Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

don’t you—“ “We have to talk now, Finlay.
    Come over to my town house. I can’t leave. I can’t risk being seen. You have to come here. It’s important. My old esper contacts have turned up a connection between Gregor Shreck and the Chojiros.
    They’re working with Blue Block on some kind of scheme. I tried to contact Jack Random, but no one knows where he is. You’re the only other person I can trust with this.”
    “Yeah, right. Shit. Some days everything happens at once. All right, stay where you are. I’ll be with you as soon as I can.”
    “Sure, Finlay. See you.”
    The screen went dead. Finlay turned away to see Evangeline looking at him in disbelief. “You’re not seriously thinking of going, are you?” “I have to,” said Finlay. “I need to talk to him, to explain… you saw the state of him when he left. I’m worried he might do something… stupid. I won’t be long.”
    “What about me? Don’t I matter? I don’t want to be left alone, Finlay!”
    “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
    “Finlay!”
    “Evie, I have to do this. The Chojiro stuff might be nothing, just an excuse to reach out to me, but I can’t afford to assume that. If he’s right, I’ve got to contact a whole bunch of people… Evie, you know I wouldn’t leave you unless I had to.”
    “You’re always leaving me, Finlay. Rushing off to kill someone, to be the hero one more time. It’s always about what you need. What about what I need?” “You’re safe here. No one can get to you, not past Arena security. I have to go.
    This is important.”
    “And I’m not?”
    “I didn’t say that!”
    “If it’s so important, I’m coming with you.”
    “Evie, you can’t. You’re in no condition to go anywhere. And I think Julian and I need to be alone for this. You get some rest. I’ll be back soon, I promise.” “Finlay, if you leave me now, I won’t be here when you get back. I mean it, Finlay.”
    He left anyway, as both of them had known he would. Finlay Campbell never could turn down a call to action.
    Back in his old home once again, Julian Skye turned away from the deactivated viewscreen. He felt cold and empty and very tired. Only a few days ago his life had made sense. It had been ordered, secure, even routine. Now everything he’d ever cared for was gone. Everything but BB Chojiro. But there wasn’t time to feel sad, or sorry. There were things he had to do, preparations that had to be made, before Finlay arrived.
    Julian moved over to the low wooden table by the fire, and picked up the small silver casket waiting there. Its lid held the Family crest. His father had used it as a snuffbox. Julian had used it for other purposes, back in his rebel days. He opened the casket and took out a single black capsule, almost as big as his fingernail. He hefted it in his hand for a moment, and then went looking for a glass of wine.
    Something that size was going to be hard to swallow, and he’d always had trouble with pills. But he managed it eventually, with the aid of a glass and a half of wine, and a certain amount of straining. It felt decidedly uncomfortable going down, but he was beyond caring about things like that. A single black capsule. Just a little something to hold him together while he talked with BB Chojiro. He hoped he wouldn’t need it, but there was always the chance he would.
    He went and sat down in the parlor, and waited for Finlay to arrive. It took just under an hour, and when the doorbell rang, Julian was still sitting there. He hadn’t moved. He went to answer the door himself. He’d given the servants the rest of the evening off. He didn’t want any witnesses. He opened the front door to Finlay, and the two of them nodded awkwardly to each other. Julian led the way back to his parlor. They sat down on facing chairs before the banked fire and looked at each other.
    “I never meant for you to find out,” said Finlay. “I knew it would hurt you.”
    “You killed my brother, Auric.”
    “Yes, I did. I killed a lot of people in the Arena.” “He fought well. You could have just wounded him.
    The crowd would have turned up their thumbs for him.”
    “He fought too well. He’d had armor implanted under his skin, servomechanisms in his muscles. I really thought he was going to kill me. So I stopped him with a sword thrust to the only part of him that wasn’t armored: his eye.” “You were the Masked Gladiator. Undefeated Champion of the Arena. You could have found a