Hayden sat on his bed as the door to his cell slammed shut. He sighed and rubbed his eyes before looking up at the ceiling. What the frig was everyone up to? He did nothing wrong; he tried to do what needed to be done-
You are correct.
The voice made him start and glance everywhere for its source, but he was alone.
Do not be afraid, Hayden Tresch. I am here to aid you.
'Who are you?'
A friend, someone who admires your abilities and who believes your acts are justified.
'Yes, of course, they are. I do not need you to tell me that.'
No, no, I don't; I just wish you to know that I agree with you. Truly and fully. That you are being wasted, your talents squandered by being locked in this cell while less talented and...perfect agents are doing assignments and most assuredly messing them up. Agents such as that little fool Attelus Xanthis Kaltos.
Hayden smiled, but he shook it away.
'I...I should not be listening to a voice in my head that claims to be my friend.'
And why not? It is a free galaxy, is it not? Despite what so many claim what you can and cannot do, it is still a free place, so why not? I understand you, Hayden. I know as well as you how you are the best at everything.
Hayden grimaced. 'I'm not the best at everything, Darrance...Attelus Kaltos...and...Castella Lethe was a far better sword wielders than me.'
Ah, yes, but if you applied even a tenth of the time they did at swordplay, you would be as good, if not better than all of them.
Hayden smiled, but he didn't shake it away; he'd always secretly thought the same thing.
See? See? You know it as well. That is the truth, my friend, and everyone knows it, and that is why you are in here.
'What? What do you mean?'
They are jealous, Hayden Tresch. All of them see how talented you are, and they envy you. They fear your true potential that you will surpass them—most especially Inquisitor Jelcine Enandra of the Ordo Hereticus.
'You think so?'
I know so, Hayden. I know so. Have you ever wondered why that mediocre fool Arlathan Karkin was promoted to the Interrogator position, not you?
'Yes, but-'
But nothing you should have been made her Interrogator. You should have led the mission to Sarkeath instead of that naive, foolish boy Attelus Kaltos. That is just a fact. Inquisitor Enandra is holding you back because she is afraid if you became an Inquisitor like her, you would be one of the greatest Inquisitors the Imperium of Mankind would ever see. She's afraid you would surpass her, that you would eclipse you! Just as she surpassed her master Devan Torathe but on a far grander scale.
Hayden pursed his lips; he knew what was happening, he knew what this was, but he was finding it hard to care. He held Enandra no real loyalty and no real loyalty to the Imperium of Mankind, yet he had fought tooth and nail for them over the last three years, and this is what he got for it? Everyone lecturing him for a logical, pragmatic call and being kept in this damned cell.
'Besides stroking my ego, friend, what else can you offer me?' said Hayden, hoping he would not regret this.
The voice's reply was laughter.
Attelus made sure it was nighttime when he approached the cliff face. Wrapped in his camoleoline cloak and crouch walking, he moved in silence through the thickest bush on the side of his approach. Despite this, he thought yet again that the likes of Dellenger, or hell, Hayden Tresch, would be better candidates for this mission. The thought of Hayden Tresch made Attelus wonder how the sniper was fairing; he hoped he was well and overcome his pride soon; there were few people Attelus would rather watch his back, Karmen Kons and Adelana, the other two and perhaps, Kalakor.
Kalakor would've been a much better candidate too. The best candidate by far, but there was no use thinking too much about it, this was the job he was given, and he was going to do it to the best of his ability. Attelus would prove he could work alone and prove his loyalty to the Inquisitor, no matter what.
He gazed up at the steep, almost featureless rock face, which could only be man-made and slipped on his spiked climbing gloves over his armoured ones, looking now, perhaps it was better he did this than Hayden or Dellenger. His enhanced body would likely handle the climb better, even if he weren't as experienced as Hayden at mountaineering and that sort of shit.
With a sigh, Attelus plunged the monomolecular blades into the rock, and they embedded in satisfactorily, but it took him a couple of tugs to pull it out; he wasn't looking forward to doing that over and over again.
Sighing again, Attelus frowned; he knew the Ecclesiarchy's technological aspects were by and far behind that of the rest of the Imperium's main factions, and his syn skin bodyglove would make him nigh undetectable, he couldn't help feeling that if Soloston were here, he'd have placed enhanced detectors and auspex that could somehow bypass the syn skin's tech, just in case someone tried to do this shit. Attelus would make it all the way up to the top of that wall only to find a dozen bolter barrels in his face.
That was what Attelus would do, anyway.
Again, Attelus shook away such thoughts; here he was, overthinking things yet again. If that did happen, he'd just have to adapt; he was immortal, after all, so he could try again and again and again and again.
If he didn't lose his mind in the process.
Attelus began to slip on the rest of the climbing equipment with a long exhale.
This was where the fun frigging began...
Dellenger had learned a long time ago that there weren't individual ghettos across the Imperium of Mankind; it was all one unfathomably colossal ghetto. This damned place included.
Perched on top of a commercia building, his camoleoline cloak wrapped around him as he watched the crowded, darkness endowed boulevard below. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and locals coated every inch of the rockcrete around the massive cathedral. They held candles and were silent in prayer.
