Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

always ended in bloodshed. Sometimes on a grand scale. The times were supposed to have changed, and new laws were supposed to protect people from the old outrages, but looking at the many armed guards, it wasn't difficult to believe that someone in power still believed the old ways were best.
    Finally Robert Campbell stepped forward, and the crowd fell quiet. Even if it was bad news, they wanted to know what was coming. If only so they could start planning which way to duck, and who else they could try and lay the blame on.
    Most of them trusted Robert to give it to them straight. He looked out over the assembled crowd, his face hard and cold, and when he spoke his voice was measured and deliberate.
    "You will have noticed that the Speaker, Elias Gutman, is missing from his chair. He has been proven not just a traitor, but an Enemy of Humanity. Gutman
    was one of the dragon's teeth, his mind destroyed in the computer Matrix. Shub looked out of his eyes, and spoke with his mouth." He paused a moment, as though expecting some comment or reaction, but the crowd just stared back at him, waiting for the other shoe to fall. They knew there had to be more, and it was going to be bad. Robert squared his shoulders, and continued. "Grace Shreck has been revealed as a Fury, and destroyed. From studying her and Gutman's records, we have determined that Shub has infiltrated all levels of authority and security on Golgotha. It has therefore been determined that everyone of substance should be brought here, to be scanned by espers, so we can be sure who is who, and what is what."
    He paused again, and this time the crowd answered him with a roar of defiance.
    The harsh, angry sound filled the great chamber, loud and overpowering. Fists were shaken, and empty hands twitched unhappily at sides where swords and guns would normally have hung. No weapons had been allowed in the House, this time.
    It wasn't that the crowd didn't believe what Robert had told them, or that they didn't appreciate the importance of what had been discovered. They just couldn't accept an esper scan as the answer. Everyone has something they can't bear to have known, even to their closest and most-loved ones. The crowd stirred this way and that, its anger building, but for the moment they remained quelled by the many guns trained on them from all sides. Finally two men pushed their way to the front of the crowd, and glared up at the Campbell. Roj Peyton, Merchant Prince, was a large square-built man with a history of cunning deals and hard bargaining. At his side stood the acerbic social columnist Dee Langford, purveyor of unsuspected truths and assassin of reputations, whose pieces everyone read, if only to be sure they weren't in them.
    "Where the hell do you get off, ordering us brought to Parliament like this?"
    snapped Peyton. "Under armed guards and implied threats! Who gave you authority over us?"
    "You did," said Constance Wolfe, stepping forward to stand beside Robert Campbell. Her voice was cold and dangerous. "You chose us to be the new monarchs of the Empire because you trusted us. Trust us now to do what is necessary for the good of Humanity. After this is over, power will return to the Members of Parliament. Or at least, the remaining MPs." She looked around her for challenges, but the crowd was quiet again, desperate for more information.
    Constance continued. "Who else could the uncoverers of this plot turn to, but Robert and I? Particularly when it became clear that Parliament itself had been infiltrated by our enemies? The innocent have nothing to fear. The espers have assured me that only the lightest of mental touches are necessary to determine if your thoughts are human or otherwise."
    "We only have your word for that," said Langford smoothly. "The esper underground could do much to increase its status and influence, if it had access to our thoughts. We cannot put ourselves into the hands of potential blackmailers. What you ask is unacceptable, and we refuse."
    "Too late," said Constance. "We had all of Parliament's esp-blockers removed before you got here. The elves have been scanning you ever since you arrived, and have been determining who our real enemies are even while you've been talking. The guards have been given their targets on a shielded comm channel.
    Death to the Enemies of Humanity!"
    And on that prearranged signal, sharpshooters among the guards in the galleries opened fire on their individual targets. Soft-nosed bullets took