Junktion (Warhammer 40,000) by Farrer & Matthew

Author:Farrer & Matthew
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2015-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

9: QUACKSTOWN

‘I know what you’re after!’

The shout cleared my throat almost before I knew I was going to speak. My knuckles were white on the grip of the pistol.

Nothing happened for a beat.

‘I know you want the water!’ Were they listening? I couldn’t hear any movement. ‘I’ve got a stubber pointed at the flasks right now! The instant, the spitting instant that I see a gun-barrel come around that doorframe a bullet goes through them and you’ve done all this for nothing!’

A long pause. I didn’t hear anyone reloading, or any voices. Eventually, when they did speak, they spoke at once, talking over one another.

‘What if we take that chance?’ from one;

‘You wouldn’t dare risk it!’ from the other.

‘You think I won’t?’ I yelled back in answer to both of them. ‘You think I’m dumb enough to think you’ll let me live once you’re in here? What have I got to lose except for the chance to spite you out of what you came for?’

‘That’s not your water, you grovelling bastard! All Junktion knows what you people are up to – in with the town fathers, nice and cosy. Do you even know what being thirsty feels like?’

Now more than ever with this hangover, but the thought and the urge to giggle at it were gone in a half-second.

‘It’s part of my pay, if you were too stupid to think of that.’ This was insane. Why was I arguing with them? ‘What do you think I am, some kind of water-scavvy? Last lightson some real scavvies almost killed me for the job I do for this town, by the way, and so thank you for the way you appreciate it, you sumpsack.’

‘Don’t get into it, Auvin, let’s work out a way to finish him and get gone.’ The second voice, not even trying to stay low. ‘You know we won’t let you live, Kass, and we know we can’t walk away without a bullet between our shoulders. And there’s two of us, better placed than you. How brave are you now?’

‘Auvin?’ I called out. ‘Azer Auvin? The Cyclops Square smokehouse? What the hell are you doing acting like some badzone mugger? Half the people in Junktion buy meat off you.’ Any time bought was good time. I was checking the load in the stubber and trying to work how quickly I could get through the door and get the pistol out of gangly-man’s hand.

‘Like you don’t know. Your friends in the bunkerhouse own it all now, there are guards on all the spigots. Probably doesn’t matter to someone who just carts his water home for free. You probably don’t care what they’re charging.’

I was filling my lungs to shout out something else, something about just doing my job and minding my business, when Auvin gave a yell of alarm and there was a flurry of autoshots. I took my chance by reflex, scrambling back into my big room to grab at the dropped pistol as a fight broke out in the corridor outside.

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