Deathstalker 08 - Deathstalker Coda

Badly.”
    Douglas’s attention was fixed on the sweating, shaking Elijah du Katt. “So, clone master, have you anything to say for yourself?”
    “None of it was my idea, Your Majesty! You must believe that! It was all down to Finn, all the things I did . . .”
    “Yes,” said Douglas. “All the things you did. Like desecrating my brother’s grave for the cell samples you needed to produce his clone. Like aiding and abetting in the imprisonment and death of my father. Things like that.”
    Du Katt tried to speak, but nothing come out, and he stood silent under Douglas’s accusing gaze.
    “The Emperor supposed you would want to execute du Katt and Dr. Happy yourself,” said Mr. Sylvester. “So he sent them to you. As a gift, and a sign of . . . good faith.”
    “Yes,” said Douglas. “I want to kill them. For all the harm and suffering they caused, for all the lives they poisoned and ruined. But I can’t just kill them. That would be wrong. Personal vengeance masquerading as justice is Finn’s way. I have to be better than that. There has to be justice. There has to be a trial.”
    “We don’t have time for trials,” said Diana Vertue, striding briskly into the room without waiting to be invited or announced. “Come on, Douglas; you didn’t really think you could hold this meeting without me knowing? I am a telepath, among other things. What’s the matter; were you afraid I wouldn’t approve of an alliance with Finn? Hell, I can face reality when I have to. A very temporary alliance against the uber-espers is the only sensible answer to our current problems. But we don’t have the time to waste on show trials for trash like this. If you can’t kill them, I can.”
    She looked at Elijah du Katt, and he collapsed dead on the floor. She looked at the severed head in its jar, and Nina recoiled with a squeak as head and jar vanished in a flare of psionic energies. Diana looked at Mr. Sylvester, and he flinched and cried out.
    “So perish all traitors,” said Diana Vertue, still sometimes Jenny Psycho. “Say hi to Finn for me, Mr. Sylvester. Tell him I’ll be seeing him soon.”
    Mr. Sylvester was still shaking when he was escorted back out of the Rookery, to carry Douglas’s acceptance of the alliance back to Finn Durandal.

    Douglas Campbell addressed a huge rally of his people, in the biggest open square in the Rookery. It took hours for the crowd to assemble, as damn near everyone came to listen. Nina’s cameras floated overhead, carrying Douglas’s words to the rest of the city, and Logres, and all the worlds in the Empire. Everyone knew about the thralls, everyone knew what the stakes were, so Douglas kept it short and simple.
    “We have to go out and fight the thralls. We, and Finn’s people, are all that stand between total domination of Logres by the uber-espers. I know it won’t come easy, to fight alongside Finn’s soldiers. Thugs and bullies and scumbags, most of them. But . . . the enemy of my enemy is my ally, if not actually my friend. There will be time for settling old scores later. After we’ve beaten the uber-espers and their thrall army.
    “And we can beat them. Thanks to the training we’ve put you through, preparing for the rebellion, you’re all first-class warriors. The thralls aren’t. All they have is numbers, and there’s a limit to how many of them can get into the city at one time. And because they’re being controlled by minds far away, they won’t be able to change tactics or react quickly to changing conditions. That should give us the advantage we need. And remember: always shoot to kill, even if you think you recognize someone. The people you knew are dead, mind-wiped by the controlling minds. We can’t save or rescue them; their bodies are nothing more than empty shells.
    “So, go and prepare yourselves for war, and victory. It is our time, come round at last.”
    The crowd cheered him until their throats were raw, brandishing their weapons at the sky, and of everyone there, only Douglas wondered if what he’d said was really true.

    Douglas went back to his hotel room, to be alone with his thoughts for a while, only to find an old familiar face waiting for him on the viewscreen Nina’s people had set up. The media tech who’d taken the call nodded quickly to Douglas, and then hurried out of the room. Douglas lowered himself slowly into his chair, never taking his eyes off the face on the screen. Lewis Deathstalker smiled back at