Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

explains a lot."
    "Come in, dear," said Grace calmly. "Make yourself at home. Would you care for some tea?"
    "No tea," said Toby. "I'm here for answers. And I'm not leaving till I get some."
    "You won't like them," said Grace, her voice and face curiously calm, almost
    uninvolved.
    "Let's start with the human slime beside you," said Toby. He glared at Gutman.
    "How long have you been using my Family as a front?"
    "Oh, you'd be surprised," said Elias Gutman, smiling easily. "Grace was one of the few aristos still left that everybody trusted. That made her very useful. I must say; I'm very impressed with you, Toby. No one was ever supposed to know what was going on here, till it was far too late to do any good."
    "All right, Elias; hit me. What's been going on?"
    "Uh, Boss…" said Flynn.
    Toby looked round to find Grace's servants filing silently in through the open doorway. There were twenty of them, all armed with guns, all of them with the same blank, fixed expression. They quickly surrounded Toby and Flynn, and covered them with their guns.
    "We've been expecting you," said Grace. "Your accessing the Family files set off a silent alarm. We considered having you killed immediately, but in the end we felt sure your curiosity and surprisingly strong sense of Family honor would bring you here before you went public with any accusations. We will allow your cameraman to make a full record of what happens here. We can release it later, when it can do the most damage."
    "What the hell's the matter with you, Grace?" said Toby. "If you had problems, why didn't you come to me, instead of this worm Elias? And where's Clarissa?"
    "She'll be joining us shortly," said Grace, entirely unmoved by Toby's anger.
    "And I thought you would have guessed what's going on here by now. It's really very simple. I'm not Grace Shreck, and that isn't Elias Gutman. We're both agents of Shub. I am a Fury; a machine with human shape and covering. Elias, and
    all the servants here, are dragon's teeth. Shub's thoughts move in their brains.
    Elias lost his mind in the computer Matrix some time ago, and it was simple enough for him to send the servants in too, one at a time, on one pretext or another. Now we are the eyes and ears of the rogue AIs of Shub. A sixth column, in the heart of Humanity's homeworld. And you wouldn't believe all the damage we've been able to do."
    "As Speaker of the House, I have automatic access to all political and military intelligence," said the thing with Gutman's face and voice. "All of it goes straight to Shub. I have also spent a great deal of time intriguing secretly with all the political parties and factions, of every extreme, keeping them paranoid and carefully balanced against each other, ensuring that no real discussion or agreement is ever made. And, of course, I know all their dirty little secrets too. At the right moment, we shall reveal them all. And what chaos there will be then…"
    "You bastards," said Toby numbly. "I never even suspected. You're no great loss, Elias, but Grace… I always liked Grace. Even if she never did approve of me. No wonder you seemed to come out of your shell in such a hurry. What happened to the real Grace Shreck?"
    "Well," said the Fury, "I'm wearing all that's left of her."
    Toby made an inarticulate sound of rage and pain and lurched forward. Flynn grabbed him by the arm and stopped him. Toby stood breathing harshly, glaring at the machine wearing his dead aunt's skin. "And Clarissa?" he said, finally.
    "Still very much alive and human," said Gutman, smiling his unwavering smile.
    "Our captive, and our hostage. We always knew she'd come in handy, if we ever needed control over you. If you behave, you'll get to see her soon."
    "And then what happens?" said Toby, his hands clenched into useless fists at his
    sides.
    "You'll be replaced, all three of you," said the Fury. "We'll drug you just enough to make you tractable without it being too obvious, and then Elias will take you into the Matrix, and the AIs will force out all your messy human thoughts, and replace them with the logic of Shub. You'll make very useful traitors. A newsman can do much to demoralize Humanity. I think we'll start with a public campaign against the espers; a witch-hunt of paranoia and suspicion.
    Shouldn't take long to herd them into concentration camps, for… processing. They are, after all, the only ones who could detect our presence."
    "I'll die before I help you against Humanity," said Toby