‘Please! Please! Aghh!’
Slau Dha tightened his grip on Grammaticus’s throat.
‘Do not plead, mon-keigh.’
‘Ghnn! You came… you came here in person?’
‘Yes, John,’ said G’Latrro, coming up behind them.
‘Lord Slau Dha came here in person because it is that important.’
‘TWO YEARS, THAT’S all we have,’ said the insectoid, relaying the white giant’s almost inaudible whispers. ‘Two years, John. The Cabal has seen this clearly, compounding our farseer and visionist talents. Even the Drahendra have seen this, and you know how slowly they move.’
Grammaticus nodded. The Drahendra was the most silent and inscrutable faction represented in the Cabal. Sentient, energised dust, virtually extinct, the last of them existed as membrane skins around dying gas giants. Even they perceived the rapid reshaping of universal destiny.
‘We’re all going to die. Only mon-keigh kind can alter the pattern.’
‘I wish he’d stop calling us that,’ Grammaticus told G’Latrro, rubbing his bruised throat.
‘It will be called a heresy,’ Slau Dha replied through his interpolator. The insectoid’s mouthparts twirled feverishly. ‘It will halt your species’ growth in its tracks. Even your glorious Emperor will be lost in it.’
‘Lost?’
‘He will die, John.’
‘Oh glory. You’re sure?’
‘It has been farseen. He will die forever. And his eternal death is the one thing we wish to prevent. Tiny thing though he is, you Emperor is a pivotal player in this.’
‘And Horus?’
‘A monster. Not yet, but soon. A monster to engulf all monsters.’
‘Can’t you stop it? Engage with another Legion, perhaps?’
‘John, we have tested them all, one by one. The Dark Angels first, centuries ago. There is too much inherent corruption in them. The gene-seed weakness in all of the older Legions has been exacerbated by the need to keep them up to strength for the Great Crusade. They have all, one way or another, weakened themselves. They are vulnerable. But the Alpha Legion, the last, the latest… they are still pure enough. Green, receptive to change.’
‘Surely…?’
‘John, listen to him,’ said G’Latrro. ‘He let the Cabal into the Black Library, so they could read this truth. He broke all the ancient edicts to make that happen. It is predetermined. The Cabal has exhausted hundreds of other agents trying to recruit the Astartes.’
‘Human agents?’
‘Yes, John. Human agents. Agents of all species. John, the Alpha Legion is our last hope. They are latecomers. Their gene-seed has not been diluted by the Terran and Alien Wars. John, we must—’
Slau Dha spoke, cutting his interpolator off. ‘Your first death,’ he said, speaking in the eldar tongue, knowing Grammaticus had no need of an interpreter.
‘My first death,’ Grammaticus answered in kind. ‘Anatol Hive. I never asked you to save me, autarch. You chose to do that, remember? You chose to re-sleeve me in flesh and make me your agent. Don’t you dare start calling in favours that I never asked for.’
There was a long silence.
‘I must, John,’ Slau Dha replied.
He began to whisper again.
‘This is no longer about the mission,’ G’Latrro translated. ‘The mission is still vital, but another factor has entered the scheme, an unpredicted one.’
‘What?’ asked Grammaticus.
‘It is something previously invisible to the Cabal’s Acuity. The Cabal chose Nurth as an ideal opportunity to demonstrate the effects of the Primordial Annihilator to the Alpha Legion. It turns out it is, perhaps, too much of a demonstration.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Grammaticus. ‘What do you mean?’
‘This is why I have come in person,’ said Slau Dha quietly.
‘We have lately discovered,’ said G’Latrro, ‘that the Nurthene possess a Black Cube.’
TEN
Mon Lo Harbour, Nurth, later that morning
CHASED BY HER aides, Honen Mu strode out into the bright sunlight that was bleaching one of the terracotta palace’s wide inner yards. She walked like she always walked, as if she was late for something important and nothing would stop her.
Other uxors, along with senior hets, were gathering in the yard, chatting in small groups or reading data reports. The morning briefing with Sri Vedt and Major General Dev was due to start in half an hour, and expectations were high. With the full strength of an Astartes taskforce now in play, commanded by the Legion’s primarch, no less, everyone anticipated a swift escalation in operations, a major assault, most likely, and soon. It was common knowledge that the Lord Commander was entirely pissed off with the Mon Lo theatre, and expected the Alpha Legion to take it quickly and cleanly, and so end his troubles.
