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Yarrick: The Gallows Saint - Extract

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THE GALLOWS SAINT

David Annandale

‘The assassin used a kroot sniper rifle,’ Koval told me.

‘Not a subtle weapon,’ I commented. It fit, though. Modified kroot weapons were in common use among the human tau auxiliaries. They would be the sort of gun deployed by any humans still fighting for the xenos cause.

The right corner of her mouth curled up then down so quickly I barely caught the expression. ‘Suitable to the job. Not for concealment afterwards. I heard the shot, saw the muzzle sticking out of a doorway a few paces from me.’ She shrugged. ‘He’s not a fighter. Subduing him wasn’t hard.’

‘You chose not to kill him?’

‘A choice we’re grateful she made,’ Monden put in. ‘He may lead us to more pockets of resistance. And justice will have to be seen being done. As publicly as possible.’

Of course. Another necessary spectacle.

‘I’d be curious to see the prisoner,’ I said.

‘Certainly.’ Monden released Koval to her duties and led me to the cell blocks.

‘What do you know about him?’ I asked.

‘Enough.’ Monden pulled a data-slate from his belt and consulted it. ‘Paulus Holten. Scribe, Divisio Agriculturae. Served in the Abydos Rampart’s infantry.’

‘As a sniper?’

‘No. Just a grunt.’

Odd. ‘Anything of note before today?’

‘Not a lot. The only real point of interest is a report of his advocating for “the greater good”.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘Really?’ That was damning indeed. It marked him as one who had traitorously embraced the tau philosophy. That would explain his motive to assassinate the governor. ‘The report is reliable?’

‘Multiple witnesses. Turns out the report was filed against him about a month before the tau attacked, but it wasn’t a high priority case.’

‘I see.’ Given the Imperium’s bureaucracy, and the sheer number of related reports of heretical utterings that poured in, this was exactly the kind of information that would wind up buried by more urgent items, and whose importance would only become apparent in retrospect. And yet there was an odd detail. ‘He spoke of the greater good before the tau struck?’

Monden nodded, not entirely happy either. ‘Evidence of advance infiltration, no doubt.’

‘Have there been any other signs that this occurred?’

He looked even more uncomfortable. ‘Not yet.’

My suspicions deepened. The picture that was emerging of the assassination was both too easy and too messy.

Monden brought me to prisoner’s cell and left me to my interrogation. I stepped into the small rockcrete space. There was no furniture. Paulus Holten sat on the stained floor, a chain running from his ankle to the wall. His right arm was broken. His wounds had been cleaned, presumably to keep him from dying of an infection before he could be executed in the square. He was of average height and very thin. His hair was lank, and his pallor suggested he rarely saw the sun. When he looked up, the expression in his swollen eyes surprised me. I had expected fear, perhaps defiance, possibly a desperate and self-interested repentance. What I saw instead was hope.

‘I didn’t do it,’ he began. ‘Please, you have to–’

‘My name is Sebastian Yarrick,’ I interrupted. ‘I am a commissar of the Militarum Tempestus, and you will stand when addressing me.’

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