Dead in the Water by Sandy Mitchell

Author:Sandy Mitchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Before I could add anything more, I was rudely interrupted by a lasbolt, which flashed between us, striking sparks from the nearest block of stone. Jurgen and Calen responded at once with short focused bursts, while I scurried into the lee of the masonry to get a cover there and withdraw with a couple of hopeful shots from my laspistol. As a blizzard of retaliatory lasbolts faded, something large thrashed about in the undergrowth for a moment, and then went silent. Too experienced at this kind of thing to take it for granted that we’d actually neutralized the sniper, I voxed Jurgen sure from the familiar odor that he’d found refuge on the other side of the same chunk of masonry.

‘Take left’, I said.

A moment later the thrashing in the undergrowth began again and we bracked at its estimated position with lasbolts. This time we heard a scream, so one of us had found a target. Then I ducked as another volume of lasgun-fire began from two weapons at least widely spaced and both focused on our position. I dropped and began moving on my knees and elbows as stealthily as I could, hoping to get a look at our attackers. This brought the fire into the end, by its light a glimpse of the scarlet toppled somewhat the worse aware.

Voice: ‘Cease fire. In the name of the Emperor.’

Everything went quiet, and then another voice echoed the command.

Another voice: ‘Cease firing.’

I stood, adjusted my cap and stepped out of cover, finding to my surprise that I could see more clearly than before. A pink tinge echoing the flickering firelight was beginning to stain the eastern sky, and the canopy of branches overhead seemed translucent, each leaf standing out in stark silhouette.

The ruin I stood in was roofless, tumbled blocks of stone scattered at random around what once had been a high-ceiling hall, but its recesses remained in shudder. The more I saw of my surroundings, the less I liked them. There was nothing I could put my finger on, but the very stone seemed to exhale a cloacal miasma which made my skin crawl.

The man I caught a glimpse of was standing in one of the darker corners, a laspistol aimed at my torso.

Cain: ‘Sergeant Rohm, I presume? I’ve been sent to look for you.’

Rohm: ‘Commissar.’

This time the tone of surprise in his voice was unmistakable, and despite the certain knowledge that Jurgen would drop him in a heartbeat if he looked like using it, I found myself breathing a little more easily as he lowered the weapon.

Rohm: ‘We thought we’d been forgotten.’

Cain: ‘The Emperor protects.’ I took a couple of steps towards him. ‘What happened?’

Rohm: ‘We were ambushed. A group of fishermen we thought. They had a net slung between two boats to foul our prop when we passed between them. As soon as we slowed down, they opened fire.’

‘Bad business’, I commented, which was a lot more tactful than my real opinion. Only a reckless idiot would have tried to go through the middle of the group like that, if you asked me.

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