V3 Chapter 105: I Thought You'd Put Up a Fight, Lord Fidicus
Duvette sat inside a still-functional grav-vehicle, the side torn open earlier unable to close, high-altitude wind pouring continuously into the cabin, tugging at the black commissar's coat he wore.
He frowned, looking out the window. Several Adeptus Arbites security teams had already appeared ahead on either side of the road, armoured isolation barriers slowly rising.
"They're planning to block us?" Duvette asked, watching the fully-armed Arbites personnel.
"I just received a transmission from Chancellor Lev Tyrion of the Imperial Council." Juno said, one hand pressing down her wind-blown hair, her tone still calm. "I confirmed the full sequence of the attack with him, and confirmed that Heinz and I still retain free will. He'll handle what comes next. We only need to keep moving."
"Lev Tyrion..."
Duvette narrowed his eyes, recalling what he knew.
Chancellor of the Imperial Council, responsible for maintaining Council procedure, records of decrees, and administrative coordination at the Imperium's highest level.
The office held no voting rights among the High Lords, yet could influence all twelve of them through control of the agenda, the records, and decree certification, while also serving as a check against any single one of the twelve growing too dominant. For that reason, some called him the hidden thirteenth man, standing outside the twelve.
Tyrion looked, on the surface, like a greedy, unscrupulous fat man. In truth, he was a devoted, tireless loyalist of the Imperium, and his political skill was extraordinarily sharp.
In the original timeline, this man had once spent a great deal of his own fortune greasing connections across Terra, helping push through the lifting of restrictions placed on the Custodians.
Later, when the High Lords attempted to betray Guilliman, he had quietly watched the shifting currents within the Council, and ultimately helped the loyalists carry out their purge of the traitors.
"Interesting." The fury on Duvette's face eased slightly, a faint smile touching the corner of his mouth. "Seems this fat man's already placed his bet early."
The Arbites personnel ahead received a new order, the barrier that had just begun rising stopping mid-air.
The lead officer checked the statement Juno and Heinz had issued, and in the end chose to clear the road. Several other blockades along the route showed the same result.
Duvette glanced at them through the damaged side of the vehicle, understanding this had to be Tyrion's doing.
He hadn't directly ordered anyone to help Duvette. He had simply refused to certify, on behalf of certain High Lords, an execution order the Council had never formally voted through.
As for Duvette's group's movements, both Lord Inquisitors had already registered them as an ongoing Inquisitorial emergency investigation.
The convoy sped along the Outer Palace's roads, finally coming to a stop before the black chapel.
The chapel's outer walls lacked the gold ornamentation common to Ecclesiarchy architecture; its black stone face was carved instead with blank, featureless human silhouettes, commemorating the dead who had served the Imperium yet could never have their names made public.
"They really do know how to pick a location."
Duvette climbed out of the grav-vehicle, looking up at the sealed stained-glass windows set high on the chapel.
Those windows held no images of saints, only nameless figures gripping longswords, a design fitting enough for the Assassinorum's own sensibilities.
The strategic map still hovered in his mind, the red dot marking the Vindicare assassin now stationary beneath the chapel.
Beyond that, the building's interior held a far greater number of yellow markers, most of which hadn't moved at all.
Duvette followed the map's markers into the chapel, and soon found a hidden entrance behind a statue of the Unnamed.
With a heavy grinding sound, a metal door disguised as stone retracted inward, revealing a narrow stairway descending underground before them all.
Markus led the way into the passage, several other Shadow Wolves following close behind.
Duvette stayed at the centre of the group, protected, Juno and Heinz walking on either side of him, the rest of the Shadow Wolves covering the rear.
The moment they reached the first underground level, the lighting around them shifted from dim red to a harsh white. A processed voice sounded from hidden speakers, echoing through the entire passage.
"This is a top-secret Imperial facility. Continued advance without authorisation will be treated as an armed attack against the High Lords and the Assassinorum. Cease movement immediately, lay down your weapons, and await identity verification by security personnel."
Juno drew her Inquisitorial seal from within her coat, holding it up to a sensor device above the passage. The crimson mark of the Inquisition projected onto the wall at once.
"I am Lord Inquisitor Juno. Acting under Inquisitorial emergency authority, I am investigating an illegal assassination attempt against the Emperor's son's retinue." Juno said coldly. "All personnel within this facility are ordered to cease destroying any records, preserve existing communication logs, and submit to identity verification."
