Deathstalker

  "Of course," said Brendan. "You were everything we expected."

  "So; who do you want me to kill now?"

  "The Maze people are becoming a major concern," said Brendan carefully. "It may become necessary to remove them from the body politic. How would you feel about that?"

  The SummerIsle stretched slowly, sensuously, as unselfconscious as a cat. "A challenge. A real challenge. I would enjoy killing Jack Random and Ruby Journey. I do hope Owen and Hazel aren't dead. I always wanted a crack at Owen. I killed his father, you know. So I could be said to have started him on the path that made him what he was. Owen Deathstalker would be one hell of a challenge, a real test of my abilities. I put off challenging him while David was alive. Dear David secretly admired his cousin, and wanted to be just like him. That was part of what got him killed on Virimonde. Trying to be the hero, like his cousin Owen. I should enjoy gutting the legendary Deathstalker, and watching him crawl in his own blood before me."

  "We'll worry about him as and when he turns up again," said Brendan. "Clan Chojiro has more immediate concerns. Namely, Constance Wolfe and Robert Campbell. Robert has undergone Blue Block conditioning, and we hope to control the happy couple through him. But it is just possible he could break or subvert his conditioning, and if that happened, and he and Catherine became… impediments, it might be necessary for you to deal with them. You would not be able to take public credit for the kills, and they would have to be sufficiently bloody and unpleasant to discourage those who would take their place from being equally obstructive. How would you feel about that?"

  "I've never killed a King or a Queen," said Kit SummerIsle, almost lazily. "I came close with Lionstone, but she escaped me. I think I'm going to enjoy working with Clan Chojiro. You're almost as unscrupulous as I am. And of course, in working for you I also work with Blue Block. Correct?" He smiled as the Cardinal stirred uneasily, and fixed him with his icy blue eyes for a long moment. "I never went through Blue Block; my Family didn't trust them. What was it like, Brendan?"

  "Trust me; you don't want to know. It would give you nightmares."

  "I don't have nightmares," said Kid Death. "I give them."

  Jack Random agreed to give Toby and Flynn a short private interview before the big meeting. He didn't say why, and Toby didn't feel like asking. Real exclusives with Jack Random were as rare as hen's teeth even at the best of times, and after his return from Loki he'd refused to speak to the media at all.

  Random met with Toby and Flynn in a small side chamber with absolutely no fittings and furnishings. Toby was honestly baffled as to what function the room usually served. He'd heard that Random preferred to live in spartan surroundings, but there weren't even any chairs to sit on. They had to do the whole interview standing up. Ruby Journey stood leaning against a wall, arms folded, glowering silently. It had quickly become clear that she didn't know why Random had called his big meeting either, and was hoping to gain some clue from this interview. Toby checked with Flynn that all was well with the camera and lighting, did a few words for sound, and then turned to face Jack Random.

  "So," he said brightly, "who exactly have you invited to this special audience, Sir Random?"

  "Everybody who is anybody, and a few who are anybody's, politically speaking. All the movers and shakers, the powers that be, and a few that think they ought to be. What happens at this meeting will change the shape of Imperial politics forever, and I didn't want anyone to miss out. Not everyone saw fit to accept my invitation, but I'll get round to them eventually too. As it is, more than enough are here to make this meeting worthwhile. There are Members of Parliament, representatives from the clone and esper undergrounds, and from most of the Families. All the people who help to make the Empire what it is today. I may not be the force I once was, but after Loki it appears everyone wants to hear what I have to say."

  "About Loki…" said Toby.

  "I regret nothing. I did what was necessary."

  "And would that be the subject of your speech here today?"

  "You could say that. I have returned to Golgotha to put an end to all corruption. To deal with all of those who sold out what we gained through the rebellion. I learned a valuable lesson on Loki. No more deals, no more compromises. I am back, and God help the guilty."

