Deathwatch Read Free Page B

other could intrude without detection. No other could hear their words, for they were spoken in secrecy. And that was well.
    ‘Fruition?’ asked the other.
    ‘Four years for a ten per cent conversion, given the reported gestation times. Nineteen years absolute if the magos’s projections prove accurate. Monitors are in place, naturally, but if there are timeline problems…’
    ‘You’ll have the new assets you need. The Watch Commander may grudge it, but he will not refuse. The new accord bears your personal seal as arranged. The Deathwatch knows what it gains. You have other assets in place, of course.’
    ‘Some of my best, and I’m positioning others now.’
    ‘Nothing to which you are too attached, I hope.’
    ‘You taught me better than that.’
    A nod, acknowledging the compliment. ‘You do me credit as ever. May it always be so. If Project Blackseed bears fruit, your most fervent hope may be that much closer to reality.’
    ‘Or it may not. In either case, your continued support–’
    ‘Mutually beneficial, my old friend, as I’ve assured you before.’
    ‘Even so, I would affirm my commitment once more if you would hear it.’
    A raised hand. ‘Your loyalty is not in doubt. We both know the sacrifices that must be made. Let the opposition believe you work against me. Small wounds I gladly bear for the greater prize. You have done well in laying false tracks. They follow where we send them. They shall not discover their error until it is too late. By then we will have taken them apart from the inside, and our benefactor will rise to power unopposed.’
    ‘You mentioned new players.’
    ‘Middle-rankers. Nothing that need concern you yet. They play the long game, as we do, hoping to establish their own candidate. Others who share our outlook are already on hand to check them. Focus on your own immediate objectives. If there is anything you would ask before we part minds…’
    ‘Is she well?’
    Always the same question, worded exactly the same way. His one true weakness.
    His sister.
    ‘She sleeps peacefully as always, my friend. Envy her that. And may the Imperium to which you restore her be a better place for both of you.’
    ‘ Blackseed will bear fruit.’
    ‘But only if White Phoenix is at the centre. Any other and we gain nothing. The psykers were adamant. Along that path alone lies the weapon we need.’
    ‘White Phoenix will be ordered to the relevant location when the time is right. Everything else will depend on successful extraction. I am sure the Deathwatch will not disappoint.’
    ‘Let us hope not. The visions were less clear on that count. In any case, I shall await your report. We’ll not speak again until this is over. Vigilance, my friend. In nomine Imperator .’
    ‘Vigilance. And may His Glorious Light guide us all.’

3
    Around him, death. Familiar. Comfortable. Not the screaming, churning, blood-drenched death of thousands falling in battle. This was quiet death. This was the pensive, sombre death of the graveyard in winter. This was death carved artfully in stone. Death in repose.
    A crow cawed in the chill air, noisily protesting the intrusion of the tall figure in grey fatigues who approached uninvited.
    Lyandro Karras grinned at the bird and nodded in salutation, but as he drew nearer, the bird cawed once more, a last harsh reproach, and left its perch on the tallest of the headstones. Pinions clapping, it beat a path through the frigid air.
    Karras watched the crow’s grudging departure until it vanished beyond a steep hill to his right. Falling snow danced for a moment in the wake of its passage.
    We are both icons of death, my noisy friend , he thought, psychically tracking the bird’s life-force as it moved farther and farther off, something he did out of long habit.
    I precipitate it. My arrival signals the coming end. You come after to gorge on the spoils. And neither of us is welcome in gentle company. How misunderstood we are!
    The words were not his own