Secret War: Warhammer 40,000 by Ben Agar (reading eggs books TXT) 📖

"Why do you want to go through that door so badly?"

"Don't you know?"

"Of course I don't know, you stupid boy!" it snarled. "Why would I be asking if I did?"

"I...Don't...Know."

"Tell me, if you do, I will knock you out now and spear you any more pain."

Despite myself, I laughed; although it sent more waves of pain, I sniggered and said, "no."

In the blink of an eye, I slashed out my sword, and again it cut through nothingness. But I didn't care; it was more a gesture of defiance, to show I would never give up, not now, not ever.

"That wasn't my decision, boy," it said. "And like every decision, we all have to face the consequence of it, don't we?"

"Yes...yes...we...all do."

Another attack came, this one smashing painfully into my forearm, but now I was ready, keeping myself grounded against the force then cut out in its general direction but found more nothing.

"I don't care how many times you hit me!" I roared. "I don't care if you break every bone in my body; I will make you pay."

I smiled. "Anyway, I've already had all my bones shattered once before; what's one more time then?"

"Insolent child!" It snarled out as a sudden and powerful new instinct made me skid sidewards and back to my feet.

I had just dodged its attack, I just knew it, and this was emphasised further by the few seconds of silence which followed.

"I'll ask you once again, why do you want to enter into the bunker so badly, Attelus?" It said, finally breaking the lull.

"Why do you want to know so badly, Thing?" I countered; now It was uncertain, no longer brimming with such confidence, and knowing that made me smile.

"This is not a game, child; answer the question."

"No," and struck out but once more, nothing.

"Foolish boy," It said, then punched me in the face; my world turned white-hot with pain, and the attack opened the cut on my cheek even further.

Dazed, I still managed to strike back, but again it proved futile.

Its kick followed, which impacted into my side, jarring me from head to toe and sending me stumbling a few steps, and yes, my counter was again ineffective.

A fist smashed into my face, then another and another, each making me see stars and feel more horrific pain.

But even still, I kept my footing, despite the agony, despite the black spots in my vision and wooziness again, I countered, and again it was for nothing.

"Why don't you go down!" It growled and punched the attack opening the cut along my cheek even more.

"Guess I'm tougher than you thou-"

Another punch interrupted me, crashing painfully against my cheek, but this one, I couldn't keep my footing. Too tired, too off-balance, and the impact flung me into one of the nearby tables, but I managed to stop myself falling further, leaning against it for support.

"Shut up!" It yelled and punched at me once more.

I moved, sidestepping the punch while simultaneously picking up one of the bottles of alcohol and smashing it into where I thought Its face was.

The Thing shrieked in agony as the bottle shattered, the shards of glass embedded into its skin, and the alcohol seeped into Its wounds.

It stumbled away, now a disembodied, floating puddle of liquid that was beginning to mix with blood. "How did you know where I was?" It screamed through Its cries.

"The blood from the cut on my face," I managed. "The blood which still coats your hands and has splattered all over you, you bastard!"

My kick connected into it with a satisfying crunch and sending It hurtling to the floor, where It rolled around and moaned pathetically.

I began to approach It but felt an overwhelming wave of nausea that sent me stumbling to keep my feet; shaking it away, I retrieved my sword, pinned the squirming figure underfoot and lowered the edge of my blade near the creature's throat, which made It yelp out in fear.

"Now, whatever the hell you are, you will open that damn door for me," I growled. "And you are going to do it right, now."

I placed more pressure with my foot onto the creature, which made it squirm all the more. "And change into something I can see, don't want you trying anything," I paused, "and if you even think of changing into Elandria, I will...Well, I don't know what I would do."

"You will regret this-!"

Sudden rage almost overtook me, anger that I'd been holding back for a long time. I leaned closer to the Thing, placing slightly more pressure with my sword and said with slow deliberateness. "Oh, perhaps I will, but you won't be able EVER to regret anything if you don't do it now!"

The Thing laughed. "Can you hear yourself?" It cried. "You sound like a child! You wouldn't know how to intimidate someone even if you had a sword at their throat."

"Do you want to die?" I asked, "I should really just kill you right now."

"Why?" It asked. "Because I killed Elandria? I was under orders to kill her! I am like you, an assassin; we are the weapon! We are the tool! The one you should be avenging Elandria on is Glaitis-"

I shook my head and immediately regretted it as the dizziness came back; my face was numb now, the newly forming bruises throbbing like hell. "Stop it! Just stop it!" I snarled. "There is just one! One! Question is looming over you right now, so shut up! Just shut the hell up! And make your damn decision!"

"I should have killed you when I had the chance," It said sullenly.

I smiled. "Yes, you really should have; I bet that you're regretting following Glaitis' order not to kill me now, aren't you?"

