Necroscope: Invaders

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This one is for Dave McDougle, Ralph Jessie, Robb Coutinho, Monte Z. Ogle, Sarah Fitton, and Heather Alien, readers and friends for a long time now, and I hope for a long time to come…

In Xanadu, Jethro Manchester had built a pleasure dome, in fact the Pleasure Dome Casino. But that was some time ago, and since then Manchester's fortunes had changed. Now both the casino and the mountain resort of Xanadu belonged to another, to Aristotle Milan, and the new resident-owner's needs required that he make certain alterations.

The casino was a great dome of glass and chrome. It was a three-storey affair — or four-storey, if one included a smaller dome, which sat like a bubble or a raised blister on top of the main structure — that lorded its location at Xanadu's hub, on a false plateau in a high, dog-leg fold of the Australian Macpherson Range of mountains.

Now it was night, but still the work on Mr Milan's alterations continued. He wanted the work completed to his specifications before he reopened Xanadu to the public in just a few days' time. And in his private accommodation in the high bubble dome, Milan himself supervised the last of the work; or if not supervised, at least he was there to see it finished to his satisfaction. But Milan's presence — or more specifically the annoyance that accompanied it — wasn't to Derek Hinch's liking.

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