The bistro, like the rest of the city, felt like something out of a black-and-white movie. The food was the exception, the vibrant colours making the look of it pop as much as the flavour. Zara had a trio of pie slices in front of her, peach, apple and cherry. Jason had pancakes buried somewhere under the berry sauce, whipped cream and mound of fruit.Sitting in a booth, the pair ignored the glances of their fellow patrons, mostly vampires. Each booth and table had a privacy screen, cutting off the whispers and leaving them unworried about eavesdropping.“What do you think?” Zara asked, then spooned a bite of peach pie into her mouth.“My instincts tell me that it’s going to be a new vampire war. Something worse that came before, because it won’t be restricted to Europe, or to battlefields. I think Elizabeth has been seeding the world with hidden living weapons. The blood oaks, and whatever was put into that poor man in the plane.”“But she’s in your hands, now, right?”“That may not be entirely a good thing. Elizabeth was looking for leverage. For triggers not to pull, in exchange for what she wanted. The nukes she still has control over, so we can clean them up. All these biological weapons, though. She’s been seeding them through population centres across the planet. And now, they’re in the hands of McKean and the other vampire lords. People who aren’t looking for leverage but weapons.”He shook his head.“I should have realised,” he continued. “I’ve been thinking in Pallimustus terms, where personal power is everything. I’ve been acting like that on Earth, and I keep getting blindsided. Here, they’re better at working with disproportional power levels. Insurgency, infiltration, guerilla tactics. Civilian targets.”Zara made encouraging noises from around a mouthful of pie, gesturing for him to continue.“Elizabeth created weapons and strategies so horrific that she knew we’d make massive concession (...)