Deathstalker Coda (18 page)
Authors: Simon R. Green
The Emperor had other problems too. He went to see Elijah du Katt, in his new laboratory set within the palace. (Finn had decided to keep his remaining allies close at hand, wherever possible.) There was only one du Katt these days. The Elijahs had tried to assemble their own power base and a new clone underground, and Finn couldn’t have that, so he personally shot all the Elijah du Katts except one. He neither knew nor cared whether the remaining du Katt was the original or not. It didn’t really matter.
Ostensibly Finn was visiting du Katt to discuss the problems of cloning esper brain tissues, but as always Finn had an ulterior motive. The recent uprisings had demonstrated very clearly that he had a shortage of manpower, especially now that he didn’t have the thralls to back him up any longer. He needed soldiers—armed men who would do what they were told without question. And he didn’t have the time to find and train and indoctrinate them. So, the obvious answer was an army of clones. To produce such an army would require a huge protein base, but luckily there was no shortage of dead bodies lying around, just waiting to be put to good use. And this new army would be programmed to know no fear, and absolutely no independence. They wouldn’t turn and run, like those so-called zealots he’d sent into the Rookery. Finn’s blood still boiled at the thought of his men running from a bunch of outcasts and cheap grifters. He would have cheerfully called in his fleet and scorched the whole area from orbit, but there was no way of doing that without taking out the whole of the Parade of the Endless. He was still thinking about it, though.
Finn expounded his plans for a new clone army at some length to the sole remaining and somewhat subdued du Katt. He strode up and down between the shining brand-new equipment, his ideas growing more extravagant by the moment. Du Katt just sat there, shaking his head slowly, until Finn told him to stop it. Du Katt wrung his hands together in front of him to stop them from shaking.
“To produce the number of clones you require, on the time scale you propose, presents us with . . . certain difficulties, that no amount of tech or funding will overcome. Your Majesty, the end product will almost certainly be . . . damaged goods.”
“Be specific,” said Finn, fiddling with a nearby piece of delicate and expensive equipment, just to watch du Katt flinch and twitch.
“Well, Your Majesty, the end product will almost certainly have physical defects, including but not limited to, a certain amount of brain damage.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” said Finn. “Soldiers too stupid to rebel, and too dumb to do anything but follow orders. I can live with that. I’ll take two million, to begin with. And use the cell samples I brought as the base for their genetic structure.”
“Whose cells are they?” said du Katt.
“Mine, of course,” said Finn. “I have decided I want children. Lots and lots of them.” He laughed, and clapped the shaking du Katt on the shoulder. “Congratulate me! I’m going to be a father!”
His next visit was to another laboratory he’d had moved to the palace, for security reasons. The owner hadn’t wanted to move, but it’s amazing how persuasive a gun pointed at the groin can be. And so, that renowned drug dealer, alchemist, and complete head case Dr. Happy now worked exclusively for Finn, in a brand-new lab with every convenience money could buy. Much to the sorrow of his many other customers. It had to be said that Dr. Happy wasn’t entirely the man he’d once been, before his long sojourn on Haden, in the proximity of the Madness Maze. But there was no denying he still possessed the most unique scientific mind in the Empire. And these days the good doctor labored tirelessly on a single project: the rebuilding of Anne Barclay.
Anne had been very nearly killed by the wreckage that fell on her during Douglas Campbell’s daring escape through the roof of the court. Anyone else probably would have died, given how long it took to get her to a regeneration tank. But the tank kept her hovering on the edge of death, while Dr. Happy turned his twisted mind to the problem. Finn had instructed Dr. Happy to go to any lengths to save Anne, so that was exactly what he did. What he could not cure or repair, he replaced or rebuilt, no matter how extreme the measures necessary. He worked wonders, pulling Anne back from the brink of the grave again and again, but unfortunately he couldn’t resist the impulse to re-create her in
amusing
ways. The good doctor had been influenced by his prolonged proximity to the Madness Maze, and it showed in his work. He had also taken to using himself as a test subject for all the new drugs he developed, on the grounds that the only way to fully understand the effects was to experience them firsthand.
amusing
ways. The good doctor had been influenced by his prolonged proximity to the Madness Maze, and it showed in his work. He had also taken to using himself as a test subject for all the new drugs he developed, on the grounds that the only way to fully understand the effects was to experience them firsthand.
One of the drugs killed him. Another brought him back. Or so he said. Either way, the end result was that Dr. Happy was now a walking, rotting corpse, within which his slowly decaying brilliant mind misfired from time to time. Implanted tech from dubious sources and a whole series of experimental new drugs kept him going, but his flesh continued to slowly mummify despite all his best efforts to rejuvenate it. Dr. Happy didn’t care. He savored the sensations of decay through preternaturally sharpened senses, and boasted that his new outlook on life—or rather death—gave him all kinds of new insights.
The sight that greeted Finn, as he entered the heavily guarded laboratory, would have shaken and sickened anyone else. Gone were the days of shining new tech and pristine equipment. The shadowed chamber was packed with animal cages and stank like a slaughterhouse. Experimental animals peered dolefully from the cages, while others lay scattered across the lab tables in various states of completion. Dr. Happy had been taking them apart and putting them back together in interesting new combinations, to see what would happen. Mostly they died, but he said he was learning a lot in the process.
Finn strode unhurriedly through the lab, peering dubiously at the latest assemblies pinned to the tables, and then looked up as Dr. Happy came tottering forward to greet him. The good doctor wore nothing but his chemical-stained lab coat over his emaciated, rotting body. Dark blotches covered the gray skin, and occasionally pale glimpses of bone showed through. Most of his white hair had fallen out, his sunken eyes were as yellow as urine, and his lips had drawn back from his teeth, turning his permanent smile into a rictus. He moved in sudden darting flurries, never still for a moment, filled with some terrible, remorseless energy.
