leapt from the guttering at the edge of the roof.

Gallowglass gasped and a number of the kidnappers began to whimper. All of them recognising the night stalker for who he was.

The skin of its leathery wings rippling as it dropped from the parapet, the figure swooped towards them.

"Get out of here!" the dandy shouted and took off down the street, keeping close to the wall as he ran. His burly comrade was close on his heels, dragging the terrified girl after him.

As the bat-winged terror came within a few feet of the ground, his legs swung forwards and he planted the soles of two heavy boots squarely in the chest of one of the panicking rogues. The man was hurled onto his back and a solid kick to the head made sure that he stayed there.

Two remained. The crack of gunfire shattered the night.

Gallowglass watched, his jaw slack with shock, as the armoured bat-man bore down on the kidnappers. Their shots must have missed, Gallowglass decided, for the figure did not even break his stride as he closed on them.

But their second volley of shots certainly didn't miss. How could they? The vigilante was right on top of them now. Gallowglass heard the pang of metal on metal and the advancing colossus wavered.

But his hesitation was only momentary. One last bounding stride and he was on top of them. Dully gleaming claws sliced through the night. Blood sprayed black in the darkness.

Another threat neutralized.

The masked vigilante - the one the press had dubbed Spring-Heeled Jack - was the only man who dared stalk the streets of London once the curfew sirens had been sounded. During the hours of darkness he delivered his own brand of justice to those who had taken advantage of the fact that, in the aftermath of the Wormwood Catastrophe, the capital had become a more lawless place than ever. The authorities' resources had been stretched to breaking point and were no longer able to cope with the rise in opportunistic crime and gang-related warfare.

With three down and two to go, the vigilante didn't hesitate for a moment but, leaving the motionless bodies of his victims behind, launched himself after the gang's leader, his burly companion and the still captive child.

The first any of them - doctor, vigilante and kidnapper - knew of the locusts' arrival was the zinging buzz of chitinous wings, as the gigantic insects rose over the west wall and descended on the fleeing felons.

For the first time since taking on the kidnappers, Spring-Heeled Jack faltered, stumbling and losing his balance as he tried to arrest his forward charge. There were two of the things - their bodies as long as a man was tall, their huge wings a blur of movement.

They paused for a moment, hovering several feet above the cobbled street, their mantis-like heads jerking from side to side as they regarded Gallowglass and the vigilante with compound eyes the size of footballs.

As if at some unspoken command, one of the locusts moved towards the vigilante; the second targeted the dumbstruck, paralysed doctor. Regaining his feet, the vigilante put a gauntleted hand to a dispenser on his belt. A second later, he tossed something small and metallic towards the insects. The object hit the road as the giant insects passed overhead.

There was a soft click and then with a great whooshing noise, like air escaping from a punctured dirigible, a thick jet of smoke erupted from the device.

It was as if the locusts had hit a wall. The two insects, buzzing angrily, withdrew, turning away from the expanding gas cloud. Repelled by the smoke bomb they left the vigilante and the doctor, and set off after easier prey.

Even through the smoky haze, Gallowglass saw what followed clearly enough.

"No!" he screamed, his paralysis suddenly gone, his legs carrying him after the insects. But he was too late.

First to be plucked from the ground was the unshaven ruffian, the girl stumbling to her hands and knees as the startled man lost his grip on her. The locust lifted the kidnapper, kicking and screaming, into the air. It took off back over the wall, holding the wailing man fast in its pincer-grip, labouring its way towards the black dome of St Paul's.

Just for a moment Victor Gallowglass thought that perhaps his daughter might escape from her ordeal unscathed. But his moment of desperate hope was short-lived.

The second locust dropped onto her back before he could reach her. With the child clutched in its chitinous embrace, it rose again into the Smoggy air.

Gallowglass was sprinting now, arms outstretched towards his daughter, as if he might somehow still be able to pluck her out of the sky and to safety, but against the airborne assailant, he was utterly helpless.

As the locust rose over the wall after the other, the girl's gag came free and he heard her cry.

"Daddy!"

Hearing her scream his name only made the already desperate situation infinitely worse.

But then his faltering steps found purpose again and, within a few strides, he was at the wall. He had already managed to scramble a good six feet up the barricade when the vigilante grabbed him.