‘I’d say it is threatened,’ said Isolde, her hand straying to her knife.
‘I can only agree,’ said the man.
Isolde squatted down next to him. ‘Your name is Raznick. You work for Wienand.’
‘Now how did you come by that information?’ said Raznick.
Isolde tapped her head. ‘Memcore implant. I have a record of every Inquisitorial agent active in the Sol System.’
‘The ones you know about,’ said Raznick.
‘I know about you,’ said Isolde.
‘Wienand’s dead,’ said Haast. ‘You’re out of a job.’
‘Is she now?’ said Raznick.
‘What is your mission?’ asked Yendl.
‘Observation, nothing more. I was told to keep an eye on you, make sure Lord Vangorich doesn’t have you do anything rash.’
Isolde scowled. ‘You of the Inquisition, the keepers of the Imperium. Amateurs.’
‘Maybe I wanted to get caught?’ said Raznick.
‘Right,’ said Isolde. ‘Because you want me to make a hole in your brain. Clever.’
‘Shh!’ hissed Haast.
Suddenly, all three members of the Assassinorum cell had pistols in their hands and trained on the drainage door. A faint skittering came up the enclosed canal outside. Isolde moved to the bottom of the ramp. They waited as the pattering grew louder.
A rat appeared in the door, weirdly long-limbed and long-bodied, a Terran animal adapted to the lower-gravity conditions of Mars.
‘It is here,’ said Isolde, holstering her weapon. The rat remained stock still as she bent down and picked it up. It immediately sank its teeth into the web of her thumb.
Blood welled from the bite as she returned to the others and offered the rat to them. Yendl and Haast allowed it to bite them.
‘Red Haven gathered,’ said Isolde.
‘Red Haven confirmed,’ said the rat, and expired in Haast’s hands.
Yendl extended a fine cutting tool from her augmetic hand and sliced the rat from jaw to the base of its tail. Haast spread the belly. Inside, the rat was mostly cybernetic, a tiny mechanism surrounded by meat. Haast retrieved a silver ball from a housing at the centre. It bleeped, and a recorded message began to play.
‘Red Haven. This is Grand Master Vangorich. I have received Yendl’s troubling information regarding Kubik’s new experiments. Our suspicions that he is working entirely for the good of Mars and not the Imperium as a whole are being sadly borne out. We must prepare contingencies for a final solution.
‘Yendl, gather information on this new venture. Find out what the Adeptus Mechanicus want so many ork bodies for, and what they are doing with them. Prime your noospheric plague phage for release. If the Adeptus Mechanicus make their move, we shall decapitate the priesthood and destroy its informational network. Haast, hand over the care of Tybalt to Isolde. You are the most talented infiltrator in the cell. I want you to watch Kubik night and day. Build up a complete picture of his every habit. Operational level detail to be collated and submitted to me by the end of next week via the usual channels. Once you have this, Haast, you and Isolde are to find a suitable deployment site for Tybalt, and secrete him nearby. Isolde, begin preparation to infiltrate Kubik’s household as soon as Haast has performed her task. I want all three of you in position. One Assassin may be stopped, four cannot be.’
‘He’s going to assassinate the Fabricator General of Mars? He’s overstepping his office,’ said Raznick. ‘Can’t you see that? Let me report to my superiors! If you go through with this, it will mean civil war.’
‘Preparation does not betoken execution,’ said Isolde. ‘Preparedness is the watchword of the Officio Assassinorum.’
‘We’re going to have to kill you, Raznick,’ said Haast.
‘Your task is great, but you have my utmost confidence,’ Vangorich was saying. ‘The survival of the Imperium hangs by a thread. No matter your duty, I know you will perform it without question. I know you will succeed.’
‘Raznick’s death was the only outcome,’ said Isolde. ‘Did you think we might let him live, Haast?’
‘No,’ Haast said.
Raznick sank resignedly into the floor. ‘Just make it quick,’ he said.
‘Of course,’ said Isolde. ‘Suffering in this instance is of benefit to no one.’ She took a small knife from an arm sheath. Its blue steel edges began to vibrate once it was drawn. ‘Present your throat,’ said Isolde. ‘It’s the quickest way.’
‘Vangorich hasn’t finished yet,’ said Yendl. ‘Leave it.’
‘Finally,’ said Vangorich’s recording. ‘There is an Inquisitorial agent by the name of Raznick who has been assigned to follow you. If you have not already killed him, do not harm him. Make contact with him. It is in the interests of the Imperium that the Inquisition and Officio Assassinorum work together. Inquisitorial Representative Veritus has placed the Inquisition’s assets on Mars at our disposal. Raznick is the key to them.’
Isolde bent down to Raznick and cut his bonds. The ties offered no more resistance to the blade than smoke. He sat up and rubbed his wrists.
‘Today is my lucky day,’ he said.
‘Good hunting, Red Haven,’ concluded Vangorich.
Haast dropped the ball. It hit the plascrete. She stamped on it hard, breaking it into pieces.
‘Well then, my ladies,’ said Raznick from the floor, ‘what is our next move?’
Nineteen
Witch
In tight formation, the Palimodes and the Obsidian Sky drove through the ork fleet, brothers once more, if but for a while. Ramshackle ork craft were blasted apart at close quarters by punishing broadsides issuing from the ships. Spinal lances stabbed out, vaporising smaller craft and raking long, glowing rents into the sides of the others.
On the command deck of the Obsidian Sky, the Black Templars bondsmen went about their duties efficiently. Ericus sat tensely in his command throne, reading the ebb and flow of battle through augur and implant. ‘Palimodes, you are drifting ahead,’ said Ericus. ‘Maintain formation for maximum concentration of fire.’
Attonax responded, vox only, his voice crackling as much with anger as the constant, thumping roar of the orks’ broadsides. ‘I am not yours to command.’
‘If you wish to see your master returned to your vessel, you are,’ said Ericus. ‘By all means, we can go back to our previous bellicosity instead if you wish. If not, regain formation.’
The Palimodes slipped back, rolling a few degrees as attitude jets adjusted its trim.
‘That’s better,’ said Ericus to himself. ‘Proceed forward,’ he ordered. ‘We’re close to breaking out of this.’
A flight of ork attack craft swooped down for an attack run on the prow of the ship, guns spitting. A storm of anti-fighter fire tore them apart. The Obsidian Sky rocked as a massive projectile impacted on the void shields, overloading a power conduit high up in the command deck’s ceiling. Sparks showered down.
‘Master Scutum, report!’
‘Port void shield is down.’
‘Get it up. Intensify port fire. They’ve barely scratched us, we’ll make it through. Twelve degrees to port, helm, steady adjustment. Get me a good line on the target. Palimodes, prepare for synchronised fire.’
‘As you say, shipmaster,’ responded a surly Attonax.
The last obstacle in their path tracked across the hololith with the Obsidian Sky’s course adjustment, an ugly brute of a ship created by collision rather than construction. Much of the front half was made up of a crude, toothed beak, like that of an oceanic predator. This deliberate design gave way to a humped mass of rock studded with cannons and towers. Behind that the drive section sprouted a collection of tubes jutting off in multiple directions.
‘Prepare to diverge, Attonax. We’ll take the underside, you the top.’
The ork ship was coming about, its mismatched engines erratically flaring.