Her aides were all gabbling at her. The day was bright, but cold, thanks to a blustery wind blowing in off the desert. The sky seemed to be moving backwards even more slowly than before. The vapour stain above Mon Lo was as dark and immobile as ever, but the screaming seemed to have diminished a little, or had at least been baffled by the desert wind. The sound lurked at the edge of hearing, like tinnitus.
Honen Mu came to a halt. ‘Shut up,’ she snapped with her ’cept, and her aides shut up. ‘One at a time now,’ she instructed.
‘Two attempted incursions along the earthwork overnight,’ said Tiphaine. ‘One at CR412 around midnight, repulsed by a contingent of the Outremars after a patchy firefight, the other at CR416, seen off quickly by the Knaves Company.’
‘Losses?’
‘None on either occasion, uxor,’ said Jhani.
‘Force estimations?’ Mu asked.
‘Both incursions were made by nurthadtre raiders,’ Leeli said, ‘numbering no more than thirty individuals. Lightly armed skiritai units, desert rogues, each force probably led by an echvehnurth elite. They melted back into the desert as quickly as they could.’
‘They are testing our lines, probing for weaknesses,’ said Jhani.
Honen Mu looked at the girl snidely. Jhani hung her head. ‘Which, of course, you had already appreciated, uxor,’ she murmured.
‘Anything else?’ asked Mu.
‘There are sketchy reports that a spy was driven away from the pavilion last night,’ said Tiphaine. ‘Define “driven away”,’ said Mu.
‘An insurgent agent got close to the pavilion during the Lord Commander’s meeting with the Astartes,’ said Nefferti. ‘He was discovered, and fled, probably into the desert.’
‘This is unconfirmed?’ asked Mu.
‘It is simply a rumour. The Lord Commander’s staff seem unwilling to admit that such an outrage occurred.’
‘No wonder, an agent getting that close…’ said Mu.
‘The rumour also suggests that said agent may have taken out a Lucifer Black,’ said Erikah.
Honen Mu redirected her gaze at Erikah. The girl did not shy away from Mu’s hard stare. Mu liked Erikah’s strength. Far younger than Tiphaine, Mu’s senior aide, the youngest of them all, Erikah showed great promise. She reminded Mu of herself: unabashed, strong, wilful.
‘The enemy agent killed a Lucifer?’ Mu asked.
Erikah nodded. ‘Right outside the tent wall and no one inside heard anything. Of course, the Lord Commander’s staff is denying this, but you know how word gets around.’
‘I happen to know a bajolur in the Outremars who said he saw the body being whisked away,’ said Leeli.
I can imagine how you happen to ‘know’ the bajolur, thought Mu. ‘Shit,’ she whispered. ‘A Lucifer got burned?’
‘Though the Lord Commander’s staff has refused to comment on the rumour,’ said Tiphaine, ‘operational security has been beefed up to Code Order Six as of midnight last night.’
Mu nodded. Code Order Six was the highest of the standing security impositions.
‘We have learned that the Lord Commander has authorised the Lucifer Black companions to c
onduct a full security purge on all Army units,’ said Jhani. ‘Everyone should make themselves available for interrogation by the companions at short notice. The Lord Commander is clearly keen to root out the spy in our midst before any assault begins.’
‘That’s exactly what I would do,’ Mu sighed. I need to clear things up before that happens, she thought. I need to clean the Chiliad ranks quickly and effectively, before the damn Lucifers find our regiment wanting. I know in my bones that a weakness resides within us. Rukhsana, Rukhsana, that silly bitch, she’s hiding something, and I will find it before our entire Old Hundred is shamed and disgraced.
She looked up at the sky, and watched it slide back on itself, slowly and unnaturally, like a pict feed of ice collapsing into melt water played in reverse. The desert wind tugged at their cloaks.
‘Uxor?’ asked Nefferti.
‘Wait here, please,’ Mu said, and strode off across the yard. Her aides lingered where they had been told to linger, whispering and nattering.
‘Genewhip,’ Mu said.
Franco Boone looked around at her. He had been standing in conversation with uxor Sanzi and her aides.
