‘There must be another access point!’ Pasha snapped. Her upper arm was bleeding. She ignored it.
‘No,’ said another adept. ‘The Gnosis Repository is a sealed section. One access.’
‘One access my backside!’ cried Pasha.
‘The thermal vents,’ said the third, arriving at a viable hypothesis. ‘If hostiles entered via the thermal vents–’
‘Impossible,’ replied the first. ‘They would never have made it through the geotherm system alive.’
‘Well, they fething did!’ snarled Pasha.
The adept wardens strode into the lab through the iris valve, followed by Criid’s first section and a squad from Theiss’ company.
‘What the feth is happening?’ Theiss asked.
‘Compromised!’ said Pasha. ‘Their fething security is compromised to shit! The enemy is in the vault! They have the fething stones!’
‘They cannot exit,’ said the remaining skitarii officer in a grinding voice that echoed from its chest plating. It and its three kin aimed their weapons at the compression hatch in neosynchronous unison. ‘We will cancel their lives as soon as they try.’
‘Do this,’ ordered the adept wardens in unison.
‘They can get out the same way they fething got in!’ Pasha roared.
‘Not possible,’ said the adept wardens.
‘Stop telling me that,’ said Pasha. ‘This vent system. This ge-o-thermal vent. Is there a way into it?’
‘There is access at several points within the complex,’ said an adept logis. ‘The geothermal substrate is a network that supplies power to all aspects of this facility, and to all other forge sites on Urdesh. It underpins the city, connecting a subterranean duct network that draws heat and pressure energy from the natural volcanic–’
‘Don’t give me lecture!’ Pasha cried. ‘Show me way in! Show me fething access point!’
‘Turbine Hall One is the closest,’ said an adept logis.
The adept wardens looked at each other and then back at Pasha.
‘We will show you the location,’ said one.
‘We will mobilise the remainder of our skitarii complement from cryonics,’ said the other, ‘and activate all automata gun slaves.’
‘Tona!’ Pasha called out. ‘Go with this pair of… of… wardens. Ready a strike group. Prep to go in fast, cut the devils off!’
‘Get flamers up front, Criid!’ Elam added.
Pasha looked at him.
‘Flamers? Not fething flamers!’ she exploded. ‘These devils came up through fething ge-o-thermal system! They are fething fire-retardant!’
‘There’s something about them, that’s for sure,’ said Kadle. ‘I’m certain I clipped one in the firefight. One of the two who came out of the crypt. It didn’t even jolt him.’
‘Tona? Tona, go!’ Pasha yelled. ‘Shoot them, kill them with sticks, fething kick them to death! Whatever! Get in and cut them off!’
Criid was already yelling orders into her link as she followed the adept wardens out of the lab.
Under the hard light inside crypt K, Corrod looked down at Etriun. The versenginseer was lying on his back, fluids leaking from his multiple wounds. There was a spark of life in him, machine life at least. His electoos had gone a cold blue colour.
Ulraw entered the crypt. He had been clipped on the arm during the exchange, but the bolt had barely broken the skin.
‘One casualty on our side, damogaur,’ he said. ‘Ekheer. Struck by flechettes. He’s healing. The enemy has withdrawn to the lab level and closed the hatch.’
Corrod nodded. ‘Bring the others up,’ he said.
The Qimurah had entered the Gnosis Repository through a spur in the thermal vents that rose through the sub-levels of EM 14. As they drew close, Corrod had been able to smell the eagle stones, and feel their pull. He had been preparing a device to unlock the crypt hatch when the light surrounding it had gone green. Like a gift. The shapers of the dark had granted him a boon.
He had known what it really meant. Someone was approaching. He had sent the bulk of his force back to the vent access at the end of the bay to take up firing positions, and then entered the crypt with Ulraw.
The stones were lined up on either side of the crypt. Eight stone tablets, each encased in a sterile plastek cover and set in an illuminated alcove. The Glyptothek removed during enemy action from the College of Heritance on Salvation’s Reach more than ten years earlier. An heirloom of past eras, prized beyond any other thing by He whose voice drowns out all others. They were Enkil Vehk, the key of victory. Not just victory over the scum of the Throne, but victory over the bloated Archon, Urlock Gaur. Anarch Magir Sek would crush both of them. He would drive the crusade of blighted Terra back into the stars, and he would claim his rightful place as Archon of the Sanguinary Tribes.
Ulraw returned with several of the others. They gazed at the tablets.
‘Remove them carefully,’ Corrod told Ulraw. ‘We’ll be moving out quickly.’
‘The enemy will counter-attack within minutes,’ said Hellek. ‘They are not fools, sad to say. They will have realised we used the vents. They will block them or attempt to flush them.’
‘Which is why we will move with haste, Hellek,’ Corrod said. ‘And why I will create a suitable distraction.’
Ulraw began to remove the stones from their alcoves. Corrod knelt down beside the dying adept.
Ordinate Jan Jerik had provided him with all the technical support he had demanded: access to the vents, schematics, pass keys, system codes. He had also supplied, at Corrod’s request, a data plug of Mechanicus pattern loaded with a tailored code he had called Berserker. It was, Jan Jerik had explained with pride, sanctioned codeware dating back to the Dark Age of Technology, a machine plague that would poison and corrupt any system it infected. This, he had promised, would scramble and deactivate even the most secure Mechanicus holding crypt.
Corrod hadn’t had to use it. The crypt-safe had been unlocked for him. But it seemed such a waste.
‘Friend,’ he said to Etriun, speaking in the Imperial tongue.
Etriun’s eyes fluttered. Soupy fluids gurgled out of his mouth.
‘I have something for you,’ Corrod said. ‘A gift from me, and from the Anarch whom I serve. You will share it with all of your kind, so they may delight in its wild ecstasies.’
Corrod yanked several cables out of the plug ports behind Etriun’s left ear. The versengineseer shuddered and emitted several shrill, buzzing calls of despair. Corrod fumbled with the ports until he found one that matched the data plug. He pushed, and the plug connected with a snap.
Berserker initiated. The tech plague streamed from the data plug into Etriun’s amygdala and cyber-cerebral implants. It flooded his micro-cogitators. It burned what was left of his flesh. It was feral code, magnificent in its ferocity and aggression.
Etriun spasmed. He was dying, but his neosync connections to the EM 14 noosphere were still open.
Kolding entered the laboratory space.
‘There!’ said Captain Elam, pointing to the workbench where Setz and Ludd were fighting to keep Sindre alive.
Kolding opened his kit and assessed the man’s wounds. ‘Keep pressure there,’ he told Setz. ‘I’ll try to seal and then pack the wound.’
‘I think he’s bleeding out,’ said Ludd.
‘He is bleeding out,’ replied Kolding simply. ‘That’s what I’m trying to prevent.’
Pasha glanced at Theiss. ‘Are they there yet?’
Captain Theiss was listening intently to his bead. He nodded.
‘Yes, mam,’ he said. ‘Criid and Obel have reached the vent access. They have squads with them. Preparing to enter.’