Nemesis

“Jenniker, what do you mean?”

She told them; and as he understood, Tariel went weak and slumped against the

side of the hull, shaking his head. His mouth silently formed the words no, no, no,

over and over again.

Koyne snorted. “The Emperor’s blood? That cannot be! This is madness… Horus’

assassin tears a page from some ancient tome and with that he can strike at the most

powerful human being who ever lived? The very idea is ridiculous!”

“He has what he wants now,” Soalm went on. “Synchrony with the God-

Emperor’s gene-marker. Spear is like a primed bomb, ready to detonate.” She

blinked back tears. “We have to stop him before he leaves the planet!”

“You saw what Spear did to Iota,” Kell looked towards the Callidus. “If this thing

is a mirror for psychic might, can you imagine what would happen if he got through

to Terra? If he came close enough to turn that power on the Emperor?”

220

“A cataclysm…” husked Tariel. “The same thing that happened to Iota, but

multiplied a million times over. A collision of the most lethal psychic forces

conceivable.” The infocyte swallowed hard. “Throne’s sake… He might even… kill

him!”

Koyne gave a sarcastic snort. “The Emperor of Mankind wounded by something

so fantastic, so ephemeral? I can’t believe it is possible. Spear will be swatted away

like an insect. This woman’s reason cannot be trusted! Her kind are governed by

archaic spiritual fanaticism, not facts!”

“The God-Emperor alone guides me…” she insisted.

The Callidus stabbed a finger at the poisoner. “You see? She admits it! She’s part

of a cult forbidden by the Council of Terra!” Before anyone else could respond, the

shade went on. “We have a mission here! A target! Horus may have sent this Captain

Sedirae to his death by design, or we may have tipped our hands by moving too soon,

but it does not matter! The end result remains the same. Our mission is not yet

ended.”

“He will come down to Dagonet,” said Tariel. “The Warmaster has no choice

now. The punishment of this world must be seen to come from his hand.”

“Exactly,” insisted Koyne. “We have another chance to kill him. The only

chance. A moment like this will never come again.”

Soalm painfully pushed herself to her feet. “You understand nothing about me,

shapechanger, or what I believe!” she snarled. “His divinity is absolute, and you

delude yourself by your denial of it. Only He can save humanity from the darkness

that gathers around us. We cannot fail Him!” She lurched and fell against Kell, who

caught her before she could stumble to the deck. “I cannot fail Him… Not again.”

Tariel spoke up. “If Soalm is right, if this is the Black Pariah and he has ingested

a measure of Imperial blood… Spear will seek to flee this world and make space to

Terra as quickly as possible. And if he has a ship that can get him to the warp, or

worse, if Horus’ fleet is waiting for the assassin to come to them, there will be no

way to stop him. Spear must be killed before he leaves Dagonet.”

“Or we can trust in the Emperor and follow our orders,” Koyne broke in. “You

think him divine, Soalm? I may not agree, but I do believe he is strong enough to

shrug off any attack. I believe that he will see this Spear coming and strike him from

the sky.” The Callidus’ boy-face twisted. “But Horus? The Warmaster is a serpent,

rising for just one moment from his hiding place. We kill him here on this world and

we end the threat he represents forever.”

“Will it be that simple?” Soalm snapped back. “A city full of people is being put

to the sword out there because we killed a single Astartes. Do you think if the

Warmaster dies, every rebel will fall to his knees and be crippled by grief? It will be

anarchy! Destruction and chaos!”

“I am mission commander,” Kell’s voice cut through the air. “I have authority

here.” He glared at Soalm. “I will not be disobeyed again. The decision is mine

alone.”

“We can’t kill them both,” said Tariel.

“Get us airborne,” said the Vindicare, reaching for his rifle.

221

There was a ragged group of men on the perimeter wall of the star-port, some of

them soldiers, some of them not, all with looted firearms and the aura of hot fear

about them. They saw the jetbike hurtling in from across the desert and they fired on

it without hesitation. Everything had been trying to kill them since the shock of the

dawn broke, and they did not wait to find out if this vehicle was friend or foe.

Insanity and terror ruled Dagonet now, as men turned on men in their panic to flee

the doomed city.

The stubby aerodyne had a single, medium-wattage lascannon mounted along the

line of the fuselage, and Spear aimed it with twists of the jetbike’s steering handles,

lashing along the battlement of the wall with lances of yellow fire. Bodies exploded

in blasts of superheated blood-steam as shots meant to knock down aircraft