Deathstalker Rebellion (79 page)

“You’re also famous for getting your ass kicked, and there are a hell of a lot of heavily armed people looking right at us. Could we please walk a little slower?”

“Ruby, any slower, and we’d be in reverse. Kassar’s already looking daggers at us.”

“Oh, gee,” said Ruby. “I may wet myself.”

They reached the low podium set up before the prisoners, bowed to Kassar, and then looked at the two heavy swords standing next to the two chopping blocks. The blocks looked like they’d seen a lot of service. Random looked at the prisoners, who stared back as defiantly as they could. Some of the younger children started to cry, not sure what was going on, but picking up on the charged atmosphere. For a moment that stretched and stretched, there was only the quiet and the tension. Kassar strode over to the podium.

“What do we do?” hissed Ruby. “Jack,
what do we do?
”

“Proceed with the executions or we’ll start with yours!” snapped Kassar, and then he stopped, grabbed Random’s hood, and pushed it back to reveal his face. “You!”

“Me!” said Random, and punched Kassar in the mouth. He grabbed the dazed Cardinal, swung him around, and held him as a shield. There was uproar among the watching Church troops. Random smiled into Flynn’s camera. “Long live the rebellion!”

“Oh, nice plan,” said Ruby, throwing off her robes and drawing her sword and disrupter. “Really subtle. Couldn’t have done better myself.”

The Church troops broke ranks and ran toward the three figures by the podium, closely followed by the security forces. They all had swords in their hands. Ruby turned to face them, fire in her eyes. Some of the prisoners managed a ragged cheer. Random looked at his watch.

Toby Shreck turned to Flynn. “Tell me you’re getting this!”

“I’m getting it, I’m getting it! It’s all going out live. Is that who I think it is?”

“Don’t know the woman, but the other’s Jack Random all right. I should have known he’d make one of his patented last-minute rescues!”

“Hate to spoil your scenario, boss, but there’s only two of them and hundreds and hundreds of everybody else. Hostage or no hostage, they don’t stand a chance.”

“What the hell,” said Toby. “It’ll make a great show. We are talking major awards here, Flynn … Where the hell did
they
come from?”

They
were the hundreds upon hundreds of rebels who were boiling up out of concealed openings at the edge of the factory perimeter. Random grinned. Bang on time. While their fellows had been keeping the factory’s defenses concentrated on the other side of the factory, the rest had been tunneling like crazy to reach the perimeter before the executions took place. They swarmed across the uneven metal surface, brandishing guns and swords and yelling their savage war cries. The Church and security men reversed direction, forgot all about Random and Ruby and Cardinal Kassar, and braced themselves to meet the rebel forces. Disrupters fired, energy beams cutting through the air, blowing people apart in gushers of blood. And then the two forces hammered together, a heaving mass of bodies surging this way and that, and there was room only for sword-to-sword and head-to-head, and the bloody rage of clashing beliefs.

Ruby looked at Random. “I suppose you’re going to say you planned that?”

Random laughed. “Of course. Though the timing was a bit close. Search Kassar’s pockets; see if he’s got any keys to the padlocks.”

And that was when Half A Man came striding forward, sweeping men aside, heading straight for Jack Random with a sword in his human hand. Random pushed Kassar away from him, drew his disrupter, and snapped off a shot. Half A Man raised his energy arm to block it, and the energy beam ricocheted harmlessly away into the sky. And so they came together, two men touched and shaped by alien forces, neither of them wholly human anymore. The power of the Madness Maze burned in Random, but even so he was hard-pressed to stay in the fight. Whatever else the aliens had done, they had made Half A Man a formidable fighter. He’d been a warrior longer than Jack Random had been alive, and he never grew tired. Their swords clashed together, neither giving an inch.

Cardinal Kassar, meanwhile, had come out of his daze, and was fighting head-to-head with Ruby Journey. He’d started with contempt, but was quickly fighting for his life. He called on all his training and experience as an elite Church warrior, and found it wasn’t enough. She drove him back, step-by-step, sweeping aside his defenses with ease and cutting him at whim. And though she could feel the boost surging up within her, she kept it down, refusing the advantages it offered. She was all she needed, all she’d ever needed, and she’d decide whether to use her extra gifts or not. She grinned into Kassar’s sweating face. She could kill him at any time, and both of them knew it. But she wanted it to last. Ruby Journey was enjoying herself.

