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

me."

'Saderth' shook his head. "I am sorry, mamzel, but as much as it hurts me to say it, I am inclined to agree."

Suddenly Glaitis expression turned into one of pure rage, and her attention snapped to me,

"I see!" she snarled. "I see now that he's manipulated you against me! The child has manipulated you. Can't you see! He's using you! I bet he doesn't even know it! If anyone should have your-!"

"No!" interrupted Castella. "He hasn't; this was all you; I'm sorry, Glaitis, this is all you. I'm sorry."

I looked away from Glaitis' intense glare, unable to handle it anymore. I couldn't believe this was happening, never had I thought these three would feel this way. It came out of the blue, that's for frigging sure.

Deep down, though I couldn't help but agree with Glaitis, perhaps I did manage to manipulate this? I clenched my jaw at that thought. Did I do it...subconsciously?

Just then, the elevator found the bottom floor and with a ding! The doors opened, and we walked out. Glaitis still at gunpoint. There were a few mercs and other employees in the lobby who watched with great interest.

"Move on!" said Castella, waving her hands. "Nothing to see here!"

Hesitantly, they did as told.

"Castella. Darrance and I will take Glaitis back to her tower," said Hayden. "You and Attelus stay here and watch over the preparations."

Castella and I nodded acknowledgement.

Glaitis laughed. "What? Where will you put me in my tower? Seriously, Hayden? All the men who guard it are under my employ. I sign their paychecks they will let me out, that I assure you."

Hayden turned to her, his expression as hard as steel. "You will find, Glaitis, that you might pay them, but they are loyal to me because, unlike you, I've bothered to talk to them, get to know them and think of them as more than pawns, that I assure you. Darrance, take her weapons."

Darrance nodded and did as told, telling Glaitis he was sorry over and over as he did.

"You two will be alright?" asked Castella.

Hayden nodded. "See you soon."

Castella and I watched them leave.

I was unsure what to say, still utterly shocked by what I'd just witnessed.

"You okay?" she asked after a few seconds.

"Yeah," I stammered. "I just can't believe that just happened."

She laughed. "Yeah, I understand that. I'd be shocked if I was you too."

"Even Darrance," I said and turned to her. "How the hell did you convince him to take part?"

"You must understand, Attelus," she said. "We have been working under her for much longer than you have. We have had the same concerns as you for a long time now. The incident in the underhive was, as the old man had said, 'the last straw.'"

I nodded, aware that Glaitis didn't know about the daemons, as it was blocked to Farseer Faleaseen's sight. I chose to keep that quiet, of course.

"How did I not know?" I asked. "How the hell didn't she know?"

Castella smiled. "We're just way better at hiding it than you. We better get moving; we've got a bit to do, still."

"Wait," I said. "I need to do something."

"What?" asked Castella.

I grinned. "I need to find my friends first."

 

 

I called Garrakson and Torris over my commlink, and we organised to meet at Vex's office in fifteen minutes.

"How will they feel about me being there?" Castella had asked.

I'd just shrugged and said, "they can deal with it, I'm sure."

Then I endeavoured to find the mailroom, I'd never been actually in there before, but I'd walked past it once or twice, but if I was good at anything, it was finding places and locations. Not things, though, finding and locating things that seemed to be something different entirely for me.

It only took me a few minutes to locate it, and as I entered, I turned to Castella.

"Is it okay if you stay out here while I do this?" I asked.

Castella frowned. "Only if you tell me what it is you're doing, exactly."

I sighed and glanced around the corridor. "This might be the end of the world, Castella. I need to organise us to make sure we have an avenue of escape. Just in case."

Castella raised an eyebrow. "So you want to save the people who work in the mailroom?"

I nodded. "One in particular."

"How?" she said. "Do you have a ship capable of warp travel hidden somewhere?"

"We do," I said. "Up in orbit."

Castella sighed. "Yes, but..."

"But what?" I interrupted. "We can surely afford to take on a few more."

"Yes, but that's not the point..."

Castella paused in her sentence as a few workers wandered by.

"Yes, but that's not the point," she said. "Do you honestly believe that they will believe you? What are you going to do? Go in there saying that the world's going to end? They won't believe you, and even if they do, they'd most likely panic with fear, and even if they didn't, what would you have them do?"

I frowned. "You're sounding uncharacteristically cynical, Castella."

"No, I'm not," said Castella. "If anyone's being cynical, it's you. I believe we can stop this, so I find this irrelevant."

I shrugged. "I don't think it is; I have to do this, Castella. I want her to live. She deserves to live."

She rolled her eyes. "Alright, let's just say this person; she believes you and Omnartus is destroyed, and she manages to escape with us. What do you think she'd do? Her world was just destroyed, all her loved ones dead. Everything is gone."

I saw where she was going with this, and my attention fell to the floor.

"I have to try," I sighed.

Castella's expression hardened, and she opened her mouth to say something but stopped when the door to the mailroom suddenly opened.

An older man stepped out who was vaguely familiar to me. He frowned at us.

"We can hear you," he growled.

We just gaped at him stupidly.

"Get in here," he said with a twitch of his head.

We did as told, filing quickly into the large, brightly lit office and looking more than a little embarrassed. Three others sat at desks, looking at us with scrutinising gazes.

