Deathstalker 01 - Deathstalker

holding it securely. Her augmentations were powerful in both the real world and in this, and they held the howling beast while Lionstone tore it apart with her bare hands.
    Dram watched from a respectful distance, on his feet again. Someone had invested a lot of thought and power in the attack, but as usual they'd underestimated the Empress. She tore the creature's ravaged head from its body and held it up before her blazing eyes. It whimpered and tried to fall apart, but Lionstone's will held it together.
    "Who sent you? Who made you? What's your master's name?"
    But her words activated a hidden program within the creature, scrambling its information irretrievably. The Empress swore and released it, and it fell apart
    into a billion bytes, sparking and sputtering as they died. Dram moved cautiously back to stand beside the Empress.
    "Who do you think sent it: Snub?"
    "More likely one of their agents. No human could stand up to anything from Shub.
    We're not going to find any answers here. Dram. I was a fool to think I would.
    The Matrix is too big and my mind too limited. Anything could be hidden here, and we wouldn't know till it jumped out of the shadows to bite us. I need someone who understands this place; a cyberat, perhaps. Do you think you could find me a cyberat, Dram?"
    "No problem. Finding a cooperative one might be hard, though."
    "Bring him to me," said Lionstone. "I can be very persuasive when I put my mind to it." She looked out over the Matrix, and Dram wondered how far her augmented eyes saw. She was silent for a long time, and when she finally spoke her voice was quiet and thoughtful. "Look at it, Dram. It's bigger than Golgotha. We made it, but we don't understand it. The computers and the AIs shaped it for their own needs and convenience, and all we can ever be is observers. It's not under our control anymore, if it ever was. But I will find a way, Dram. No machine will ever rule my Empire."
    Dram nodded respectfully, and if he had any thoughts of his own, he kept them to himself. Thoughts could go a long way in the Matrix.

Chapter 10
    Hostile Takeover
    Finlay Campbell was late for the weekly Clan Campbell board meeting. He believed in being late; it made other people appreciate his presence that much more. And it had to be said that he wasn't looking forward to this particular meeting at all. Just lately everything seemed to be going wrong, and for the first time in
    his life he hadn't a clue as to what to do for the best. It had all got so damned complicated. The demands on him as the Masked Gladiator were growing all the time as his popularity increased, and the pressure on his secret identity was becoming intolerable. He was only able to lead his two lives because the Arena crowds and officials connived with him, but their curiosity was becoming more intense than their hero worship, and it was only a matter of time now before someone turned on him. The crowd always turns on its heroes eventually, for money or a moment's fame, or just to see the high brought low. If he had any sense he'd retire now, while he was still young and intact and it was still safe to do so, but being the Masked Gladiator was important to him. Certainly more than being that most renowned fop and dandy Finlay Campbell. He'd originally created the persona as a joke to draw attention away from the real him, but the joke wasn't funny anymore. If only because he wasn't entirely sure who the real him was now.
    Only an hour earlier he'd stood beside his bed, quite naked, staring down at two outfits spread out before him. If he put on one set of clothes he was Finlay, and if he put on the other he was the Gladiator, but who was he right then, standing naked and alone without an outfit to define his identity? Who was he when he stared into a mirror and didn't recognize the face he saw there? He'd played his two roles so long and with such conviction that they almost seemed to exist apart from him, as people in their own right. The masks had fastened themselves to his face and wouldn't let go. He used to know who the real him was, and that was the man who loved Evangeline Shreck. But their time together was becoming increasingly limited, as their respective Families made more and more demands on them, and both Finlay and the Gladiator were needed elsewhere.

    He loved her and he needed her, but who did she love, really? And were any of the people she loved really him?
    In the end he'd put on Finlay's clothes, because that was