Procession of the Dead

Book 1: The City

by Darren Shan

Genres: Fantasy

Synopsis

New York Times bestselling YA author Darren Shan makes his adult fiction debut with this first book in a new series set in a darkly imagined world called the City. What had I done before coming to the city? I couldn't remember. It sounded crazy but my past was a blank. I could recall every step since alighting from the train, but not a single one before. Young, quick-witted and cocksure, Capac Raimi arrives in the City determined to make his mark in a world of sweet, sinister sin. He finds the City is a place of exotic dangers: a legendary assassin with snakes tattooed on his face who moves like smoke, blind Incan priests that no one seems to see, a kingpin who plays with puppets, and friends who mysteriously disappear as though they never existed. Then Capac crosses paths with The Cardinal, and his life changes forever. The Cardinal is the City, and The City is The Cardinal. They are joined at the soul. Nothing moves on the streets, or below them, without the Cardinal's knowledge. His rule is absolute. When Capac discovers the extent of The Cardinal's influence on his own life, he is faced with hard choices and his own soaring ambition. To find his way, Capac must know himself and what he is capable of. But how can you trust yourself when you can't remember your past?

Release date: May 14, 2010

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Print pages: 299

Sample

If The Cardinal pinched the cheeks of his arse, the walls of the city bruised. They were that close, Siamese twins, joined
by a wretched, twisted soul.


He dominated my thoughts as the train chewed through the suburbs, wormed past the warehouses and factories, then slowly braved
the shadows of a graveyard of skyscrapers. Enthralled, I pressed my nose to the filthy window and caught a glimpse of Party
Central. A brief flash of monstrous majesty, then the gloom claimed all and it was gone. That was where he worked, lived,
slept and decided the fate of his cringing millions. Party Central—the heart of the city.


Stories about The Cardinal were as legion as the corpses buried in the city’s concrete foundations. Some were outlandish,
some cruel, some spectacular. Like the day he played a pope at chess and won a couple of countries. The president who spent
forty days and nights prostrate on the doorsteps of Party Central in supplication for having angered The Cardinal. The actor
who was guaranteed an Academy Award if he kissed The Cardinal’s ass. The suicide bomber who froze at the last moment when
The Cardinal shot him an icy look—they say he cried as he was led away, finger pressed hard on the detonator, unable to release
it until he was alone.


The one that came to mind as the train slowed and switched tracks was a minor tale, but entertaining, insightful and, unlike
a lot of the myths, probably true.


One day a messenger arrived with an important missive from a prince of some oil-rich kingdom. He was escorted to the fifteenth
floor for a personal meeting with The Cardinal. This was no mere courier—he was a member of the royal’s loyal cabinet, a carefully
chosen envoy. He went in and started speaking, eyes to the floor, as was the custom in his country. After a while he glanced
up at his host and stopped in shock. The Cardinal was listening but he was also being blown by a hooker. The Cardinal frowned
when the messenger stopped and told him to continue. He did but falteringly, stuttering, unable to take his eyes off the naked
whore going down on the big boss.


The Cardinal quickly lost patience and told the mumbler to leave. The messenger took offense and launched into a scolding
tirade. The Cardinal lost his rhythm and shot out of his chair, bellowing like a bull. He crossed the room, grabbed the messenger
by the lapels and tossed him headfirst out of the window. He sent a note to the prince, telling him not to send any more fools
his way, and an invoice to cover the expense of cleaning the mess on the pavement.


It was the type of cheap story you heard at every newsstand in the city. But I loved it anyway. I loved all of the stories.
They were why I’d come here—to emulate The Cardinal and maybe one day build my own sprawling empire of sweet, sinister sin.


The sky was gray when I alighted from the train and was enfolded by the arms of the city and its guardian Cardinal. I stood
my ground a few minutes, letting my fellow passengers stream past, a solitary rock in the river of disembarkation. I tried
isolating specific sights, smells and sounds but my eyes, nose and ears kept flicking every which way, taking in everything,
focusing on nothing. Only the taste stood out, of dry diesel, hot plastic and wood sap. Bitter but oddly pleasant at the same
time.


