Blood Song

"So blowing them up after is not an option?" Oliver sounded bitterly disappointed.

"I'm hoping we can come up with a different solution to that particular problem," Angus grinned at him. "But we could always keep it in reserve."

"So how are we going to dispose of so many corpses?" Hugo asked, frowning slightly. "That's a big stumbling block to this whole proposal, you know."

"I'm working on a plan," said Fergus.

"One thing does concern me," said Angus slowly. "These are your brothers we are going after, Hugo. And some of them helped you obtain all this information." He paused then, as if uncertain how to continue.

"I know, Angus. And believe me when I say it will be excruciatingly hard to go through with this. But if it is any consolation, the ones that helped me the most understood my intentions very well. I made no secret of the fact that I was determined to destroy Jack and Anne and everything they had built up over the years. They helped me because they hated those two for what they had forced them to become. The ones I spoke to most frequently despised their addiction to blood, and their slowly decomposing bodies. In fact I think that they hated Jack only marginally more than they hated themselves."

"It will still be very hard for you. I wonder if you should even be involved in all this. There are your sisters to consider too. We are almost certainly going to have to kill some of them. I would really rather that you weren't a part of that. Some things are harder to live with than others," Angus stated with feeling.

Hugo said nothing, just stared down at the polished surface of the table in front of him. "You're right, of course. But I would nonetheless like to help, perhaps in a more peripheral role."

"Well, I think that's an excellent idea. And now that this hand of mine has grown back, I'll be damned if I'm going to stay in the background as general facilitator and communications enabler. Someone is going to have to man the base, so to speak, and you could coordinate our activities out there."

"I'll be frank, though, Fergus. I know next to nothing about setting up and operating the kind of systems you're talking about."

"That's not a problem. Simon's something of an expert in that field, and he could do with a bit of fresh air. Dragonborn or no, he needs a break from that game. The only time we see him is when he's looking for batteries for the controller," Julia stated dryly.