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

so much in your auspex. There are many, many ways to fool them."

Karkin grinned widely. "It's never failed us before."

"I do not know if you have tracked throne agents before," said Karmen. "But you must know, they have access to the best technology the Imperium can provide; that's why I've taken certain liberties..."

Karkin grimaced. "Such as?"

"We've got agents of our own scouting the place," said Karmen.

And those agents were Tresch, Castella and Darrance, who'd left straight after we'd arrived at Taryst's building. The Medicaes had taken four hours to help No One of Consequence, and we'd taken an hour to drive down here, so I could only assume they'd been here for a while yet, although we had yet to hear back from them.

Karkin's eyes widened. "My men never reported any breaches in the cordon."

Karmen grinned. "Shows just how secure it really is."

The Magistratum detective's face turned ugly.

"With all due respect," said the Olinthre-thing, stepping up, ever the diplomat. "They are agents of the highest calibre; if they got through your cordon, it's not the fault of your men."

"And you are more invested in keeping people, in, detective, rather than out," said Torris.

Arlathan grinned, but his eyes glazed with barely contained rage.

"Of course we are," he said slowly. "So, what's the plan?"

"We're still waiting for the scouts to report," said Karmen. "But, after they do, I plan on sending in three people, openly, along with our captive. One representative for each faction involved. One for Taryst, one for..." She paused to glance at me. "One for you, and one for the Magistratum."

"And what does 'openly' mean, exactly?" asked Karkin.

"Oh, you know, the usual; unarmed, hands raised, so on so forth."

I clenched my teeth, and my eyes widened with apprehension; this was the first time I'd heard Karmen's 'plan' as well and couldn't help but guess that I was going to be one of the three sent in; 'unarmed, with hands raised, so on and so forth.'

Arlathan Karkin facepalmed, sighed and sat slowly down on the chair at the cogitator. "Great, just great, and I am the 'Magistratum representative,' I assume?"

"You are the highest-ranked here," stated Karmen.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he groaned. "I just have a little trouble with approaching a building full of twitchy, wired Hammers without any weapons, is all."

"If it's any consolation, I'll be coming with you," said Karmen.

Arlathan Karkin laughed. "You'd bloody well better! If you didn't, I'd be rather pissed off about it!"

Karmen smiled, about to reply when she stopped and reached to her ear.

"Excuse me, this is them now," she said and turned to walk away.

Garrakson and Torris eyed her as she walked past them; Garrakson's gaze overflowed with barely contained contempt.

"Well, she truly thinks she's in charge now, don't she?" said Garrakson with a grimace.

Torris shrugged. "Although I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her. I've gotta admit she isn't doing too bad a job so far; at least she's prepared to go and risk herself with the rest of us. Unlike someone we know."

Garrakson sneered and turned to the Olinthre-thing. "So, boss. What do you make of this, woman?"

"I just pass on orders, Jeurat," It said blandly; its attention was still on Karmen as it unashamedly tried to overhear her words. "Making the big decisions in secret wars like this isn't something I'm good at, so I'm happy to let her take the reigns, sergeant."

I couldn't help smile at the Mimic's response, such a lie, such an ironic lie, that was told so straight-faced, so boldly and so convincingly, I couldn't help but admire the Thing's skill all over again.

"And what about you, kid?" asked Garrakson suddenly, which made me involuntarily jump in fright.

Before I could contend a response, Torris grinned and leaned near Garrakson. "We all know there's no point in asking him about her, Jeu. We all know with what he's thinking with, and it isn't his brain."

I felt my face flush, and they bellowed out laughter, the sound almost deafening in the confined compartment, and even the Mimic joined in heartily.

"Will you all shut just the hell up!" roared Karmen over her shoulder. "I'm trying to frigging talk here!"

They did as told immediately, and another chuckle caused us all to turn to Karkin.

"Well, I'd say she truly is in charge now, ain't she?" he echoed mockingly.

Garrakson grimaced about to reply when Karmen approached.

"Alright! It's confirmed; there are Hammers in the building," she stated. "The hammers are on high alert and are well fortified, although they couldn't get a good visual on how many there are, their auspex also confirms forty to fifty lifeforms."

That made Karkin grin, place his palms behind his head and lean back on his chair. "See? What'd I tell ya?"

I briefly looked at him with complete contempt before turning back to Karmen. Choosing not to point out that if his auspex had been interfered with, so could've Hayden's.

Karmen treated Karkin with a withering glare before continuing, "they are in a good position on the north side of the building, ready to breach and back us up if anything goes wrong."

"Speaking of which..." said Karkin as he sat back up, swivelled in his chair to face his cogitator and brought up on the screen for us the schematic of a large building that I guessed to be Brutis Bones' complex. "Here you go, but if we're only going in to 'negotiate', you really shouldn't need them."

I shrugged as I leaned forward to look closer. "Even so, it doesn't hurt to know. Just in case."

"It's as they say; 'Knowledge is power'," added Karmen.

For some reason, both Torris and Garrakson behind us let out derivative snorts, and I swear I heard Torris mutter, "see? they're frigging perfect for each other." Or something along those lines.

I furrowed my brow, turned back to the schematic and quickly began to memorise it.

