Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

gain access to the trains safely. Owen, Hazel, and I will undertake this mission."
    "Hold everything," said the AI Ozymandius in Owen's ear. "Sorry to interrupt, boss, but your ancestor's words have tripped a file hidden deep within my memory by your father. He knew about these trains and tunnels, and has given me all the necessary security codes to get you onto the trains and into the Palace."
    "Are you sure about this?" said Owen, subvocalizing. "If you get just one of those codes wrong, we're all dead."
    "Trust me," said the AI. "This is the real thing, Owen. Your father believed in planning ahead."
    Owen passed on the AI's words, and there was an awkward pause. Owen had always maintained he'd used his Maze powers to completely destroy the treacherous AI Ozymandius when it turned out to be working for the Empire, and tried to use control words it had implanted in Owen and Hazel to make them kill the others.
    Only sometime later Oz, or something claiming to be Oz, turned up in Owen's head again. No one but Owen could hear its voice, but the information it occasionally volunteered was always reliable. For the rest of the time, Owen tried hard to ignore it.
    "Your father would naturally have tried to gain access to those codes," Giles said slowly. "I suppose it's possible he could have hidden them in your AI for safekeeping. There's no way of testing them here. I suppose we'll find out
    whether they're the real thing when we get there. It would certainly simplify things a lot. Even with our powers, breaking out of the Palace station was always going to be a major undertaking. So, it would appear we'll just have to trust Oz. Whoever or whatever he really is."
    "Thanks a whole bunch," Oz murmured in Owen's ear. Owen didn't pass that on.
    Hazel shook her head. "Great. We're going to risk all our lives on a voice in Owen's head only he can hear. What do we do for an encore, make a sacrifice to the gods and read our fortune in its entrails?"
    "Don't tempt me," said Giles. "Next, Jack Random and Ruby Journey will lead the gravity-sled attack on the Family Towers, as arranged with the underground. For the moment the Clans seem to have decided they're on no one's side but their own, but that won't last. The outlawing of David and the threatened mechanization of their planets hit them where they lived, but it won't take them long to realize that their financial and social well-being is irrevocably linked to the Empire as it is. A successful rebellion by the lower orders would be their worst nightmare come true. So, faced with the loss of their wealth and position, they'll finally have to commit their troops to defending the Empress, on the grounds that the crazy devil you know is still preferable to the devil with blood in his eyes and centuries of grudges to catch up on. At this stage, their troops might just be enough to turn things in the Empress's favor. It's therefore vital we keep them pinned down in their Towers, well away from the main action. We want them preoccupied with their own survival, rather than the Empress's.
    "Random, we've been through the logistics of this with the underground. You know what to do. A flotilla of gravity sleds is waiting just outside the Parade of
    the Endless for you to lead them in. Apparently competition to man the sleds, and follow you into almost certain death for the majority, was very hard-fought.
    It would seem there are still a great many people who still believe in the professional rebel. But Random, while you're out there enjoying yourself raining death and destruction down on the heads of the Lords, remember we still need some of them left alive afterward to oversee the economy once the rebellion is over."
    "I'll see what I can do," said Random calmly. "No promises."
    Giles sighed, and shook his head. "Ruby Journey will, of course, accompany you.
    If only because no one else feels safe around her."
    "You say the nicest things," said Ruby.
    "If they're going, I'm going, too," said Alexander Storm firmly. "I haven't waited this long to miss out on the downfall of the Families. I've worked and fought all my life to see them go down in flames, and I'm damned if I'm being left behind. I might not be as young as some people, but I can still carry my weight."
    "Oh, let him come," said Ruby. "He'll only sulk otherwise."
    "Of course you're coming with us, Alex," Random said reassuringly. "I wouldn't dream of doing this without my old comrade at my side."
    "You're using that word old