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audio provided by the CCTV camera. The dark hooded
figure of the Bourbon Kid then pulled a machete out from within his robe.
Harker winced as he watched the Kid hack Cromwell to pieces. It was as violent
a death as the new Police Captain had ever witnessed, and he had seen a fair
bit of violence in his time. It seemed like an extremely unjust way for such a
decent man to die. At the end of the slaying, the Kid walked calmly out of the
room. James the security guard pressed a button on his keyboard and the image
froze on screen showing Cromwell’s dead body lying in a pool of his own blood
on the floor.
    ‘It gets worse every time I see
it,’ said Simmonds, visibly shuddering.
    ‘Yeah, I’m sure,’ said Harker.
Something had caught his eye at the bottom of the screen. He stared closely at
it for a moment, recalling something the Mayor had said when they had spoken
earlier. ‘Is that clock right?’ he asked, pointing at the time display in the
bottom corner of the screen.
    James the security guard nodded.
‘Yep. Two thirty-seven. That’s about right I think. I saw the Professor about
twenty minutes before that. I recommended that he go home but he was totally
glued to the news, watching all the updates about the murders and stuff.’
    ‘Interesting,’ said Harker,
scratching his chin. ‘The Bourbon Kid was reported dead not long after
midnight. We got a whole bunch of eyewitnesses to back that up too.’
    Simmonds looked surprised.
‘Really?’
    ‘Yeah. He was gunned down and
beheaded by a bunch of military guys in an apartment block. I was under the
assumption that Cromwell was one of his last victims before they caught him.
This kind of complicates things.’
    ‘So the Bourbon Kid is still
alive?’
    Harker nodded. ‘So it would seem.
I’ll take this CD and be on my way. If the Bourbon Kid is still at large I’d better
make sure the press are aware. The public have a right to know that the streets
are still unsafe.’
    ‘You might want to tell those
military guys that they beheaded the wrong person too.’
    Harker smiled. ‘I’m hoping they’ll
see it on the news before they leave town, if they’re even still around.’

 
    Six

 
    Snow was falling from the skies
over Santa Mondega for the first time that Dante could remember. He marvelled
at it as Vanity drove him and Kacy to the Casa de Ville.  
    “Cool car, ain’t it, babe?” Dante
heard Vanity say to Kacy.   “Ford
Ranger.   Brand new, too.”
    “Pity it’s blue,” Kacy said in a
bored tone as she looked out of the window.  
    From his seat in the back Dante
smirked. Kacy wasn’t the sort to be impressed by a car that wasn’t stolen. As
it happened, he was pleased they were in the Ranger. The roads were more
dangerous than usual. Dark
clouds were forming over the city too. Big ones.
    What looked like a huge medieval
castle rose up in the distance.  
    “What the hell is that?” Kacy
asked.
    “That’s the Casa de Ville,” Vanity
replied.  
    “It’s a bit fucking big, isn’t
it?’ said Dante.
    “It’s gonna need to be,’ said
Vanity. ‘There’s gonna be a helluva lot of vampires in there in a minute.’
    Dante shook his head. The sight of
Case de Ville getting larger and larger as they drew closer rendered him
speechless for once.    
    Vanity parked the Ranger in a
large car park around the back of the main building. Dante and Kacy followed
him back around to the front of the building where a vampire wearing some curious
black eye makeup let them in through the front door and directed them to the
main hall.
    The main hall was magnificent in
size. Its ceiling stood fifty metres high and had a balcony running around the
walls halfway down. At the far end of the hall stood a large set of very wide
marble stairs that led up to the landing and the balcony. It really did feel
like a castle. The only major difference Dante had spotted were the obvious
CCTV cameras recording every move. The fucking things were everywhere you