... Great. Another universe. Guild's initial suspicion was correct, then - a fellow refugee Pleasant somehow managed to befriend. He didn't try to think too hard on the whole American cowboy thing. There was any amount of magic to explain an altered perception, or an understanding of a language someone wouldn't normally have. And as Gabe himself pointed out, it was hardly the most important thing on the table right now.

Pleasant glanced at Gabe. "Not just something. A lot of things. As to the name, I don't know. Maybe whoever made it was too proud of it to call it a bomb. It is a feat of magical engineering."

"It's designed," Guild added, "to annihilate anyone within a mile's radius when it goes off, and it's in the hands of a vampire."

"But why would a vampire need it?" Pleasant looked between Marr and Guild, a myriad of expressions crossing his face as he puzzled it out. The effect was almost mesmerizing. "If Dusk wanted to kill a whole lot of people, he clearly has a good way of doing it already. So he's getting the Engine for someone else. Someone capable of securing a vampire's loyalty. And since the Baron is dead..."

Oh, damn. "Scarab was released from prison recently," Guild murmured. He wouldn't normally have thought of a routine release, but Scarab's last chilling words before being arrested had been forefront on the Grand Mage's mind all week. "If anyone could pull something like this off... if anyone would want to..."

Pleasant's face had grown slack, and he blinked. "Scarab would be old by now. How did he break Dusk out of prison?"

Guild smiled wanly. "That wasn't Scarab. That was Billy-Ray Sanguine."

"Ah. Yes. Him." Pleasant sighed. "We did suspect he was working for someone beyond Vengeous. I was really hoping he'd been killed at Aranmore Farm last year."