Titans of Chaos

He said, "You shall have to satisfy some hunger of mine in return, Dark Mistress. You see, I havethis hot dog of my own which needs-"

Quentin (thanks be to Gabriel) interrupted the oncoming filthy double entendre by saying, "I wassure at any minute we were going to be arrested. In the bank. Did you notice the decorations? Noone saw them?"

I said, "Atlas. Prometheus. Winged wheels."

Quentin said, "That place was a fane of usury, where they make gold, not out of base metal, butout of nothing. There was a power there. I was sure that armed men would come swarming out ofthe back rooms at any moment. This is Mulciber's place; this is the world of Mulciber, an uglyworld of gold and iron."

I said, "They seemed friendly enough." Friendlier than English clerks would have been, I thought.

Quentin said darkly, "Talos also had a friendly smile."

Colin said, "Who... ?"

I said, "Well, lady and gentlemen, I suggest we make a list of what we need and a list of what wewant, and go shopping."

We bought first what any self-respecting group of adventurers chased by ancient pagan gods andblood-sucking vampiresses would buy: cell phones.

The Americans make radio-telephones small enough to fit in one's palm, feather-light, which canbe programmed to listen to your spoken commands and dial numbers for you; record, store, andforward messages; and probably walk the dog and change the baby. Only someone who has neverheld such a thing in hand before can appreciate the marvel of it. Buck Rogers himself would havebeen goggle-eyed.

Originally, we meant to stay for only a short time. Only until high tide, no longer. But there wasno point in leaving America while we were still hungry, and so we decided to spend a limitedamount of money eating. And there was no point in eating in some dull burger joint when wecould visit a first-class restaurant, not for our last civilized meal. And there was no point in finedining without wearing the nice clothes Vanity had bought in Paris, and the boys dressed up intheir formal suit and tie. Vanity wore a peach evening dress, flattering to her figure, with a strandof pearls dripping down her cleavage. I wore that little black outfit with stockings and pumps,silver earrings, and a matching silvery choker. We looked like grown-ups.

We squabbled like children. After much debate, we finally decided on a restaurant called GaryDanko, which the guide we'd bought listed as number one in the local area.