Deathstalker 08 - Deathstalker Coda

just didn’t do it for him anymore. He still satisfied his various appetites to excess, wherever possible, but they were fleeting things. Only power and success really pleased him now, and power was an addictive drug. The more you had, the more you wanted.
    And, much to Finn’s chagrin, instead of tearing down the Empire and pissing on its ruins, as he’d always intended, Finn now spent most of his time working hard to keep the Empire strong and united, so that it could fend off the coming Terror. Finn had always understood about priorities.
    Joseph knew all about the Terror. Knew a great deal more than most, in fact, which was why he slept so badly. The Emperor had raised him to the highest level of importance in what remained of the civil government, which meant Joseph saw all the latest reports on the Terror as they came in. The bad news was that the Terror was still coming, and the Empire had no way of stopping it. The good news . . . well, there wasn’t any good news. They couldn’t tell the people that, so Joseph made lots of public appearances, saying vague and reassuring things in a loud and confident voice. (The Emperor didn’t go out in public much anymore, rather to the civil government’s relief. The Emperor couldn’t be trusted to stick to the script these days, and some of his casual remarks could be downright distressing.)
    “Do you have any family, Joseph?” Finn said suddenly.
    Joseph’s heart jumped painfully in his chest. Any other time, he would have taken a question like that as a veiled threat, with emotional blackmail lurking eagerly in the wings, but Finn seemed genuinely interested in the answer.
    “I have a wife, a mistress, two sons,” said Joseph. “The usual.”
    “Ah,” said Finn sadly. “I have no one. I was an only child, and my parents died young. I always thought that was very selfish of them. There was a time when Douglas and Lewis were my family, in as much as anyone was . . . I didn’t think I’d miss them, but I do, sometimes . . . Tell me about the sightings, Joseph. The Deathstalker sightings.”
    “Just gossip,” Joseph said easily. “There are rumors, but nothing worth listening to. People saying they knew someone who claims to have seen Lewis walking the streets of the Parade of the Endless. Or sometimes it’s Owen, or one of the other legends. It’s always a friend of a friend who sees these things; nothing you can pin down.”
    “Not anymore,” said Finn. “Two of my Paragons have been killed, right here in the city. And the word is, a Deathstalker did it.”
    “Impossible,” Joseph said quickly. “My people have this planet sewn up tight. There isn’t a ship that even passes by that we don’t know everything about. Can’t you ask the ELFs controlling the Paragons who did it?”
    “The possessor was the uber-esper Screaming Silence,” said Finn, his mouth moving briefly in a moue of distaste. “And unfortunately none of the uber-espers are talking to me at the moment. This would worry me if I was the worrying sort, so it’s just as well that I’m not. Besides, Lewis wouldn’t sneak back in. Not his style. He’d think it was beneath him, the fool. No, he’d send a formal challenge first, and a chance to surrender honorably. He never did understand the possibilities in treachery. Lewis has his own fleet now, after the debacle on Haden, and when they come calling we’ll all know about it.”
    Joseph was surprised to hear Finn discuss the matter so calmly. When the Emperor first learned that the fleet he’d sent to Haden to kill Lewis and his companions had not only failed to do so, but had actually gone over to the rebels’ side en masse, people could hear the Emperor screaming his rage all over the palace. Servants had run for their lives, and even some of the guards. Finn had only just started to come down when reports came in that his supposed allies, the AIs of Shub, had also betrayed him and seized control of the Madness Maze, and that had set him off again. The purges that followed had been particularly vicious and far-reaching, and next morning all over the city there were men and women hanging from lampposts.
    Finn took in Joseph’s anxious face, and laughed quietly. “Don’t panic, I’m over that now. The loss of Shub is a set-back, but I had made plans, just in case. I have secret allies and hidden super-weapons, just waiting for my call. I’ll blast the Shub homeworld into so much radioactive dust, and my loyal fleet