Episode 42

In a side-street next to the hospital Stockton Fortuna collects his thoughts. The purpose of his coma ruse had been to lure out an enemy Stockton had long suspected to be plotting against him. There had been subtle hints of attacks against his business interests – A tangled strategem that would have bamboozled Sun Tzu. He had traced the fragments of evidence for several years, sharing his suspicions with the only man he truly trusts – Rentwich.

Rentwich’s suggestion had been for Stockton to feign an illness, wait for the hidden enemy to reveal itself, and then to pounce! The plan was simple, surgical and savage. An idea born from a dark place. Not for the first time, Stockton had wondered if Rentwich had spent too much time around vampires during The War.

But something had gone wrong. Stockon had made himself a target – open to the simplest of attacks – and yet Levillia was the one to fall victim to the enemy. Slowly, as Stockon considers the possibilities, the pieces start to fall together…