Daniel Wolfe drew his sword, ready to rush into the fray himself, and then stopped as he saw how frightened Stephanie was. She needed him to protect her. He glanced at the factory’s main entrance, but there were already too many rebels between him and it. There was no safe cover anywhere. All he could hope for was not to be noticed. So he pulled his sister behind the teleprompter, made her crouch down, and stood protectively over her, determined that no one would get to her without having gone through him first.

Lily and Michel clung together, staring about them with wild eyes. A small group of rebels broke away from the
main fight and headed their way. Lily pushed Michel away from her, glared at the approaching rebels, and called up her witchy powers. But all her weak esp could manage was a rushing wind that barely slowed the Rejects. One of them cut at Lily with his sword. Michel pushed her out of the way, and the sword cut into his throat and out again. Blood sprayed, splashing Lily’s horrified face. Michel fell dying to the ground. Lily crouched over him, crying and screaming hysterically, until a rebel passing by on his way to free the prisoners cut her down out of reflex. Lily and Michel died together, a long way from home, two children in a violent adult world they never really understood.

Half A Man finally realized he couldn’t beat Jack Random as easily as he’d thought, so he disengaged, turned, and ran. He had a better idea, and besides, with the rebels so close, the safety of the factory took precedence over everything else. He ran back into the factory, cutting down anyone who got in his way. First, he’d shut down the timer on Kassar’s explosives, and then he’d raise the factory’s force Screen again so that most of the rebels would be trapped outside it. Those left inside would soon fall, and the factory would be safe. He smiled with his half a mouth. Let Jack Random rattle his sword against an energy field and see what good it did him. There were better ways to win a war.

While Half A Man was disappearing into the complex, Alexander Storm and Mother Beatrice were leading the clones out. The clones took one look at the carnage and mayhem spread out before them, and froze in the doorway. Storm and Beatrice yelled for everyone to stay put and keep their heads down. While the clones huddled together, the rebel and the Sister studied the situation thoughtfully. Some of the attacking rebels were trying to free the prisoners, but the heavy-duty padlocks were slowing them down.

“They’d better be quick,” said Beatrice. “As long as those chains hold, the Wolfes could still fry the prisoners at the press of a button. And anybody else who happened to be touching the chains or locks at the time.”

“Good point,” said Storm. “I’d better give them a hand. I was always good with locks. But then, everyone needs a hobby.”

“You’re a brave man, Alexander Storm,” said Beatrice.

“Damn right,” said Storm. “Jack isn’t the only legend around here, you know.”

Kassar backed away from Ruby, panting for breath, blood streaming from his wounds. He still held his sword, but it shook uncontrollably in his hand. Ruby went after him, still smiling. She’d had enough fun for the moment, and now it was time for the Cardinal to die. He saw the decision in her eyes and frantically held up his other hand.

“Back off, bitch! The controls for the prisoners’ execution are wired into my glove. One step closer, and they’re dead!”

“You’re bluffing,” said Ruby calmly. “If you could do that, you’d have done it by now, just for spite.”

Kassar smiled. “Try me. What will your precious rebel friends think of you when they learn you could have saved the prisoners, but didn’t choose to?”

Ruby shrugged, sprang forward, and brought her sword savagely down with all her strength behind it. The heavy blade sheared clean through Kassar’s wrist, and his hand fell twitching to the ground. Kassar screamed breathlessly, dropped his sword, and grabbed the stump of his wrist, trying to squeeze it shut. Blood pumped past his gripping fingers.

“I’ve never given a damn what people think of me,” said Ruby Journey.

“I’m rich,” said Kassar, forcing the words past gritted teeth. His face was white as a skull. “Name your price.”

“Now, that’s more like it. How much have you got?”

“How much do you want?”

“All of it. Where is it?”

“In a safe. In my quarters. Gold. Payroll for the Faithful. Let me go, and it’s yours.”

Ruby thought for a moment. “Thanks for the tip, Cardinal. I’ll check it out later. Now, say good-bye.”