As the last few stragglers passed from sight I decided it was time to make a move. There were things to do, people to see and a life to begin. I hoisted my bag and ordered my willing legs into
action.


There was no guard at the gate. I stopped, looked around, ticket held out, a country bumpkin with an ironically unhealthy
respect for the law. When nobody came to collect it, I pocketed the stub and kept it for posterity’s sake, a memento of my
arrival.


I left the station and entered the grim, gray streets beyond. It would have been depressing any other time. Dull buildings
fit only to be demolished, cloud-laden skies, cars and taxis suffocating in their exhaust fumes, pedestrians wheezing and
grimacing as they staggered by. But to me, that day, it was vivid and fresh, a canvas to paint my dreams on.


I looked for a cab but found a miracle instead.

The crowd drew me. Against that gray, lifeless backdrop they stood out, huddled together, babbling and pointing. I could see
the source of their agitation from where I stood by the station’s doors, but moved closer to get a better view and be part
of the gathering.


It was an exact, concentrated shower of rain. It fell in a literal sheet, about five feet wide and a couple deep. The drops
fell in straight silver lines. I looked up and traced the thin streams to the clouds as if they were strings hanging from
massive balloons.


A woman to my left crossed herself. “It’s a waterfall from Heaven,” she murmured, wonder in her voice. “More like God taking
a leak,” a man replied, but the glares of his colleagues silenced the joker and we watched in uninterrupted awe for the next
few minutes.


Just before the shower stopped, a man stepped into it. He was small, dressed in loose white robes, with long hair that trailed
down his back and flattened against his clothes under the force of the water. I thought he was just one of the city’s many
cranks, but then he extended his arms and raised his face to the sky, and I saw he was blind. Pale white orbs glittered where
his eyes should have been. He was pale-skinned, and when he smiled his face became one unblemished blob of white, like an
actor’s painted face in those old silent movies.


He turned his head left, then right, as if scanning the crowd. I moved closer for a better look and his eyes immediately settled on me. His hands fell by his sides and…


I’m not sure what happened. It must have been a shadow, or dust in the drops of rain, because all of a sudden his eyes seemed
to come to life. One second they were pure white, the next there was a brown spot at the center of each, a spot that flared
and spread until the eyes were full.


He stared at me with the new eyes. He blinked and the brown was still there. His hands lifted toward me and his mouth moved.
But before I could cock my ears he stepped out of the rain and back into obscurity. People moved between us and when they
parted he was gone.


Then the rain stopped. A last few drops made the long descent and that was it. The crowd dispersed and people went on their
way like nothing had happened. I remained longer than the rest, first checking for the blind man, then in the hope of a repeat
performance, but finally I gave up and hailed a taxi.


The driver asked where I was going. He spoke strangely, accenting lots of words, grimacing whenever he stressed a syllable.
I gave him the address but asked him to drive me about a bit first—I wanted to see some of the city. “Your money,” he said.
“What’s it to me what you tourists do? I’ll drive you till night if you like. Least, till eight. That’s when I knock off.”
He was a sour sort and didn’t make any effort to start a conversation, so I concentrated on the city.


It soon started raining—ordinary rain this time—and everything was obscured and warped. Street names, houses, traffic lights,
scurrying pedestrians—they all looked the same. They blended into an alien landscape and I felt my eyes start to sting. Leaving
the sightseeing for another day, I asked the driver to take me home. Home meaning Uncle Theo’s place. Theo was the man I’d come to the city to live with. He was going to teach me to be a gangster.


Theo Boratto had been a gangster of great promise. He made his mark early on, and by the time he was twenty-five he commanded
a force of fifty men and was the scourge of the respectable southwest of the city. He was ruthless when he had to be, but fair—you
needn’t fear him as long as you didn’t cross him. Most importantly he had the blessing of The Cardinal. Theo Boratto was a
man on the way up, one for the future.


