Deathstalker 02 - Deathstalker Rebellion

attack troops? Just the fact that they're still around despite everything we've done to exterminate them shows they're survivors, if nothing else."

    "May I just point out," said Beckett unhurriedly, "that it was the rebels'
    lowering of Golgotha's defenses that made the aliens' attack possible?"
    "They were probably working with the aliens," said Kassar.
    "All the more reason to contact them and get them on our side," said Beatrice, unmoved.
    "They are guilty of crimes against humanity," Kassar insisted. "The guilty must be punished."
    "On the other hand," said Beckett, rolling his cigar sensuously between his fingers to hear the leaves crackle, "if we don't bring the rebels into the fold, they might just take the opportunity to stab us in the back while we're distracted by the alien attack."
    "Kill them all," said Kassar. "Clones and espers and non-people. They're as alien to us as anything that might come from beyond the Rim."
    "Typical of the Church these days," said Beatrice. "Rather fight than think; rather lose than try diplomacy. Fanatics unite; you have nothing to lose but your mind."
    "Well said," said Valentine Wolfe. "I couldn't have put it better myself."
    They all looked around to find Valentine had emerged from the crowd and was standing right behind them. Beatrice ostentatiously moved a step away, to put more distance between herself and the Wolfe. Valentine smiled at her dazzlingly.
    Kassar glared at him.
    "What do you want, degenerate?"
    "Well, I have a list if you're interested, Kassar, but you're really not my type. I just wanted to agree with everything Beatrice said."
    "Thanks a whole bunch," said Beatrice. "If you're on my side, they'll never
    believe me. You do this to me deliberately, don't you? Just because I wouldn't marry you, you're determined to ruin my life."
    "You wound me deeply," said Valentine. "Can't a man speak out for common sense and sanity anymore?"
    "And what the hell would you know about sanity?" demanded Beatrice. "There are depressed lemmings on the edges of cliffs who've got a better grasp on reality than you have. And more common sense."
    "If you two would like a little privacy," Beckett began, and then decided not to say anymore as Beatrice glared at him.
    "I would rather be left in the company of a piranha with an overbite! Don't you move one step, General. That goes for you, too, Kassar. Loathsome though your presence undoubtedly is, it is still preferable to that of the genetic disaster area currently heading the Wolfe Family. I understand there are plans for the Dangerous Chemicals Investigation Board to have him declared a toxic-waste dump.
    Maybe then we could have him banned from inhabited areas on health grounds."
    "Ah," said the Empress from her Throne. "Young love…"
    Not all that far away, Gregor Shreck glared at the company before the Iron Throne. By rights he should have been there, too, adding his words and wisdom to whatever they were discussing. He was head of one of the oldest Families in the Empire, and a man to be noticed. But he had been robbed of his true position in society by back-stabbing traitors who refused to admit his true qualities. They smiled at his face, laughed at his back, and whispered against him. They'd pay.
    They would all pay, one day. But that could wait. For the moment he had little room in himself for anything but rage. Evangeline had left him. The ungrateful little bitch had actually dared to walk out on him. Together with that cow Adrienne, she'd found the courage to outface him, but they'd find out soon
    enough that no one downed Gregor Shreck and lived to boast of it. Evangeline might think herself safe among the underground and the non-people, but there was bound to be a weak link somewhere, and he had all the time, money, and venom he needed to find it. Someone would respond to money or pressure or the right kind of deal. Someone always did. And then he'd get her.
    It wouldn't be long before people started noticing that Evangeline wasn't around. People in Tower Shreck would talk. You couldn't stop them. Then people in the Court would spot a potential weakness and start asking questions. Where was she? What had happened to her? What had he done to her? There were always people ready to stick their noses in where they didn't belong. He could always clone another Evangeline; he still had the tissue samples from the original. But it would take months to rear and train her. It had with the last one. And what if the first clone