Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

He was all for revenge, these days.
    But the agreed time finally arrived, and he couldn't see any good reason for hanging back any longer, and he didn't want the ELFs to think they could intimidate him, so he stepped onto his gravity sled and swooped down into the intersection below. People scattered to give him room. He ignored them all, stepped off his hovering sled, and entered the vidphone booth. The phone immediately started ringing.
    They had been watching, after all. Probably through some far-off thrall's possessed eyes. No point in looking around: it could be anyone. Finn hit the accept button, and the screen lit up before him to show a male face he didn't recognize at all. The vicious arrogant smile and the wide staring eyes were familiar, though.
    "Hello, Finn. I do so love a man who's punctual. How do you like this body? Just a little something I threw on, especially for you. So we could have this little talk."
    "Forget the pleasantries," said Finn. "We're allies against a common enemy, and that's all we're ever going to be. Let's get down to business."
    'Yes. Let's. I want to hear you tell me all about how you're going to betray your fellow Paragons. I want to hear it from your own lips, see the truth of it in your eyes."
    'They're not my fellows anymore," Finn said calmly. "I disowned them. The plan is just as my people described it to you. By now the King will have put to Parliament my proposal for a Parade of Paragons.
    Including the route details I so kindly worked out for him. Here's the map, with all the particulars you'll need." Finn fed his infocard into the vidphone, and the ELF thrall downloaded the information at his end.
    "You now have the entire route, in advance, along with certain carefully worked out blind spots where you can conceal yourselves and wait. The Paragons won't be expecting a mass esper onslaught. They'll be too busy acknowledging the cheers and applause of the crowd to even realize what's happening until it's far too late. All the Paragons in one spot, trapped in a shooting alley, sitting ducks for determined ELFs with revenge on their mind. That's what I'm offering you. Real payback for what happened in the Arena."
    "Your information is very thorough," said the man possessed by another mind. "It appears to be everything you say it is. But why should we attack the Paragons in person? Much safer to use thralls. Use the innocent possessed to do our dirty work for us, so that even if the Paragons do fight back, they'll have to kill innocents to protect themselves. That's the ELF way."
    "Civilians with guns, even possessed civilians, won't stand a chance against massed Paragons," Finn said flatly. "They'll shoot your thralls down before you can achieve anything worthwhile. They'll hate themselves afterwards for doing it; but they'll do it. But, if you're there in person, in great enough numbers, that much massed mental power will be able to punch right through the few esp-blockers they'll have with them, and possess the Paragons themselves. You can make them kill each other. Your hands,
    once removed, doing the bloody business. So much more satisfying, yes? Revenge should always be personal. Understand; this is the only chance I can give you. Be a shame if you threw it away, just because you didn't have the balls to turn up in person."
    "You will see what the ELFs can do! We will show you atrocities and nightmares, never to be forgotten!
    We will do such things to the Paragons that when we finally let them die and go to Hell, the fires of the Pit will be a comfort to them!"
    "That's what I want," said Finn.
    "And when we're done with them, and they're all dead; we'll come for you, Finn Durandal. The last Paragon."
    "No," said Finn, smiling for the first time. "Then, I'll come for you.
    "You have no idea who we are and where we are," said the ELF, through the thrall. "And you never will; because we never leave loose ends."
    He held his hand up beside his face. It held a long knife with a serrated edge. The ELF made the thrall cut out his eyes, cut off his nose, and lick the blood off the blade, laughing breathily all the while. And then he cut his throat. Blood gushed out, spattering the vidphone camera lens. Finn watched, unmoved, as the ELF withdrew from the thrall's mind, leaving an innocent man to die a horrified, senseless death.
    He fell back out of camera range, and Finn shut down the link from his end. About what he'd expected from the ELFs. They'd always had a taste for