La Edad De Oro (104 page)

He tried to lower his hands, to straighten up, but the sensation gripped his throat for a long, shameful moment: loneliness, self-pity, fear, the degrading physical terror that he would be killed, and die the final death.

Mingled with this was the more subtle oppression of knowing he had no place to go, no home, no shelter, and no friend—and no real destination…

That moment passed. With a snort, Phaethon straightened up. He sardonically added an entry to his negative asset column: “More easily frightened than expected.”

In his asset column, he noticed the listing of how much directed energy per square inch his armor could withstand. Then he uttered a harsh laugh. “Good luck to you, my assassins,” he murmured half-aloud. They would need an energy output equal to a b-type star even to scratch him; they could blow the planet to asteroids beneath his feet without even jarring him. Even if they pushed him into a pit of frictionless, superconductive slime, his internal ecological structures would remain intact for years upon years.

And yet, the enemy must be aware of all this. They would be prepared. A charge of antimatter would burn through his armor, as it would through any normal atomic structure, heavy or light.

With Sophotechs helping them, these enemies, whoever they were, could outthink him, anticipate his moves, create better weapons, have more resources at their command.

No one would raise a hand to help him. No one else even believed these foes existed.

In the positive assets column, he added, grimly, with no trace of a smile: “And I alone, out of a whole world of deluded and forgetful men, know and recall the truth about this matter. I love truth more than happiness; I will not rest.”

Squinting, he stepped into the light.

Here ends volume I, to be concluded in volume II, The Phoenix Exultant.