Nemesis

several light stubber guns, using each until the ammo dram ran dry, then making the

weapons into clubs he used to beat his kills to the floor; but the stubbers were only

good for a few hits before his violence broke them across the frame and he was

forced to discard them.

He punched a man with enough energy that it shattered his skull, and then he

vaulted a makeshift barricade, moving faster than the men hiding behind it could aim.

He killed them with their own guns and ran on, deeper through the complex.

Parts of the building might have looked familiar to him, if the Garantine had been

able to stop the racing pace of his thoughts, if he had been able to slow his kill-need

for just a moment; but he could do neither.

In the absence of orders, with no target to aim for, the Eversor did what he was

trained to do; and he would go on, killing here and then moving on to the next set of

targets, and the next and the next, forever in the moment.

Afterwards, Daig felt refreshed by his experience, but he had not come to the meeting

for personal reasons. While some of the others talked amongst themselves, the reeve

took Noust to one side and the two men shared cups of the warm wine, and questions.

Noust listened in silence to Daig’s explanation of his caseload, and at length, he

gave a nod. “I know Erno Sigg. I guessed that might be why you’d come to see me.

His face was on the public watch-wire. Said that he was sought after to assist in your

вЂ˜enquiries’.”

Daig suppressed a wince. Laimner, on Telemach’s orders, had deliberately leaked

Sigg’s image to the media in a ham-fisted attempt to flush him into the open; but if

anything, it appeared to have driven the man deeper into hiding.

Noust continued. “He’s a troubled fellow, to be certain. Someone without a

compass, you could say. But that’s where the Theoge can be of help to a man. He

learned of the text while he was incarcerated, from a ship-hand. Erno found another

path with us.” He looked away. “At least, for a time he did.”

Daig leaned in. “What do you mean?”

Noust eyed him. “Is that you asking, Daig Segan? Or is it the Sentine?”

“Both,” he replied. “This is important. You know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t.”

“Aye, that’s so.” Noust sighed. “Here’s the thing. For a while, Erno was a regular

fixture here, and he was trying to make something of himself. He wanted to make

amends. Erno was working to become a better man than the angry, frustrated thug

he’d left out there in space. It’s a long road, but he knew that. But then he started to

come around less often.”

“When did this happen?”

70

“A few demilunars ago. Two, maybe. When I did see him, he was twitchy. He

said that he was going to have to pay for what he had done.” Noust paused, sorting

through his thoughts. “I got the impression that someone was… I don’t know,

following him? He was irritable, paranoid. All the old, bad traits coming back to the

fore.”

Daig rubbed his chin. “He may have killed people.”

Noust gave the reeve a shocked look. “No. Never. Maybe once upon a time, but

not now. He’s not capable of that, not anymore. I’d swear that to the God-Emperor

himself.”

“I need to find Erno,” said Daig. “If he’s innocent, we need to prove it. We… I

need to protect all this.” He gestured around. “I found my path here. I can’t lose it.”

Daig imagined what might happen if Telemach or Laimner got hold of Sigg, broke

him in interrogation and then found the door to this place. In their secular, clinical

world there was no place for the revelation of the Imperial Truth, the undeniable

reality of the Emperor’s shining divinity. The church, such as it was, and all the

others like it would be torn down, burned away, and the words of the Lectitio

Divinitatus that had so transformed Daig Segan when he read them would be erased

and left unheard. They would use Sigg and the crimes to excuse them as they put a

torch to it all.

“The Emperor protects,” said Noust.

“And I’ll help Him do it, if you give me the chance,” insisted the reeve. “Just tell

me where Erno Sigg is hiding.”

Noust finished his drink. “All right, brother.”

Behind her, she heard the clattering thunder of auto-fire and more screams. Iota

skidded to a halt on the cold metal floor and cocked her head, letting her skull-helm’s

autosenses take readings and pass the analysis back to her. He was very close; she

had attracted his interest by appearing in the middle of a companionway, letting him

see her clearly, and then breaking into a ran. The Eversor knew another assassin

when he saw one, and she was without doubt the most serious threat vector the ragekiller

had encountered since his awakening. He was coming for her, but that didn’t

stop him from pausing along the way to dispatch any of the facility’s staff who were

unlucky enough to cross his path. The murderers of the Clade Eversor were like that;