Secret War: The Annihilation Plague (Part1)

Chapter 14

His wrists now bound behind his back, and his ankles with pairs of strong wrist binders Attelus couldn't help but believe were made from adamantium; he knelt on the floor. They'd restored the lights, and he was surrounded by a dozen Sons, who him covered with their autoguns as though their lives depended on it. They sure weren't taking any chances with him, and Attelus couldn't blame them. The autoguns they wielded were, indeed, Armageddon Patterns; while they didn't fire as many rounds as a standard autogun, they more than made up for it with stopping power and reliability.

Inquisitor Draven paced back and forth, his attention to the floor seeming lost in thought. They were in the cavernous main counting hall where all the prisoners knelt in, shaking terror hands on their heads. The stink of old body odour mixed with new body odour was thick in Attelus' nostrils so bad it made his eyes water.

Attelus knew of Draven but, until now, had never met him. Jelcine Enandra had informed Attelus of him. Draven had been another of Inquisitor Devan Torathe's students long before Enandra. From what Attelus understood, Draven had left the Calixis Sector not long after his ascendency from Interrogator to work in the Askellon Sector, far to the galactic east of the Calixis Sector. Attelus couldn't blame him for wanting to escape the corrupt and accursed Calixis Sector. Enandra and Draven never got along; Draven was a highly religious Amalathian and Enandra, well, wasn't. Attelus had a good idea why Draven was here. The conditions of the death of his former master and the destruction of Omnartus were highly, highly classified even inside the Inquisition; only Enandra and Lord-Inquisitor Caidin of the Ordos Calixis and the three heads of the Ordo Hereticus, Ordo Malleus and Ordo Xenos knew. Well, them and Inquisitor Tybalt, their ally of convenience during the Omnartus Incident, had travelled all the frigging way from Segmentum Pacificus chasing leads which led him to Omnartus. As far as Attelus knew, Brutis "Bones" Tybalt had gone back. So, had Draven travelled here to find answers? Did he know of Inquisitor Enandra's more radical tendencies and come to bring her down? Why was he after Attelus and his people here on Iocanthos? Attelus could guess that, too, Draven wanted to use him and his people as hostages to leverage Enandra. Not just that, but Enandra had what could be described as an incredibly skilled and disciplined private army, and the Calixis Sector was her home ground, so to speak, if he began an Inquisition civil war with her. Which wouldn't be the first time, nor the last time the Inquisition went to war with itself over the millennia.

In all honesty, that Draven showing up now was suspicious as all hell. Was he being manipulated by Etuarq? Etuarq has manipulated many Inquisitors over the years; Edracian, Torathe, and their current quarry Soloston were the only ones they knew of. By the Emperor, they didn't need this now and where the frig was Kalakor? Did they know about him? Knowing Kalakor, he was just watching to gather data on this and might just intervene only when needing to. The Sons of Dispater were good, damned good. But there was no way in the warp they'd be able to find him.

The doors swung open, and a withered, short man in a beige overcoat. His head was shaven, and pipes ran from the back of his skull. He carried a wooden staff with an Aquila at its head which he grasped with both gloved hands. This was obviously Draven's pet psyker; he seemed, perhaps, primaris, specialised Imperial Battle-Psyker; no wonder the astropath died such a messy death.

Draven turned and stomped over to the psyker.

As Attelus watched the Inquisitor, he caught Kolmoroff's unreadable gaze. She was shaking, staring at him, and Attelus managed what he hoped was an encouraging smile and nod. She didn't smile, but she did nod back.

The psyker and Draven met near the entrance; Attelus felt the psychic connection between them, and he frowned. He was hoping to eavesdrop, but even if they didn't speak psychically, they'd have some super complicated cant he had no hope to decode.