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

teeth and suddenly got off the bed.

"Enough frigging about," I said. "Let's go, let's go and talk to the thing; we've wasted enough time talking."

She shrugged and looked away. "Yeah, I guess."

"Let's do this then."

 

 

 

Karmen and I walked into the corridor, Karmen carrying the medical kit with her, our footfalls echoing ominously on the stark white tiles as we passed the cells.

We came to the Thing's cell, where we found it still in my form and still lying unconscious.

Drawing my sword, I turned to Karmen and said, "you ready?"

She nodded, and I punched the door access button, raising my sword in a defensive stance as it slowly slid open.

Suddenly its eyes snapped open, and it lunged, a blur of speed as It came at me.

But I was ready, weaving under its flying fist; I smashed my knee hard into its side. It let out a gasp of pain and collapsed onto its knees, and suddenly found the edge of my sword laid against its throat.

"Really?" I said, grinning down at It. "You thought we'd fall for that?"

It just glared accusingly at me.

I looked to Karmen, who was still standing with a look of shock on her attractive face.

"You alright?" I asked.

"I uh yeah," she said, shaking herself out of it. "That was just..."

I raised an eyebrow. "Just what?"

"Nothing," she said and knelt next to the mimic, opening her kit as she did. "Attelus told me he smashed a bottle over your head; I don't know how your illusion works but show it to me so I can withdraw the shards of glass."

It looked at her with distinct contempt, then glared back up at me.

"So your not going to kill me now?" It asked.

I shrugged. "Depends on how cooperative you are; I know that you have a huge role to play in this game for mamzel Glaitis, so much, so you really need to keep on living to do so. So I suggest you do as she says."

"And answer our questions," said Karmen.

"Of which we have a myriad amount of," I added.

It sighed, and with a flash of light, It showed us Its injuries, half of my face covered in dried blood, and countless slivers of glass jutted out of its entire skull.

It wasn't a pretty sight, making me wince away and suck air through clenched teeth.

"I should have known you two would join forces," It growled as Karmen began to pluck out bits of the bottle with a small pair of tweezers.

"Well, you know what they say, desperate times," said Karmen.

The Thing let out a derivative snort. "So very like you, Karmen, always spouting out cliches-ow!"

Karmen chose to pull out a large piece of the bottle just then.

"First question, mutant," I said, pressing my blade slightly closer against its neck. "Or Xenos, or whatever the hell you are, tell me why you keep on insisting on keeping my appearance?"

It looked up at me with utter contempt. "I thought that was obvious; it's psychological, it was meant to unnerve you and anyway, I like your appearance; you're very pretty."

My brow furrowed. "What?"

It frowned, then winced as Karmen tugged out another piece of glass. "Ow! I'm going to blunt with you, Attelus Kaltos, with your hair like that, you kind of look like a girl."

Karmen let out a derivative snort of her own. "'Kind of?' More like completely."

"W-what? No, I don't."

"Yes, you do, Attelus, sorry," It said and inhaled sharply as Karmen withdrew another bit of the bottle. "I really do suggest you get a haircut; in fact, I'm surprised mamzel Glaitis has let you have long hair for so long."

It snorted again, but this time It sounded almost like laughter. "Some pragmatist you're meant to be, in a fight, long hair is nothing but disadvantageous; you should know that. In fact, do you want me to show you what you would look like with short hair?"

"No," I said through clenched teeth, eager to change the subject, "So do you know how we caught onto your charade?"

It shrugged. "No, but I can guess, you found out through the retinal scan records?"

"Which leads us to another question," said Karmen. "Why didn't you have Taryst's eyes implanted?"

It sighed. "Do you have any idea the pain I had to go through when I got Barhurst's implanted?"

Karmen shrugged. "Actually, I do."

The Thing's attention snapped to her, Its eyes wide with surprise, but it was gone as quickly as it came, and I couldn't hide the shock of my own.

"So you know the agony? The horrific agony I had to go through, I couldn't go through that again, no, never."

It shrugged. "Anyway, I had the same access as if I had Taryst's eyes; I didn't see the point."

"Well, the point would be not to be found," I said.

"Yes, it was," It said bluntly. "But we agreed it would be more trouble than it was; Ith, I had to keep up appearances as Taryst to avoid suspicion."

"And let me guess," I said. "'We' means you and Feuilt?"

Now that got a real expression of surprise from It. "Y-yes, so you know medicae Feuilt was also Glaitis' spy?"

I looked darkly sidelong at Karmen and growled, "that amongst a myriad of other things."

It stared at me curiously, about to ask for me to elaborate but seemed to decide better of it and turned away.

"And that leads conveniently to another question," said Karmen as she took out the last bit of glass and began to dab the creature's face with a cotton bud. "When Feuilt came up here to give me the drug to keep me comatose, did he act suspicious or anything? What did you do?"

It sighed again. "I had learnt a long time ago not to trust anyone in this line of business, and that went double for Feuilt."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because until we worked on this together, I had never heard of him before, so every time he came up here, I would watch him to make sure he didn't try anything off."

Karmen turned to me. "That does make sense, Attelus as I understand it Feuilt has been under Taryst's employ for at least six years."

