Habeas Corpses by Wm. Mark Simmons

Author:Wm. Mark Simmons
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy - Dark, Fantasy - General, American Science Fiction And Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary, Fiction - Fantasy, General, Fantasy, Immortalism, Historical, Science fiction, Fantasy - Historical, Fiction, Fantasy - Contemporary, Vampires
ISBN: 9781416521259
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2007-05-07T14:00:00+00:00

We exited the building as the bedlam inside was reaching a crescendo. I started to turn left—the limo lay in that direction—but Darcy turned right. I reversed direction, still trying to reconcile the ancient, raspy voice on the intercom with the youthful visage in the elevator and almost missed the small device that Spook was pulling from her pocket. “You know, the funny thing about life is that it is a schoolroom in reverse,” she said, opening the cover. “It gives the tests first and the lessons afterward.” The device appeared to be a small electronic controller, two switches, two buttons.

I didn’t like the looks of it: I had used one very similar to it once and my fuse box assassin had carried another very much like it. “Yeah? Well, I hope this test is over because I’m still waiting for the lesson.”

“The lesson is always the same. Evil always wins.”

I walked around to stand in front of her. “So what are you saying? That we weren’t the good guys tonight?”

“Oh yes, we were the good guys. And we did what we had to do. To have done nothing . . .”

“Edmund Burke,” I said. “’All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.’”

She nodded. “But often good men must do terrible things to thwart great evils . . .”

“And thus are more evils born,” I concluded. “Aristotle said we must, as second best, take the least of the evils.”

“Yep. Youare big on the quotations. The problem with using other people’s words is no one knows where you, yourself, stand.”

“Okay, if you’re asking about evil, I’m against it.”

“Good to know,” she said curtly. “Now the question remains: What does the Doman of the largest undead enclave in the Western Hemisphere consider evil?”

“Well, pedophilia is high on the list. Undead pedophilia even higher.”

“Textbook. Pick another P-word.”

“Another P-word?”

“Preemption,” she elaborated.

Ah. “The question is what lesser evils I am willing to commit in the name of what I consider good?”

She nodded. “Does your heart bleed for Malik’s little victims? Or for the future victims of his little victims?”

“Are we talking about breaking the chain of molestation? Or killing vampires?”

“You tell me.”

I shook my head. “One evil is not the same as another.”

“Isn’t it?” She glanced back at the shadows flickering between the iron bars on the windows of the old brownstone. “Malik was captured by the Turks during the fifteenth century. He was ransomed back after a year of captivity. A year does not seem very long in an existence that has spanned centuries. But when you are a child, suffering unspeakable indignities, the acquisition of power and the passing of generations may amplify—rather than bury—the bruises of the soul. And what goes around . . .”

“Comes around?”

“Just keeps going around and around and around until a way is found to stop it.” She flipped a switch on the remote. “I promised you three surprises.” She pressed a button. “Surprise . . .”

The initial explosions sounded like distant mortar fire.

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