Ruinstorm
Page 32
He opened his eyes. Salamo was looking up at him, waiting. Brel gave a resigned smile and nodded.
‘Okay,’ said Brel in a soft voice. ‘Okay.’ He reached out and hooked his arm gently under Salamo’s, and helped him to his feet. The Chalcisorian lieutenant rubbed the back of a hand across his bloody mouth. He glanced up at Brel, the one intact augmetic eye glowing green.
‘I will get you the money,’ lisped Salamo through a clot of spit and blood. ‘And I won’t say anything.’
Brel smiled again, and the movement sent fresh lines of pain across his scalp.
‘Okay,’ he said, and patted Salamo’s shoulder. ‘Okay.’
Salamo tried to smile back but his mashed face could not manage it. He turned to walk away.
Brel broke Salamo’s neck in one quick movement, and lowered the body to the ground. He closed his eyes again when it was done and let himself slump against Silence’s track guard. His ears were ringing. That was new.
‘Get rid of the body. Dump it in a lower cache chamber, and make it look like he fell off a ladder or something.’
The ringing was a piercing shriek now. Jallinika and Calsuriz said nothing. Brel forced his eyes open and looked around. His driver and gunner were standing staring up at the gloom hiding the arched roof. Brel was about to say something when Jallinika turned and looked at him.
‘What is that?’ she shouted.
Brel blinked, then shook his head. The wailing shriek pulsed as he moved, not inside his head but all around him. Brel had seen a lot of war fronts, had heard ships scream as part of their hull was breached, and run for dugouts as the bombs fell. The sound was an alarm, but like none he had ever heard. It was no alert, no muster call; it seemed new, as though it was a scream cutting into reality from a forgotten nightmare. The pain in his head was so strong that his vision blurred.
‘I don’t know,’ he said, but the words were lost as the alarm shrieked louder.
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For my mother, Eleanor Anne Annandale (1935–2016). In loving memory.
A Black Library Publication
First published in Great Britain in 2017.
This eBook edition published in 2017 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd,
Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.
Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.
Cover artwork by Neil Roberts.
Internal artwork by Mikhail Savier.
Ruinstorm © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2017. Ruinstorm, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, The Horus Heresy, The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.
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ISBN: 978-1-78572-745-0
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