  For once, Toby actually found himself at a loss for words. It wasn't so much what Random was saying, as the way he said it. Random's smile was wide and cheerful, but his unblinking gaze was cold and almost threatening. There was a suppressed anger in the man's body language, only just short of imminent rage, while his face glowed with purpose and resolve. He looked not unlike an Old Testament prophet who'd gone up the mountain for a personal chat with God, and come down again with a whole bunch of truths he hadn't expected. Whatever epiphany Jack Random had undergone on Loki, it might have filled him with new energy and purpose, but it sure as hell didn't seem to have done much for his peace of mind. And from some of the looks Ruby Journey was shooting Random's way when she thought he wasn't looking, it was clear she didn't know quite what to make of his new self either. Toby just hoped Flynn was getting it all on film.

  "Not everyone approves of what happened on Loki," said Toby, very carefully. "Some have gone as far as to label your… actions as atrocities."

  "They weren't there," said Random. "They didn't see what I saw. The people of Vidar were betrayed by those placed in power over them. Men given those positions by people in power here, even though they were all convicted war criminals. I've spent my whole life fighting evil and political corruption, and helped throw down a whole way of life to get rid of it. Only to find it had crept back while I was distracted by deals and compromises. It's clear to me now that it wasn't just Lionstone who made the Empire what it was; it was the whole political system. Politicians, and the big institutions that support them, are the enemy. The Families, and all the lesser men they own and instruct. If there's ever to be any justice, they must all be brought down. All of them." Random stopped, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "I must become pure again. Pure in spirit and purpose. And nothing and no one will be allowed to stand in my way."

  Toby's mouth was getting increasingly dry, but he pressed on. "You made the original deal with the Families, that ensured their survival in return for their conditional surrender. Are you now saying you regret that?"

  "It was the worst mistake I ever made. Never trust the Families. Not while they all bow down to Blue Block. When I allowed the Clans to survive, I betrayed everyone who ever fought for my cause. And I betrayed myself. But I've said enough for now. The meeting's about to start. Why don't you and Flynn go in and circulate, while I have a quiet word with Ruby? If I make her wait any longer to speak to me, she might well spontaneously combust from sheer frustration."

  Toby smiled politely, nodded to Flynn, and the two of them moved through into the great hall next door, where the assembled crowd was waiting. Toby would have liked very much to eavesdrop on what Random and Ruby were about to say, but if the bounty hunter was about to get violent, Toby didn't want to be anywhere near her. Hell, he didn't even want to be in the same building. He threw open the heavy door, and there was a sudden roar of sound, as a hundred conversations rushed over him. It shut off abruptly as Toby shut the door after himself and Flynn, and then it was very quiet in the small room as Random and Ruby stared at each other.

  "Don't do this, Jack," said Ruby. "I'm telling you; don't do this."

  "I have to. I can't let things go on as they are. What's happened since the rebellion has made a mockery of everything I ever believed in and fought for. If I won't fight for what I believe in, why should anyone else? What's about to happen in the hall next door will be a wake-up call for all Humanity."

  "We're in the middle of a war!"

  "We always are, Ruby. That's what those in power have always used to justify keeping the lower orders in their place. No more."

  "If you go in there and denounce everyone in power, you do it on your own. Jack. I won't stand with
you on this. You're jeopardizing everything we have! Our position, our wealth, our security…"

  "I thought you'd got tired of being rich…"

  "I'm not that tired, and I never will be! Rich may be boring sometimes, but it beats the hell out of the alternative. I've been poor, and I'll see you and everyone else dead and damned before I go back there again. If you burn your bridges with Parliament and the Families and the undergrounds, and call them all devils and bastards to their faces, who will be left for you to stand with? No one else is going to go along with this. You'll have to go on the run again, or face being arrested as a danger to the war effort. Is that what you want?"

  "Maybe," said Random. "I'll run, alone if I have to. I'm a lot harder to catch these days than I used to be, thanks to dear dead Owen. He would have understood what I'm going to do in there. Maybe what I'm about to do is partly in his name, in his memory." He looked steadily at Ruby. "If I had to run, would you come with me? It would be just like the old days; just us, against the Empire."

