to curse this man?'
Cornelius felt his face flush with anger. No matter how dangerous Harkeness was, Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant was not about to have his motives questioned by a mere hireling. He pushed himself away from the table and rose, bellowing, 'Why you? I do not want him dead. That is far too good a fate for one such as he! I want him to suffer first. I want him to know he's dying and I want him to pray to his ineffectual God to save him as his body rots and stinks and melts to the blackest filth. I want it to hurt and I want it to be embarrassing. I want his lungs to fill with pus. I want his balls to fall off and I want him to piss fire! I want his loved ones to look away in disgust, and I want it to take a very, very long time.'
Harkeness nodded, his face now an emotionless mask. 'I can do this thing for you, but first, I must ask, what terrible thing did this man do to deserve such a fate?'
The billionaire paused, pudgy hands curled into fists. He lowered his voice before continuing. He had planned this revenge for years. It was only the purity of the hate for his enemy that drove him to this place. 'He took something… someone… from me. Leave it at that.' Cornelius tried to calm himself. He was not a man given to such unseemly outbursts. 'Will that do?'
'It is enough.'
Cornelius realized he was standing, but it did make him feel more in control, more in his element. He gestured at the open briefcase. 'I was given your name by an associate. I believe that this is the same amount that he paid for your services.' Rockefeller had warned Cornelius about how expensive the Pale Horse would be, but it would be so very worth the money. 'Take it.'
The other man shook his head. 'No. I don't think so.'
'What!' Cornelius objected. Was he going to try and shake him down for more money than Rockefeller? The nerve. 'How dare you!'
Harkeness leaned back in his chair, puffing on the cigar. He took it away from his mouth and smiled without any joy. 'I don't want your money, Mr. Stuyvesant. I want something else.'
Cornelius trembled. Of course, he'd heard the odder stories about the Pale Horses, the rarest of the Actives, but he had paid them no heed. He was a man of science, not superstition. Sure, he had magic himself, nowadays one in a hundred Americans had some small measure, but it didn't mean he understood how it actually worked. One in a thousand had access to greater Power, being actual Actives, but men like Harkeness were something different, something rare and strange, themselves oddities in an odd bunch. Hesitantly he spoke. 'Do… do you want… my soul?'
This time Harkeness really did laugh, almost choking on his cigar. 'Now that's funny! Do I look like a spiritualist? I'm certainly not the devil, Mr. Stuyvesant. I do not even know if I believe in such preposterous things. What would I even do with your soul if I had it?'
That was a relief, even if Cornelius wasn't particularly sure that he had a soul, he didn't want to deed it over to a man like Harkeness. 'I don't know,' Cornelius shrugged. 'I just thought…'
Harkeness was still chuckling. 'No, nothing so mysterious. All I want is a favor.'
That caused Cornelius to pause. 'A favor?'
Harkeness was done laughing. 'Yes, a favor. Not today. But someday in the future I will call and ask for a favor. You will remember this service performed, and you will grant me that favor without hesitation or question. Is that understood?'
'What manner of favor?'
The Pale Horse shrugged. 'I do not yet know this thing. But I do know that if you fail to honor our bargain at that particular time, I will be greatly displeased.'
He was not, by nature, a man who intimidated easily, but Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant was truly unnerved. The threat went unsaid, but who would want to cross such a man? The industrialist almost walked out on the absurd and frightening proposal, but he had been planning his revenge for far too long to turn back now. If the favor was too large, Cornelius knew he always had other options. Harkeness was deadly, but he wasn't immortal. It would not be the first time he had used murder to get out of an inequitable contract.
'Very well,' Cornelius said. 'You have a deal. When will he get sick?'
Harkeness closed his eyes for a few seconds, as if pondering a difficult question. 'It is already done,' the Pale Horse said, opening his eyes. 'Isaiah will see you out.'
Isaiah joined his employer on the balcony a few minutes later. Harkeness had gone back to admiring the view. 'Could you Read him?'
'He's very intelligent. I had to be gentle or he would've known. He's got a bad tendency to shout his thoughts when he gets riled up.' The servant leaned against the concrete wall and folded his arms. 'He even thought I might be a Torch. Can you believe that?'
Harkeness chuckled, knowing that Isaiah was far more dangerous than some mere human flame hurler. 'Was he truthful?'
'Mostly. He absolutely despises this man.'
'For what he did to him? Wouldn't you?'
Isaiah sounded disgusted. 'Stuyvesant is utterly ruthless.'
So am I, Harkeness thought, knowing full well that Isaiah would pick that up as clearly as a high-strength radio broadcast. 'You don't get to such lofty positions without being dangerous. I'll have to curse him quickly. Arranging a meeting should be easy enough. Stuyvesant will be expecting immediate results now.'
Isaiah left the wall and took one of the cigars from the table. 'I liked your little show, with closing the eyes and just wishing for somebody to die and all that. That's good theater.'
Of course, even he had his limits. He would actually have to touch the victim, and it took constant Power thereafter to keep up the onslaught against the ministrations of Menders, which he already knew this man would have. This would be an extremely draining assignment. 'Whatever keeps Stuyvesant nervous,' Harkeness shrugged. 'I do like the new term though. It suits me.'
Isaiah quoted from memory as he clipped the end from the Cuban. 'And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts, and I looked and beheld a pale horse, and the name that sat upon him was death…'
'And hell followed with him,' Harkeness finished, smiling. 'Appropriate…'
'If the favor you ask of him is too difficult, he'll have you killed.'
Harkeness had suspected as much. 'He could try. Wouldn't be the first.'
'The man's got a phobia about sickness. The Spanish flu near did him when it came through, been worrying him ever since.' Isaiah said as he lit the cigar. 'He's scared of you.'
'Good,' the Pale Horse muttered, watching the people moving below, scuttling about like ants, ignorant little creatures, unaware of the truth of the world in which they lived. The Chairman was about to change the world, whether any of the ants liked it or not, and that meant war. Many ants would be stepped on, but that was just too bad. It was unfortunate to be born an ant. 'He should be…' Billings, Montana Every day was the same. Every prisoner in the Special Prisoners' Wing of the Rockville State Penitentiary had the exact same schedule. You slept. You worked. You got put back in your cage. You slept. You worked. You got put back in your cage. Repeat until time served.
Working meant breaking rocks. Normal prisoners were put on work crews to be used by mayors trying to keep budgets low. They got to go outside. The convicts in Special Wing got to break rocks in a giant stone pit. Some of them were even issued tools. The name of the facility was just a coincidence.
One particular convict excelled at breaking rocks. He did a good job of it because he did a good job of everything he set his mind to. First he'd been good at war and now he was good at breaking rocks. It was just his nature. The convict had single-minded determination, and once he got to pushing something, he just couldn't find it in himself to stop. He was as constant as gravity. After a year, he was the finest rock breaker and mover in the history of Rockville State Penitentiary.
Occasionally some other prisoner would try to start trouble because he thought the convict was making the rest of them look bad, but even in a place dedicated to holding felons who could tap into all manner of magical affinities, most were smart enough not to cross this particular convict. After the first few left in bags, the rest understood that he just wanted to be left alone to do his time. Occasionally some new man, eager to show off his Power, would step up and challenge the convict, and he too would leave in a bag.
The warden did not blame the convict for the violence. He understood the type of men he had under his care, and knew that the convict was just defending himself. Between helping meet the quota for the gravel quarry that
