Deathstalker Rebellion

Half A Man, but Investigator Shoal had taken pains to keep Toby and Flynn at a more than polite distance. Toby had tried mentioning the importance of a free press and the Empress's name, but Shoal gave him such a look that he decided to go somewhere else very quickly before she decided to grab Flynn's new camera and insert it into one of his main body cavities.

Lily and Michel smiled for the camera when it was pointed their way, but otherwise stayed quietly in the background. The temptation to keep checking their watches was almost overpowering, and they both tended to jump at sudden loud noises. But even their excited expectation couldn't keep them awake in the face of the speeches. Michel began dozing with his eyes open, an art he'd perfected while forced to listen to long boring speeches at Court, and was actually close to nodding off completely when Lily elbowed him suddenly in the ribs. His head jerked up, and he glared at her as he rubbed his side gingerly.

'Don't do that! It hurts.'

'Be quiet, you big baby. Pay attention. See that flunky carrying a tray full of drinks?'

'Of course I can see him. I'm not blind.'

'Then, keep watching. One of those glasses, the one with the crimson streaks in the stem, is headed straight for dear Daniel. And there's enough poison in it to see off a regiment of nuns.'

'Are you crazy!' People turned to look at him, and he gave them a brief meaningless smile before lowering his voice. 'Have you lost your mind, Lily? You'll get us both executed!'

'Relax, Michel. I know what I'm doing. Since the Chojiros said we couldn't actually blow up our respective spouses with their explosives, I've had to make other plans. The poison is completely undetectable, unless you know exactly what you're looking for, and by the time they can ship the body back to a civilized pathology lab, all traces will have disappeared. The waiter's working under a posthypnotic command. I told you my witchy gifts would come in handy. His mind will wipe itself clean of all memories of the incident once he's passed the right glass to Daniel. You see, I've thought of everything.'

'Not quite,' said Michel, fighting hard against an urge to take her neck in both hands and squeeze till her eyes bulged. 'They'll know it was us anyway, because we're the only ones with a motive! The first thing they'll do is have an esper look inside our heads, just in case!'

'Nonsense. Daniel's death will be blamed on the rebels, just like everything else that happens here. And I will finally be free. If everything goes as planned, we can try the same trick on Stephanie later.'

Lost for words, Michel could only stand and stare dumbly as the waiter carried his tray of drinks past the various personages, subtly turning his tray so that they took the glass nearest them and not the one with the poison in. Lily grinned broadly and squeezed Michel's arm with both hands. Which made it all the more heartrending when Half A Man ignored the glass he was supposed to take and reached across the tray to take the glass with the crimson-streaked stem. Lily's eyes widened, and she clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle the squeals coming out. Michel thought he might faint. Killing Daniel Wolfe was one thing. Poisoning the extremely important and well- connected Half A Man was quite another. The Empress would move heaven and earth to find out who was responsible. Starting with a complete esper scan of everyone present, on general principles. And Sorry, it was a mistake wouldn't go down all that well as an explanation. But there was nothing they could do. They couldn't say anything without giving themselves away. So they just stood and watched helplessly as Half A Man raised the glass to his half a mouth and drank deeply.

'How long till it works?' whispered Michel.

'It's supposed to be instantaneous,' said Lily. 'Especially considering how much I put in. I'm surprised the glass didn't melt.'

Half A Man emptied the glass and handed it back to the waiter. 'Very nice,' they heard him say. 'Do you have anymore?'

Lily shook her head dazedly as the waiter went on to deliver a harmless glass of wine to Daniel. 'I don't believe it. Half A Man doesn't drink. Everyone knows that.'

'Maybe he's never been this hot before. I bloody haven't.'

'Well, why isn't black smoke coming out of his ears—ear?'

Michel shrugged. 'It would appear poison is just another of the long list of things that can't kill Half A Man. Cover for me. I'm going to find something to hide behind, and then vomit for a while.' He stopped as Lily grabbed his arm again. 'Now what's wrong?'

