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

my destruction with a glance. "Well, you have certainly followed the old axiom; 'the best way to lie is, to tell the truth,' to the letter, have you not?"

I was about to snarl back a retort when Karmen's voice suddenly said through my head; +I have reached Taryst's quarters, Attelus, and have stored Olinthre's body in one of the cells. I am ready to deactivate the shield when you and the Xenos are ready.+

I spent a few seconds glaring witheringly at the Olinthre-thing before replying.

"We're ready, Karmen; you're free to shut the shield off."

+Acknowledged and be prepared Attelus, Garrakson, and his men will be very hostile; they will likely shoot you unless you and the Xenos are very cooperative.+

"Thanks, Karmen," I said, fighting back the angry urge to point out that I had already figured that out myself. "You can shut off the shield."

+Alright, shield deactivation in, 3...2...1.+

The loud droning noise enveloped the room, making the mimic, and I turn to see the shield shimmering, shaking and writhing as it died.

The soldiers immediately burst through the red curtains, lasguns raised and covering every corner.

"HANDS IN THE AIR, ON YOUR KNEES!" One roared. "ON YOUR KNEES!"

Both the mimic and I slowly complied. I knew they would be aggressive, but not to this extent.

The soldiers in full carapace formed a semi-circle around us.

"Check them!" yelled one, and quickly another slung his lasgun, approached us and patted us down for weapons; he took my sword, removed my pistol from its shoulder holster and even slipped the hidden knife compartments from up the sleeves of my jacket.

He moved onto the mimic, and I couldn't help fear; what if the soldier felt something off?

But in a moment, the soldier was finished, turned to the others and announced the all-clear.

"No, it's not," said Garrakson as he and Torris approached. "Remove Attelus' right shoe."

The soldier glanced at Garrakson.

"He's gotta boot knife, idiot," said the ex-guardsman, rolling his violet eyes.

My own eyes widened, and I looked briefly to Olinthre, finding that they both had violet irises.
Why had I never noticed that before?

The soldier walked around me and clumsily pulled off my shoe, then chucked it to Garrakson, who caught it neatly.

"Well, well well," said Garrakson, tossing aside my shoe. "Guess who we ran into in the corridors?"

I had to clench my teeth shut to keep myself from blurting out, 'Feuilt.'

Garrakson raised his eyebrows mockingly. "Oh, you don't know? I was pretty sure that you would."

"I-!" started the Olinthre thing.

"Shut up, major!" snarled Garrakson. "You may outrank me, but under the circumstances, I don't care!"

Torris, who still stood beside the uncharacteristically angry Garrakson, looked over the room; his expression turned shocked as he saw the destroyed furniture and destruction.

"What the hell happened here?" The ex-arbitrator asked.

"I happened," I growled, letting some of my anger come to the surface.

Torris' attention snapped to me, and his eyes widened with sympathy.

"H-have you two been in here for all this time?" asked Torris.

Both the Olinthre-thing and I answered with glares.

"How!" demanded Garrakson as he began to pace back and forth like a caged lion.

"I would answer, sergeant," said the Olinthre-thing, pointedly emphasising the 'sergeant'. "But I think it's about time you calm down before you burst a blood vessel."

"Frig you!" roared Garrakson. "Just answer my frigging question."

The Xenos sighed, glancing at me briefly before answering the lie I had made sure It knew and understood.

"After...After Taryst shot Elandria, I ran in here after him," It said. "I found the place empty; Taryst was gone, logically through that door." The Olinthre thing nodded over his shoulder to indicate it.

"So what did you do?" Asked Torris.

"I was angry," sighed the Xenos. "Really, really angry, I bet on the door and took much of my rage out on it, then Attelus walked in, and if I thought I was angry, well he, he did all that." It nodded over its shoulder to indicate the destroyed couches and kicked over tables.

"It was soon after I entered that Taryst, for some reason, activated the shield," I said.

"So you two have been stuck in here for the past four hours?" growled Garrakson.

"Y-yes."

"Well, if that's the case, why didn't you contact us?" Asked Garrakson.

"We tried," answered the Olinthre-thing. "But Taryst had our vox links blocked somehow."

That wasn't actually a lie; the mimic had used a commlink scrambler; it had informed me of this during our ascent.

"On that thought, why didn't Taryst try to contact us himself?" said Torris.

I barely held back a smile and shrugged. "Don't know, we've just been here the whole time."

Garrakson, let out a slight growl. "Alright then, Attelus, how then did you get your face so beaten up? I doubt that Vex hit you that hard. Did you beat your face against the couches?"

"Elandria did it to me during our fight," I answered with forced neutrality.

Garrakson smiled and shook his head contemptuously. "Right. I seriously doubt-."

"She did this to me, Jeurat," I said. "In case you forgot, I'd spent the last month in a coma; I wasn't at my peak performance; she outclassed me in every way."

"Right, then," said Garrakson. "So if you have been stuck here for all this time, why didn't you answer us? We must've beat our fists on the shield a thousand times or more while we waited."

"We never heard them," stated the Xenos simply. "The shield must have buffeted the sound."

Garrakson clenched his teeth and let out a frustrated snarl.

"You have better have told me the truth," he growled. "Or..."

"Or else what?" snarled the Olinthre-thing suddenly. "Resorting to empty threats isn't going to get you anywhere, sergeant, we. Were. Here. Now Jeurat, now we have answered your questions, will you let us go?"

Suddenly Karmen's words filtered through my thoughts, +okay Attelus, I am coming up, I have the seal.+

"Oh no, oh frig no," said Garrakson. "We have a lot more questions we need answering."

