into Sefu’s with a cold vengeful intelligence. Suddenly, Sefu cried out in pain as lightning shot into his body. It flowed from the other’s body into his. A hurricane of electric cackling and the smell of burning flesh tainted the air. Sefu wanted to let go. He wanted to make it stop, but the electricity constricted his hands and locked them into place. His lungs burned with toxicity. His body was failing. He felt pain beyond any act of will.
Wizard . . . Devil!
The electricity stopped and Sefu fell unconscious to the floor. The man in black settled lightly on his feet where Sefu had lifted him from the ground. All the squatters lay prone and unmoving.
De-camo.
The man in black spoke the word in his mind. He pulled out a pistol, pointed it down at Sefu and shot him twice in the head.
With his command, seven men in gas masks and carrying assault rifles appeared from thin air near the door. They each positioned themselves above one of the squatters and followed their leader’s example. When they had finished they piled the bodies together in the center of the room and set the place alight.
Colonel, asked Gene when they were outside, they got tipped. Just who on earth could do that?
Hurn, the man in black, spoke into his skullcom.
A job for tomorrow. Tonight we find the ones that escaped.
Yessir.
The seven men disappeared again into the blackness of the night streets and Hurn led them on the trail of the four escaped squatters. They left the derelict mansion to burn like a funeral pyre, its smoke mingling with the fog. For minutes the area seemed empty again and nothing moved. No sounds rivaled the bellows of the fire.
Again, a flutter of wings cut through the air.
Left behind, the raven perched on a rooftop opposite the burning building. It took flight and circled above the haunted ground, eyes like cameras, recording everything in its animal brain. It whipped back and forth in an unseen conflict of wills, and finally winged mournfully to the north. Following the hunters.
2
The streets were beginning to thin of people as the light of the sun descended slowly past the dark outline of the buildings. With time to spare, Blake, like so many other times in his life, was relying on his wanderlust to keep him occupied. He pressed on—going nowhere in particular. A woman walked quickly past him in the opposite direction. Many others followed suit, people flitting in and out of focus. One woman wore a t-shirt adorned with two robots atop a neon pyramid. The traffic light before them shifted and her boots clip-clopped as she stepped briskly out of sight. Hundreds more danced into view, only to be unceremoniously forgotten. Lamps were beginning to ignite, but still darkness hadn’t quite settled across the sky above.
Blake saw a shadowed alley and turned into it, earning him a few quizzical looks from fellow pedestrians. The alley led him straight to a fire escape bolted to the red brick wall of a four storied apartment building. Dark flecks of paint clung to his hands as he started to climb toward the roof and the still starless sky.
He stepped up gingerly and surveyed the surrounding panorama of London. He wasn’t sure where in the city he was located, but he saw the evening’s final destination to the west. The Thames labored along in the distance like a lumbering grey leviathan. And far away he could see the clock tower, parliament, and the Eye – none of which could hold his attention for long in the face of London’s newest additions. This vantage point afforded him a look at four of the newly finished projects; their scale made them impossible to miss. Villa 1 to the northwest was a construction of huge swooping jagged edges. Villa 2 to the north was all circles and domes. Villa 3 to the east caught one’s eye with its geometric shapes, great triangles, crosses, and stars melded together. And then there was the massive form of Villa 6, which blocked Villas 4 and 5 from view. The most recent of the construction projects, Villa 6 was undoubtably the most impressive of the bunch. It’s shape was vaguely angelic—with two soaring wings on either side of the main structure. The building was built with a skin that was capable of displaying anything. Now it was simply lit with a brilliant white light.
He was overjoyed to find that some of the building's tenants had left