The Thing changed, shimmering into form, into a mirror image of me. Me with an expression of frustration and pain but otherwise untouched with injury, no shards of glass protruding from my clone's face, and I couldn't help shake my head in evident distaste; why the hell did it have to change into me again?

It smiled up at me, obviously enjoying my discomfort.

I grimaced in disgust. "Get up and slowly."

"Of course," and It did as told all the while still grinning at me evilly.

"What the hell did you do to Olinthre?"

It sighed, a familiar mocking sound. "Really, Attelus, do you really care?"

"Would I be asking if I didn't?" I growled.

The Thing tilted its head in amusement. "You do love to turn my own words against me, don't you? All this smart mouthing doesn't seem to be from someone meant to be mourning- ack!"

It was interrupted by me placing more pressure with my sword against Its neck. "Yes, taunt me more, just see how that turns out for you," I hissed.

"You are aware this has happened before, hasn't it?" It said. "But then you had me at gunpoint just mere minutes ago, and I got out with no problem, didn't I?"

That I was well aware of, but now I knew or at least had a basic idea of my opponent's skill and speed, but that was immaterial even with such knowledge, I was still on the verge of collapsing. I could barely keep my eyes open; everything hurt. I was sure if my opponent chose to take the offensive, I wouldn't stand a semblance of a chance even with my sword against Its throat.

Despite all of this and the pain, it caused I still forced a slow, deliberate grin to spread across my bruised, swollen face. "Alright, do it."

The eyebrows on my clone's face raised in bemusement. "What?"

"Do it, get out of this, just do it, show me."

It looked at me, now not so sure of itself or not so sure of me; either way, I was getting somewhere.

"DO IT!" I roared suddenly, and with such force, it made my enemy flinch in fright and even surprised myself.

It stood there motionless, Its hazel eyes never leaving mine; how long we stood face to face, I didn't know; was it seconds? Minutes? But it felt like forever, all the while my heart leapt in my throat; in any second, I knew it could lunge forward and take me down; in any second, it could disarm me and break my neck. The pressure was intense every second I had to fight the fear twisting in my guts. Every second I had to fight to keep my feet from going out from under me; every second was a war to keep my eyes locked to Its as I knew if I looked away for a millisecond, It would have me.

But finally, finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Its jaw twitched in frustration, and It let out a slight sigh of defeat as It looked to the floor.

"Now tell me, what did you do to Olinthre?" I said, trying hard to keep the relief from my voice.

My expression on Its face turned into one of extreme shame; whether this was at It being outplayed by me or it's a shame of what It had done to the major, I wasn't sure.

"He is behind that couch," It said with a gesture indicating which one.

I pursed my lips. "Lead the way."

Its jaw clenched, turned and moved toward the couch as I kept my blade against the back of Its neck.

We slowly walked around the couch and found a dead major Olinthre his handsome face was now a deep shade of purple, his eyes were almost bulging from their sockets, and his tongue was hanging loosely from his mouth; it was apparent he was suffocated.

Luckily Its back was to me so that it couldn't see my pain; Olinthre seemed to be a good person, and his death I felt to be responsible for, me being the one having egged him on into this.

Olinthre didn't deserve this fate; he really didn't.

"Now you know why you must not kill me, Attelus," It said with surprising melancholy. "The only way we can keep this charade up is if I can go on pretending to be Taryst if both Taryst and Olinthre here are dead and anyone finds out, Emperor only knows how the men under their command would react."

"Well then, why the hell did you kill him then?" I said. "When you did this, you must have been aware of the potential consequences..."

"He was going to kill me Attelus, if I had tried to talk to him as Taryst, he was going to kill me, and I still have a mission to complete."

Olinthre was dead, and there was nothing more I could do for the poor major.

"Alright, move," I said, "open that damned door."

It nodded, and we turned toward that massive adamantium door.

"Are you just going to kill me once I get that door open for you?" It asked.

I smiled. "No, I still need to bring you to the bunker, just in case if there are any traps or security measures you will have to bypass for me."

As we walked, I glanced down at my pistol still on the floor a good three metres away and well out of reach.

I didn't dare to try and get the gun as the act of doing so could potentially give the Thing an opening.

We approached the door, and It immediately flipped a slight switch which caused a touchpad to emerge from a hidden compartment in the wall.

It reached over with my long spindly fingers and began to type in the code.

"What's the password?" I asked.

It paused in its typing and looked over Its shoulder at me, Its hazel eyes full with what seemed to be embarrassment. "Uhhh..."

"What's the frigging password!" I yelled right in its ear while pushing more pressure with my sword.

"Alright! It's-it's," It sighed. "It's j-garrakson."

I raised an eyebrow in bemusement. "What?"

"Please don't ask me for the details."

I opened my mouth to ask anyway but decided against it.

It finished typing, and immediately, what looked to be a retinal scanner slid out next to the keypad.

It placed its face into the scanner.

"Subject identified as Deltath Barhurst, access granted."

The large doors opened in