Legion (The Horus Heresy Book 7) by Dan Abnett

Author:Dan Abnett [Abnett, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2014-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Mon Lo Harbour, Nurth,

that evening

‘So?’ asked Namatjira, looking up from his desk.

‘We’ve let them both go, sir,’ said Dinas Chayne.

‘Why?’

‘Their story checks out. The hets went looking for Uxor Rukhsana, chasing the same suspicions as us. They got her into a vehicle, to take her away from the palace for private interrogation. The geno like to protect their own, sir.’

Namatjira put the quill he had been using back into its power well, and rose to his feet, tapping his left index finger against his pursed lips. It was a modest gesture, designed to give the impression that he was pondering, but Chayne knew it was a mechanism the lord commander employed to curb his temper. He watched as Namatjira wandered towards the chamber window, into the pool of soft light cast by the setting sun. The light made his long, gold-embroidered robe glow.

‘But the vehicle,’ Namatjira asked, ‘wasn’t it swiped out on a blank biometric? To avoid detection?

Chayne shook his head. ‘The biometric was Bronzi’s. For some reason, it didn’t read cleanly in the scanner. I am advised that this is occurring quite often, scanning glitches, caused by the pervasive dust. Now we’ve checked it, it evidently was Bronzi’s.’

‘And Rukhsana?’ Namatjira asked. He patted his thigh, and his thylacene got up from the rug and trotted over to him. ‘What about her?’

‘She broke free and fled into the dunes.’

‘She broke free from two frontline hets?’

‘I believe they underestimated her resolve, sir,’ said Chayne. ‘When we questioned them, the hets both seemed frankly embarrassed that she had escaped. They were searching for her when we found them.’

‘Do you believe any of this, Dinas?’

‘I have no reason not to, lord. The facts match up perfectly. However, I will admit that I am uneasy whenever that happens.’

‘You have them under scrutiny?’

‘Yes, lord.’

Namatjira sank down into a crouch, and tenderly scrunched the thylacene’s ears with both hands. It closed its eyes in pleasure. ‘What about Rukhsana?’

‘We’re questioning her aides, but they don’t seem to have been aware of any indiscretion, and we’re searching for the uxor, obviously.’

‘Can she survive in the desert?’

‘Without supplies or protective clothing, no, not more than a day. I expect all we’ll find of her is her bones.’

Bronzi poured znaps into two glass cups and handed one to Soneka. Bronzi held out his glass to clink, and Soneka did so reluctantly.

‘Here’s to the skin of our fugging teeth,’ said Bronzi, trying to make light of it. He’d been trying to make light of it for a long time. Soneka’s mood was low, and Bronzi hated that.

‘Here’s to Rukhsana,’ Soneka replied. ‘May some power protect her from the fate we delivered her into.’

Bronzi shrugged, and drank to that instead. ‘They’ll treat her well enough, Peto,’ he said. ‘They only want answers.’

‘They are not sentimental creatures, Hurt,’ Soneka replied. ‘They use any means they can to achieve their goals. They let my Dancers get slaughtered, just to throw the enemy off guard. What on Terra makes you think they’ll use Rukhsana any less clinically?’

Bronzi couldn’t come up with an answer.

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