“So good to see you again, Finn! Yes! Yes! Oh, happy day . . . We’re making progress here, definitely making progress. Don’t look at the rabbit; I never expected it to work. The other head was just a whim. You’ve come to see Anne, I presume? Yes, yes, I know, no time for chat. I see ghosts, you know.”
Finn paused, and looked at Dr. Happy. This was a new turn. “Ghosts?” he said carefully.
“Oh, yes. Spirits of the dead, restless souls of the departed, that sort of thing.” Dr. Happy spun round in a circle, flapping his bony hands as though shooing things away. “They’re always floating round the lab, getting in the way. Pestering me, when I have better things to do.” He looked fixedly at nothing for a long moment, his head cocked on one side. “They’re quiet, for the moment. I think you frighten them. I’m pretty sure some of them are people I came back from Haden with. You remember.”
“The crew of the
Hunter
, and the scientists of Haden,” said Finn. “The people you poisoned and drove insane.”
Hunter
, and the scientists of Haden,” said Finn. “The people you poisoned and drove insane.”
“It’s not my fault they weren’t strong enough to tolerate the miracles I fed them! I would have made them superhuman if they hadn’t all died on me. People have no stamina these days. I blame late toilet training, myself. You don’t think they blame me for their deaths, do you? How very unfair. But you’re here to see Anne, aren’t you? Come and see, come and see. I’ve made such marvelous progress since you were last here. You won’t recognize the old girl.”
“That had better not be true, for your sake,” said Finn, but Dr. Happy had already lurched away, and was pottering about his lab. He was heading towards the living quarters at the back, but he kept being distracted by various chemical distillations and computer displays. He gave his gene splicer an encouraging pat in passing, and beckoned imperiously for Finn to follow him. Finn sighed, and did so. The line between genius and madness was thin enough at the best of times, and being dead probably didn’t help. He followed Dr. Happy on his erratic journey, pausing now and then when the good doctor stopped to talk to people who weren’t there. More of his ghosts, presumably. Finn tried hard to see something, but couldn’t. He hated to miss out on things. Dr. Happy whirled round abruptly to face Finn.
“Now, this is interesting! This spirit claims to be you, come back in time from the future, after you died. I’d probably be able to understand him better if he didn’t have his head under his arm.”
Finn made a mental note to get as much work out of Dr. Happy as he could while he still lasted. “How are you getting on with your new version of the Deathstalker Boost?” he said, loudly and clearly.
“All right! All right! No need to shout! I’m dead, not deaf. The ears are still attached, see? And the Boost is going very well, thank you. I’ve already produced a viable prototype, and given it to Anne.”
“You’ve done what?” Finn said sharply. “I told you I wanted to test it myself first.”
Dr. Happy looked at him with his sunken eyes, and twitched his stiff fingers nervously. “There was no time, no time! Anne needed my Boost, if she was going to hold together. You have to remember, most of what I’ve done to her is extremely experimental. No one else could have kept her alive as long as I. I’ve used old Hadenman tech, Wampyr tech, and even some new options that came to me during my time with the Maze. I had no choice but to make her into a cyborg, after the appalling damage she suffered.” He paused, considering. “I have to admit, I’m not always sure how or even why some of it works, but we learn by doing, after all. Still, tech implants, miracle potions, and my loving care can only do so much. Often the very things that keep her alive are at war with each other in her poor abused body. The Boost should make all the difference. I have the highest hopes for it. Come and see, come and see!”
He pottered off again, and Finn followed him to the back of the lab. The living quarters were kept separate from the rest of the lab by a single door of solid steel. It was kept locked at all times, as much to keep Anne in as everyone else out. Dr. Happy spoke his name into the voice lock, and the door ground slowly open. Beyond it lay a comfortable enough room, with every amenity but no windows. Anne was standing before the full-length mirror again, studying herself. Her new self—or what had been done to it in the name of survival. Finn had offered to remove the mirror, on the grounds that it only upset her, but Anne had wrecked the room in protest, even denting the steel door, so he never mentioned it again.
Anne stood awkwardly. She was still learning how to walk and move smoothly in her new, altered form. She wore no clothing, so she could see herself more clearly. Tech implants bulged crudely out of her flushed pink skin, thrusting out sharp and curved edges. One arm was longer than the other, and the power unit in her back gave her a slight hunched look. Her body bulged in the wrong places, to contain everything that had been put into it. Long raised edges of scar tissue trailed paths all over her body, like the map of a new route into Hell. She moved jerkily, without grace, and often her hands broke things without meaning to. Sometimes she broke them deliberately, out of rage and frustration. Her hair had grown out gray from the stress, and her face was gaunt and tired. Her eyes had the golden gleam of the Hadenman, and when she spoke her voice was a harsh painful buzz. She didn’t look away from the mirror reflection when Finn entered, but when she spoke it was for him.
“I was beautiful for such a short time. I wish I’d enjoyed it more. Still, at least now the outside finally matches the inside.”
“You’ve been brooding again, haven’t you?” said Finn. “What have I told you about that? You have nothing to blame yourself for. Besides, beauty is in the eye of the be-holder.”
Anne tried something like a smile. “It takes one monster to appreciate another. There’s something new in me now, isn’t there?”
“Yes,” said Finn. “It’s a variant on the old Deathstalker Boost. It will make you stronger, faster, and hopefully a little more stable.”
Anne turned with awkward suddenness to face him. “Yes. I can feel it, like lightning in my veins. I feel . . . strong. I could probably knock down that stupid door of yours now, if I wanted. But where would I go? I don’t sleep anymore, you know. I don’t need to. Just as well, really. I had bad dreams.”
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