Her sword swung around in a long double-handed arc and cut off Kassar’s head. It went bouncing and rolling away into the surrounding crush and was quickly lost to sight, kicked this way and that and trampled underfoot. Ruby smiled, satisfied. A good kill, and gold for afters. The day was looking up. She searched Kassar’s pockets, found a set of keys, and went to help free the prisoners, humming a merry tune.

The fight went on, the rebels pushing back the Empire forces almost at will, until finally some security officer had the good sense to surrender. The idea caught on in a flash, and soon there were swords dropping and hands going up all
over the place. And as quickly as that, the battle was over. Ruby and Storm freed the prisoners, and Beatrice ushered the clones out of the complex. There were cries of joy and relief as the rebel forces found their loved ones safe, and hugs and tears became the order of the day. Toby and Flynn covered it all, broadcasting live to an astonished Empire.

And that was when the factory blew up.

The first set of explosives to detonate set off all the others, and within seconds the whole factory became a great blazing fireball. The core of the building became a searing inferno, and blazing wreckage rained down on all sides. The outer walls blew apart, unable to contain the pressure, and the deadly heat ballooned outward, followed by a storm of flying red-hot shrapnel. There was nowhere the hundreds of people could hide—no cover anywhere. They were only seconds away from certain death when Random and Ruby reached out to each other, linked minds, and threw up a protective force field to hold back the flames and explosions. The firestorm raged against the shield, battering their minds, but still it held on and on until the force of the firestorm was spent and the shield was no longer needed. And only then did it disappear, and Jack Random and Ruby Journey sank to their knees, blood spilling from their nose and mouth and ears. They clung together, healing. The heat was devastating now, but bearable. The wreckage of the factory burned brightly, flames shooting up into the sky. After a while Storm came over to join them.

“Amazing. Is there anything you can’t do?”

“Yeah,” said Ruby hoarsely. “Save a whole safe full of gold bullion that just went up with that factory. Damn. I was looking forward to that.”

Random was still laughing about that sometime later as he and Ruby and Storm led the rebels and clones back down into the tunnels under Technos III. The surviving Empire forces, disarmed, sat around and looked at each other and waited for somebody else to decide what they should do next. And out of the inferno, out of the blazing wreckage, out of the hell that was all that remained of the factory complex, came Half A Man, striding unhurriedly through the flames, untouched by the heat. He walked over to Daniel and Stephanie Wolfe, and shook his head slowly.

“Trained Church troops beaten like amateurs, and three Investigators dead. The factory utterly destroyed. Lionstone
is not going to be pleased. If I were you, I’d start thinking up some really inventive excuses.”

He strode off to bark orders at what was left of the Empire forces. Stephanie stared mutely at the burning ruins of her factory. “All gone. Everything. We’ll have to start again from scratch. If the Empress doesn’t take the stardrive away from us for this fiasco.”

“And both our spouses are dead,” said Daniel.

“Ah, well,” said Stephanie. “At least some good came of this.” She glared into the leaping flames. “Our explosives couldn’t have done all that. Someone else must have interfered.”

“Probably,” said Daniel. “Odds are we’ll never find out what really happened here. It doesn’t matter. It’s over. I’m not needed here anymore. I’m finally free to go and look for Daddy.”

And he strode away, without once looking back. “Danny!” Stephanie called desperately after him. “Come back! You can’t just leave me here like this. I need you. Come back, you bastard!”

Flynn got that on camera, too. Toby Shreck stood beside him, grinning foolishly. “Live, Flynn. We got it all, live. We’ll win every award going for this, and probably a few they’ll make up specially. I haven’t felt like this since one of the Family maids showed me what was what when I was fourteen.”

“I don’t know about you,” said Flynn, finally lowering his camera, “but my hourly rate just went up. Way up.”

“Damn right,” said Toby. “I wonder what we should do for an encore …”

“Don’t worry,” said Half A Man, “I’ll think of something.”

Toby and Flynn looked at each other. “I don’t know about you,” said Toby, “but I think fame and fortune just got indefinitely rerouted.”

Owen Deathstalker, a reluctant hero destined for
greatness, guards the secret of his identity from the
corrupt powers that run the Empire—an Empire he
hopes to protect by leading a rebellion against it!