[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.He climbed out into the cold night.'Stay here,' he told Blenner, who waved back jovially from the cabin.'And you,' Gaunt told Milo, who was moving as if to fol­low him.'Are you armed, sir?' the boy asked.Gaunt realised he wasn't.He shook his head.Milo drew his silver Tanith dagger and passed it to the com­missar.You can never be sure,' he said simply.Gaunt nodded his thanks and moved off.The cold zones like this were a grim reminder that society in a vast city like Cracia was deeply stratified.At the heart were the great palace of the Ecdesiarch and the Needle itself.Around that, the city centre and the opulent, wealthy residential areas were patrolled, guarded, heated and screened, safe little micro­cosms of security and comfort.There, every benefit of Imperial dtizenship was enjoyed.But beyond, the bulk of the city was devoid of such luxuries.League after league of crumbling, decaying city blocks, build­ings and tenements a thousand years old, rotted on unlit, unheated, uncared for streets.Crime was rife here, and there were no Arbites.Their control ran out at the inner dty limits.It was a human zoo, an urban wilderness that surrounded civilisation.In some ways it almost reminded Gaunt of the Imperium itself - the opulent, luxurious heart surrounded by a terrible reality it knew precious little about.Or cared to know.Light snow, too wet to settle, drifted down.The air was cold and moist.Gaunt strode down the littered pavement.1034 Needleshadow Boulevard was a dark, haunted relic.A single, dim light glowed on the sixth floor.Gaunt crept in.The foyer smelled of damp carpet and mildew.There were no lights, but he found the stairwell lit byhundreds of candles stuck in assorted bottles.The light was yel­low and smoky.By the time he reached the third floor, he could hear the music.Some kind of old dancehall ballad by the sound of it.The old recording crackled.It sounded like a ghost.Sixth floor, the top flat.Shattered plaster littered the worn hall carpet.Somewhere in the shadows, vermin squeaked.The music was louder, murmuring from the room he was approaching on an old audio-caster.The apartment door was ajar, and light, brighter than the hall candles, shone out, the violet glow of a self-powered portable field lamp.His fingers around the hilt of the knife in his greatcoat pocket, Gaunt entered.FiveThe room was bare to the floorboards and the peeling paper.The audio-caster was perched on top of a stack of old books, warbling softly.The lamp was in the corner, casting its spectral violet glow all around the room.'Is there anyone here?' Gaunt asked, surprised at the sound of his own voice.A shadow moved in an adjoining bathroom.'What's the word?' it said.'What?''I haven't got time to humour you.The word.''Eagleshard/ Gaunt said, using the code word he and Fereyd had shared years before on Pashen Nine-Sixty.The figure seemed to relax.A shabby, elderly man in a dirty civilian suit entered the room so that Gaunt could see him.He was lowering a small, snub-nosed pistol of a type Gaunt wasn't familiar with.Gaunt's heart sank.It wasn't Fereyd.'Who are you?' Gaunt asked.The man arched his eyebrows in reply.'Names are really quite inappropriate under these circumstances.''If you say so,' Gaunt said.The man crossed to the audio-caster and keyed in another track.Another old-fashioned tune, a jaunty love song full of promises and regrets, started up with a flurry of strings and pipes.'I am a facilitator, a courier and also very probably a dead man,' the stranger told Gaunt.'Have you any idea of the scale and depth of this business?'Gaunt shrugged.'No.I'm not even sure what business you refer to.But I trust my old friend, Fereyd.That is enough for me.By his word, I have no illusions as to the seriousness of this matter, but as to the depth, the complexity…'The man studied him.The Navy's intelligence network has established a web of spy systems throughout the Sabbat Worlds to watch over the Crusade.''Indeed.''I'm a part of that cobweb.So are you, if you but knew it.The truth we are uncovering is frightening.There is a grievous power struggle underway in the command echelon of this mighty Crusade, my friend.'Gaunt felt impatience rising in him.He hadn't come all this way to listen to arch speculation.'Why should I care? I'm not part of High Command.Let them squabble and backstab and-'"Would you throw it all away? A decade of liberation warfare? All of Warmaster Slaydo's victories?''No,' Gaunt admitted darkly.The intrigue threatens everything.How can a Crusade force this vast continue when its commanders are at each other's throats? And if we're fighting each other, how can we fight the foe?''Why am I here?' Gaunt cut in flatly.'He said you would be cautious.'"Who said? Fereyd?'The man paused, but didn't reply directly.Two nights ago, associates of mine here in Cracia intercepted a signal sent via an astropath from a scout ship in the Nubila Reach.It was destined for Lord High Militant General Dravere's Fleet headquarters.Its clearance level was Vermilion.'Gaunt blinked.Vermilion level.The man took a small crystal from his coat pocket and held it up so that it winked in the violet light.The data is stored on this crystal.It took the lives of two psykers to capture the signal and transfer it to this.Dravere must not get his hands on it.'He held it out to Gaunt.Gaunt shrugged.'You're giving it to me?'The man pursed his lips.'Since my network here on Cracia intercepted this, we've been taken apart.Dravere's own counter-spy network is after us, desperate to retrieve the data.Ihave no one left to safeguard this [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]