Deathstalker 01 - Deathstalker

Finlay."
    Finlay remained diplomatically silent and followed the Stevie Blues as they threaded their way through the interconnecting corridors of Silo Nine. There was still no sign of any guards, and the corridors had the quiet stillness of a jungle with its predators hidden just out of sight, waiting to pounce. They filed quickly down a narrow corridor set with featureless steel doors. Something about the doors made Finlay feel uneasy. They had the solid impenetrable look of doors that didn't open easily or too often. He looked at Evangeline.
    "Any idea what's behind those doors?"
    "Oh, yes," said Evangeline quietly. "This is where they keep the monsters: the espers and clones experimented on by Silo Nine's scientists. They're not human anymore, in shape or in mind. We can't rescue them. What's been done to them cannot be undone."
    "All the same, we can't just leave them here to rot in their cells. Why can't we just blow open the doors, from a safe distance, and let them run loose? At least they'd have a chance to get away, and if nothing else they should keep the authorities busy."
    "No. They still have worms in their heads. As long as Wormboy lives, they belong to him, body and soul. It always comes back to him, Finlay. He's the dark, rotten heart of Silo Nine. It's his dreams that breed monsters. Now come along
    and keep your voice down. You might wake them."
    And so on they went, along corridors and down stairways, sinking deeper and deeper into Wormboy Hell. Until finally they came to a huge, featureless wall, and there was nowhere else to go. Finlay studied the map in his head, but it was definitely a dead end. Beyond the wall there was just a great empty space. And then he studied the map more carefully and frowned. For an empty hall, there were a hell of a lot of pipes and conduits and energy cables going in and out.
    And so he realized what he'd really known all along, but hadn't wanted to admit.
    They'd finally come to Wormboy's lair.
    "All that space just for him?" he said finally. "How big is he?"
    "The word is they're going to have to build him a new home," said Evangeline.
    "He's getting too big for this one."
    Finlay decided he wasn't going to think about that for the moment "All right, how do we get to him? What kind of defenses has he got?"
    "He doesn't need any defenses," said Pindar. "He's Wormboy. There are no guards, no high-tech security systems. Just him. And that's enough. He's the strongest esper the Empire labs ever produced, a mind so advanced as to be beyond our comprehension. Vast, unknowable, and inhumanly powerful. And possibly quite insane."
    Finlay glared at him. "You're just full of good news, aren't you? He can't really be that powerful. Can he?"
    "No one knows," said Evangeline. "No one's ever got this close to him before.
    And even allowing for Imperial hyperbole, he's got to be pretty damned amazing to run a prison the size of Silo Nine. He has continuous mental contact with thousands of minds through his worms, and he knows what all of them are thinking at any given moment. Just another reason why no one has ever escaped from
    Wormboy Hell."
    "This gets better all the time," said Finlay. He hefted the gun and sword in his hands, but the familiar weights had lost all power to comfort him. He glared at the long featureless steel wall before him, and it stared back, giving nothing away. "Anything will die if you hit it hard enough and long enough. How do we get to him? Is there a door somewhere?"
    "No doors," said Evangeline. "No windows. Wormboy isn't going anywhere. They built the hall around him and then sealed it shut. We'll have to break in."
    "Great. Got any more grenades up your sleeve?"
    "You don't need a grenade," said Stevie One. "You've got us."
    "Never met a wall that could keep us out," said Stevie Two.
    "Right," said Stevie Three.
    They moved forward to stand before the great steel wall and stared at it thoughtfully. The temperature in the corridor rose sharply, and Finlay and the others backed away to a safe distance. The wall before the three espers glowed a cheerful cherry red and began to steam. It got hotter and hotter in the corridor, and slender rivulets of melting metal ran down the wall. The heat before the Stevie Blues had to be unbearable, but they stood their ground. They held each other's hands as sweat ran down their faces, and more molten metal ran down the wall. Finally the metal collapsed inward like sticky toffee, and a hole appeared. A terrible