"Simon R. Green - Deathstalker - 4 - Deathstalker Honor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

luxury she'd always wanted to become accustomed to. She had no interest in politics. If
you couldn't hit or rob something, Ruby was mostly lost for an alternative. So she
stayed out of the ongoing negotiations, and everyone else heaved a great sigh of relief.


file:///D|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Gree...athstalker%2004%20-%20Deathstalker%20Honor.htm (4 of 466) [7/12/2004 2:51:34 AM]
Simon R. Green - Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor


And Owen and Hazel had become bounty hunters, tracking down escaped war
criminals. Officially, they were supposed to bring the villains back to face public trial,
but privately it had been agreed on all sides it would be better if certain parties were
killed while trying to escape. Owen and Hazel had nodded solemnly when this was
explained to them, and decided they'd make up their own minds on the subject, as and
when necessary. If there was ever to be any hope of stability in the new order Jack was
trying to hammer together, the truly evil had to be punished, and seen to be punished.
People like Valentine Wolfe, for example, despised right hand of the Empress and
butcher of Virimonde. You couldn't send just anybody after a dangerous and subtle
villain like the Wolfe, so that was where Owen Deathstalker and Hazel d'Ark came in.
They were, after all, the most dangerous people the Empire had ever seen.
All Owen had ever really wanted was his old life back, but almost from the moment the
rebellion was officially declared triumphant, it seemed to him that everyone and his
brother had begun fighting for a chance to grab a piece of the legendary Deathstalker
hero. Every political party wanted him as its figurehead. Every cause sent
representatives requiring he attach his name and his blade to their demands. Sometimes
they even fought duels outside his quarters over who got to speak to him first.
Then there were the holo news networks wanting endless interviews, and agents
wanting to buy exclusive rights to his life story. They all wanted pictures and quotes
and answers to increasingly personal questions. Not to mention product endorsements
and book deals and merchandising rights. Hell, one company even wanted to
manufacture a line of action figures based on him and Hazel and Jack and Ruby. Owen
just wanted to be left alone, and said so increasingly loudly, but no one listened. So in
the end he had fled Golgotha on the Sunstrider II, on what turned out to be the first of
many missions as a glorified bounty hunter, licensed and paid by Parliament to clear up
the Empire's more dangerous messes.
Hazel was there too. She said she had just come along to get a little action to keep
herself from getting soft, but Owen liked to think she was just bored spitless without an
enemy to fight. Though it had to be said she'd never been one to sit around and
contemplate the lilies of the field, and settling down to a peaceful and productive life
was exactly what she'd become an outlaw to avoid. She couldn't even get drunk and
start fights in bars anymore. Everyone knew who she was, and was scared witless to say
anything that might upset her. So when Random had offered her a commission to track
down and possibly execute missing war criminals, she'd jumped at the chance, and
wasted no time in persuading Owen to join her. Even if she seemed to remember it the
other way around. But then, that was Hazel for you. Never happier than when she could
lay the blame on someone else.


file:///D|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Gree...athstalker%2004%20-%20Deathstalker%20Honor.htm (5 of 466) [7/12/2004 2:51:34 AM]
Simon R. Green - Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor