“Give or take.”
“Did any of them come from the empress?”
Clark snarled, removed his cigar, and spit on the wood floor. “She’s got nothing to do with it. See, times have changed, for everybody. People with power want me back. And I don’t give a damn anymore what that girl does with her private life. But she’s got to have someone who can assume control if she dies. And she’s got to have an heir. And damn soon. I think the marriage could be back in play.” He chuckled. “I think I’ll move the capital a little bit south, though. Alexandria seems pretty friendly to vampires these days. Maybe Cairo. I’d like to have a pyramid.”
Stoddard ignored his commander’s dreams of glory as he thought about the brave boy he had met in Equatoria. Simon had escaped death at the hands of vampires twice; once in France and again in Alexandria. Stoddard had fought with Senator Clark, as well as Adele’s teacher Mamoru and his mysterious African companion, to repel the creatures from Simon’s door after the monsters had killed Emperor Constantine.
He studied the senator who showed no remorse for the loss of the child, or the loss of the children of Wilmington. The death of Simon was nothing to the senator but an opportunity for tactical advantage. Stoddard’s grip on the toy trembled.
Clark said, “Got a little more news too. Seems the Equatorians finally advanced on the vampires. They took Grenoble.”
“Really?” Stoddard nodded approval. “Excellent.”
The senator eyed him. “Excellent? Incredible is more like it. With your friend Colonel Anhalt in command, I am surprised they managed to find their way out of Marseilles.”
“I have great confidence in General Anhalt,” the major retorted curtly.
“Do you now? Well, apparently it had nothing to do with the general. Reports from the front say that the Equatorians have some unknown weapon.”
“They do? What is it?”
“I have no idea, but I intend to find out.” Clark offered a lush Cuban cigar to the major, who declined with a sharp shake of his head. “I want you to cable your friend Anhalt and see what you can find out.”
“He won’t tell me anything confidential.”
“Do it anyway. I want to know what they have that we don’t.”
Stoddard said, “Very well. Maybe it will allow us to suspend our bombardments.”
“What do you mean? The attack on Wilmington was a total success. Our casualties were minimal, and the vampires withdrew. And haven’t returned. These damn vampires are worthless. There’s no fight in them once we show them we mean business.” Clark ran his hand over the map of the Atlantic coast. “What I see here is a successful strategy. We have Savannah, Charleston, and now Wilmington. We can start bringing in materiel for the strike west to link up with the Gulf Army. We’ll bombard Richmond next. Hell, by April we’ll be in Washington, DC.”
Stoddard said hesitantly, “We took Savannah and Charleston without using gas. We could have tried that in Wilmington too, sir. As I suggested.”
The senator waved his hand at Stoddard’s comment. “If you have something to say, Major, spit it out.”
The images of burning civilians, of a small doll clutched in little dead hands, filled Stoddard’s head. Families huddled together in terror, not of vampires, but of human weapons.
He said, “Sir, have you seen any of the civilians here?”
“Civilians? There aren’t any civilians.”
The major replied forcefully, “The herds, sir. It’s not that simple. I was in one of their houses. There was a family. They had preserved food. The child had a toy.” He set the doll onto the map.
Senator Clark drew on his cigar with a cold stare. “Major, I know you took some hard shots during the assault. Do you need more time to recover? I can send you back to St. Augustine to rest for a week or two. We aren’t moving on Richmond for a month or more.”
“I’m fine. I’m just saying…” Stoddard paused, knowing he was preparing to enter dangerous ground. This was the subject that smashed the senator’s marriage to Empress Adele. Well, this and a complete discontinuity of personalities.
Clark added with quiet prescience, “You need to think hard about your next words, Major.”
“Sir, with all due respect, I know common wisdom has always been that the Cape Fear signaled the end of the frontier, and the beginning of vampire territory. But these people here are not animals. They may have been poor and oppressed, peasants really, but they are humans.”
“I never expected this.” The senator’s hands tightened into fists, and Stoddard actually thought his commander would strike him. “I raised you up from nothing. Put you one step from the center of power in the American Republic. And this is how you repay me?”