Archbishop Of Greed Novels & Stories

“We stick to the original plan.” Several heads nodded. “Bishop wants a war.” “We don’t give him the one he’s expecting.” I walked over to the map spread across the workbench and planted both hands against the steel surface. “We’re not hitting his clubhouse.” “We’re not chasing his men through Greystone.” I looked around the room. “We hit his money.” “Bishop owns half the businesses keeping his operation alive. Garages, warehouses, gambling rooms, storage buildings, transportation routes, repair shops.”

"Seriously, guys, we had another absolute disaster of a week on the grid. I had a guy—let’s call him 'The Valuation Specialist'—who took me out to this tiny, incredibly pretentious wine bar on Hudson Street. He spent forty-five minutes explaining the difference between an offshore corporate shell and a blind trust, and then he literally asked me if my father’s old production contracts from the eighties were still subject to the 1992 maritime asset-freeze." Sophie let out a short, performative laugh that carried a bitter, real-world edge through the monitoring headphones. "Oh, my God. Is that the new baseline? Men don't even ask for your sign anymore, they just ask for your family's federal c

But the world outside did not pause for their devotion. Miles away, in the labyrinthine silence of the Cathedral Archives, Archpriest Dominic Vermont was hunched over a desk illuminated by a glowing data-terminal. His eyes, cold and calculating, scanned the latest intelligence reports. The lines of text spelled out a trajectory of suspicion”whispers of a powerful, spectral benefactor moving in the shadows of the Vesper Estate, and the alarming proximity of his daughter to the center of the heresy.

I let it wash over me and did not move. The Archbishop, standing just to my left with the crown still in his hands, had gone completely still in the expression of someone who had conducted hundreds of ceremonies and had never once had one arrive at this particular moment. He looked at the crown. And then he looked at me again. Then he set the crown carefully to one side, because there was nothing in his training that had prepared him for what came next and he was not going to hold it through whatever this was. The side talks multiplied.

he said with a menacing calmness. Thom Redd scoffed. "Is the Pope scared that I will overthrow him? Is he concerned that my shit hits better than his?" he gave a sly smirk. Bishop chuckled. "I wonder what it is that makes the lot of you grow into rogue bastards. Just yesterday you were running and serving under us. Now you feel you're a star for cooking something up with a stolen recipe" Thom Redd's expression twisted. "Excuse me?" he fired angrily.