As far as Dellenger knew, there wasn't any special Imperial celebration on this date.
With a grimace, he checked his wrist chron, it was 9 pm local time, and they'd been standing for an hour now; Dellenger hoped like all frigging hell this wouldn't last much longer, and they didn't do this every frigging night, or else it'll complicate their infiltration attempts in the near future. Dellenger wouldn't put it past these zealots to do this every single frigging night. Dellenger hoped one of the more social Throne Agents would find that out soon.
If these Emperor-botherers did, they might have to resort to Kalakor's abilities, and they were very much wanted to keep that hidden away from the others.
Dellenger frowned, rubbed his eyes, took out his scope and panned it across the cathedral, trying to catch a glimpse of something anything behind those stained glass windows, but got nothing. He tried to, despite knowing the futility of it, look through the tinted windows of the lead-lined windows of the stories above. He looked over the crowd and-
He froze as he glimpsed the hooded, cloaked form facing away from the cathedral and looking right at him through the round, green lenses of some kind of rebreather. With clenched teeth, Dellenger shot his gaze back to the silhouette, but it'd disappeared.
Shit! What the frig was that? Could it have been one of their enemy's agents? That frigging bastard Tolbik or Serghar Kaltos?
Dellenger slipped away his scope and began back toward headquarters; the others would need to know about this.
Arlathan sat on the mouldy old couch in the living room, staring at the old broken monitor, and tapped the tips of his fingers on the leather. Vex sat at his cogitator in the corner, absently tapping at the type board. They would begin undercover work soon, but first, the scouts had to canvas the city. That took time, even with the likes of Dellenger, Darrance, Delathasi and Kalakor doing it. At times like this, Arlathan wished he was more specialised so he could go out there with the other stealth specialists instead of sitting it out here on his hands.
That Kalakor surprised Arlathan the most, how a two-metre giant such as him could move so silent and be so invisible. Besides the Space Marines that'd attempted to kill him, Attelus and the others during their escape of Omnartus, Arlathan had yet to meet one until him. Yet again, Attelus Kaltos was the one who encountered the strange characters. Kalakor was from the Raven Guard, and they were famous for their stealth skill, but it was one thing to hear about, but it was another thing to see it.
Or not see it, as the case may be.
In the corner of his eye, Arlathan caught Vex glaring at him, so Arlathan made sure to drum even harder.
He did this for a good ten seconds before Vex finally growled, 'Can you stop that, please.'
'Why? Is it interrupting you from your all-important monitoring of local vox channels?'
Vex sighed. 'Yes, I might find something, you know?'
'I Doubt it,' said Arlathan, but he stopped his drumming.
Silence hung in the place again, and according to Arlathan's constant looking at his wrist-chron, it was five minutes before Vex broke the silence.
'You alright, Arlathan? Ever since we've made landing, you've been so...grumpy.'
Arlathan wanted to blurt out he was pissed there was yet another competitor for Inquisitor's affections. He now had to work with him, too. He was a great and famous hero who could easily overshadow him as a leader and more than qualified to be another Interrogator under the Inquisitor. 'Probably because we had to trek miles through that damned shitty forest, Vex,' he said instead, which was the truth, as Attelus' said so very often ", the best way to lie was to tell the truth."
Vex shrugged and muttered, 'And people say I'm the whiner.'
Arlathan grimaced, about to snarl a rebuke at him, but his micro-bead chiming made him reach for his ear. 'What is it?'
'The scouts have arrived back,' said Kollath, who so happened to be one of the guards on duty. 'As per schedule, they're on their way up to you now, but the pretty boy frig Dellenger is missing.
That made Arlathan sit up on his couch beside the Space Marine Dellenger seemed the most likely to come back on time.
'You want me to send out a few men to search for him?' said Kollath.
'No,' said Arlathan. He didn't want to risk anyone seeing Inquisitorial Stormtroopers wandering about, even if that was unlikely. Still, he wouldn't admit that to Kollath and hurt the frig-head's precious feelings, even though he would enjoy that. 'Dellenger can more than handle himself. We'll finish the briefing, and he hasn't arrived; I'll send out the other recon specialists to find him.'
There was a pause, and for a second, Arlathan thought Kollath might question him, for all his faults, being a smug arse-head, Kollath was professional enough to leave that part of himself on the wayside during a mission.
'Yeah, got you,' said Kollath, then cut the link.
Again, Arlathan caught Vex looking at him. 'What, Carpompter?'
'We going to tell the Commissar about this?'
The almighty Delan Tathe was a few rooms down the corridor, likely sleeping and off watch duty. Arlathan wondered how the Commissar felt being reduced to such mundane "dog-soldier" assignments as a low-ranking Throne Agent as long as that might last. He didn't seem to mind, but Arlathan secretly hoped the Commissar was chafing even a little about it.
'Let him sleep,' said Arlathan. 'I'm sure Dellenger will be fine, and the Commissar would know that.'
Vex still looked at Arlathan, seeming very unconvinced.
