‘Custodian.’

III

WHEN THE BLADE flashed in, the Ultramarine parried quickly. He was already backing away. Heka’tan was trying to circle. He’d made the connection too, realising the landman was merely a projection, courtesy of a holofield.

The Salamander tried to shoulder barge the warrior, distract him and bring him into his battle-brother’s arc, but he weaved aside, slamming his elbow down on Heka’tan’s spine. Then he went down, snapping a blade-kick into Arcadese’s gut that sent him sprawling.

When both Legiones Astartes had got up, the assassin was gone, absorbed into the darkness.

Arcadese retrieved his flash-sabre and went to give chase. Heka’tan seized his shoulder, stopping him.

‘No, that’s what he wants. Wait. Think.’

The Ultramarine nodded. ‘You’re right.’ His mind was reeling – a Custodian, here on Bastion, trying to kill Horus’s iterator. What was this – Plan B? ‘Should we even fight him? Could we? I’m surprised we lived as long as we did.’

Heka’tan only glowered at the dark. ‘We need to dig in and wait it out.’

‘He will pick us off, one by one. We cannot wait.’ He glanced back askance at the Salamander. ‘We could always just give him what he wants.’

‘No, something isn’t right.’

‘Then what do you suggest? The Custodians are loyal only to the Emperor. They are his lions, Salamander. They do not question, they merely do. If we are between him and his prey–’

‘That’s not a Custodian,’ Heka’tan interjected. ‘It is similar, but its movements are copied, its form a facsimile, a simulacrum.’

Arcadese hissed, retreating into the light with his brother. ‘How can you be sure?’

Their eyes met. Heka’tan’s flared with an angry glow.

‘Because if it was real, we’d already be dead.’

IV

THERE WAS PANIC in the auditorium. The shot and subsequent commotion had lit a spark of fear in the assembly that was growing from a flame into a conflagration. Streams of politicians and senators were rushing from their seats to pound on the doors to the auditorium. Some screamed, others sobbed, a few merely stayed seated and stared.

By now the clave-nobles had been evacuated from the balcony and were on the main auditorium floor, surrounded by their bodyguards with the rest of the trapped civilians.

Other soldiers were scanning the upper echelons and alcoves for further assassins. They would find none.

Amongst the visitors, Vorkellen was profoundly unhappy and addressed the already stressed high-marshal who was trying to restore order. ‘What are you doing to get us out of here?’

Insk was nearby, muttering soothing words to his master and requesting relaxants from another aide. Vorkellen waved them away with bitter tirades.

V

ARCADESE WAS IN unsympathetic mood and replied in the high-marshal’s stead. ‘We are trapped, you idiot. There’s nothing he can do.’

The iterator looked about to respond but bit back his tongue when the Ultramarine glowered. Arcadese let him be, and approached Heka’tan. Frantic as they were, the people kept away from the two Legionaries.

The Salamander leant in close, talking softly so that no one else could hear him.

‘Whatever that thing is, it will come for us.’

‘I know.’ Arcadese had his eye on the humans. They’d started to huddle around the sealed door and were spilling out into the centre of the chamber. ‘Their fear disgusts me. I thought this was meant to be a war-like world.’

‘They are not soldiers, not all of them, and they’ve never been trapped in a room with something like this before,’ Heka’tan paused, feeling sympathy for the panicked mob. ‘We have to hunt it down.’

Arcadese nodded.

Heka’tan went on, ‘You were right. We cannot wait. We waited at Isstvan.’ His eyes went off to a dark place, one from memory. ‘We waited and died.’ His hand was shaking again. He clenched it with his other hand to steady it.

Arcadese lowered his voice. ‘I’m sorry that you’re still affected by it, brother. I cannot imagine the pain.’

‘The legacy isn’t mine to bear. It’s for those who follow, for whatever happens next.’

Regarding the dead marshals, left where they’d fallen, Arcadese changed subject. ‘This matter was always going to be decided by blood. These entire proceedings were a farce. Unless we find that assassin, the Imperium will be accused of treachery. No one will negotiate with us.’

Heka’tan was shaking his head slowly. ‘Perhaps? But I feel there is something else going on here, something from back when the Iron Warriors had a garrison on this world.’

‘Then we must expose the truth, whatever that might be. Our best chance is tracking the iterator’s would-be killer.’

‘I cannot help think it merely shrouds an even greater atrocity.’ Heka’tan gestured to the crowd. Some of the fervour had died down now. There was moaning and grim-faced acceptance. ‘And there are the humans to consider.’

Arcadese looked nonplussed. ‘What about them?’

‘If we’re outmanoeuvred the assassin would make a red mess of them.’

‘They’ll have to look to their own defence.’

‘One of us should stay.’

‘We need both of us to kill this thing. Since when did the sons of Vulkan not present a united front?’

‘We’re pragmatists too, brother, and know when to adapt,’ said Heka’tan. ‘We cannot wait around to be murdered where we stand. So, I’ll go.’

‘You?’ Arcadese’s displeasure was obvious. ‘If you want to protect the humans so badly then stay behind and do just that.’ A few of the civilians had turned as the volume of the conversation rose.

‘I wish I could, but only one of us can hunt. You are not able.’

The Ultramarine’s tone darkened. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Look at you,’ offered Heka’tan with traditional Salamander bluntness. He hadn’t meant to be insulting, he just didn’t appreciate his words and manner could be construed that way.

‘I am a warrior still,’ Arcadese asserted, ‘as strong and capable as any uncouth barbarian from a tribal culture.’

‘Prove it then.’

‘What?’

‘Attack me, see if you can humble–’

Arcadese launched himself at Heka’tan, flash-sabre blazing. He was slow though, just a second or two, but enough of a lag for the Salamander to avoid the blow and head-butt the Ultramarine fiercely across the bridge of his patrician nose.

Blood gushed, streaking Arcadese’s lips, before Heka’tan used the Ultramarine’s bulk against him and sent him sprawling across the auditorium floor. A few of the nobles had to scurry out of the way. There were fearful gasps as their protectors turned on one another.

Arcadese was up as swiftly as his bionics allowed but found his flash-sabre taken and levelled at his neck.

‘I will hunt,’ Heka’tan told him. ‘You stay.’

Breathing hard, the Ultramarine nodded slowly. ‘I won’t forget this, son of Vulkan.’

‘I know you won’t.’ Heka’tan jogged off into the darkness, flash-sabre in hand.

VI

THE SALAMANDER RETURNED less than an hour later.

Arcadese had his back to him. The Ultramarine’s demeanour hadn’t improved.

‘Have you given up already? I thought Salamanders were supposed to be tenacious.’

‘I found a spoor and followed it into the deeper conduits,’ Heka’tan replied. Arcadese noticed he was holding the flash-sabre in the opposite hand. ‘It seems the assassin had an escape route planned from the beginning.’

‘So, he’s gone?’

Heka’tan nodded, ‘Through a way we can’t follow. It’s too narrow, too steep, and goes right to the bowels of the complex, to the geothermal sub-levels.’

‘We wait then,’ said Arcadese, turning his back on Heka’tan, ‘for the gates to open and our failure to be known to our Legions. Horus has won this world, brother.’