Mark

Military life is a procession of order, a chain of hierarchy and command; few soldiers must show any combination of loyalty and personal initiative. Mark was one of those few — infiltrating enemy units, attending foreign political events, bribing enemy troops and stealing military secrets were his duties. Of course, in the late 19th century, there was no real classification for military intelligence work, but that didn’t stop Mark from doing an exceptional job of sabotage and subversion. The United States Civil War provided a cloak of disorder for clandestine activity. Underground railroads, deserting soldiers, carpetbagging politicians — with a quick cover, a fast-talking subversive could go undetected just about anywhere in the country. With a few drinks and a silver tongue, such operatives could buy the right secrets: military movements, supply trains and political agendas. With only a short trip back across the border, such secrets could easily become real gold. Even in the postwar United States, with Ulysses S. Grant as the new president, political manipulation brought wealth and prestige. Secrets financed Mark’s lifestyle and status. They also brought about his unlife. Political rallies and meetings were nothing new to Mark; he’d been spying on various groups for the better part of a decade when he made his way into a rather select salon in Charleston. The political gamesmanship and hushed speech were nothing new to him, but the vampires were. Once he figured out that the aperitif of choice was human blood, he quickly exited the disturbing evening social, all the while playing the part of a servant. Highly intrigued and secretly terrified, he made his way back north to sell some of his other gains — and, in New England, his knowledge of the peculiar gathering drew the attention of another political party. Military background, high intelligence, no known links to the schemes of vampires — all in all, Mark was a perfect candidate for the experimentation that led to the Blood Brothers. A little mind-bending brought Mark to the appropriate locale, where he waited, caged, with a half-dozen others, as the Sabbat sorcerers carefully selected the group that would be transformed. Even held in a foul warehouse, he was kept clean and well-fed; after all, the Cainites had no desire to use substandard test subjects. They entranced him with the rest of the herd, until he was finally strapped into a chair and subjected to the twisting rituals that bend flesh together into an amalgam. His tormentors were vaguely impressed that he had the strength to keep screaming for three nights, long after the other subjects had died, fallen unconscious, or succumbed to gibbering madness. When Mark and his circle finally awoke from the ritual, they were quickly indoctrinated into the Sabbat. The haze of transformation and the ravening hungers of the Beast left Mark little choice but to capitulate; the brood of eight (with the failures destroyed) underwent collective training to serve as front-line fighters for the sect. Two died in their first encounter with Camarilla combatants; the rest watched, fought and learned. As the decades wore on, Mark learned as much as possible about his new condition and his place in the Sabbat. Originally built to be subservient and expendable, he brought his knowledge of military structure and intelligence operations to the circle; with his initiative and loyalty to the sect, he rapidly became the leading voice for the circle. By World War I (during which the brood lost another member in the fight for influence in heavy industry), Mark was the undisputed leader of the group, but he wanted more. Such initiative was unheard-of among the Blood Brothers. Because he always recognized the power of communication and information, Mark was quick to realize the value of the emerging technologies such as radio and television that followed the World Wars. Adopting personal communicaCHAPTER ONE 31 tions allowed his circle to improve its efficiency in combat. Mark’s true interest was piqued, however, with the emergence of the personal computer in the ’70s. Foreseeing the potential of devices that could store and categorize tremendous amounts of data, he and his circle moved to California, there to watch the developments at the cutting edge of technology. The anarchs of the free state proved no difficulty — any who bothered to check into his business generally didn’t believe in the “myths” about the Blood Brothers, and nosy individual anarchs proved susceptible to the coordinated attacks of the pack. Armed with a keen intellect and the savings of money gathered from continued political dabbling, Mark invested in the development of computer technologies on the West Coast. As one of the few successful Sabbat operatives there, he rose in standing among his peers. Finally, when it became clear that the fractious vampires of California would not or could not effectively challenge his position, he quietly let the Sabbat know that he had claimed Torrance for the sect, which raised him at last to the position of bishop. With his bald-headed circle mates (Jack, Truman, Karl and Ilse, sometimes facetiously called “Matthew, Luke, John and Mary”), he enjoys free run of Torrance. Having become part of the political game on which he once spied, he has discovered a liking for power, and he encourages young and reckless Sabbat in his domain to travel outward to neighboring cities, there to cause trouble or to expand Sabbat influence. Now firmly and quietly entrenched, he spreads the sect’s influence slowly outward with tools that the elders do not understand. While the Blood Brothers may be little more than a legend to most Cainites, Mark’s slowly expanding grip has begun to excite whispers and rumors — most of them making the Camarilla even more reluctant to send its agents to the erstwhile free state.