Toby and Flynn were working the crowd, buttonholing the right people, asking awkward questions and refusing to be fobbed off with soundbites.
Two of the esper undergrounds’ enigmatic leaders had turned up, hidden as always behind projected telepathic illusions. One had come as the fabled ogre Hog In Chains; a great beast of a man with a hog’s head, wrapped in yards of rusty chains, carrying a bone club from which human brains dripped constantly. The other figure had come as the Lady Of The Lake; an ethereally slender woman in pure white samite, who ran constantly with the dark river waters that had drowned her. The water collected and pooled about her bare feet, but somehow never spread any farther. Random tried to read some meaning or significance into the esper leaders’ choice of images, but like everyone else he retreated baffled. Sometimes Random thought they just chose their images at random, to mess with people’s heads and keep them off balance.
It was what he would have done.
There were fifty Members of Parliament, from all the main parties and factions, most ostentatiously not talking to one another, but still making pointed comments in loud voices when anyone else made the mistake of looking interested. Almost as many more Family representatives were there too, again covering a broad spectrum of interests and influence, including a last-minute substitution for Cardinal Brendan, who had business elsewhere. The replacement spokesman for Clan Chojiro (and, of course, Blue Block) was Matoul Chojiro; a tall, gawky, and wide-eyed young man, apparently on his first assignment for the Clan. He seemed open and innocent, and fooled absolutely no one. And last, but definitely not in any way least, the large and portly figure of Elias Gutman, Speaker of the House. He smiled amiably at one and all, but his eyes were cold and thoughtful.
Jack Random strode through the crowd, brushing aside those before him by sheer force of personality, and came to a halt before Gutman. The Speaker bowed, with surprising grace for someone of his bulk. Random didn’t bow in return. “I’m glad you’re here, Elias. What I’ve got planned just wouldn’t be the same without you here.”
“How could I not attend?” said Gutman easily. “After your excesses on Loki, I’m as interested as anyone in how you plan to justify yourself. And then there’s your promise of a statement of policy that will change Imperial politics forever. I do hope that wasn’t just rhetoric, Random. I’d hate to think I was brought here under false pretenses, when there are so many other useful things I could be doing.”
“Don’t worry, Elias,” said Random. “I guarantee this is one statement of principles you’ll never forget.”
He strode on through the last of the crowd, and jumped lightly up onto the raised dais at the end of the hall. Ruby stepped up to stand beside him, still scowling. The great crowd before them quickly grew quiet, conversations abandoned in midstream, as they realized Random was about to start.
“Thank you all for coming,” said Jack Random calmly. “So good to see so many of you here. Not a bad turnout, all things considered. I had hoped a few more of the top echelons might have put in an appearance ... but you’ll do nicely to help me make my point. Let me start by addressing my recent visit to the planet Loki. I’m sure you’ve all heard awful rumors about what I did there. I’d just like to say that they’re all true. Especially the worst ones.” The listening crowd stirred and murmured uneasily, but Random just kept talking over them, and they shut up to hear what he was saying. He was smiling as he looked about him, and sounded quite calm, almost cheerful. “When I arrived on Loki, I found an unacceptable situation. War criminals from the old Imperial administration had been placed in power over the colonists, and were bleeding the economy dry, to feather the nests of their backers, here on Golgotha. So I had them all hanged. The rebel leaders there had sold out to Shub, so I had them hanged too.
“They were all guilty. All dirty. All politicians.
“I learned many valuable, if painful, lessons on Loki. You see, I have drifted very far from what I used to be, and what I used to stand for. I was the professional rebel, and I stood for justice. To win the rebellion, I allowed myself to be persuaded away from such an absolute position, and embraced the compromises and little victories of politics. Just to save a few lives. But after Lionstone fell, I saw my dream of freedom and honor for all corrupted by the very people I entrusted it to. Nothing’s really changed. The same sort of people are still in charge, and many of the old injustices are still in place. And I will not stand for that any longer.
“There will be no more compromises. No more betrayals. No more politics from me. No more secret meetings in back rooms, where the privileged few decide the fate of the many. I return to my old mantle of the professional rebel, answerable to no one but myself and my own conscience. I am back, and I will not be turned aside again.”