We stood, studied, and discussed the schematic for another good fifteen minutes; the place was of simple design, a complete contrast to the twilight bar. Just a large, two-story manufactorum/warehouse with areas partitioned for the supervisors and eatery offices. It was exactly as I remembered, but what changes Brutis Bones and his hammers had wrought since their arrival, I couldn't say.

All the while, Arlathan sat at his chair, tapping his fingers against the cogitator case impatiently, which made me clench my jaw.

Once we'd done, Arlathan got up from his chair and asked, "So, what now?"

Karmen pouted and shrugged. "Well, we go through with the plan. Now we know the schematics, it's as they say: 'Knowing is half the battle.'"

"Am I the only one who has really a bad feeling about this?" said Torris, which caused my attention to snap at him suddenly. It made me recall Glaitis' earlier words; 'It is pretty obvious, child, and explains why he let you live; this, quite simply, is a trap.'

A shiver clutched my spine: I couldn't help but believe her; this was way too easy. But what would this trap be exactly? And should I tell my allies that it was? Glaitis had said that she wanted us to fall for it, so maybe she wouldn't want me to.

Arlathan shook his head contemptuously. "Oh, no. Oh, frigging hell no, your not. How do you think I feel? I've gotta face down those hammers, unarmed. Of frigging course, I have a bad feeling about this."

Torris sat on the steel seat and shook his head. "No, not just about that, but, everything, something's wrong about this, all of this, I can feel it."

Arlathan sniffed, and his seemingly eternal smile somehow disappeared into an expression of genuine worry. "Yeah, maybe you're right. Hey, you aren't from law enforcement?"

Torris nodded a slow, deliberate movement. "Yeah, I was in the Adeptus Arbites, fifteen years, back on Malfi."

Arlathan let out a long whistle. "Thought so. Why'd you quit?"

"Alright, I think that's enough, prattle," said Karmen. "We've wasted enough time already; let's get on with this, shall we?"

Arlathan sighed heavily. "Yeah, yeah."

He pushed through us with a sour expression and slid open the back door. "Alright! Everyone out!" He exclaimed.

We did; as Arlathan held the door for us, we filed out into the thin alleyway outside.

Karmen and I were the last ones out, but as we stepped onto the beaten, broken alley, Karmen suddenly grabbed me by the arm and pulled me aside. Her hooded blue eyes were intense with concern.

"Are you okay?" she asked, once checking we were out of earshot from everyone else as they stood waiting for us. "Because you have seemed to have taken No One of Consequences words extraordinarily well."

A lump immediately appeared in my throat, tears welled in my eyes, and with my shaking hands, I reached down into my pocket to get out more Lhos. It'd been years since my hands shook like this, not since the war. During that time, I'd developed a habit of hiding the shaking by slipping my hands into their pockets. I'd been fighting against the shaking ever since the throne agent had given us his revelation, but now I felt I really didn't need to hide it; I knew Estella would understand.

"No," I told her bluntly as I clumsily lit my Lho. "No, I'm not alright. Estella. Why do you think I'm smoking so much? We both know Edracian's agenda, and if my actions are going to aid that agenda as much as that man said it would, well then...I don't know. I'm really frigging close to breaking point here, Estella, but..."

I sniffed and exhaled smoke, blinking back the tears.

"But?"

"But, as much as I'd like to break down and really, who could frigging blame me? Now would be the worst time, as you said; I need to deal with the consequences of my actions, and if I allow myself to break down, well, then I wouldn't be able to deal with them, would I?"

Estella smiled, then suddenly leaned forward and kissed me.

"W-what was that for?" I asked with wide-eyed surprise and blushing like hell.

"It seems you are finally becoming a man, Attelus," she said. "It has taken you a while, though."

"Gee, thanks."

"No problem!" She said, obviously ignoring my sarcasm as she turned and began to walk away. "Enough dilly dally, let's get this show on the road."

 

 

The four of us slowly approached the old manufactorum; we walked right down the middle of the street, making sure to keep out in plain sight with our hands raised the entire time. I was a little annoyed; for this negotiation, I'd given over all my weapons; my autopistol, throwing knives, power sword, even my frigging boot knife. Luckily they had another pair of shoes, so I didn't have to walk around with one shoe on. But that wasn't what annoyed me; what did was that I'd just got this new, sweet, high quality, power sword, and just as I frigging get it, straight away, it gets taken away from me. Someone should make a law about this kind of thing.

We effectively used No One of Consequence as a human shield; he walked a metre or so in front of us, so the first person the Hammers saw would be him. Arlathan was right behind him, using the Throne agent as a literal 'human shield.' The Magistratum detective's hand clenched tightly on the Throne Agent's shoulder to prevent the Throne Agent from trying to drop to the ground, allowing the hammers a clear shot at us, so it wasn't all because of Karkin's cowardice.

My nervousness was almost overwhelming, and I had to fight against the constant urge to put my hands in my pockets. The walk must've taken two or three minutes, but it felt like a frigging lifetime; every single second, I expected them to open fire, to cut us all down in a withering hail of shots.

I glanced at Karmen as she walked alongside me; she was as calm as calm could be, her brow furrowed in set determination.

I frowned deeply, not at all comforted by her confidence, then a thought struck me, like a fist to the