"Such as why Taryst turned on the shield just when Attelus entered," stated Torris. "Or why he shot..." he trailed off and gave me a guilty look.

"We are just as in the dark as you are," the Xenos said.

"Yeah, right," said Garrakson, utterly unconvinced. "So...Where is it?"

I raised an eyebrow and exchanged a confused glance with the Olinthre-thing.

"W-where's what?" I asked.

Garrakson grinned and shook his head. "Trust you to forget about it Attelus, where is the retinal scan sheet that you had Vex print out? The very thing that started all this?"

I couldn't hide the fear on my face, oh crap. I had completely forgotten about that; Estella had said Feuilt had told them everything, and that would logically include that printout! I was well and truly an idiot, and I felt the urge to smash my head repeatedly against a wall.

Garrakson smirked in triumph at me, then looked to one of the mercenaries. "Check their pockets," he commanded.

"Yes, sir," said the soldier, who then moved to me.

I was oblivious to it as my mind whirled; how would I get out of this? Once Garrakson finds the print out he will find out about Barhurst being on the record; he will figure out that the date didn't coincide and figure out what inspired Olinthre's rebellion, and from there...I didn't quite know, but it couldn't be good.

The mercenary finished with me and moved onto the mimic. I turned to watch my heart in my throat, and low in behold, he immediately pulled a folded sheet of paper.

My heart sank as I watched the mercenary walk back to Garrakson.

"Found this, sir," he said as he handed Garrakson the paper.

Garrakson snatched the print out of the Soldier's grasp without a word of thanks and began to speed read over it.

Despite everything, I frowned, my apprehension almost overtaken by anger; I found myself not caring for this new side of Jeurat Garrakson.

But in all honesty, I shouldn't blame him; if he cared for Taryst as much as Estella said he did, I could understand it. I probably had acted similarly after Elandria's death.

With that thought, my gaze fell to the floor; poor Garrakson, how will he react when he finds out that Taryst is actually dead?

Then the elevator doors opened, and immediately the mercenaries had their rifles raised to cover Karmen Kons as she stepped into the open. She wore a very revealing low cut tunic, which made my already wide grin somehow even wider.

"Hello," she said flirtatiously. "What do we have here?"

"Who are you?" growled Garrakson.

"Oh! How rude of me," she said with a smile. "I am...your...new boss."

There was a pause, a long pause before Garrakson finally growled. "What?"

Karmen raised her hand and said, "alright, I am not reaching for a weapon so hold your fire, okay?"

"Whatever," growled Garrakson; I wasn't looking at him but could imagine his grim, scarred face somehow even grimmer than usual.

Karmen Kons pouted and shrugged."Okay, I will take that as a yes, then," she said, then slowly raised her hands, holding up the Taryst's family. Write of Trade.

"How did you get that!" shouted Torris.

She shrugged again. "Oh, I was given it."

"You have better explain yourself, now," said Garrakson.

"Sure, just give me a second," with that, her eyes briefly turned milky, and I remembered, I remembered entering into a room with bare shiny steel walls; in the middle was a big black seat. I sat down and clamped closed around my wrists and ankles.

Then Karmen Kons walked into the room. "Hello, Attelus, long time no see," she said. "Good to see you..."

She looked at me and smiled. "You don't remember me, do you?"

Then I found I was back in Taryst's condo, on my knees with my hands on my head.

"You're-!" started Garrakson.

"Yes, I am," she interrupted, her earlier lightheartedness now completely gone. "Now you know who I am; now you understand why I have this."

"Where is he?" demanded Garrakson.

"Where do you think he is?" countered Karmen. "Taryst wishes to be left alone; he fears that people within his organisation want him dead," she said that with an accusatory glare at the Mimic and me. "So he is staying in his quarters and has sent me to take charge in his stead."

"I want to talk to him," growled Garrakson.

"Sorry, no," said Karmen shaking her head. "He ordered-"

"I don't give a damn what he ordered!" roared Garrakson with so much feeling it made everyone flinch in fright and forced me to turn back to Garrakson.

I was taken aback; never had I ever seen the stoic soldier so choked up before.

"I need to talk to him! How do I know he is okay! Or even still alive! How can I believe you?"

I frowned and looked away.

Torris, next to Garrakson, shook his head and placed his hand on the ex-guardsman's shoulder.

"Jeurat, calm down," he said softly. "Calm down, or you will need to leave."

"Screw you, Marcel!" snarled Garrakson, tearing his shoulder from Torris' grasp. "Frig you! Frig you all!"

With that, he threw the printout to the floor, turned and stormed through the curtains.

Torris turned to the Stormtroopers. "You two follow him; make sure he's okay."

"Yes, sir!" chorused the soldiers as they moved to follow after Garrakson.

Karmen said, "Thank y-"

"Shut up!" shouted Torris. "He's right; we have no idea if you are telling the truth; how do we know you didn't just kill Taryst and steal the writ?"

Karmen Kons shrugged. "You don't, but you are a trained Arbitrator, so you should know if I am lying or not. I didn't kill Taryst."

"Yeah, and you're a frigging psyker, so how do I know you aren't manipulating what I am seeing or even what I'm believing?" said Torris.

Karmen threw back her head and laughed loudly. "Yes, I imagine you don't, or even if this..."

She raised the writ. "Or even if this is real."

"Give it to me," said Torris.

Karmen shrugged, then tossed it over my head and straight into the ex-arbitrator's grasp.

"You have seen it before," said Karmen. "So you can tell it's the real thing."

Torris briefly looked over it. "Yep, looks all in order," he said.

"Well?" Said Karmen. "Do you trust me now?"

Torris frowned and shook his head. "Oh no, oh hell no, I