kinder to put her out of her suffering. Do you want me to do it for you?'
'No!' said Owen. 'No. I'm a Deathstalker. I clear up my own messes.'
He drew the dagger from his boot and thrust it expertly into the girl's heart. She didn't moan or shudder. She just stopped breathing, and her eyes stared straight past him. Owen pulled the dagger out and then just sat there, rocking slightly, trying to hold back the emotions within him. Hazel hovered at his side, unsure what to do for the best. She wanted to put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, let him know she was there and understood, but she wasn't sure how he'd take it. He was strong man, and a proud one, too, but he still had unexpected vulnerabilities. And if you had any weaknesses, you could be sure Mistworld would find them.
Hazel hadn't been sure the Deathstalker had any soft spots in him. He'd always seemed the perfect warrior and aristocrat. She was seeing a new side of him now, and she wasn't sure if she liked it or not. Being weak could get you killed when you were an outlaw. She put a tentative hand on his shoulder, ready to draw it back in a moment, but he didn't even know she was there. She could feel the tension under her hand and knew it was rage as much as sorrow that boiled within him. She looked back at the Hadenman, but he just looked back at her with his inhuman golden eyes, and she had to look away. Owen stood up suddenly, still looking down at the pathetic little body.
'This is wrong,' he said flatly. 'No one should have to live like this, die like this.'
'It happens everywhere,' said Hazel. 'Not just on Mist world. You're rich, titled; what would you know about living in the underclass?'
'I should have known. I'm a historian, and I studied the records. I knew things like this used to happen. I just never thought…'
'History is what the Empire says it is,' said Moon in his rasping, buzzing voice. 'They decide what gets recorded. But even the brightest flower has manure at its roots.'
'No,' said Owen. 'It doesn't have to be this way. I will not stand for this. I am a Deathstalker, and I will not allow this to continue.'
'What are you going to do?' said Hazel. 'Overthrow the Empire?'
Owen looked at her for a long moment. 'I don't know. Maybe. If that's what it takes.' He turned away from her and the dead child and walked over to the Hadenman. He studied Moon thoughtfully. 'Last I heard, there'd been less than a dozen sightings of Hadenmen throughout the Empire. What do you think I can do for you? The Empress put an order of execution on you all as a threat to the Empire and Humanity itself. Can't say I blame her, given the results of your rebellion. You killed millions in your uprising. If you'd succeeded—'
'We'd have killed millions more,' said Moon. It was hard to read emotions in his inhuman and buzzing voice, but Owen thought he sensed as much regret as defiance. 'We were fighting for our freedom. Our survival. We lost that battle, but the war goes on. I am not the last of my kind. On the lost world of Haden, floating alone in its dark void, an army of my people lies sleeping in the Tomb of the Hadenmen, waiting only for the call to wake again. We learned the hard way that we couldn't win fighting alone. We need allies. Allies like you, Deathstalker. Your only chance for survival now is to raise an army and go to war against the Empress Lionstone. You are a Deathstalker; many would follow you where they wouldn't follow another. Your name always stood for truth and justice and triumph in battle. I speak for the Hadenmen. We would fight beside you, in return for our freedom.'
'Hold it, hold it,' said Owen, putting up his hands defensively. 'This is all going too fast for me. I can't lead a rebellion. I'm a historian, not a warrior.'
'On the other hand,' Hazel said thoughtfully, 'he's right that we can't keep running forever. Eventually, they'll track us down and kill us. We've become too important. If even Mistworld isn't safe…'
'That's not enough,' said Owen. 'Rebellion against the throne is against everything I was brought up to believe in.'
'Not against the throne,' said Hazel. 'Against the Empress.'
Owen looked at her. 'I made that distinction earlier.'
'I know. I was listening.' Hazel hurried on before he could say anything. 'At least think about it, Owen. You said you wanted to stop things like that girl from happening.'
'I need to think about this,' said Owen. 'You're asking too much of me.'
