‘We only seek solace in His name,’ said Sinope, her voice falling to a whisper. ‘I know that it is forbidden to speak openly of Him and His divine ways, but we do so only among ourselves, we do not proselytise or seek out converts!’ She clasped her hands. ‘We are so few. We take in only those who come to us of their own free will. We have hurt no one with our beliefs!’
Soalm ran her fingers over the pages of dense, solemn text. ‘You are all followers of the Lectitio Divinitatus. You believe the Emperor is a living god. The only god.’
Sinope nodded. ‘And I will die with that belief, if that is what is required. But promise me I will be the only one. Please!’
She understood, finally. ‘I have not come to purge you,’ Soalm told them. ‘I… We did not even know you were here.’ There was a strange, giddy sense of events shifting around her.
‘But you were sent from Terra…’ said one of the men.
‘Not for this,’ said the Venenum, turning to meet Lady Sinope’s gaze, raising her arm as she did so and drawing back her cuff. ‘And until this moment, I was not certain why.’ Soalm showed them a small golden chain clasped around her wrist, a charm dangling from it in the shape of the Imperial aquila. ‘But now… Now I have an inkling.’
‘She’s one of us,’ said the man. ‘She believes.’
Sinope’s expression became one of joy. ‘Oh, child,’ she said. ‘He sent you. He sent you to us.’
Soalm returned the book to her and nodded.
Kell looked up as the men boiled into the central chamber in a rush of energy and jubilation, weaving through the scattered clumps of hardware and containers, the groups of people who stopped and smiled to see them returning. They still had the smell of cordite, woodsmoke and exertion on them. He scanned the group with a practised eye and saw they had all come back, and only with a few minor injuries. The squad leader, an ex-pilot named Jedda, came over to where Capra was standing at a vox console and enveloped him in a bear hug.
‘It’s done?’ said Capra.
‘Oh, it’s more than done!’ Jedda laughed, the rush of battle still there in his voice. His men shared the moment and laughed with him. ‘Tariel’s information was dead on! We blew out the supports for the bridge and the whole cargo train went down. Hundreds of clanner troops, a dozen fan-jeeps and armoured GEVs, all of it scrap at the bottom of the Redstone river!’
‘They’ll feel that,’ snorted one of the others. ‘The nobles will be tasting blood tonight!’
Capra turned and gave Kell a nod. ‘Thank your man for me. In fact, thank them all. A month ago I would never have thought I’d be saying this, but we actually have them on the defensive. The data and guidance you’ve provided us has enabled the resistance to make coordinated strikes all over the planet. The nobles are reeling.’
‘The mistake they made was their arrogance,’ said Koyne, wandering up to the group. The men parted to let the Callidus come closer; they were all unnerved by the bland, unfinished cast to the assassin’s neutral features. ‘They believed they had won, and lowered their guard. They didn’t expect you to hit back in synchrony. You’ve put them off balance.’
‘We’ll help you keep up the pressure,’ Kell told the resistance leader. ‘All we’ve done so far is show you how to find the cracks in their armour. You need to keep widening them until they break.’
Jedda nodded to himself. ‘We didn’t lose a single man tonight. We keep this up, the commoners who haven’t committed will side with us.’ He grinned at Kell. ‘At this rate, your fleet might get here and find it has nothing to do!’
‘We can only hope,’ said Koyne, drawing a look from the Vindicare.
‘Capra!’ Beye crossed the chamber at a jog, ‘Grohl’s back!’
Kell saw the grim-faced freedom fighter following her, unfurling his overhood and cloak. He had a scuffed carryall over one shoulder.
‘From the capital?’ said Jedda. ‘We made a lot of noise tonight, Terrik! Did they hear it back there in the towers?’ His triumphant mood rolled against the other man’s stony countenance and rebounded without effect.
‘They heard all right,’ said Grohl. He dropped the carryall on a crate being used as a makeshift table and threw off his robes with an irritable shake. ‘The Governor made a broadcast over all the communications channels. A declaration, he called it.’
The group fell silent. Kell saw the moment radiate out across the cavern to every person within earshot.
‘Let’s see it, then,’ said Capra.
Grohl opened the case and produced a memory spool, the commercial kind that any core world civilian home of moderate means possessed. ‘One of our contacts recorded this off the public watch-wire. It’s repeating in a loop at the top of each hour.’ Jedda went to take it from him, but Grohl didn’t give it up. ‘Perhaps you should look at this somewhere more… private.’
Capra considered that for a moment, then shook his head. ‘No. If it’s on the wire, then everyone else knows about it. Our people should too.’
Jedda took the spool and inserted it into a hololithic reader. With a buzzing hum, the device projected the ghostly image of a man in heavy dress uniform, a braided cap upon his head. He was standing before a lectern, and Kell noticed that it bore the sigil of an open, slitted eye; the symbol of the Sons of Horus.
‘Governor Nicran,’ said Jedda with a sneer. ‘I wonder where he recorded this? Cowering in the basement of his mansion?’
‘Quiet!’ hissed Grohl. ‘Listen.’
Kell watched the hololith carefully as the Governor began with empty pleasantries and vapid words of praise for his puppet masters in the noble clans. He read the politician’s expressions, for a moment imagining he was seeing that face down the sights of his Exitus longrifle. Nicran had all the look about him of a desperate man. Then he turned to the important part of the announcement.
‘Citizens of Dagonet,’ he said, ‘I have been gravely disturbed to learn of the deaths of many of our brave PDF troopers in the ongoing and ruthless attacks perpetrated by the resistance. Attacks that have also claimed the lives of many innocent civilians…’
‘Bollocks they have,’ snarled Jedda. ‘Clanner blood only!’
‘I applaud the vigilance of our troopers and recognise their bravery,’ Nicran continued. ‘But I also listen when their commanders tell me that the enemy hiding among us is a clear and present danger we have yet to overcome. And so, rather than prolong this terrible fighting and waste more precious Dagoneti lives, I have petitioned for assistance.’
‘What does that mean?’ muttered one of Jedda’s men. Kell kept his expression unchanged, aware that Koyne was watching him closely.
Across the chamber, a hush had fallen as everyone hung on Nicran’s words. ‘Centuries ago, when Dagonet was beneath the shadow of corrupt priest-kings, we faced a similar crisis. And then, as now, a warrior came to aid us. A master of war who freed us from fear and terror.’ The Governor blinked and licked his lips; Kell felt an odd tingle of anticipation in his trigger finger. ‘Citizens, I have this day received word from the fleet of the Sons of Horus. They are coming to Dagonet to deliver us, and the great hero Horus Lupercal will be with them. Have no fear. The retribution of the Astartes will be swift and terrible, but in its wake the freedom we crave, freedom of liberty, freedom from the stifling rule of a distant and uncaring Emperor, will be ours.’
Grohl tapped a key on the projector and the image died. ‘And there it is.’
It was as if something had sucked all the air from the chamber; Nicran’s statement had shocked the rebels into silence.