Deathstalker 08 - Deathstalker Coda

mind all that he remembered of Finn’s plans and secrets and vulnerabilities. He could name a whole shitload of traitors, double agents and deep-cover sleepers in the Rookery, but he needed more than that to make himself valuable to Douglas. He couldn’t afford to be used and then discarded. He needed to attach himself to Douglas, make himself a part of the Campbell’s staff, so that when the rebellion was over and Douglas returned to power, Tel Markham wouldn’t be left behind in the poverty he’d so narrowly escaped. For Tel, Douglas Campbell was a rising star; someone whose coattails he could ride to security, if not glory. He needed to be secure, to launch his revenges.
    “So, where are we going now?” Stuart said. The omnipresent drizzle had become a driving rain. It was always wet and miserable in the Rookery these days. Stuart was pretty sure Finn had arranged it with the weather control people.
    “We are going to the alien sector,” said Douglas. “Nina is meeting us there. She’s made contact with a very useful alien hybrid called Nikki Sixteen, who claims she can get us an audience with the leaders of the alien presence here in the Rookery.”
    Stuart sniffed. “Are there enough of them here to make it worthwhile?”
    “Oh, you’d be surprised at the size of the Rookery’s alien contingent,” Tel said immediately, seizing the chance to show off his local knowledge. “All kinds of aliens and hybrids end up here, for all sorts of reasons. Either because they’re political or religious refugees, or because they’ve acquired tastes for human pleasures or concepts that wouldn’t be tolerated back on their homeworlds. The Rookery has always been a cosmopolitan kind of place, and very tolerant when it comes to unnatural vices. You wouldn’t believe what some of these aliens get up to.”
    “Yes, I bloody would,” said Stuart. “Nothing about this place surprises me anymore.”
    “Some of the aliens are remittance people,” Tel continued. “Paid to stay away from home and family. Because they backed the wrong cause, or got too friendly with the wrong individuals. Being part of a rebellion to overthrow Finn and his xenophobic allies could go a long way towards buying them a ticket home again. But you’re going to have to be very careful, Douglas; all these different species have their own needs and agendas, and they’ll only go along with you for as long as your needs coincide with theirs. Right now, all you have in common is a hatred of the Emperor.”
    “Right now, that’s enough,” said Douglas.
    The meeting place turned out to be an abandoned, boarded-up swimming baths, in a grimy, especially run-down area of the Rookery. The chipped and stained walls were covered with sprawling alien graffiti, in a dozen different pictographs. Douglas could read a few of them, and was sure Finn’s mother had never done any such thing. Nina was sheltering in the recessed doorway, wrapped in a heavy cloak. Her pink mohawk drooped damply to one side.
    “About time you got here, darlings. This place gives me the creeps, and it’s not exactly a salubrious neighborhood. The only reason it isn’t crawling with muggers is because something’s been eating them, and I don’t know what the smell is but I just know it’s going to takes ages to get it out of my clothes. And watch where you tread, because things go eek if you don’t, and I really hope they’re only rats. Nikki Sixteen brought me here, and then couldn’t leave fast enough, which tells you all you need to know about this area. Do we really need to be here, Douglas, sweetie?”
    “Yes.” Douglas studied the door behind her. The swimming baths had been in a good location once, back when there had still been prosperous places to live in the Rookery. Back then, the baths had been the center of what passed for polite society. And while the building as a whole might be crumbling and the windows boarded over, the main door was a single great slab of veined marble, held shut by heavy lengths of steel chain, with massive padlocks. The padlocks hung open—showing they were expected, if not necessarily welcome—but clearly the aliens took their security very seriously. Douglas gestured for Nina to stand aside, and she stepped reluctantly out into the rain. Stuart moved quickly forward to block Douglas’s way.
    “I go first, Douglas. Always. Now you’re the leader of the rebellion, I’m a lot more expendable than you are.”
    “No one’s