He was a good home man too. He loved his wife, Melissa, with a passion. He fell in love with her ears first. “She had small
ears, Capac,” he told me. “Tiny, thin, delicate. They broke my heart, just looking at them.”


He wooed her vigorously and, though she wanted nothing to do with his world of violence, he won her. Their wedding made the
society pages of all the papers. He spent a fortune to give her the kind of reception she hadn’t asked for but which he believed
she deserved. The Cardinal himself provided the cake as a present, hiring the city’s best baker to design the iced marvel.
The band played flawlessly and there wasn’t a single clumsy dancer to be found. The women were beautiful in their designer
dresses, the men handsome in their tailored suits. It was a day that made you realize what living was all about.


Their love lasted four wonderful years. Theo still went about his dirty business, burning down houses, breaking limbs, selling
drugs, killing when he had to. But he was one of the happiest gangsters the city had ever seen. If you had to be bullied and
beaten, there was no finer man than Theo Boratto for the job.


The only thing missing was a child. And that was when it all went to hell.

They didn’t worry about it in the early days. They were certain a child would come in time. Melissa had faith in God and Theo
had faith in the fertile Boratto testicles. But as the months became years, their faith wavered and questions were asked.


Doctors said they were fine and advised them to keep trying, not to worry, a baby would come along eventually. But years turned,
the world changed, and the nursery stayed empty. They tried faith healers, ancient charms and different sexual positions,
read every kind of book on the market and watched the videos, prayed and made promises to God. Finally, when they’d almost given up hope, a sturdy
seed broke through and made itself a home.


They threw a wild party when the test came back positive. They moved into a bigger house and bought everything the stores
of the city had to offer. Happiness had returned.


It was a brief visit.

There were complications with the delivery. A trembling doctor presented Theo with his options—they could save the woman or
the child. No maybes, no mights, no false hopes. One would live and one would die. It was up to Theo to choose.


He nodded slowly, eyes red, heart dead. He had one question—was it a boy or a girl? The doctor told him it was male. “Save
the baby,” Theo said, the last words he would utter for many months.


His wife was buried before his child was christened, and Theo’s soul went with her. He was a broken man afterward, prone to
fits of depression. The child might have been his savior, the light to bring him through the darkness, but fate robbed him
even of that. The baby was a weak, scrawny thing. It came into this world on the shoulders of death, and death hovered ominously
over the child. The doctors kept the dark gatherer at bay for a fragile seven months, but then he was returned to his beautiful,
cute-eared mother, having spent more of his short life within her womb than without.


Theo let things slide. Money seeped out of his hands and into those of greedy, enterprising others. His house was repossessed,
his cars, jewelry, clothes. The last deliberate act he committed in those days of descent was to give the child’s toys away
to charity before someone ran off with them. There was that much left in him that gave a damn. That much and no more.


Starvation and harsh winters forced him back into work. He did enough to eat and pay for a moldy single room in the cheapest
motel he could find. Nothing which required thought. He gutted fish in factories by the docks until the stench got him evicted
from his most humble abode. He sold fruit and vegetables in a cheap street market, sometimes flowers. After five or six years, he returned to a life of crime, going along as an extra on thefts and break-ins.
It was a long way from dining with The Cardinal and walking the hallowed halls of Party Central. But Theo didn’t care. It
kept him fed and warm. That was enough.


Then, inevitably, a theft went wrong. He was apprehended, tried, sent down for eighteen months. Prison remade him. He took
to thinking during his long days of incarceration. He saw where his life was stuck, what he had become, and made up his mind
to change. He knew he’d never overcome his grief entirely. He doubted if he could ever be truly happy, or rise as high as
he’d been before. But there was middle ground. He didn’t have to be this low. If he wasn’t going to do the simple thing and
kill himself, he might as well do the decent thing and carve out a life worth the effort of living.