'Time is not on our side,' said Moon. 'You must choose soon, or the choice may be taken away from you by events.'
Owen looked at the Hadenman almost angrily. 'What do you want from me, Moon?'
'Right now? Transport. You have a starship and I do not. I want passage with you to lost Haden and my waiting brethren.'
Whatever answer Owen might have expected, that wasn't it. The location of the planet Haden was one of the greatest mysteries of the Empire. All knowledge of its coordinates had vanished at the end of the Hadenman rebellion: the last desperate gamble of the augmented men. And despite all the Empire's increasingly desperate efforts, Haden had remained lost for the better part of two centuries. In an Empire built on information, that should have been impossible. But somehow the augmented men, or their agents, had contrived to wipe every piece of information on Haden and its people from every computer in the Imperial Matrix. As a historian, Owen had found that hard to believe, but after wasting months of research time tracking down rumors and glimpses without getting anywhere, he had been forced to admit he was beaten. Haden was lost, by its own wishes, and would remain so. And so it passed out of history and into legend, a nightmare with which to threaten disobedient children.
Owen looked thoughtfully at Tobias Moon. 'You have the coordinates for Haden?'
'Unfortunately, no, or I wouldn't still be stuck here on Mistworld. But the answer is out there, somewhere, and I will find it. Until then, I offer myself as a soldier in your war. Get me some new energy crystals, and a good cybersurgeon to implant them, and I would be a formidable ally. And when I come at last to Haden, I will speak for you with my people. That is what you want, isn't it?'
'I don't know,' said Owen. 'I'm not sure of anything anymore. Even assuming that we can find Haden, eventually, do I really want to ally myself with the betrayers of humanity? The butchers of Brahmin II, the slaughterers of Madraguda? I could go down in history as one of the greatest traitors of all time.'
'It doesn't matter whether you want us,' said Moon calmly. 'You need us, if your rebellion is to succeed.'
'All right,' said Owen. 'You're my man, until I tell you otherwise. Now let's get out of here. I'm surprised we're not already hip deep in bounty hunters.'
'Think about it,' said Hazel. 'Would you go rushing in after someone who'd just killed a Wampyr and seen off a whole pack of his blood junkies?'
'Good point,' said Owen. 'But let's get moving anyway. Standing around make me nervous.'
'I think we should get you to a doctor first,' said Hazel. 'You took a lot of punishment before the Hadenman… helped you out.'
'I've felt better,' said Owen, 'but I'll be all right. One of the more useful properties of boost. Any wound that doesn't actually kill me will heal itself, given time. I'm going to be rather fragile for a while, but I've got you and Moon to look after me, haven't I?'
Hazel thought that was getting a bit pointed and decided it was probably a good time to change the subject. 'Where are we going?'
'The Olympus health spa, on Riverside, wherever the hell that is. If I'm going to lead an army of rebellion, I want Jack Random at my side. We'll look for your bounty hunter friend later, assuming she isn't already on our trail for the price on our heads.'
'That is a possibility,' Hazel admitted. 'Friendship is fine, but credit lasts longer. All right, follow me. And let's keep to back alleys and the shadows where we can. I'm starting to feel like I've got a target painted on my back.'
She set off more or less confidently into the mists, and Owen and Tobias Moon went after her. Owen strode along, looking at nothing, lost in thought. Events might be rushing him, but he still had his doubts and suspicions. What were the odds of a Hadenman turning up out of the blue just at the right moment to save his ass? Much more likely Moon had been following them for some time, waiting for a chance to look good and gain their confidence. But what made him so important to Moon, if it wasn't the price on his head? Surely there must have been some other ship Moon could have persuaded to get him offplanet. And for someone who claimed not to know the coordinates of Haden, he seemed pretty sure of finding the planet in the not too distant future. Owen scowled. And where did all this tie in with his late father's plot and plans, which had brought him to Mistworld in the first place?