"A deep undercover operative," I said, also finding it interesting that it was around the time Glaitis took me as her apprentice and wondering how long he'd been under Edracian's employ. "But that didn't stop you from consulting him on the next eye transplant."

It shook Its head. "No, I guess it didn't, and he hadn't performed the operation for Barhurst's eye transplant on me."

"Who did?" asked Karmen.

"A local renegade medicae hired by Glaitis, by the name of Dureth."

I nodded; that would explain Feuilt being unable to take the picts; this Thing was always watching him like a hawk.

"So you trusted this Dureth more than Feuilt?" I said.

"To perform the mission, it was necessary, but not with Feuilt."

"You know everything, don't you?" asked Karmen. "Why we hunt for Brutis Bones?"

"Of course I do," It said, sounding hurt.

"So then you know the significance of Inquisitor Edracian being here, right?" I said.

Its face turned pale. "W-what?"

I shook my head, deciding it was a good time to change the subject while it was off guard.

"What are you? and how the hell does your transformations work?"

It frowned and glared at me, but the slight increase in pressure of my sword made It go away.

"I am-I am a Xenos, an alien, or at least that is what mamzel Glaitis told me I really do not know for sure I was taken in by the mamzel when I was very young, so I remember nothing of my life before it. You were correct in your earlier assumption, Attelus; I am not a shapeshifter; what you see is a projection, but I can change my height and build to fit the appearance," It growled. "I was mamzel Glaitis first and best apprentice."

It mockingly emphasised 'best', which I ignored. So it was an alien who made me uneasy, so Glaitis hasn't just allied with the Eldar but also actively using Xenos in her agendas.

"Who in our organisation know of you?" I asked.

It grimaced. "As far as I know, only the mamzel, obviously, Hayden Tresch, medicae Feuilt and now, you."

I smiled at the icy tone used in the 'you.' Now Edracian knew of him too, and Emperor only knew who the hell else. They could easily use this knowledge against us and my teeth involuntarily clenched as the familiar cold feel of fear spread through my chest; this wasn't good, this wasn't good at all.

Then I noticed. It was studying me intensely, searching for answers in my face.

I only glared back.

"There's one more question I have for you," I said.

"What?" It growled.

"Why the hell did you have to kill Elandria?"

It rolled its eyes. "I have already told you-"

"Yeah! "Orders" I know!" I snarled, the anger suddenly coming back. "But why did she give you the order! Why!"

It stared up at me wide-eyed, with an expression that could've been sympathy or contempt or anything, even though it was my face I couldn't tell. Perhaps I was too angry to know; perhaps I just didn't care. All that I truly knew was that I needed to know.

The Xenos turned to the floor.

"No," It said simply.

"W-what? What the hell do you mean by 'no?'" I roared.

Karmen looked to me. "Attelus..."

"Shut up, Estella!" I snarled. "Karmen! Whoever the hell you are!"

It shook Its head. "No means no Attelus, sorry."

"Frig you!" I pressed my sword a little more, making it inhale sharply and drawing blood. "Tell me! Tell me now!"

"I cannot tell you, Attelus, because you will not like what I say, and because of that, you might kill me."

"Well, I will kill you if you don't," I said.

The Xenos shook its head. "Are you sure you want to hear it?"

"Yes! Of course, I frigging want to know! Tell me! Tell me now!"

The Thing sighed. "Alright, if you insist, Attelus." It frowned deeply. "Honestly, I don't know why, exactly."

My face turned as hard as a stone.

"But I have my suspicions!" It said quickly. "Only half an hour before you, Olinthre and Feuilt came up, I received a communique from the mamzel via my encrypted vox link. She told me that you would be coming up soon and that she would send Elandria up to guard me."

The Xenos sighed again. "And that I kill Taryst's bodyguards so they wouldn't get in the way."

I nodded; Elandria said that she found the guards dead, and at that time, I felt she was telling the truth.

"The mamzel also said that she had ordered Elandria to kill you," It said. "She ordered me to monitor your fight and..."

The Xenos trailed off.

"And to what?" I demanded.

"I did not know what it meant at the time," It said on hesitantly. "The mamzel said to monitor your fight with Elandria, and these were her exact words; 'to kill whoever loses it'."

My attention snapped to Karmen Kons, who looked back at me with wide eyes, then I looked back to the Thing.

"But-!"

"She meant Elandria, Attelus," It interrupted. "She had the perfect opportunity to kill you, but she didn't. Instead, she burst into tears, she defied her orders, she had lost her nerve, she was the one to truly 'lose it.'"

The Xenos looked to the floor. "I am sorry, Attelus," It said with real, genuine sorrow.

I wasn't sure what to say; I only gaped dumbly.

"What else did she order you to do?" asked Karmen softly.

It turned to her. "I also know that the mamzel meant for me to kill Elandria, not Attelus because next, she ordered me to withdraw the reason why Attelus was here from him, by 'any means necessary'," the Xenos looked back to me, glaring. "At first, I tried to masquerade as Olinthre to do it, but I should have known it would not work; killing Elandria caused Attelus to go into a paranoid state. So I attempted to do it forcefully."

It shook Its head. "And obviously that didn't work either, so here I am with a sword to my throat and telling you two everything I