Secret War: Warhammer 40,000, Ben Agar [list of ebook readers .txt] 📗

reaching for their weapons.

I shot them both, one through the head and the other in his chest, the shots accompanied by even more screams of terror.

"Damn it, what the hell are you doing?" demanded Elandria as she retrieved one of the corpses' Las pistols and raising it to cover the entranceway.

"Improvising," I replied.

"Didn't-didn't you just say that 'everything is going according to plan'?"

"All according to one plan, yes."

"Then it isn't improvising, then is it?"

"Whatever," I sighed, and I found the unconscious Hammer's three backup ammo clips, and I slipped them into my pockets.

"So what is it that you improvise now, oh you magnificent bastard you?"

I looked over my shoulder at her shocked, was that an actual joke? A backhanded compliment, perhaps? Or something else entirely?

"Cover the door for me, would you. I have unfinished business to attend to."

"Then what the hell will I do when that Psyker gets here then?"

"Pray too, that Emperor of yours!" that was my reply as I turned into the corridor leading to the VIP area, my confiscated autopistol raised and ready as I advanced.

I had not forgotten about Taryst's psykers, I had an idea in the back of my head that this little independent operation of Glaitis' would have been tracked, but that also begs yet another question, why would Glaitis have played this move?

She must have known of Taryst's psychic allies and was aware without taking the proper precautions that we would have been found out, and I could hazard a myriad amount of guesses as to why but now was not the time to-.

As the corridor began to curve southward, I heard it, sudden and deafening, gunfire reverberated within the passage. I gritted my teeth, risking a look and what I saw made my eyes widen in fear.
One Hammer had lost his mind; he fired his stub automatic limply and indiscriminately into the crowd of terrified, screaming VIPs, two of which already lay dead.

The man was grinning mindlessly, foaming from the mouth, and his body moved loosely like a marionette. This was defiantly a psyker's work, and this would have been nightmare fuel unleaded if I had not seen it many times before. Without breaking stride, I shot him, I shot him straight through the face, the back of what was once a Human's skull exploded out into a cone of gore, the thick, red matter coating anyone near and the body dropped like a sack of spuds.

I left the corridor and out into a cacophony of cries as the VIPs all saw the small skinny bastard who held a smoking autopistol walking right through their midst.

Are you really scared of me? Didn't I save all your hides? I thought Glaitis had once said that being a hero was overrated, and once again, she proves to be right, and I kicked the corpse as I walked through. "Shame about the face," I muttered.

I came to the door, which led to the 'restricted' area and studied the lock. It was one of your typical password encoded things, and to the consequential cry of many an onlooker, I raised my pistol, turned away, covered my face with a forearm and blew out the lock with one deafening pull of the trigger.

I kicked the door open then was forced to throw myself back into cover mere milliseconds before the torrent of las fire cut through the air. I had managed a glimpse of the lone Hammer, the lone Hammer with crazed eyes, who stood six metres down the corridor and who still kept spraying on full auto despite my absence and whose insane screams of fear I could hear well over the rounds, he had no cover, nothing.

I only had to wait for several seconds for the fire to stop and to hear the familiar hiss of emptied Las weaponry, then I stepped out.

"You idiot!" I roared and put two rounds through his torso. Of course, his idiocy and the other's fear could be explained by the psychic presence. Now I could see my breath steaming and the ice on the walls; I grinned; thank you, Taryst, you are making this way too easy.

I kicked open the door at the end of the corridor and entered into what I remembered from the schematics a larger room and found it was a recreation room one that was already held and makeshift fortified buy three more of Brutis' Bones mooks. I was almost caught unawares, not prepared for an organised defence and was immediately forced back into hiding as they opened fire. I had accounted for the psyker's presence to be more lasting, and at times like this, I would kill for a grenade or manstopper rounds; they would easily blow fist-size holes through the table which they had turned over. It looked like it wasn't going to be so easy after all.

I briefly leaned out and fired off my last three rounds, forcing the Hammers to duck behind their table. Ejecting the empty clip, slamming a fresh one home, and without hesitation, I leaned back out. Even now, I am not sure if it was skill or luck which was the cause of me managing to scalp one of the Hammers as he rose from hiding, but either way, it shocked his comrades into submission long enough to allow me to sprint the distance and shoot them both through their faces at point-blank range.

I vaulted over the table and retrieved a laspistol from one of the corpses; after checking the charge gauge was full, I moved on now with a big grin on my face.



