Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

said stubbornly. "We can't go on like this. We need help. It's in your best interests to arrange this meeting, Sir Durandal."
    "Oh, very well. If it'll make you happy. Seems nothing gets done right around here unless I do it myself.
    I'll contact the uber-espers and set up your meeting. I want to talk to them myself, and especially the Gray Train. I'm really not at all happy about losing so many Paragons at once. All right, that's it. You can go now, ELF. Don't slam the door on your way out, or I'll have the uber-espers stick your mind in something small and squishy for a week. Off you go. Don't forget to write. And Tel, find yourself a regeneration tank and clean yourself up. I have an errand for you to run."
    The Paragon Emma Steel had agreed to meet girl reporter Nina Malapert at Nina's place, but she had only to walk into the reporter's living room to feel she might have made a terrible mistake. Nina was a single girl who lived alone, and it showed. Things just couldn't get this messy without a certain amount of determined effort. Emma stood perfectly still in the middle of the apartment so she wouldn't have to touch anything, while Nina bustled cheerfully back and forth around her, ostensibly tidying up, but mostly just picking things up and putting them down somewhere else. Emma's nostrils twitched as the pervasive aromas of cheap perfume, cheaper disinfectant and the lingering remains of several recent meals fought it out for supremacy.
    There were cuddly toys everywhere, beaming vacantly from every surface that wasn't already buried under gaudy china figurines of questionable taste, and vases full of drooping flowers. There was a long shelf of data recordings, and Emma just knew they hadn't been sorted into alphabetical order. Towering piles of fashion and gossip magazines threatened to topple over at any moment. Three of the living room walls were hidden behind live holo images showing a barren windswept moor, an overgrown garden with ivy-covered walls, and waves crashing soundlessly against craggy rocks in showers of spray. There was one desk, pushed tightly up against the one remaining wall, bearing a computer terminal, a remote camera in its recharging unit, and more piled up dirty plates and coffee mugs than the mind could comfortably come to terms with. Both of the comfortable chairs were full of dirty laundry. Nina bundled it all up and tottered off in her high heels to dump the laundry in the next room. Her voice came drifting back.
    "Sorry about the mess, darling, but I live here. Won't be a tick. Make yourself comfortable, and watch out for the goldfish. I dropped it a few days ago, and I still haven't found it. Do you like my holo walls?
    They appeal to my wild romantic side, but I find I have to keep the sound turned right down. Nature in the raw can be terribly distracting. Oh, would you like some coffee?"
    Emma looked at the dirty mugs on the desk and shuddered. "Not right now, thank you."
    "I'd offer you some brandy, but I don't have any."
    Emma headed for the nearest chair, kicking a stuffed bear out of the way. Nina cried out in distress from the doorway, and hurried over to pick up the bear and cuddle it to her.
    "Leave Bruin Bear alone, you big bully! There, there, lovey, she didn't mean it. She's just a nasty old Paragon who probably isn't getting her ashes hauled nearly often enough."
    "Why so many guns?" said Emma, deliberately changing the subject as she sank gingerly into the comfortable chair. She indicated the dozen or so energy weapons mounted inexpertly on the wall over the desk. Nina smiled, kissed Bruin Bear and wedged him in between other toys on the nearest shelf. She sat down opposite Emma, and crossed her legs to better show off her new shoes.
    "The guns are a legacy from my dear old forefather Flynn. He always said the first rule of journalism is, Be prepared to shoot at any time."
    Emma regarded the bulky energy guns dubiously. "Are you sure he didn't mean with a camera?"
    "Not these days, sweetie."
    Nina smiled happily at Emma, her tall pink mohawk swaying slightly. She was wearing a whole bunch of multicolored silks, and had clearly decided to let the colors fight it out among themselves for dominance: She had a bright red heart painted over her left eye, and lips of a dpxk scarlet hue never found in nature.
    Emma would have felt quite dowdy in her plain Paragons outfit, if she'd ever thought about such things.
    "Why did you call me here so urgently, Nina?" Emma said