Chapter 9 part 2

Chapter 9: Storm-front

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Part 2

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Victory Bay

Kronus

How hard could it be to look after a quiet girl who didn't try to get into trouble for a few damn hours?! Commissar Weber's eyebrows twitched and his fingers spasmodically grasped for the butt of his pistol, while he fought with the desire to shoot a few people in order to make an example of them. It was true that being around the child was unpleasant, but this…

"Please explain to me, in small, simple words, so you don't get confused," Weber began, "How in the Emperor's name you managed to leave her without supervision?! It's a miracle and by the Emperor's own mercy she decided to stay put, otherwise I would already have shot you to put you out of everyone's misery! Do you know what the Inquisitor would do if we misplaced her again!?"

"Firing squads, firing squads everywhere!" A familiar, for once very unwelcome voice announced from behind Charles.

The Commissar stiffened, his back straightening up like a steel pole and he went to attention.

"Inquisitor on site!" Weber's voice cracked sharply like a whip and he turned around to salute. "Lord Inquisitor, sir, I'm sorry about this and I'm taking full responsibility!"

"First things first, she is here, safe and unharmed?" The Inquisitor demanded in a deceptively light tone. The four people surrounding the man, three Stormtroopers, and the Blood Raven Librarian showed nothing, because of their sealed armors, however, Charles doubted that any of them were happy with current events – they had that air around them…

"She is right there, eating a ration, sir!"

"Good. You," The Lord Inquisitor looked critically at the troopers supposed to not let the girl out of their sight, "Get out of here before I reconsider forming a firing squad. Valencia, congratulations, you're on babysitting duty. Don't leave the kid out of your sight and make sure nothing happens to her, she is a critically important asset."

"Sir, yes, sir!" A lot of soldiers chorused as one and the former protection detail made themselves scarce with indecent haste.

Weber made a mental note to find some shit detail for them to do so they would reconsider their life's choices, before focusing his full attention upon the Inquisitor and the inevitable fallout.

"Commissar Weber, we've got multiple issues to deal with. I trust you'll ensure that this particular issue won't repeat itself in the future?" The Inquisitor raised a decidedly unamused eyebrow.

"I'll make certain of it, sir! What do you require of me?" Charles hurried to reassure the Lord Inquisitor.

"Gross incompetence, likely corruption and potential treason, Commissar." The Inquisitor's voice was colder than the dark abyss between the stars. "I've got a list of potential suspects we need to gather, interrogate, and investigate. It has been confirmed that the local PDF had an off the books heavy Regiment stationed at the Deimos Peninsula, they've gone traitors and are coming our way. While General Alexander and Captain Thule are preparing to deal with those before we march to eradicate the Chaos taint from that area, we're to figure out how deep the rot goes. I'll need the assistance and particular talents of the Commissariat agents on Kronus to do as much as humanly possible in the time available. Can I count on you and your colleagues, Commissar Weber?"

"We won't disappoint you, Lord Inquisitor!"

"We'll see about that. Call your colleagues, Commissar. We've got an investigation to run and not much time to do it. Anteas here has a list, I want the people on it quietly called in and detained for interrogation. I'm sure that you can find suitable pretexts under Commissariat authority in a way that doesn't make it obvious what we're after."

"I can think of a few things and I'm sure my colleagues will have useful feedback, sir! If that's all, I'll get to it, My Lord?"

"Go."

Hearing the clear dismissal, Weber relaxed a bit in relief and went to pick up the list from the Blood Raven.

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"Do you really think we might be able to do this quietly without showing our hand?" Anteas asked after Weber scampered to contact his people.

"There is a small possibility it will work, though we don't need to be quiet for long. We can't afford to anyway. As long as we get the people on that list and figure out what they know fast and quiet, that might be enough. We certainly can't afford to tear apart the command structure of the PDF units unless we really have to, on the other hand, we can't let them be led by compromised officers!" I ground out in frustration.

Saying that was out of my depth was a charming understatement. This was a job for an experienced Inquisitor, with the relevant training, and support retinue aimed at investigating things, not combat, like mine. The local Arbiters might be useful, if we could trust them, however after what we found at the Deimos Peninsula, they were all closely watched, and obviously not trusted at all. It was just that, considering the other threats we had to deal with, properly investigating them had a lower priority and would ideally be done by specialists who would arrive with the relief force. Barring that, the Guard might be able to do it, however, it would be heavy-handed and require not much in the way of other distractions.

It was a nasty situation all around.

I sighed in frustration and went to check personally on one of the few rays of sunshine in this whole mess. I found her in a small, clean, and well-lit room, sitting on the edge of a bed and munching on a hard cracker from an opened ration pack. The kid grinned when she saw me, showing two rows of food-covered teeth.

"Hi there. I'm glad to see you're staying out of trouble." I smiled what I hoped was a gentle and reassuring smile, however with my disfigured face, I wasn't sure about that. "I don't think we'll be able to find your name in any records anytime soon, and you do need a name to call you." I went on one knee in front of her so our eyes were on the same level. "So unless you want to share, we'll have to pick up one for you."

She kept staring at me with those huge eyes of hers, however, she kept refusing to utter a single word, which was obviously frustrating.

"Not talking, are we?" When a shadow of fear ran through her eyes, I slowly raised my hands in what I hoped was a placating gesture. "Hey, it's all right! You can write if you want, or can for that matter, and if you don't it's all right." For now, anyway.

She shook her head, however, it wasn't clear if it was because she didn't want to write or didn't know how to. Given her nature, I wouldn't put it past people to have failed to teach her how to write and read for that matter. That combined with her being unable or unwilling to speak was going to complicate things, however, hopefully, we would be alive to deal with that in the future.

And find out how to offer her some useful therapy… Perhaps either Lieutenant Pickos or Sergeant Graves? If they could stand to be around her without making a mess of it, might help in the short term. In the long run, I wasn't sure what to do, it would depend if there was a long run for me however that kind of thinking wasn't constructive so I did my best to push that option to the back of my mind.

"Valencia, you can come in now." I stood up awkwardly, while the girl kept staring at me. "This is Private Valencia." I pointed at the Stormtrooper who armor and all looked even more awkward than I felt. "He'll be looking after you for the time being and he'll be behaving, won't you?"

"I'll be good, sir!"

"That's the spirit. I hope you'll be behaving as usual, won't you?" I asked hopefully.

The girl stared at me for a few endless moments, before nodding and returning her attention to the cracker she was munching on.