The shots reverberated in the confined corridors as I fired two point-blank rounds into the Hammer's chest, and my front kick followed on, colliding into the limp corpse and propelling the dead Hammer into the next of his colleagues in line. Both bodies fell to the floor in a mass of writhing limbs and screams. While lunging over the screaming Hammer and the corpse pinning him, I shot the next ganger as he was bringing his stubbrevolver to bear. Still, the fourth ganger in line was thinner and more nimble than the others as he slid past his collapsing ally and lunged into a hook punch intended on smashing in my head. In an inner-outer block that pushed the attack off course, I blocked the fist with a forearm, augmented his momentum, and caused his punch to connect straight into the rockcrete wall instead. His hand broke with a sickening crack, and the Hammer bellowed out in utter agony a bellow which became abruptly cut short as I pistol-whipped him in the base of the skull, causing his forehead to follow after his fist in cracking against the hard surface.

He also wasn't much taller than I was, so hence an effective human shield, and just in time, I hooked my arm around the man's neck, turned the limp form to face the next aggressor as he opened fire. The human shield took three rounds from the Hammer's autopistol (I could only thank the Emperor that none of them wielded shotguns). Jarring the corpse with each and almost caused me to let go before I managed to shoot the hapless team killer over the shoulder of his murdered workmate.

The next Hammer, an older and horrifically scarred monster, attempted to follow my example as he roughly shoved his traitorous allies corpse toward me to mask his advance. Still, I slid out the way, pushing my back against the wall, and the two dead men collided into each other, falling to the floor in a heap. The large ganger was on me and threw a deceptively fast hook that I barely managed to back peddle out the way from, he was actually pretty good, much to my surprise, and my attempt at bringing my pistols to bear was interrupted by his follow-on, a right jab that I swayed under and then an uppercut I narrowly sidestepped. The next attack was a lunging back fist that sent me back-peddling even further and almost made me trip over the corpses that I had left in my wake.

The Hammer stopped his assault and glared at me balefully, one of his eyes milky white the other a piercingly bright blue.

"Put those pistols away," he grunted as he cracked his knuckles. "I see you are a worthy opponent, so let us truly see who is the better fighter."

I sighed and complied, dropping both my pistols to the floor with a clatter.

"Hmm, right," I said. "But first, just one question, are you by chance Brutis Bones?"

"No, I am-"

Before he could continue any further, I knelt, picked the pistols back up and shot him five times; the first exploded out his guts; the second blew a ragged hole in his chest. The third burst open his right bicep, the fourth hit him in the thigh, causing him to spin around so his back was facing me and the last ripped out the base of his spine, and he fell straight to the floor, flat on his face. I knew it was overkill, but these 'Honour Before Reason' idiots were usually tough bastards, and that was the only way I could make sure he wasn't ever getting back up. Taryst wanted Brutis Bones alive, so I would have made an effort if it was him.

Sighing again and wondering how the hell such an idiot could have lived as a ganger. I casually lowered my laspistol and put a neat black hole through the forehead of the Hammer, who was still struggling to escape from under his dead ally.

I felt dirty; sure, I could have beaten the idiot eventually if I had done the honourable thing and fought fair, but that would have wasted time, and time was one thing not on my side.

As I moved through that maze of cramped, brightly lit corridors, the closer I came to the area I guessed was Brutis Bones' quarters. More and more, a feeling of unease grew at the pit of my gut, that almost the very air disturbed my very being, and with that feeling, it became more and more evident the lack of any psychic activity around me. Only one thing off the top of my head could explain this phenomenon, the presence of a blank. A person whose very existence nullifies the activities of the warp around them, dissipating all psychic abilities at a certain radius. It would explain a lot, Taryst's apparent need for an army to track down this enemy even with the cadre of psykers at his beck and call. But there had to more to it than that, even with the blank here making this place all but invisible, why hadn't Taryst just captured a lowly Hammer and had one of the psyker's delve into their mind? Was Taryst so paranoid at having the activities of his psykers found by the local authorities so frigging overwhelming?

That also begs the question, how the hell could Taryst know my thoughts so well that he could tell of my doubts about my job? Perhaps the answer lies in the "blocks" placed in mine and all my fellow mercenaries minds; perhaps they allow the psykers to read our thoughts without giving off any hint? Was that even possible? I didn't know. But if it was true, then it only confirms that Taryst didn't want anyone outside of his organisation knowing of this hunt and the complicated precautions he was prepared to take to keep it that way.

Then 'paranoia' was a frigging understatement.

But this 'answer' was just fuel for many more questions; why did Glaitis allow her apprentice to be implanted with these things? Why would Glaitis have both Elandria and I along to this operation if Taryst could have his psykers read our minds? And I will not say that it was "because she didn't know" idiocy; she knows, she knows everything. I can say that with an amount of conviction that I hadn't felt in ages. Perhaps she wanted to have Taryst reveal