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Back Cardinal Black Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Title Page
  2. One: Into the Storm
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Two: London Calling
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Three: The Malignant Seven
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Four: Squirrels and Cats
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. Five: Revelation
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. About the Author

Through the white curtains of night Julian and Matthew followed the man called Britt. They trailed at a distance, enough to keep their quarry in sight yet not close enough to trip the game. For block after block Britt went on, at one point his greatcoat seemingly losing its last button and spreading open with the wind like a pair of flapping wings. With one hand he kept the hat on his head, lest it too fly away.

The snow played tricks with measure, but Matthew figured they must’ve travelled half a mile before Britt crossed the street—quickly, in front of a coach whose driver obviously was in a hurry to get somewhere warm—and then descended a narrow set of steps.

“Move!” Julian said to rush Matthew along, but Matthew needed no urging. At the top of the steps they were looking down at an oak door, a pair of green-glassed oval windows and a sign that read The Green Spot. Britt had entered another of the tawdry taverns in what Matthew felt that, beyond the purity of the snow, was an area not so different from the dark bleakness of Whitechapel.

Julian grasped Matthew’s shoulder. “Listen to me,” he said. “You go in there and find out who he’s meeting. Take a good look, come back out and describe him … or her. Britt didn’t see you at the Garden, so you’ll have a free moment, but only a moment. Understand?”

“I do.”

“Go. I’ll be around the corner.”

Matthew nodded and went down the steps. Opening the Green Spot’s door gave him a faceful of strong pipesmoke, the odors of spilled ale and wine and the smells of men who have gone a bit too long without a wash, but also the aroma and warmth of the fireplace that was brightly crackling wood opposite the door. Matthew entered, let the door close behind him, and walked between the tables and past the bar to stand before the fire. He turned around, the better to warm his backside and get a view of the room, which held perhaps ten or twelve patrons. There were no roach races running, so it was a quiet group intent on their drinking and their guarded conversations. The place was rather shadowy with stingy illumination, but quite suddenly Matthew realized he was standing about eight feet from a table where Britt had drawn up a chair to sit across from a second man.