Crimson Night (Warhammer 40,000) by James Swallow

Author:James Swallow [Swallow, James]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2015-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

They found the body after only an hour of searching. Dassar’s thin screech cut through the blood-warm air and brought Tarikus and Korica running, to where he stood flanked by Mykilus and Petius. Between the hulking forms of the two armoured Space Marines, Dassar looked waif-like by comparison, a child’s crude sketch of a man against the brutal shapes in silver-grey ceramite. The servant had panicked when Tarikus had ordered him to accompany them, but it was the Merron’s reluctant direction that had brought them here, to a landscape of wreckage and broken stone on the city’s outskirts. Brother Petius raised his faceplate to the sergeant and flicked a glance at the ground.

‘Elderly male, no clothing or identifying marks. I’d estimate he’s been dead for two standard days.’

Tarikus accepted Petius’s report with a nod. The young Space Marine’s skills with matters of the dead were trustworthy; he would one day become a fine Apothecary for the Chapter. ‘Show me.’ Tarikus stepped around the shuddering form of Dassar and peered at what they had discovered.

‘We found him concealed beneath some rubble,’ began Mykilus. ‘Not too well hidden, either. I suspect he was meant to be found, sir.’

The sergeant dropped to one armoured knee to get a closer look at the corpse. Like the bodies he had seen in the sinkhole, the frail old man’s papery skin was fish-belly white and anaemic. ‘Drained of his vital fluids,’ Tarikus murmured. ‘Exsanguinated…’

‘It is as he said,’ Korica indicated Dassar, ‘these ruins around the airstrip are a warren of tunnels. The ideal place to dispose of a body.’

‘The others were found like this?’ Tarikus asked.

Dassar nodded slowly. ‘Y-yes, Lord Marine. Sometimes weeks, even months after they go missing from their homes.’

Mykilus’s brow furrowed. ‘Are all you Merrons sheep? You did nothing about these abductions, you did not speak of them to the garrison commander?’

After a long moment, Dassar spoke again, his voice thick with fatigue. ‘We were told to keep our petty problems to ourselves.’

Tarikus stood up and gestured to Korica. ‘Wrap the body in Dassar’s sandcloak and take it back to the Rhino. We will treat the dead with the respect they are due. How was he killed, Petius?’

‘Look here, sir.’ The Space Marine pointed at a circular wound on the body’s chest. ‘A puncture point, just beneath the heart. This poor fool was sucked dry through some kind of instrument, perhaps a metallic proboscis or tube. I believe he was alive and conscious at the time.’ Petius removed a thin scalpel blade from a pack on his belt and picked at something on the dead man’s flesh.

Dassar turned away and retched into the scrub. ‘Oh, Emperor, deliver us from this evil, save our brother Lumen–’

‘You knew this man?’ Korica asked.

‘The metalsmith’s father-in-law,’ Dassar choked. ‘Taken last month during the two-moon festival.’

‘Whatever kills these people does not murder before it is ready,’ said Tarikus. ‘How many others are still missing?’

‘A-a dozen, perhaps more…’

‘Then, where are they if they are not already dead?’ asked Mykilus.

Tarikus nudged a loose stone with his broad, metalshod foot.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.