He made contacts, talked his way into deals and scams, made sure he had something to go to when he left, jobs which would
lead to others and start the ball rolling again. It took years to pull himself back up. The big guns didn’t trust him—he’d
cracked once, they figured, and might again. He was a risk. But he kept at it, moved from one job to another, proved his worth,
clawed his way up the ladder until he was in a position to put forward ideas and initiate his own deals. He employed a few
thugs, bought a couple of suits, invested in guns and was back in business.


He built it up over the next few years, expanding his territory, crushing weaker opponents, advancing slowly but surely. When
he felt secure, he decided to bring in an heir, someone to carry on when he was gone. In the absence of a son he chose one
of his many nephews. He spent a few months sizing them up, then settled for one with a touch of the wicked in his features,
with what might prove to be steel in his blood, with a will to succeed at any cost. The nephew he chose was Capac Raimi. Me.


Theo wanted to be angry with me for arriving late, and he was scowling as the cab pulled away, stranding me at the foot of
the house. But he was too excited to remain hostile, and by the time I was halfway up the steps he was grinning like a kid at a birthday
party.


He threw his arms around my body and clutched me tightly. For a small, skinny guy he had a lot of strength. When he released
me I was astonished to see him weeping. That was one thing I hadn’t expected from a hardened, twice-come gangster like Theo
Boratto. He wiped the tears away with a trembling hand and sobbed, “My boy, my boy.” Then, sniffling and smiling weakly, he
led me into the house, shutting the door gently behind us.


In the sitting room, with the lights up full and a real log fire spitting tongues of flame up the chimney, I got my first
good look at him. It had been years since our last encounter. I could hardly remember what he looked like. It was as if we
were meeting for the first time.


There wasn’t much to him. He was no more than five foot six, slim, very haggard. There was a part in his hair that Moses would
have been proud of, a long stretch of skull with a few brownish spots. The hair at the sides was gray and smartly cut. He
blinked a lot, eyes of an owl, and it was nearly impossible at times to see the globes behind the shutters. He was clean-shaven,
with the shining skin of a man who shaved at least twice a day. His suit was conservative. Light leather shoes, a red handkerchief
ornamentally placed in the upper left pocket. The perfect picture of a stereotype gangster. All he was missing was the slit-skirt
moll with a sneer and a drooping cigarette.


“What do you think of the city?” he asked when we were comfortable.

“Couldn’t see much of it,” I admitted. “It was raining.”

“It’s huge,” he said. “Growing all the time, like a cancer.” He paused, maybe thinking of death and Melissa. “I’m glad to
see you, Capac. I’ve been alone so long. I always hoped I’d have a son to take over, but things didn’t… You know the story.


“Things have been bleak ever since,” he continued. “I don’t mean the business—that’s grown nicely. I’m talking about family.
Family’s what really matters. I’ve been alone since Melissa. My brothers never followed me into the business. They went to college,
got proper jobs, real lives. We were never close. My sisters… they write me now and again.” He shook his head sadly. “I’m
a lonely old man. Nobody to live with, nobody to live for.” He leaned forward, patted my knee and smiled. “Until now.


“What do you drink?” he asked, getting up. “Tea, coffee, wine?”

“A beer if it’s going.”

“Always!” He laughed and fetched a couple of bottles from the fridge. I gulped most of mine with one thirsty swig and sighed
happily. It seemed an eternity since my last one. Theo went slower on his, making it last.


“How old are you, Capac?” he asked shortly after I’d started my second bottle. “Twenty-seven, twenty-eight?”

“Thereabouts.”

“A good age. Not too old to teach, nor young enough to be a nuisance. One of the reasons I chose you. Not the only one—I wasn’t
about to pick my successor solely on account of his age!—but a factor.