  "I hated the old days," said Ruby flatly. "Nothing could make me go back to them; not you or anybody else. Have you forgotten what life was like, back on Mistworld, before Owen found us? You were a broken old man, working as a janitor in a health spa. And I was working as a bouncer in a series of increasingly seedy bars, living in a single room, with no running water and no heating, eating day-old bread and meat from tins well past their sell-by date. That's the real reason I joined your rebel cause. I'd have joined any cause that offered me a way out of what my life had become."

  "And because Hazel asked you."

  "Hazel was my friend. She's dead. And so is Owen. He was our touchstone. He remade us into something finer, held us together and made us believe we were the forces of light. But now he's gone. I won't go back to being poor, Jack. Not even for you."

  "You were the one who criticized my deal with the Families. You said that was when you stopped believing in me. Won't you believe in me now?"

  "I don't see anything to believe in, Jack. This is madness. You're like a small child, who wants to overturn the gameboard, because he's losing."

  "I'm just being true to my nature again. I was so busy being Jack Random the politician that I forgot my true self; the professional rebel. It's my destiny to fight the System. Any System."

  "And what we've had together," said Ruby Journey softly. "That means nothing to you?"

  "I could not love thee half so much loved I not honor more. Some truths never change, Ruby."

  "Do what you have to do, Jack. And I'll do what I have to."

  They smiled slightly at each other, knowing that what was to come was inevitable. That some things could not be turned aside by such small joys as love or happiness. Jack opened the door to the great hall, and Ruby walked in past him, head held high, looking straight ahead. Jack shrugged, and smiled widely at the thought of the terrible thing he was about to do.

  The great hall had originally been intended for official receptions, formal dinners and the like. But Random had had all the furniture removed, to make more room for his guests. All that remained was a single raised dais, so that Random's audience could see him when he spoke. It was a pretty sizable audience. Random leaned against the closed and locked door, looking them over. Stephanie and David Wolfe stood together, perhaps a little more closely than brother and sister should. Stephanie was glaring about her almost triumphantly, as though her invitation to Random's gathering proved she was still a power to be reckoned with. Daniel seemed somewhat distracted, but then he always did, these days. Probably only came because his sister insisted.

  Not too far away stood Evangeline Shreck, representing the clone underground. She smiled graciously about her, quite splendid in a little black dress that emphasized her gamine beauty. Random thought she looked just a little too at ease, for someone who'd only recently been to the funeral of her dead love. At her side was a new figure; the Unknown Clone. He wore full battle armor, sword and gun, and a black leather mask that covered his entire face. Apparently he represented all the clones who'd died in the rebellion, and their refusal to ever be enslaved again. Random wasn't sure whether this new figure was supposed to be primarily a political statement, or Evangeline's bodyguard. He was a tall, disturbing presence, and Random couldn't help feeling there was something familiar about him.

  Toby and Flynn were working the crowd, buttonholing the right people, asking awkward questions and refusing to be fobbed off with soundbites.

  Two of the esper undergrounds' enigmatic leaders had turned up, hidden as always behind projected telepathic illusions. One had come as the fabled ogre Hog In Chains; a great beast of a man with a hog's head, wrapped in yards of rusty chains, carrying a bone club from which human brains dripped constantly. The other figure had come as the Lady Of The Lake; an ethereally slender woman in pure white samite, who ran constantly with the dark river waters that had drowned her. The water collected and pooled about her bare feet, but somehow never spread any farther. Random tried to read some meaning or significance into the esper leaders' choice of images, but like everyone else he retreated baffled. Sometimes Random thought they just chose their images at random, to mess with people's heads and keep them off balance.

  It was what he would have done.