'I don't know. Something bad is coming. I can feel it.'

'Lily…'

'My witchy gifts are never wrong!'

'Of course something bad is coming! We planted explosives, remember? Now shut the hell up, before you start drawing attention to us! And let go of my arm. I'm losing the feeling in my fingers.'

Lily scowled and turned her back on him. Michel sighed and was grateful for small mercies. The speeches droned on, lasting longer than expected, as speeches have a way of doing. Some of the prisoners and factory staff had passed out from the heat and were brought back to consciousness by varyingly brutal methods according to when the camera wasn't watching. Time was getting on. A lot of people had started looking at their watches. Toby looked at his and hoped the audience would stick with him, if only for the executions. He frowned despite himself. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. On the one hand they were definitely rebels, criminals, but on the other, most of them were women and children. Toby Shreck had justified a lot of questionable things in his life, working for Gregor Shreck did that to you, but murdering children in cold blood was just a step too far, even for him. He'd thought a lot about what he could do, and it seemed to him that he only had one chance. A last minute, live, on- camera appeal for clemency for the children, direct to the Empress. The watching billions would eat it up, and Lionstone just might see the advantages of appearing warm and sentimental in public. Either way, it was the children's last hope. He couldn't save the men and women. The public had to have its blood.

And so everyone checked their watches again and again, making frantic calculations in their heads as they waited for their planned surprises to pay off. They were all so preoccupied that no one noticed Investigator Shoal quietly disappearing from the scene on a mission of her own.

Mother Superior Beatrice sat on a folding chair outside the hospital tent, savoring the fresh air and drinking wine straight from the bottle. Even the evening heat was refreshing after the claustrophobic charnel house stench inside the tent. There was more room to move inside now that the worse-off had died, but the tent was still crowded from wall to wall with human suffering. Beatrice sighed and took another long drink. She was saving more patients than she was losing, but only just. The door swung open behind her for a moment, letting out a brief rush of cheap disinfectant barely covering the stench of blood and pus and gangrene that lay beneath it. She shuddered, her hands shaking for a long moment after the rest of her had stopped. She'd seen so much death and pain, and she was sick of it. Let someone else cope for a while. She knew eventually her strength would return, and then she'd get up and go back into hell again, but for the moment it was just too much to ask. So she sat on her chair and drank her wine and looked sardonically down at the great ceremony taking place outside the factory. She'd been invited, but she was damned if she'd give them the satisfaction of attending. That would have been too much like endorsing their stupid bloody war.

Approaching footsteps jerked her out of her reverie, and she looked around to see Investigator Shoal trudging unhurriedly up the low rise toward her. Beatrice frowned. What the hell did Shoal want with her? Investigators tended not to acknowledge any wound that wasn't immediately life threatening, and they weren't great ones for visiting the sick. She studied Shoal as she drew closer. Grim-looking woman, but then again Investigators weren't known for their sense of humor, either. Shoal finally came to a halt before Beatrice, not even breathing hard after the climb. Shoal nodded briefly. Beatrice nodded back, but didn't feel like getting up.

'Nice evening for a stroll, Investigator. What brings you my way? Ceremony get too boring?'

'Something like that,' said Shoal. She glanced at the tent entrance. 'Keeping busy?'

'Always. There might be lulls in the fighting out in the field, but here the fight to save lives just goes on and on. Of course, you wouldn't know anything about saving lives, Investigator. Not your line of territory.'

'No. It must be a hard job. Unpleasant at times. Having to make harsh decisions, about who you can help and who you can't, which ones you have to sacrifice so others can be saved. I can understand that. It's a lot like my job, sometimes.'

Beatrice frowned. It was almost as though the Investigator was trying to explain something to her. She shrugged and offered the bottle to Shoal. 'A quick drink, Investigator? Good for the soul, so they say.'