Deathstalker War (65 page)

“Hit the floor, Random!”

He threw himself down without questioning, and the room was immediately full of the roar of gunfire as Ruby opened up with the heavy projectile weapon mounted on her gravity sled, hovering outside the shattered windows. The guards jerked and convulsed as the bullets tore through them, falling helpless before a weapon they had never been prepared for. The few shots they got off went wild, and soon they were all dead, lying in tangled bloody heaps on the expensive carpeting. The gun finally shut off, and the sudden quiet in the room was almost deafening. Thick trails of smoke curled lazily on the air. Ruby ripped the heavy gun from its moorings, jumped easily through the shattered window, and hurried over to Random, who raised a tired hand in greeting. Ruby stared at the charred and blistered hand, then at his red raw face.

“Jack . . . you look awful.”

“Thanks a whole bunch. I think it probably looks worse than it feels, though it feels pretty bad. But I’m healing. I can feel it. I’m still in the game.” He looked down at the projectile weapon she had cradled in her arms. “Guess you were right to bring that thing along after all. Is it as much fun as it looked?”

Ruby chuckled. “Bet your ass. Hold it for a while.” She dropped it into his arms, and moved purposefully toward the dead guards. She knelt beside them and began going through their pockets with professional speed and skill. Random frowned.

“Ruby, what are you doing?”

“Just looking for valuables. Credits, jewelry, anything going.”

“We don’t have time for looting!”

“There’s always time for looting. When I joined up with this rebellion, I was promised all the loot I could carry, and this is the first down payment. Though I have to say we’re talking lean pickings here. Cheap bunch. Still, by this time tomorrow, I fully intend to have stripped this entire Tower bare. If it’s small and valuable and can be carried somewhere on my person, I’m having it.”

Random shook his head sadly and moved over to the stairs. No point in trying the elevator; it was bound to be booby-trapped. It was what he would have done. The Family would be on the next floor down, no doubt barricaded in, and surrounded by a small army of protectors. Not that it would do them any good. Random grinned like a wolf, and felt the skin of his face crackle. He reached up automatically and rubbed at his mouth. Black flecks of dead skin fell away. He peered at a small mirror set on the wall by the stairs. Fresh new skin showed where the dead had peeled away. He was healing. He still felt like shit, but he didn’t have time to bother with that. He pushed open the stairway door and peered down the brightly lit metal stairs. Quite deserted and utterly quiet.

Random smiled again. He had no doubt Clan Chojiro had all kinds of unpleasant surprises lying in wait for him. But they wouldn’t stop him. Nothing was going to stop him now, not all the armed forces in Golgotha or all the loot in the world. He’d chosen Tower Chojiro for his target quite deliberately. He had long acquaintance with the treacheries of the Chojiros, and now he was finally here, he was going to send all their souls shrieking down to Hell, whatever it took and whatever it cost him. He called sharply to Ruby, and she paused just to pull a few more rings from a few more fingers, then hurried over to join him, her pockets bulging with all sorts of expensive items. She took the projectile weapon back from him, cradling it tenderly in her arms. She’d have a few sharp words with him later, for having dared snap at her as much as for interrupting her looting, but for the moment she was content to follow wherever Random led, secure in the thought that the journey would no doubt involve satisfactory amounts of blood, savagery, and general mayhem. She took the lead when Random indicated, and started down the stairs, Random right behind her.

They hadn’t got far when a determined band of elite troops came hammering up the metal stairs to meet them. Ruby opened up with her gun at once, the sound horribly loud in the confined space, but the guards had already turned on their personal force shields, those at the rear holding them over their heads. Bullets ricochetted harmlessly from the shields, and Ruby had to stop firing as her own bullets came flying back at her from the walls of the stairwell. She dropped her gun and drew her sword, expecting the guards to lower their force shields and charge with drawn swords. But instead, the shielded guards moved slowly forward, filling the stairs, forcing Ruby and Random to back away before them. There was nowhere else they could go. It was a simple tactic, its only function to keep the rebels from getting to the Clan. With anyone else it might have worked, but Ruby and Random had been touched by the Madness Maze. They reached out to each other mentally, linked their thoughts, and pyrokinetic fire roared away from them, filling the stairwell with a heat so extreme the metal steps and walls began to twist and bubble. The brilliant white flames swept around and over the guards’ force shields, blasting them out of the way, and incinerated them all in a few moments. Some had time to scream, and a few turned to run, but the fire was everywhere, and when it finally disappeared, the stairwell was full of charred and blackened bodies and the thick heavy smell of burnt meat. Ruby and Random broke their mental link and looked dispassionately upon what they’d done. There was no room in them for quarter or mercy anymore. Ruby winced back from the heated air, and scowled at the twisted bodies blocking the stairway.