There was a pause as he looked out over his gathered guests, still smiling that unsettling endless smile.
“And what, exactly,” said Elias Gutman from the middle of the crowd, “does this change in direction amount to? What are you going to do, Random? What can you do?”
“Just what I did on Loki,” said Jack Random easily. “Punish the guilty. Kill all of those responsible for the corruption of my dream. Kill all the lying politicians, the special interest groups who only care for their own, the Families striving to claw their way back into power and privilege. I’m going to kill everyone who denies the people the freedom I promised them. Starting with everyone in this room. I could have just planted a bomb here, but I wanted this to be a personal statement, so I’m going to kill you all personally. Feel free to pray to any God you think might be listening.”
He turned suddenly, without warning, and struck Ruby Journey a blow to the head that would have killed anyone else. She dropped limply to the dais and lay still, barely breathing. Random looked down at her, his face calm and unmoved.
“Sorry, Ruby. But I couldn’t have you interfering.”
“Jesus Christ,” whispered Toby. “I think he means it. Are you getting this, Flynn?”
“We are now going out live, Boss. Why don’t you look for an exit, in case we need one in a hurry?”
“There are only two doors, and I’ve sealed both of them,” said Random, raising his voice to be heard over the growing babble of his audience, as those nearest the exits struggled with the doors and couldn’t budge them. “No one’s going anywhere. Time to die, people.”
His sword was suddenly in his hand as he leapt lightly down from the dais, and cut down the representative from Clan Chojiro, even as that young man was drawing a concealed disrupter. The heavy steel blade slammed down, cutting through flesh and bone to bury itself in the man’s heart. He shuddered, but didn’t fall. Random jerked the sword out again, and blood sprayed high into the air as the Chojiro finally collapsed. The people nearest him began screaming, and tried to back away, but the crush of the crowd kept most of them from going anywhere. Random lashed out again, and his sword sheared clean through an MP’s skull. The politician sank to his knees, his jerking hands rising as though to clasp the half of his head that remained.
People were hammering on the locked doors now, but the heavy oak resisted them easily. Very few had brought weapons. They hadn’t thought they’d be needed at a political meeting inside the Parliament building itself. People screamed for security guards to come and save them, but Random had sent them away on urgent missions earlier. Some would come, eventually, but by then it would all be over.
Men and women died screaming as Random cut and hacked his way through the crowd, like a wolf in a flock of sheep. He was still smiling, but now he was showing his teeth, and his eyes were very bright. The few with swords and guns were pushed forward to meet him, but they didn’t even slow Random down. He was inhumanly fast and strong, and the only one who might have stood against him still lay unconscious on the dais. Blood flew on the air as Random cut through the panicked crowd like a reaper with a scythe, leaving a trail of the dead and dying behind him. He came upon Toby Shreck and Flynn, and paused for a moment. Toby felt a cold hand clutch at his heart. And then Random nodded calmly to him.
“Stay honest, newsman. And be sure Flynn gets my good side.”
And he moved on, to kill more people.
Random bore down on Daniel Wolfe, and the young man yelled for his sister to get behind him. He had a sword in his hand. A Wolfe never went anywhere unarmed. Behind him, Stephanie yelled,
“Kill him! Kill him, Danny!”
in a voice only just short of hysteria. Daniel blocked Random’s first blow, and even the second, but then the Maze man’s superior strength smashed Daniel’s sword right out of his hand. Daniel tried to jump Random, his hands reaching for Random’s throat, and Random’s sword came up out of nowhere and plunged through Daniel’s gut and out his back. Daniel squeezed his eyes shut, but didn’t cry out. Random jerked his sword free, and turned on Stephanie, but Daniel’s arm swept out to pull her behind him again. Random plunged his sword into Daniel’s body over and over again, but though Daniel bled and shuddered with every blow, he wouldn’t cry out and he wouldn’t fall and leave Stephanie unprotected. He backed slowly away, keeping her behind him, while Random hacked away at him like a woodsman with a stubborn tree. Finally Random thrust his sword all the way through Daniel’s body. The crosspiece of the hilt buried itself in Daniel’s stomach as the long blade burst out of his back and went on to transfix Stephanie too. Her scream was suddenly stopped by a mouthful of blood. Random pulled back his blade, and she fell backward. Daniel cried out at last, and turned to cradle his dead sister’s body in his blood-soaked arms. Random shrugged, and moved on.