Heinz raised his own seal as well, completing a second authorisation. "This investigation has been jointly confirmed by two Lord Inquisitors. Any act of obstruction will be recorded, and referred to the Holy Terran Inquisitorial Tribunal for review."
No further response came from the speakers, the underground passage settling back into silence. Markus and the others held their pace steady, showing no sign of slowing.
In the sealed chamber, Fidicus watched the surveillance feed, his fingers tapping lightly against the black metal table's surface. Having confirmed the threat hadn't made Duvette stop, he issued a temporary order to the personnel responsible for internal security.
A hidden door within the wall opened, and several Assassinorum operatives escorted a man whose appearance was nearly identical to Fidicus's own into a backup passage.
The double's build, clothing, even his gait, had all been precisely calibrated. Short of genetic verification, telling the two apart would be extremely difficult.
This order came entirely from Fidicus's own spur-of-the-moment decision; everyone aware of the plan was already inside the Silent House. He wanted to use it to confirm exactly how Duvette had managed to track the already-withdrawn Vindicare assassin in the first place.
On the surveillance feed, Duvette, still advancing, suddenly paused, turning to look at the empty wall on his right.
"Three of you, circle around through the branch passage ahead." Duvette said. "There's a squad withdrawing over there. Once it's safe, take them alive first. If they resist, execute them."
Three black-cloaked Shadow Wolves broke from the formation at once, moving fast down another passage.
Watching this unfold, Fidicus's fingers stopped on the table.
The decoy squad hadn't transmitted anything, and the identification codes they carried were the Assassinorum's own internal system.
Yet Duvette had reacted the instant they moved.
This went beyond anything conventional detection technology could explain. Fidicus couldn't say for certain what Duvette was actually seeing, but he could confirm one thing now: disguise, hidden passages, and body doubles would do little to fool the man.
Duvette might even be able to tell, directly, whether a given target held hostile intent toward him.
Fidicus drew a deep breath, watching the marker for the group draw ever closer to the command area.
"Cancel all ambush orders. Disable the automated weapon authorisations." He turned to the Vanus operative responsible for the security systems. "Notify the decoy squad to stop withdrawing. Lay down weapons on the spot, and submit to Inquisitorial control."
"What about the Iverson unit?" A voice asked from the shadows.
"Revoke release authorisation. Maintain his revived state, but seal the cryo-armoury." Fidicus said, his voice low. "Unless Silent House personnel come under an active massacre, no one is to lift his isolation."
The order spread quickly through the entire underground facility. Weapon platforms that had been hidden behind the passage walls retracted, and several sealed isolation doors opened in sequence, clearing a path for Duvette's group toward the command area.
Duvette watched, through the strategic map, as the hostile markers shifted; the vast majority of the red dots had stopped moving, and the markers gathered along the passage walls had begun to withdraw.
"Only thinking to surrender now?" Duvette gave a cold laugh. "Bit late for that. Still better than dying for nothing, though."
The group continued deeper into the Silent House, passing several archive rooms and security control areas along the way. Some of the staff had already stepped back from their consoles, hands placed where Duvette and the others could see them, waiting for the Inquisition to take over.
When they reached the final door outside the command area, the long-silent speakers crackled back to life.
"Lord Inquisitor Juno. Lord Inquisitor Heinz. The Assassinorum acknowledges the emergency investigation statement you've submitted." Fidicus's voice came through. "I will open the way to the command area, and submit the original authorisation and related communication records for this operation."
The heavy door let out the sound of a mechanical unlock, though the internal security cycle was still running slowly. Duvette looked up at the surveillance device mounted above the door, an undisguised, cold smile spreading across his face.
"Scared now, are we?"
Duvette had no patience left to wait for the door to finish opening. He raised a hand toward the Shadow Wolves beside him, and two of the towering warriors stepped forward at once, wedging their fingers into the now-unlocked gap in the door.
With a great, groaning shriek of twisting metal, the two doors, stripped of their locking supports, were forced apart and slammed hard into the walls on either side. Duvette walked past the Shadow Wolves into the chamber, and spotted the Grand Master of the Assassinorum at once, standing beside the black metal table.
Fidicus carried no weapon, simply watching the intruders in silence. The holographic map on the table had already been shut down, and beside it sat several data cores, neatly arranged, holding the original records.
Duvette stopped some ten paces from him, his right hand still resting on the hilt of the Blade of Glory. He studied that unreadable face, and slowly let a dangerous smile spread across his own.
"I honestly thought you'd put up a bit of a fight." Duvette tilted his head slightly. "Hm? Lord Fidicus."
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