“It’s a hard business,” he said seriously. “I don’t know what your expectations are, but it’s not glamorous. The higher you
rise, the glossier it gets. But we’re at the lower end. Most of our money comes from protection. We threaten people—small
shop owners and businessmen—and collect cash in return for not busting up their premises. If they don’t pay, we have to make
an example of them. It’s about violence. Whatever else we profess to be, at the core we’re violent people.


“But although we’re an illegal business, we are a business. We account to the taxman like everybody else, so we have to keep
books they can find no fault with. Neglect the paperwork and they’ll be on us like jackals.


“There are employees to take care of. We’ve got expenses, overheads and legal fronts to maintain. It’s a hell of a lot harder
than running a legitimate business. The bigger teams can afford sharp lawyers to handle that for them, but not us—we have
to do it ourselves, be everything, hood, lawyer, businessman, clerk. The profits can be high but only if you run things right, if you
don’t screw up and leave yourself open to attacks from the law or your opponents. Or The Cardinal.” He stopped, cocked a finger
at me and said, “Never fuck with The Cardinal, Capac. Never. Don’t muscle in on his territory, don’t challenge even his lowest lackey. If one of his men asks to be cut in on a deal
you spent months setting up and perfecting, you agree like a shot, even if it means taking a loss. The Cardinal runs everything
and owns everybody. A lot of young men get a bit of power, some money and start thinking, ‘That Cardinal ain’t so tough—we
can take him.’


“Those young men die. I’ll say it again, so there’s no confusion—don’t fuck with The Cardinal. Steer clear of his crew as
much as you can. If your paths cross, show them all due respect. Because if The Cardinal ever gets on your back, he’ll ride
you into an early grave. No surer thing.”


“Have you had any dealings with him lately?” I asked.

He hesitated and glanced away. “No,” he said. “We had a word a few months back through a third—hell, a fourth or a fifth—party.
But no direct contact. I’m not big enough to be of interest to him.”


He was lying. I didn’t know why, but I made a note to pry a bit deeper later. I had a lot of respect for my Uncle Theo, and
knew I was going to learn a lot from him, but I had my sights set on higher targets. I most certainly did intend to fuck with
The Cardinal’s boys if I ever got the chance, regardless of Theo’s warning. The Cardinal was the only route to real power
here. If you didn’t take a risk and get involved with him, you’d be running penny-ante protection rackets forever. Theo swirled
the beer in his bottle, staring into its golden depths, and promptly changed the subject.


“Capac Raimi,” he said, drawing it out. “An odd name. I haven’t come across anything quite like it before. A Raimi or two, but they normally
have recognizable first names, Joseph or Joel. How’d you get a name like that?”


“My father.” I frowned. “He was a Raimi and, well, I don’t know where the Capac came from, but I guess it’s some old name
or they got it from a book. Didn’t my mother tell you?”


He coughed uncomfortably and a shifty look flashed across his eyes again. “I didn’t see much of your mother after she married,”
he said. “We fell out of touch. Families go that way sometimes. What was your father like?”


“He…” I tried to draw a mental picture of him. “A nice guy. He died when I was young, so I don’t remember that much about
him, but he was a good man.”


“And your mother?” Theo asked, leaning forward, his eyes sharp and unblinking for once.

“She was… a mother.” I laughed uneasily. “What’s any mother like? She…” I stumbled to a halt. I felt uncomfortable, as if I had something rotten
in my past that I wanted to keep quiet. “She was your sister,” I said. “You know as much about her as I do.”


“Of course,” he said too quickly. “I just wanted to know if she’d changed since I last… since she…”

He grunted, downed the remainder of his beer, got another couple of bottles and asked no more questions about my family or
my past.


I took to crime as if born for it. I was a natural, learning quickly, acting instinctively. I paid attention when Theo spoke
and remembered everything he said. He taught me how to deal with employees, customers (we never spoke of victims, they were
always clients or customers) and rival gangs. How to balance the books, use legitimate fronts to funnel our profits, and avoid
trouble with the long and many arms of the law.