  There were fifty Members of Parliament, from all the main parties and factions, most ostentatiously not talking to one another, but still making pointed comments in loud voices when anyone else made the mistake of looking interested. Almost as many more Family representatives were there too, again covering a broad spectrum of interests and influence, including a last-minute substitution for Cardinal Brendan, who had business elsewhere. The replacement spokesman for Clan Chojiro (and, of course, Blue Block) was Matoul Chojiro; a tall, gawky, and wide-eyed young man, apparently on his first assignment for the Clan. He seemed open and innocent, and fooled absolutely no one. And last, but definitely not in any way least, the large and portly figure of Elias Gutman, Speaker of the House. He smiled amiably at one and all, but his eyes were cold and thoughtful.

  Jack Random strode through the crowd, brushing aside those before him by sheer force of personality, and came to a halt before Gutman. The Speaker bowed, with surprising grace for someone of his bulk. Random didn't bow in return. "I'm glad you're here, Elias. What I've got planned just wouldn't be the same without you here."

  "How could I not attend?" said Gutman easily. "After your excesses on Loki, I'm as interested as anyone in how you plan to justify yourself. And then there's your promise of a statement of policy that will change Imperial politics forever. I do hope that wasn't just rhetoric, Random. I'd hate to think I was brought here under false pretenses, when there are so many other useful things I could be doing."

  "Don't worry, Elias," said Random. "I guarantee this is one statement of principles you'll never forget."

  He strode on through the last of the crowd, and jumped lightly up onto the raised dais at the end of the hall. Ruby stepped up to stand beside him, still scowling. The great crowd before them quickly grew quiet, conversations abandoned in midstream, as they realized Random was about to start.

  "Thank you all for coming," said Jack Random calmly. "So good to see so many of you here. Not a bad turnout, all things considered. I had hoped a few more of the top echelons might have put in an appearance… but you'll do nicely to help me make my point. Let me start by addressing my recent visit to the planet Loki. I'm sure you've all heard awful rumors about what I did there. I'd just like to say that they're all true. Especially the worst ones." The listening crowd stirred and murmured uneasily, but Random just kept talking over them, and they shut up to hear what he was saying. He was smiling as he looked about him, and sounded quite calm, almost cheerful. "When I arrived on Loki, I found an unacceptable situation. War criminals from the old Imperial administration had been placed in power over the colonists, and were bleeding the economy dry, to feather the nests of their backers, here on Golgotha. So I had them all hanged. The rebel leader
s there had sold out to Shub, so I had them hanged too.

  "They were all guilty. All dirty. All politicians.

  "I learned many valuable, if painful, lessons on Loki. You see, I have drifted very far from what I used to be, and what I used to stand for. I was the professional rebel, and I stood for justice. To win the rebellion, I allowed myself to be persuaded away from such an absolute position, and embraced the compromises and little victories of politics. Just to save a few lives. But after Lionstone fell, I saw my dream of freedom and honor for all corrupted by the very people I entrusted it to. Nothing's really changed. The same sort of people are still in charge, and many of the old injustices are still in place. And I will not stand for that any longer.

  "There will be no more compromises. No more betrayals. No more politics from me. No more secret meetings in back rooms, where the privileged few decide the fate of the many. I return to my old mantle of the professional rebel, answerable to no one but myself and my own conscience. I am back, and I will not be turned aside again."

  There was a pause as he looked out over his gathered guests, still smiling that unsettling endless smile.

  "And what, exactly," said Elias Gutman from the middle of the crowd, "does this change in direction amount to? What are you going to do, Random? What can you do?"

  "Just what I did on Loki," said Jack Random easily. "Punish the guilty. Kill all of those responsible for the corruption of my dream. Kill all the lying politicians, the special interest groups who only care for their own, the Families striving to claw their way back into power and privilege. I'm going to kill everyone who denies the people the freedom I promised them. Starting with everyone in this room. I could have just planted a bomb here, but I wanted this to be a personal statement, so I'm going to kill you all personally. Feel free to pray to any God you think might be listening."