Page 81 of Aftermarket Afterlife

“She wouldn’t be this calm if it had been Verity who went down,” said Alice, opening her eyes and looking at her husband. “She wouldn’t look like this if it had been someone who wasn’t family.”

Thomas glanced to me for confirmation. I nodded. “Dominic,” I said. “A Covenant field team ambushed them while they were patrolling. He was dead before he hit the ground.” There was something unforgivably final about saying it aloud, like I was betraying his memory by treating his death like a historical fact. Even though it was. History is anything that’s already over, and can’t be changed.

“Poor Verity,” repeated Alice.

Thomas, meanwhile, lowered his head in what looked like a moment of genuine grief and regret.

“Tommy?” I asked. I hadn’t been aware Dominic had made such a deep impression on him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, raising his head to look at me. “I can mostly pretend I didn’t lose as much time as I did, that it doesn’t matter in the greater scheme of things, but then something like this will happen. I had some time to talk with Dominic when we were in New York. Did you know he was the last of the De Lucas? I never knew his parents. His grandparents, on the other hand—his grandfather was one of my roommates at Penton. I was sopleasedto hear that Orlando had survived to adulthood, and managed to marry and have a son of his own before his death. I’d always hoped he might have the sense to break away, as I had done, but I couldn’t blame him for sticking with what he’d always known; sometimes the easy route is the only one you can see.”

Alice reached over to put her hand on his arm, comforting him. He sighed and folded his hand over hers, holding her where she was.

“I suppose I’m going to hear more and more of these stories as we clash with the Covenant,” he said. “Boys and girls I knew all grown up to become the monsters we were warned against, and then going one step further to becomedeadmonsters. It’s just a bit of a shock to know that not only is my old friend gone, his whole family’s gone as well.”

“Not all of them,” I said. “Olivia is still here.”

“I suppose that’s true.” He quirked the slightest of smiles. “An unholy amalgamation of Healy, Carew, Price, and De Luca. She’s going to be a spitfire when she’s grown.”

“Yeah, she is,” I agreed. “Funny you should mention Penton Hall, but I was actually looking for you because I wanted to discuss it.”

“Penton Hall?” asked Thomas, blankly. “What of it?”

“It’s the Covenant’s main training facility, isn’t it?”

“In England, yes. They have other facilities elsewhere in Europe, and I believe a few others in other locales—they were never as successful with the satellite branches as they were with the ones constructed when the dragons were still a known threat, before their own success made their holy mission a harder sell in most places.”

“And they’ve been there forever?”

“Oh, not forever,” said Thomas. “The Covenant didn’t acquire Penton until the 1700s, when the original owners were eaten by manticores. It’s a very tragic story, really, and one we used to recite on the anniversary of their deaths. Despite the fact that it provided us with a secure place to train our children, it was still a blow to the human race, and—” He stopped himself. “And you don’t want to hear about that just now, do you?”

“Not particularly,” I said. “In your experience, how often do they renovate?”

“Not often,” he said. “A building that old, you’re limited by the walls you can’t move and the improvements that have already been made over the years, ad hoc as they’ll almost always have been. Just wiring the place for modern electricity was a bone of contention when I was young, with some people insisting that the people who wired the hall for light and heating had been committing a blasphemous act, and others claiming we needed to fully modernize if we wanted to survive. I have no idea who will have won the argument by now.”

“But the basic blueprint will have remained the same?”

“Yes...why? What are you thinking?”

I looked to Alice. She had never been to Penton Hall, but she was really our explosives expert. There had been a time when it looked like Annie was going to follow in her footsteps, but then Annie had started setting fires with a touch, and had wisely moved away from heat-sensitive munitions. If you wanted something to blow up good, you needed to talk to Alice.

“Uncle Mike can get me a couple of Mark 81s. They’re small enough for me to lift, as long as that’s all I do—I’m not carrying them anywhere.”

“They’re not ground-penetrating. All you’re going to do is blow out some windows and piss the Covenant off even more.”

“Not if I place them in the basement.” I looked to Thomas. “What do you know about the Penton Hall anti-ghost measures?”

“I know they’re powerful enough to prevent any sort of casual haunting, but I also know various Covenant-employed witches have been able to summon spirits within the grounds,” he said. “If you had someone to summon you, I believe you would be able to make your way inside.”

“That part isn’t going to be a problem,” I said. “So I can get in—that’s good. And I can get the bombs into the basement. If I crack the foundation, how much damage am I potentially doing to their organization?”

“A substantial amount,” said Thomas. “They train there, yes, but they also school there.”

Meaning a big explosion would potentially squish a bunch of Covenant kids. “Oh.”

“Yes. It’s part of why they’ve always recommended keeping the children near to the training grounds. It not only gives them something to aspire to as they grow older, it discourages attacks on their stronghold—most cryptids intelligent enough to formulate a plan to come after the hall will also frown upon attacking children.”

“Not a level of discretion the Covenant has ever been inclined to extend in reverse,” said Alice.

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