‘Uxor,’ he nodded. ‘I was just about to come looking for you.’
‘A word,’ said Mu.
They walked away from the gathering throng, to the south side of the yard, under the shade of the colonnade.
‘Something stinks,’ said Boone, keeping his voice low.
‘Go on,’ she replied.
‘Let me ask you this,’ said Boone. ‘Uxor Rukhsana? You told me she was covering something. Could it be an affair with Het Pius?’
Mu gazed at him. ‘Maybe, I don’t know why she’d hide it. Who would care?’
Boone shrugged. He took hold of the golden box hanging around his neck and took a pinch of peck. ‘The thing is,’ he said, sniffing, ‘we went to scope out Rukhsana’s lodgings, to follow up on your lead. We found Het Pius there, bold as brass and twice as naked.’
Mu laughed. She felt relieved. If that was all it was, if that explained Rukhsana’s behaviour, then she had been worrying for nothing. ‘There’s your answer,’ she said. ‘I apologise for putting you to such trouble,’
Boone’s dark look had not gone away. ‘The trouble’s only just started, uxor,’ he said. ‘As it turns out, it couldn’t have been Pius, unless Pius can be in two places at once. Whoever it was, they fooled me and two of my best bulls good and proper,’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Mu. Suddenly, despite her cloak, she felt how cold the wind was and shivered.
‘Neither do I, lady,’ said Boone. ‘I spent last night surveilling Pius. Guess who I saw with him?’ Boone scratched the tip of his axe-blade nose, and gave her a significant look.
‘You’ll have to tell me, Franco,’ she replied.
‘Soneka.’
She stared at the genewhip. ‘Well, of course. They’re old friends.’
Boone shook his head. ‘Soneka’s got suspicious written all over him, Mu. He got out of Tel Khat alive, and came to you with stories, what was it? About a “body” and Hurt Bronzi? Soneka, Pius, the pieces don’t fit.’
‘I’m sure they do,’ she assured him.
Boone shook his head again. ‘Not in any way I feel comfortable with, uxor.’
Mu pursed her lips and glanced up at the slow sky, squinting at the light. ‘Peto’s story was a fabulation,’ she said, ‘he admitted it himself. He was delirious after his ordeal and—’
‘We approached him for a quiet word,’ Boone cut in. ‘Just a quiet word. He fought us off and fled.’
Mu didn’t reply.
‘He’s hiding something,’ said Boone. ‘Soneka’s in league with Pius, or whoever it is that’s pretending to be Pius. I’d laugh it off, but we’re in the deep and stinky here. The companions are closing us down. A purge. If they dig up any real dirt, our heads will roll, literally. You know how forgiving Namatjira can be. He’d merrily eviscerate the geno if it meant making an example of a traitor.’
Mu looked at Boone so directly that he was forced to avert his gaze. ‘Franco, Peto Soneka is not the problem. He’s a good man, a damn good man, who’s been through hell these past weeks. He was shaken and delirious when we spoke to him. He’s no spy. He ran because you scared him. I’d stake my life on it.’
Boone finally found the bottle to look straight back at her. ‘He ran, Mu. He fought us off and ran. He vanished, and as of this morning, Bronzi’s missing too. His bashaws don’t know where he is. They haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since dawn yesterday. He’s dropped off the scope. I swear, they’re in it together, Mu… Soneka, Pius and Bronzi, three of our best hets. We’re not talking junior gee-tards here. They’re encrypt-eared hets; they know the Army’s entire playbook. If it turns out they’ve gone over, the scandal will finish the regiment.’
Honen Mu pulled her cloak around her to fend off the worst of the wind. ‘Franco, would you please come with me?’ she asked.
She led him along the colonnade to a shadowy stone stairwell that led up onto the flat roof of one of the buildings overlooking the yard. Up on the roof, the wind was stronger and the light brighter. Two men were waiting for them at the edge of the roof space. They got to their feet as Mu and Boone approached.
Boone blinked in consternation and drew his sidearm. ‘Hurtado Bronzi, Peto Soneka… consider yourselves under detention and—’
‘Put that away, Franco,’ said Mu. ‘They’re here under their own recognisance. They asked me to arrange this meeting, so that they could speak to you directly.’
Boone lowered his gun, but did not put it away. ‘I’m waiting,’ he said.