One was Adelana; she sat the nearest. Her arms folded, her expression unreadable, but her attention was firmly on me. The other two were a tall, lanky young man, not much older than me; he looked at Castella with wide eyes, his jaw lolling dumbly. I couldn't blame him; Castella had that effect on me the first time I'd met her, and I didn't think it often that an attractive woman wearing a very tight body glove would walk through his door. The other was an ugly weathered woman who may have been in her mid-forties; I couldn't be sure.

Again they were eerily familiar for me. My dream was now a blur I struggled to remember; I wasn't even trying to remember it, in all honesty.

"Adelana?" said the ugly woman. "Do you know these people?"

"Only one," she said quickly; she smiled at me. "Attelus?"

I smiled back, wondering if Karmen was watching this and dearly hoping she wasn't.

The old man sat at the desk next to Adelana, folded his arms and glared at me from under a hooded brow.

"Attelus Kaltos? You're Attelus Kaltos?" he said with a sneer, then he shook his head and muttered something about me being 'the scum of the 'verse.'

I clenched my jaw but let it slide; I deserved it, in all honesty. If he knew even half of what I've done, he'd think even lower of me, somehow. It also took balls to potentially insult someone so armed and armoured almost to their face. I couldn't help but feel a bit of admiration for him. He was just lucky I was so forgiving.

"Attelus Kaltos," said the woman. "You're quite infamous around here, after what you did to Vex. I have to say he is an arrogant little brat at times, but he didn't deserve that; no one deserves that. Can I ask you a question, young man?"

I sighed, put my hands behind my back and began to pace. I could think of quite a few people who deserved that—myself being on the top of the list.

"Sure," I sighed. "Fire away."

"Why did you strangle a kid? I don't understand it. Why would you do that?"

I swallowed and stopped my pacing.

"I thought he'd betrayed me," I answered hesitantly. "We had an agreement, and I'd thought he'd sold me out. I let my anger get the better of me, and I regret it ever since."

The old man sneered again. "And I bet he bloody well didn't," he growled.

I shrugged, trying hard to keep the smile from my face. "As it turned out, he actually did."

Indirectly and unknowingly, but theoretically, he still did; the best way to lie is, to tell the truth.

The old man just smiled coldly and reclined back in his chair.

Adelana frowned. "I heard, we heard about how Vex punched Attelus before, so I think he got him back."

"Yeah!" laughed the old man. "I'd say it was the least he deserved!"

"It was enough for Vex," said Adelana. "If it was enough for him, so it should be enough for us."

"Enough for you, anyway," said the boy.

"That's enough," said Castella. "My name is Castella Lethe; I am Attelus'..."

She paused and glanced at me. "Colleague, and there is much to tell you."

The old man laughed again. "Another bloody merc, eh? You're all the damn same."

I clenched my jaw and took a step forward. "Now I can understand how you can hate; I, I really, really can," I said softly. " And you can insult me all you want, and I'll let it slide because, as you know, I deserve it, but don't you even dare insult her. She's done nothing. Now show her some respect and introduce yourself, or I may make you do it. Okay?"

The old man very abruptly straightened in his chair.

"Grayhelt, Solvej, I'm the manager here; this is Seleen Gorret," he said, indicating the ugly woman, then the young man. "You and the kid's Velg Tevven already know Adelana Halgen."

"I do," I said with a smile, nodding again to Adelana; she smiled back and averted her attention to the floor. I managed to catch in the corner of my eye Tevven bristle slightly at that.

I pursed my lips shrugged to myself; fair enough, I thought.

"Mr Solvej," said Castella. "Are you by chance, ex-guard?"

Grayhelt's eyes narrowed. "Yeah."

Abruptly she unclasped her auto pistol sidearm from its holster and handed it to him. Hesitantly he took it, then she took three clips from the pockets on her belt and placed them on his desk.

'You do know how to use that, right?" she said.

Grayhelt slammed a clip home and racked the slide with practised ease. "I do," he said. "Although it's been many years."

"We heard some of what you said," said Adelana, her large blue eyes wide with fear. "What in the God Emperor's name is going on?"

I sighed and slipped my hands into the pockets of my flak jacket. "We can't tell you much but, but..."

I trailed off, and yet again, I sighed, then glanced at Castella, who met my gaze.

Then an idea hit me.

"If and when anything happens," I said, starting to pace the room again. "Anything even slightly untoward in the next few hours. Promise me, swear to me, that you'll go, without a second's delay, straight to Vex's office, and there you must stay until we come for you, understand?"

"Why?" asked Tevven.

"Because there you'll be protected, please promise me you'll do this," I said.

With wide eyes, they shared glances.

"Uhh, okay, sure," said Gorret.

"You're weirding me out here, Attelus," said Adelana nervously.

"I'm sorry," I said, and tears suddenly welled in my eyes. "I'm sorry, Adelana. I didn't want this. I didn't mean for any of this. I'm so, so sorry. Please forgive me."

They looked at me with utterly confused expressions.

I sniffed, wiped away the tears and turned for the door. "Please just do as I say."

Then I left.

 

 

Castella followed me out and side by side; we started down the corridor. For quite a while, we walked in