Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

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    Toby had been quietly gathering information on the spreading nano plague for some time. It wasn't easy. The moment the plague was detected, a full quarantine was imposed on the entire planet, and all further information came under a Need
    to Know basis. Which meant the bribes Toby had to pay were even higher than usual. At first the outbreaks appeared to have nothing in common, but Toby was convinced there had to be a pattern in there somewhere, perhaps even a trail that could be traced back to an initial outbreak. And no one was better than Toby Shreck when it came to putting two and two together and making seven. He kicked his computer terminal awake, and accessed the data he'd been compiling over the last few months. If anybody knew anything, or even suspected anything, about the nano outbreaks, he was sure he had it here somewhere, only a few keystrokes away. He took a good gulp of whiskey, used a second mouthful to wash down a couple of uppers, lit a cigar and stuck it in the corner of his mouth.
    The combined jolt hit his system like a wake-up call from God, and he dived into the info like a bloodhound hunting rats.
    He plunged recklessly through the infostream, kicking his way through endlessly detailed reports, guided by instinct and years of experience. Patterns configured and flew apart as he tested them on the anvil of his logic, puffing at his cigar, his eyes darting from screen to screen around him. More whiskey, a few more pills, and whatever chocolates came first to hand. He was flying now, his thoughts darting faster than his fingers could call up the info. Minutes became hours, and he didn't notice, jazzed to the breaking point and hurtling from theory to theory like a pinball with a flare up its ass.
    There had to be a carrier. A single carrier, taking the nano plague from one outbreak to another. Unknown, undetected. Which, given the current level of war-status security on every planet these days, should have been impossible.
    Maybe the carrier was a Typhoid Mary, not actually ill themselves, but still contagious… No, even then Security should have spotted something at the various starports. Unless the carrier had some way of circumventing starport security…
    More whiskey, to wash down more chocolates. Light up another cigar and chew on the end. Get up and walk around and kick the furnishings, thinking, thinking.
    Back at the terminals, his fingertips ached from pounding the keys. Okay. Nano plague. Last known nano outbreak in the Empire was long ago, on Zero Zero.
    Quarantine there still unbroken. Look at the chronological order of the new outbreaks. Seven planets, widely spaced across the Empire, going down with the plague only days apart. No way one carrier could have traveled between them that quickly. Dead end.
    But… what if that was the trail? Ignore the travel time, put the outbreaks in chronological order, and you get a clear picture of the nano plague hopping its way from world to world, starting at the Rim and heading inward. Heading toward…
    Golgotha? Homeworld? And which current Enemy of Humanity had recently been proved to possess teleportation? Shub. The rogue AIs of Shub. They could drop their carrier onto a planet, bypassing the starports and local security completely, and then teleport him offworld once his infectious job had been done…
    Toby sat back in his chair, suddenly very sober indeed despite the many substances racing through his bloodstream. The nano plague was a Shub weapon.
    Had to be. And everyone else was so occupied with fighting off Furies and Ghost Warriors and Grendels and the bloody Hadenmen, that they'd never noticed the real threat, the silent killer in their midst. That could come and go unseen, unnoticed, killing off a planet at a time. Toby chewed on his lower lip, his thoughts flying furiously. He couldn't just broadcast this on the main evening news; there'd be mass panic. Paranoia. Rioting in the streets. And he'd end up watching it all on the communal holo set in whatever prison they finally locked
    him up in, for starting it all. But he couldn't just sit on this. The people had a right to know the danger they were facing… He was still struggling with that one when the door burst open to reveal a breathless Flynn.
    "Toby! Why the hell did you turn your pager off? Everybody in Imperial News has been trying to contact you, and Security couldn't remember where they'd put you!"
    "Just as well. I didn't want to be disturbed. I've been