‘Genewhip,’ Bronzi said, making a casual but respectful namaste in Boone’s direction. ‘My old friend Peto has an apology to make to you. Haven’t you, Peto?’
Soneka nodded. ‘I was a fool to run last night, really, a complete fool. I was a little bit crazy. My mind was all over the place. I’m sorry for that, Genewhip Boone.’
‘Not good enough,’ said Boone.
‘He’s telling the truth,’ said Bronzi. He fished out a sheaf of documents from his belt pouch. ‘Look, see? Medicae reports. They signed off on him this morning after an exam. Combat fatigue.’
‘Likely story,’ Boone snorted, bringing up his sidearm again.
‘Look, I spent the last day and a half looking for him,’ said Bronzi, ‘because he’s my best friend and I didn’t want to see him swinging in the wind. He’s messed up, that’s all.’
‘Really?’ asked Boone.
‘His company got hammered at Tel Utan. Then the remnants of them were slaughtered at Tel Khat. It’s no surprise Peto’s suffering from combat fatigue,’ said Mu.
‘That kind of trauma would make anyone run if genewhips started pressing the wrong buttons,’ Bronzi added. ‘Your men were suggesting that the Tel Khat Massacre was all his fault.’
Boone lowered his weapon. ‘I suppose…’ he began. He snatched the papers out of Bronzi’s hand and skimmed them. The sheets flapped in the wind.
‘I don’t want Bronzi or my uxor making any excuses for me,’ said Soneka. ‘I can stand on my own two feet. I’m sorry I cut rough with your bulls, genewhip. Terra, I really am.’
‘I didn’t want to see Peto hang when he hadn’t done a thing, Boone,’ said Bronzi. ‘Like I said, I spent the whole of yesterday out looking for him, and when I found him, I persuaded him to turn himself in, to make peace with you and smooth this trouble out.’
‘With my full sanction,’ said Mu. ‘Hurtado brought the matter to me early this morning, and explained the facts.’
‘Hurt convinced me that it was better to turn myself in and face you,’ said Soneka. ‘I realise I should never, ever have run. That made me look guilty as hell.’
Boone holstered his weapon. He glared at all three of them, and thrust the paperwork back into Bronzi’s hands. ‘All right. All right, but I’m still not happy’
‘Of course you’re not,’ said Soneka.
‘That’s why we’d like to offer you something in return,’ said Bronzi, ‘by way of recompense for your trouble, and in gratitude for your understanding.’
‘Like what?’ asked Boone sourly.
‘Kaido Pius,’ said Soneka. ‘Hurt and I are his oldest friends. We can get stuff out of him that you genewhips would never manage, about him, Uxor Rukhsana, whatever dirt there is.’
‘Just give us a day or two,’ said Bronzi. ‘We’ll report back and give you everything we’ve found.’
Boone looked at Uxor Mu. ‘I don’t trust either of them.’
‘I trust them with my life,’ Mu said. ‘They are two of my best hets. Let them loose, Franco. They’ll find the canker in our midst. If they play us for fools, I’ll kill them myself.’
‘She would,’ said Soneka.
‘She really would,’ Bronzi agreed.
Boone grinned. ‘No doubt of that, but if you two bastards are tight with Pius like you say, why would you sell him out?’
‘If Kaido’s betrayed the Chiliad,’ said Soneka, ‘it wouldn’t matter if he was my brother. I’d skin him alive.’
‘Company first, Imperium second,’ said Bronzi. ‘Geno before gene.’
‘All right,’ said Boone. Two days, then I bring hell down on your heads.’
‘That’s fair,’ said Bronzi.
‘Totally fair,’ Soneka agreed.
Boone turned to leave, and then turned back. ‘Soneka? I’m truly sorry for your anguish. A company is a hard thing to lose.’
‘Indeed it is, genewhip,’ Soneka replied.
BOONE LEFT THEM on the roof and returned to the yard. Honen Mu regarded the two hets. She brushed windblown hair out of her eyes.
‘I have to go to the briefing,’ she said. They nodded. ‘Thank you for doing this,’ said Soneka.
‘An uxor looks out for all her charges,’ she replied, and then paused. ‘Don’t let me down. Don’t make me regret sticking my neck out today.’
‘We won’t, Honen,’ said Bronzi.