Chapter 29 of 99 · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

Chapter 29 — The stampede; Harbinger

Book: A Parade of Horribles · Part: Horrible One · Previous: Chapter 28 — The interlocution; the question Orren wanted asked · Next: Chapter 30 — Heat three: Gluteus Maxx and the Sugar Hermits · Floor: Floor 10 — Don't Come in Last · Series: the series

Opening

“Wait, what?” Botis asked, his demeanor changing once again.

Summary

The herd panics: 'We shall manifest the Epicure.' 'She has fulfilled her bargain.' 'Stampede' 'The beautiful place.' Bathin wails; two goats faint stiff-legged on their backs (Donut: the city elves looking at her butt on the third floor); Donut: the Midnight Epicure is Prepotente's god, whose patch is on Carl's jacket. Victory calls it reckless; Carl: you knew, and the AI allowed it. One goat does not run: Gamori, lead engineer of the Plenty Tunnel Project and Matriarch of the Plenty — 'she just got caught out not relaying vital information to the rest of her herd.' The rest stampede through the walls, holos flickering, techs and assistants who had been invisible with them. Her judgment: rash, impulsive, loud, a troublemaker; the Plenty sponsored Carl at their partner's behest over her objection; she was studying 'this new predator in the forest'; 'You have invoked a stampede, and we will not stop running until we are safe.' No questions — 'you are too dangerous to walk amongst the herd.' Asked why she came at all, she bursts into snotty tears: they wanted to do something special because he is best friends with their champion and the council wanted to meet Donut, 'so wonderful and beautiful and sassy', and she was too scared to tell her people 'they’d take it as a sign that the end-times are here'. Crack: Harbinger, teleported in behind Carl with an enormous pulse rifle, calls her 'Mother'. Expelled, forbidden to speak to her, he says he warned them all when he saw how many Residuals were in the dungeon and how the AI favoured this predator; 'Nobody helped me. I have been alone in this. I am so lonely'; she once asked why he never exerted himself at the end of their circles — 'I will exert myself now. I will protect the herd. I will protect the universe' — and raises the gun at Carl. The AI intervenes: everything inside Harbinger is suddenly outside him, a boot pulled from mud, warm jam from a showerhead, dripping in hairy clumps from the ceiling. 'All stampedes have their casualties,' Gamori says, and blinks out. Lexis holsters a gun she did not fire, wipes her tablet, and smiles through the gore: the ratings are the highest they have ever been.

Characters

• Carl — 'If the AI didn’t want this getting out now, he wouldn’t have allowed it.'
• Princess Donut — Knows the Midnight Epicure is Prepotente's god.
• Gamori — Lead engineer and Matriarch of the Plenty; 'too dangerous to walk amongst the herd'; snotty tears; 'All stampedes have their casualties.'
• Harbinger — Teleports in with a pulse rifle, calls her Mother, 'I am so lonely', raises the gun — and is turned inside out.
• Lexis — Holsters a gun she did not fire; the ratings are the highest ever.
• Baroness Victory — Calls it reckless.
• Orren — On the line.
• Zev — Lexis's employer.
• Prepotente — The herd's champion, Carl's best friend.
• The Midnight Epicure — 'We shall manifest the Epicure.'
• The System AI — Intervenes: everything inside Harbinger outside him.

Locations

• The production facility — The herd stampedes through the walls.

Motifs

• The Syndicate — The Plenty sponsored Carl at their partner's behest, over Gamori's objection.
• The Residuals — Harbinger warned them when he saw how many were in the dungeon.
• The show — Ratings.
• The gods — The Epicure invoked.