The city was a sprawling, multilayered monster, anarchic to the untrained eye, but orderly if you eased up close and studied
it in detail. The money was centralized in the north where most of the wealthy lived, whether their funds had been generated
legally or otherwise. No class prejudices there—if you were rich enough, you were welcome. The streets were spotless, the
lamps always worked, cars obeyed the speed limits. No pushers, no pimps, no street hookers. Nobody ever bothered the good folk of the north at home.
Even break-ins were rare—the consequences outweighed the rewards to be reaped. The blacks ruled the east and southeast. They
weren’t wholly segregated but were as near as could be. The city had an ugly history of racism. Huge riots back in the early
80s resulted in dozens of deaths and destruction of property on a scale usually reserved for earthquakes. Things had calmed
down since and color was no longer the lethal issue it had once been—better schools, improved career opportunities and housing
developments had taken the sting out of the race bee—but years of oppression and hate couldn’t be washed away as easily as
people wished. Some things were slow to change.


The center of the city was the business sector, the land of banks, office towers and overpriced restaurants. Huge buildings,
most built during the last fifty years, functional and frosty.


The northeast, south, southwest and west were the suburbs. The wealthier commuters gravitated toward the southwest, the poorer
to the eastern regions. The northwest had its share of migrant workers but was largely undeveloped territory, lots of open
fields and parks. Several universities nestled out there, an amusement park, a couple of large sports stadiums.


Along the river stood the factories and warehouses, many old and run down. The city had been built back in the days when boats
and power were synonymous. The older factories were being reclaimed and gentrified, but it was a slow process and it faltered
with every dip in the economy.


The other divisions—the gang lines—were harder to define. The eastern areas were the domain of the black gangs, too many to
count, most small and short-lived. A number of leaders had made efforts over the years to organize and unify the smaller gangs,
but The Cardinal was quick to eliminate such threats. He preferred to keep the blacks fractured and in conflict with one another.


Elsewhere it was your usual mix. Strong and weak families, a few large clinical organizations, dozens of street gangs who’d
self-destruct before they could amount to anything. Hundreds of drug barons and thousands of pushers. Gangsters built on a foundation of
prostitution. Some who’d made their fortunes selling arms. The big thieves who dealt in diamonds and gold, and far more who
thrived on protection and petty theft.


The Italians, Irish, Cubans and Eastern Europeans were well represented, but none ruled. There was only one kingpin in this
city, beyond the touch of all others, and that was The Cardinal. He controlled the center directly, the rest as he wished.
He was the ultimate individual, proof that one man could do it alone, regardless of the help or hindrance of others.


Theo worked the southwest. It was where he’d grown up, along the streets his first boyhood gang—the Pacinos!—had patrolled. It was one of the quieter areas, not as much money to make as elsewhere. But there were bank managers and
bored housewives with vices, lots of youngsters coming through with expensive habits. The police could be bought cheaply enough
and the local councillors were eager to please. There were worse places to get an education.


Theo and I were together most of the time. He was preparing me for the day I’d be able to operate by myself. He figured another
six months and I could start running the show for him, guided but with an increasing degree of autonomy. Until then I was
his charge. He kept me under close watch, in his company most of any waking day, his literal right-hand man.


We were uncomfortable around each other at first. We’d gone, in the space of a day, from being strangers to partners. Like
an arranged marriage. It was difficult spending so much time with a person you didn’t know, thrust into a relationship where
loyalty, honesty and trust were automatically required. But as the weeks rolled by, we got to know and genuinely like each
other. After a month we didn’t have to pretend to be friends—we were.


Theo was a strict mentor. He forbade involvement with women. Sex was fine, prostitutes and one-night stands were acceptable,
but nothing more. He said it was too soon for romantic commitment. There was a time for love and a time for learning. This was the latter. A woman would distract me at this stage, take my mind
off work and confuse my sense of purpose. . . .