Assassinorum Kingmaker (Warhammer 40,000) by Robert Rath

Author:Robert Rath [Rath, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2022-04-01T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Six

‘Think on your oaths before you swear them. Consider Lady Sakkaran, who in high spirits swore to never remove the mail coat Queen Favla-Astair gifted to her at Midwinter Feast. She kept her word, and now her bones lie at the bottom of Lake Vadlar. We celebrate her for choosing eternal honour over temporary life, but had she chosen her oaths more carefully, she might have had both.’

– Lucien Yavarius-Khau, High Monarch of Dominion, from his Meditations on the Code Chivalric

‘So,’ said Sycorax. ‘What are we going to do now?’

The enemy operative lay in the morgue drawer, his head ending just above the lower jaw. The orphaned lower palate and tongue left enough for roughly a quarter of a dental impression.

‘We have a name,’ said Koln. ‘We have audio and vid-clips. And we have twenty-two minutes. Sycorax, could you pull off a mimic in time to meet Dask? We could learn a lot from the debrief.’

‘Difficult without a full face to study and reconstruct.’ Sycorax flipped through still images on a data-slate. ‘I could create an approximation, get through a few checkpoints, but it won’t be convincing in a conversation, especially if Dask knows him well. The look will be off. It’ll be missing the mannerisms, gait, hairstyle, little tics. We won’t have time to launder the blood off his clothes. She’s a trained counter-intelligence officer, she’ll get suspicious. And even if I could extrapolate from footage, doing that and arriving in time is impossible. Did you have to take a headshot?’

She shot a look at Raithe, who was leaning against the bulkhead, arms crossed.

‘Yes,’ said Raithe. ‘He had a gun on Rakkan. A chest shot risked him discharging a round via muscle spasm or shock. And we’d agreed that Rakkan is useful to us alive for now.’

‘For now. Thanks for that,’ said Rakkan, holding a chemical ice pack to his lap. ‘Really, thanks. Good to know where I–’

‘But we also agreed,’ said Raithe, ‘that if Rakkan was discovered we would kill him. Sycorax, do you want to do the honours?’

Sycorax, stepping in front of the pilot, shielded him with her body. ‘Raithe, this is harder than any of us thought. If Rakkan had not been advising me, my cover would’ve been blown already. By his mother. By the dogs. The situation is too complex and evolving to kill him now.’

‘Agreed,’ said Koln. ‘And it would likely mean Gwynne would expose us.’

‘We had a plan,’ Raithe growled. He drew his Exitus pistol. ‘A plan we agreed to follow.’

‘And here’s my plan,’ said Sycorax. ‘If you kill him, I’m done. I’ll sit on this deck and refuse to take my cover as Rakkan again. You’re being ridiculous. Just because you said you would do something, doesn’t mean you have to follow through if it doesn’t make sense any more.’

Raithe looked at her, straight in the eyes. She could see him deciding whether to kill her, and how. ‘Fix this, minimise the exposure risk, and he can live. But do it fast.’

‘Sir Sabban will miss his appointment,’ said Koln, cutting in.

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