But so many of his Family had died fighting on both sides on Golgotha that Elias found himself made the most senior member of his Family by default, and was invited to come home at last. He wasted no time in barging into the political process, sensing that this was where the real power and wealth would be in the new Empire. And now Elias Gutman was Speaker, with power to decide who was and who was not allowed to be heard in Parliament. Many MPs had been heard to ask how they got themselves in that position. But they were careful to say it very quietly.
Even more unfortunately for all concerned, Parliament had made this important appointment while Owen Deathstalker was off chasing Valentine Wolfe and his cronies. Everyone was waiting to see what his reaction was going to be, torn between a desire for the best seat and a very real need to keep their heads well down, or at the very least out of the range of fire. Owen didn't disappoint them. The moment the Chamber doors opened, he surged furiously forward into the House, Hazel striding cheerfully along beside him. Owen ignored the plaintive cries of the stewards as they tried to steer him to the assigned public area, and headed straight for Gutman, sitting on a raised platform between the two ranks of seats.
Two armed guards moved forward to block his way. Owen punched out one, kicked the other in the groin, and just kept going. Hazel followed on behind, stepping gracefully over the groaning bodies on the floor. Gutman stirred just a little uneasily on his seat. He had arranged other, hidden protections, but suddenly face to face with the Deathstalker, he wasn't quite as sure of their efficacy as he had been. Owen came to a halt directly beneath Gutman's raised seat and glared up at him.
'All right, what mentally deficient bunch of dickless wonders elected this crook as Speaker? I turn my back on you for five minutes, and you throw open the doors and invite the fox into the henhouse. Why didn't you hand over the crown jewels to him as well while you were at it? In fact, I think I'll check them right after I leave here, and if just one piece is missing, someone is going to suffer, and it sure as hell isn't going to be me. Why
'And how many have died at yours, sir Deathstalker?' said Gutman smoothly. 'We've all had to do distressing things to get where we are today. But this is, after all, supposed to be a new order. A chance for everyone to remake themselves anew. To build new lives and careers, entirely separate from what their old history might have been. Or don't you believe in second chances? In redemption?'
'Not where you're concerned,' said Owen flatly. 'Grendels will turn vegetarian before you reform. I know you, Gutman.'
'The fact remains,' Elias Gutman said easily, 'that I have been freely elected to my position as Speaker of the House by these good men and women present. Or are you defying their authority?'
'Don't try to twist this!' said Owen, his voice rising angrily in spite of himself. 'I didn't spend years on the run as an outlaw, and wade through blood and slaughter in the streets of Golgotha, just to see power handed over to such as you! I don't know how you managed to escape the war trials, Gutman, but you won't escape me. Now, come down off that seat or I'll come up and get you.'
'You can't touch me. I have the protection of Parliament. The people you yourself helped place in power. Have you no faith in your own creation?'
'Not when they screw up this badly.'
'So you place yourself above their authority? Just like the aristocrats you threw down because you said they abused their power. Can anyone spot the irony here? You're not a hero anymore, Deathstalker, making up your own rules as you go along. You're just another citizen of the Empire, subject to the authority of the people, as expressed through Parliament.'
'To hell with that! I never needed a Parliament to tell me what was right and wrong! Now, get down here or I'll kill you where you sit!'
'You defy Parliament's will!'
'To hell with them! I'll tear down this whole House around your ears if that's what it takes!'
Armed guards came running from all sides as the MPs broke into an excited babble. With anyone else, what they'd heard might just have been empty threats, but this was Owen Deathstalker. He might just do it. Gutman gripped the arms of his chair tightly, but kept his face calm. He'd manipulated the Deathstalker into losing his temper and undermining his heroic image. Now all he had to do was live through it.
'Typical Deathstalker threat,' he said steadily, making sure his voice was heard over the rising hubbub. 'To hell with how many die as long as he gets his way. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. It was after all his ancestor, the first Deathstalker, who activated the Darkvoid Device and murdered untold billions of innocents.'
Hazel clung grimly to Owen's arm so he couldn't draw his disrupter. The surrounding guards looked on anxiously. Hazel grabbed Owen by the chin with one hand and forced his face around to meet hers. 'Don't, Owen. You'd have to kill a lot of innocent men before you got to Gutman.'
Owen jerked his face out of her hand and glared at her, breathing hard. 'I thought you at least would understand.'
'I do, Owen, I do. But this isn't the time or the place.'
It had gone very quiet in the House. Everyone was waiting to see what the Deathstalker would do. The guards were careful to do nothing that might provoke him into action. Owen looked slowly about him and then some of the anger went out of him, and he let his hand drop away from the disrupter at his side. There was the sound of a great many people releasing held breaths. Owen nodded to Hazel.
'What are things coming to, when you have to lecture me on restraint? But you're right; there'll be a better time.'
He turned his back on Gutman and strode off to join the watching crowd in the appointed area. Hazel gave Gutman a hard look and then hurried after Owen, just in case. Not far away, Jack Random and Ruby Journey were applauding. A great many others looked as though they would have liked to. The guards lowered their weapons, picked up their two fallen fellows, and retreated as fast as honor would allow. Toby Shreck grinned from ear to ear, confident that Flynn had got it all on tape.
Elias Gutman waited a moment to be sure his voice was steady, and then opened the session's proceedings with an emotional speech composed entirely of stirring sound bites. Everyone present applauded the speech for being short, and then Parliament finally got down to business. First on the agenda was a report from the cyberats currently investigating Golgotha's Computer Matrix for signs of infiltration by the rogue AIs of Shub.
A viewscreen appeared before the assembled Parliament and audience, floating in midair. Vivid colors flashed across the screen, and then resolved into the head and shoulders of whoever was acting as spokesperson for the cyberats today. They tended to be rather relaxed about such matters, having little concern for the demands of the world outside their precious computers. The cyberats lived for the time they spent immersed in cyberspace, and never appeared in public if they could help it. Anyone who'd ever seen one knew why immediately. They had enough tech implants, add-ons, and cutting-edge options to technically qualify as cyborgs, and their personal habits occasionally bordered on disgusting. They cared only for tech and what it could do for them, and often forgot or disregarded the needs of the mere meat they lived in.
The current representative, who rejoiced in the code name of Wired Bunny, looked like he'd died several days ago and been dug up especially to make this report. His skin was a dusty gray, and his face was sharp and bony to the point of emaciation. A nutrient tube was plugged into a vein in his neck, and a computer jack disappeared into his empty right eye socket. He smiled vaguely at his audience, revealing a set of truly awful teeth.
'Like, wow, so many people in one place. I can dig the ambience from here. Greetings and salutations, meat people, this is the very heavy-metal dude Wired Bunny making nice with you. Hallelujah, let's all speak in tongues! Power to the people who believe they're real, and to those still thinking about it. To everyone else, the secret is to bang the neurons together, guys. Me and my totally buzzed-in associates have been surfing the silicon in the Matrix in search of those utterly bad metal mothers from the place we don't mention, and so far I have to tell you we've found utterly squat. Zip, de nada, less than zero. Lots of signs that something mega's been and gone, but don't ask who or what or where, unless you want a lot of technical speak that even we don't understand half the time, because we're having to make it up as we go along. We're the frontier, people, and it sure is strange out here.
' 'Course, it hasn't helped that large areas are marked off limits by the larger business constructs. Paranoia city, cousins. We'll break through eventually, if only because we do so love a challenge, but it is slowing us down some. Don't suppose you heavy business dudes would care to volunteer the entry codes? No? Didn't think so.
