Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

and gathered a new rebel force around them, mostly people disillusioned that the new order hadn’t immediately made them all wealthy and powerful. It wasn’t much of a force, and they weren’t much of a problem. Until the Shub forces arrived to back them up. Apparently, in the last days of their power, Tallon and Jacks had secretly formed an alliance with the enemies of Humanity. And now Young Jack Random leads the rebel forces. Tallon and Jacks stay pretty much in the background these days.” “So,”
    said Random. “I’ve been sent here to fight for the established order against old rebel comrades.”
    “Got it in one,” said de Lisle, though he had sense enough not to smile when he said it. “Funny how things work out, isn’t it?” “Don’t push it,” said Random. “At least now I know why Parliament wanted me here. They think coverage of me fighting rebel forces will tie me more strongly to them, distance me from any forces that might oppose Parliament’s authority. Well, we’ll see about that. Right now Ruby and I need some rest. No doubt your quarters are the most comfortable, de Lisle, so we’ll take them.
    You’ll have to make your own arrangements. Any problems, talk to my liaison, Savage, and he will officially ignore them on my behalf. Savage, we’re leaving.” “Yes, sir Random. Please follow me.
    Random nodded to the Councillors, Ruby nodded to the guards she was covering with her gun, and they stalked out of the room after Savage. And for a long time in the Council chamber, no one said anything.
    Some time later, when everyone but the night shift was safely asleep, Savage, Random, and Ruby moved quietly through the narrow streets, hidden inside concealing cloaks. Savage had already arranged it so that the guards on duty at the main computer center were friends of his, and they looked pointedly away as Savage led Random and Ruby in through the main door, using his new security rating to override the security systems. Once inside, Savage searched out the right terminal, then set about calling up all kinds of files he wasn’t supposed to know about. If having Random staring over his shoulder made him nervous, he did his best to hide it. Ruby watched the door, gun in hand, just in case. Random was surprised at how easy it had been. When he’d first explained to Savage that he wanted information only the main city computers were likely to have, he’d expected all kinds of problems. Instead, Savage had arranged everything with only a few quick calls to some old friends. “Run the names and backgrounds of all the city Councillors,” said Random. “What brought them here, and who put them in authority?”
    “Officially, the voters did,” said Savage, working his way past security blocks with the ease of long practice. “But since we’re all very new to democracy here, the winners tend to be those with the most money to spend during elections. As to their backgrounds… they were all Pardoned war criminals. How about that? All five of them were arrested and tried for crimes against Humanity, convicted and imprisoned, but later offered Pardons if they’d come and run things here.” “And that includes Bentley, the Security chief?” “Yeah. He was the first. Took up his position under Tallon and Jacks. Far as I know, he’s always done a good job.”
    “Who authorized these Pardons?” said Random, frowning. “And whose idea was it to send them here?”
    “That information isn’t here, sir Random. Or if it is, it’s buried so deep I can’t get at it. But only someone fairly high up in Parliament would have had the authority to set something like this in motion, and keep it quiet. I can tell you none of the colonists here knew about this. A lot of us took part in the original rebellion, and there’s no way we would have stood for that. Hell, maybe Tallon and Jacks had some justification, after all.” “There’s no justification for allying with Shub,” said Random. “Let’s see what else we can find on the Councillors. Crack open their bank accounts. I want to see what they’re being paid to run things here.” Savage had to use a lot of passwords he wasn’t supposed to know, but he finally got the answers he was looking for. Even the best systems will fall to an experienced hacker, and as Savage diffidently pointed out, there wasn’t a lot of things to do in Vidar when you were young and restless.
    Which was why Loki had the highest percentage of cyberats per