“I suppose we’re going to have to shift them out of the way before we can go any farther. Maybe we should have let them run after all.”

“No,” said Random. “A foe you let run away is a foe who might come back to fight you another day. Let’s get to work. All these obstacles are making me impatient.”

Ruby pulled on a pair of gloves to protect her hands, and they set about lifting and pushing the charred bodies to one side. Ruby wrinkled her nose at the smell, but Random didn’t seem to notice. He’d smelled worse in his time. Thick black specks fell away from his face and hands as he worked, revealing pink new skin underneath. And though he started out looking much like the bodies he was shifting, by the time they’d finished he looked much like his old self again. His clothes were still a mess, but there wasn’t a lot he could do about that.

He and Ruby were just manhandling the last of the bodies out of the way when they heard a single set of footsteps coming hurriedly down the stairs from above. Ruby quickly grabbed up her projectile weapon, and Random drew his disrupter. They stood back-to-back, looking up and down the stairs, just in case the footsteps were a feint to draw their attention away from the real attack. The footsteps seemed to take a long time to arrive, and then Alexander Storm rounded the corner of the stairwell, stopped, and blinked mildly at the gun Ruby was training on him.

“If you were a man, I could make a very damaging psychological remark about the need to carry such a large gun,” he said calmly. “But as it’s you, Ruby, I don’t think I’ll bother.”

Ruby looked back at Random. “Is he saying what I think he’s saying?”

“We’ll discuss it later,” Random said diplomatically. He lowered his gun and grinned up at Storm. “About time you got here, Alex. I was wondering what was keeping you.”

“Traffic was murder,” said Storm. He sniffed the air and pulled a face. “I see you two have been raising hell again.”

“Just doing what we have to,” said Random. “Fall in behind us, Alex, but don’t start dragging your feet, or we’ll leave you behind. We’re right on the Chojiros’ heels now. I can feel it.”

“Yeah,” said Ruby. “Time for all fate’s revenges to come home.”

“You’ve been reading those Gothic romances again,” said Random.

Storm sniffed. “It’s a revelation to me that she can read.”

“Keep talking, Storm,” said Ruby. “There’s still room for another spare rib on the barbecue.”

“God, I swear it’s like being in charge of children,” said Random. “Shut it, both of you, and follow me. I don’t want to keep the Chojiros waiting.”

He set off down the stairs, Ruby right behind him. Storm wrapped himself in his great cloak to protect himself from the worst of the heat only slowly dissipating in the stairwell, and went after them.

They went cautiously but met no resistance. No more troops, no booby traps, no guns hidden in the walls. Just the metal steps, falling away before them. Random grew increasingly wary and gripped his gun and sword so tightly his fingers ached. This wasn’t the Clan Chojiro he remembered, with a trap for every choice of action, a trip for every footstep, and layer upon layer of treachery and deceit. Such easy going could only mean the Chojiros wanted him to reach them. Which in turn could only mean they had something really unpleasant and devastating in store for him. Random grinned his wolfish smile. It didn’t matter what they had, or thought they had; nothing was going to stop him now.

They reached the foot of the stairs and carefully approached the blank metal door that led off to the next floor. Everything was still and quiet. Ruby peered over the railings and down the stairwell, in case there were troops waiting below, but the stairwell was empty for as far as she could see. Random studied the door and the walls around it carefully, but couldn’t detect any booby traps. He was pretty sure he would have been able to sense anything wrong or out of place, but he still felt a small but definite sense of relief when he turned the door handle and eased the door open, and nothing nasty happened. He gestured for Ruby to join him, and she moved in beside him without making a sound, her gun at the ready. Random counted to three silently, then they both hit the door together and stormed into the next floor, Storm right behind them. A quick glance around assured Random there were no troops waiting, and no obvious traps; just a man and a woman standing together, waiting to greet their visitors with ostentatiously empty hands.

