Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

threatening. The whole lab began to shake. Tech exploded, collapsed in on itself, melted and ran away. Fires broke out spontaneously all over the lab, and all the automatic sprinklers came on. Great dents appeared in the steel walls, as though something was beating on them with invisible fists.
    Computers began chanting in unknown languages, in loud angry voices. The clones clung together, crying out like frightened children. Du Katt was trying to hide behind Finn, who swept his gun back and forth, searching for a target. The temperature in the lab suddenly plummeted, as though something was sucking all the warmth out of it. And slowly and remorselessly, something began to manifest. It wasn't in any way human, and none of them could bear to look at it. Finn put away his gun, undipped a grenade from his belt and threw it at the chamber holding the activated cell samples. The grenade detonated, and the whole container disappeared. The presence snapped off, still unformed, gone as though it had never been there. The fires went out, the sprinklers shut down, the computers shut up. The laboratory slowly grew still again.
    "Well," said Finn. "I don't think we'll try that again. Du Katt, where… Ah, there you are. Would I be right in assuming those were the very last untreated cell samples you had?"
    "I'm afraid so, Sir Durandal," du Katt said unhappily. "The procedures we had to use were very destructive, as I advised you. And since we destroyed the bodies, on your instructions, there won't be any more. And I can't help feeling that's probably a good thing."
    "You never were very ambitious," said Finn. He drew his disrupter again, picked a clone at random, and shot him. The energy beam punched right through his chest, and sent the dead body crashing to the floor.
    Flames flickered around the great hole in his chest, but not strongly enough to bring on the sprinklers again. Du Katt and the other clones called out with one voice, and then were very still. Finn looked around him, smiling easily.
    "Just a little reminder to do better, in the future. I reward success, but I always punish failure. So, keep yourselves busy, until I have other work for you. And du Katt, what do you think that was? That thing we summoned?"
    Du Katt swallowed hard. "I think that might have been Random or Journey's ghost, Sir Durandal."
    Finn nodded. "What a remarkable age we do live in, du Katt. Better have the lab exorcised. Just in case."
    Emma Steel was standing on her head in one corner of her room, doing her breathing exercises, when the front door announced she had a visitor. Emma sighed heavily. It never failed. It was the end of another long day, and she'd been looking forward to a little quiet relaxation before she crashed out on her bed, and now some poor fool had turned up to annoy her. If it was another representative from the Church Militant, come to ask her aggressively about the state of her soul, Emma decided she was going to see how many times she could get him to bounce as she threw him down the stairs. She regained her feet, stalked over to the door and scowled through the viewer. On the other side of the door she was surprised to see Stuart Lennox, the young Paragon from Virimonde. She hadn't thought he was talking to her. Even more surprising, he showed clear signs of having been crying recently. Very recently. Emma sighed again. This was going to be complicated, she just knew it. She unlocked and opened the door and gave Stuart her best cold glare.
    "It's been a very long day," she said flatly. "And I can't believe you've come all this way, at this late hour, to bring me good news. So, what's happened?"
    Stuart swallowed noisily. His eyes were red and puffy, and all the self-respect had gone out of him. He looked like a child dressed up in Paragon's armor. "It's all gone wrong, Emma. You have to help me."
    "Give me one good reason."
    "You're the only one who can help!"
    "Why don't you go to your good friend Finn Durandal?"
    Stuart burst into tears. Loud, helpless, dismal sobs that shook his whole body. He just stood there, as though he didn't even have the strength left to raise his hands to his face. Emma raised her eyes to the heavens, and stepped back.
    "Oh, all right! All right! Get in here, before the neighbors see you. And stop that sniveling—you're a Paragon!"
    Stuart tried hard, rubbing at his nose with the back of his hand as he entered Emma's apartment. He walked as though there was something broken inside him, and