Clones and espers and politicians and aristos fell before him, till he had to step over piled-up bodies to get at the living. The biggest piles were before the two locked doors. Someone was pounding and shouting on the other side now, but they couldn’t help. Random was soaked in blood now, none of it his own. He was still breathing easily and his swordarm was as strong as ever. He felt as though he could do this forever, and never grow tired.
He finally stopped and looked around him, searching for someone of note to kill next. The two esper leaders, Hog In Chains and the Lady Of The Lake, had blinked out of existence the moment the killing began, but he’d always suspected they were only illusions anyway. It didn’t matter. He’d find and kill them later. That just left the clone leader, Evangeline Shreck, guarded by the Unknown Clone. The masked man stood before Evangeline, holding his sword steadily. Random walked unhurriedly over to him, and smiled at him. It took more than a mask to hide a man from a Maze-trained mind.
“I’m glad you didn’t die after all, son. I always wondered how I’d do against you.”
“You’ve gone mad,” said Finlay steadily. “This is insane.”
“You’re a fine one to talk,” said Random. “How many aristos and politicians died at your hands during the rebellion? You were the undergrounds’ pet assassin. All they had to do was point you in the right direction and turn you loose. Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy your war.”
“That was different. I fought for a cause.”
“And that’s just what I’m doing now.” Random shook his head sadly. “I thought you of all people would understand my purpose.”
“I don’t see any purpose. Just the last murderous spree of a failed revolutionary. I won’t let you kill her.”
“Son; you can’t stop me.”
Random raised his sword, and suddenly Evangeline stepped past Finlay and stood between the two men. “No! I’m damned if I’ll let you two kill each other! We fought on the same side in the rebellion, fought for the same cause!”
“You betrayed it,” said Random. “And all the guilty have to die, if I’m to put things right.”
“We never made a deal with the Families!” said Evangeline fiercely. “You did. Where were you, when Finlay and I fought our way into Wormboy Hell, to rescue the imprisoned espers? We never stopped fighting for what we believed in!”
Random looked at her for a long moment. Finlay’s sword never wavered. “No,” Random said finally. “Maybe you didn‘t, at that. All right; you get to live. This time. But if you can’t clean up the clone underground’s act, we will meet again.” He nodded to Finlay. “Next time, son.”
“Anytime, old man,” said Finlay.
Random turned and looked around him. The room was littered with the dead. The walls were running with blood. The only living souls still left in the hall apart from himself and the unconscious Ruby were Evangeline and Finlay, Toby and Flynn, the grieving Daniel ... and Elias Gutman. Random nodded to the news team.
“Keep filming, boys. You’re about to witness the death of a genuinely evil man.”
“I’ve alerted my guards,” said Gutman. “They’re on their way.”
“Let them come,” said Random. “Let them all come. It won’t make any difference.”
“Think what you’re doing, man,” said Gutman urgently. “Don’t throw away everything you’ve achieved, just because you didn’t like the conditions on Loki.”
“The corruption’s everywhere. All through the Empire. You should know. You’re responsible for most of it. You and your kind.”
“You can still be a positive influence. You achieved so much ...”
“I achieved nothing! Nothing’s changed. Not really.” Random shook his head, no longer smiling. “My fault. I wasn’t true to my cause, to myself. All my friends are dead. They died for the cause. If I stop now, they died for nothing.”
“What about Ruby Journey?” said Gutman, gesturing at the still body on the dais.
“We no longer have anything in common,” said Random. “I’ve nothing left to lose, Elias. The Madness Maze made me very powerful. I think it’s time I put that power to some real use, at last. Time to die, Elias.”
“Owen would never have approved of this,” said Evangeline, and Random stopped his advance on Gutman to look at her again. She met his cold gaze unflinchingly. “Owen Deathstalker gave you a new life, Jack Random. Is this how you repay him, by spitting on everything he ever believed in?”