BB Chojiro and Gregor Shreck.

BB was a petite doll of a woman, with long dark hair and sharp oriental features. She wore a kimono of bright scarlet, wrapped tightly in all the right places. It was easy to see why Julian Skye had once fallen in love with her. The Shreck, on the other hand, was a short fat butterball of a man, with a bulging fleshy face and deep-set eyes. A tricky, dangerous, vindictive man, by all accounts.

Random moved slowly forward, stopping carefully out of reach of the Chojiro or the Shreck. Ruby and Storm moved in on either side of him, guns trained. BB Chojiro bowed deeply to them. Gregor managed a stiff nod.

“Who the hell are these people?” said Ruby, not bothering to lower her voice.

“I do wish you’d keep up on the briefings,” said Random, not taking his eyes off the two before him. “The woman speaks for the Chojiros in negotiations, and the like. She’s also Blue Block, though we’re not supposed to know that.”

“Perhaps she wants to negotiate the Clan’s surrender,” said Storm.

Ruby frowned. “Would you accept it, Jack?”

“Not a chance in hell,” said Jack Random, his voice flat and cold as death. “They’ve got nothing I want more than their destruction. You ought to recognize Gregor Shreck at least, Ruby. Chief slimeball in a totally disreputable Clan. Rebel when it suits him, but always a member of the Families.”

“Toby’s uncle?”

“That’s the one.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of him. I’ll toss you for who gets first hack at him.”

“Oh no you won’t,” said Random. “I’ve seen that double-headed coin of yours.”

“If we do end up negotiating something, please leave the talking to me,” said Storm. “You two could talk your way out of a lottery win. I have experience in this sort of thing.”

“There isn’t going to be any negotiating,” said Random. “I’ve waited a long time to bring down Clan Chojiro. The Shreck is just a bonus.”

“Let them speak,” said Storm. “What harm can it do?”

“If nothing else,” said Ruby, “they might tell us where the rest of the Chojiros are hiding out. Or where they’ve hidden the valuables.”

Random nodded curtly. BB Chojiro smiled charmingly at her three visitors. It had no obvious effect, but she kept smiling anyway.

“Welcome, honored guests. Please excuse the earlier armed responses; at that time the Families had yet to reach agreement on the best course of action to take, and they felt the need to defend themselves while the talks continued. I am happy to be able to inform you that all discussions have now ended, and I am empowered to speak for all the Clans. The Shreck is here to confirm my words. Basically, we wish to surrender.”

Random’s jaw dropped just a little. Of all the situations he’d expected to face this day, that wasn’t one of them. “What? All the Families?”

“I speak for every Clan in the Empire,” said BB. “We see no point in continuing in an armed struggle.”

“Don’t let her throw you,” said Ruby. “Remember why you came here. She’s just trying to distract you.”

“If she is, it’s working,” said Storm. “There’s got to be a catch.”

“Our surrender is of course dependent on our agreeing to certain conditions,” said BB.

“That sounds more like it,” said Storm.

“The Families are prepared to give up their Lordships and associated privileges,” said BB calmly, “in return for their survival. Essentially, the aristocracy will disappear, to be replaced by family-owned business operations. The Clans will continue to run their particular financial concerns, but will take no further part in the governing of the Empire. It’s really quite a simple deal. You call off your dogs, guarantee our safety, and we give up politics. We’re not so blind that we can’t see the old order is finished and a new way is beginning. And isn’t that what you really wanted, Jack? An end to established, inherited wielding of power in the Empire?”

“How can we be sure you speak for all the Families?” said Random. “You’ve never agreed over anything before.”

“Because I’m Blue Block,” said BB, still smiling, “No one Family is greater than Blue Block.”

“Jesus,” said Ruby. “I always thought they were just a myth. Young Family members conditioned to be utterly loyal to death and beyond, right? Infiltrated everywhere, hidden in deep cover, the Families’ last weapon against Lionstone. You’re that Blue Block?”