Fall of Macharius

Chapter Eighteen

I met Sergei in the tavern. Konstantin and Mikhail were with him. They were dressed as they had been previously. They greeted me warmly as I sat down in their private booth, which I could not help but notice was in a corner, and commanded clear lines of sight to the exits. Drinks were placed on the table by Sergei and nothing was said except toasts until we had downed a few. All three of them looked at me with slightly glazed eyes that were supposed to hint at drunkenness. I suspected they were less so than I.

‘Things go well in the palace?’ Konstantin asked. He was taking the lead again, but as before I suspected that Mikhail was his superior.

I nodded. ‘Things go as well as can be expected.’

‘The Lord High Commander makes ready to depart?’

‘That is not my place to say,’ I said.

‘Your discretion is to be admired,’ said Mikhail. ‘But everyone knows he has agreed to go to Terra with Cardinal Septimus. Or has he not?’

‘Macharius does not confide his plans in me.’

‘But you are his trusted bodyguard.’

‘And I will remain so as long as I keep his secrets,’ I said. If these men were really trying to recruit me into some conspiracy I was not going to make it easy for them. Sergei smiled and nodded as if I were being very wise.

‘You are also on good terms with Inquisitor Drake,’ said Mikhail suddenly.

‘I would not go that far.’

‘You talked to him after the last time you saw us,’ he said. He was smiling unpleasantly and I felt the urge to punch him in his smirking face.

‘I was summoned to his presence,’ I said.

‘What did he want?’

‘He wanted to know who I had been seeing.’

‘You told him, of course.’

‘I told him I had been drinking with Sergei here and he had introduced me to you two, and that you claimed to have information concerning a conspiracy against Macharius.’

‘What did he say to that?’

‘He told me to keep in touch with you and report to him any conversations we might have.’

I saw Sergei and Konstantin exchange glances. ‘Is that all?’

‘Drake is a busy man,’ I said. ‘I am sorry to have to tell you this but I doubt you are all that important to him. I doubt I am either.’

‘Yet he takes enough interest to ask about us.’

‘These are troubled times. Like I said, I don’t think you are that important to him, but if you insist I can bring your names up again.’ I let a little malice show in my voice.

‘That won’t be necessary,’ said Mikhail.

‘So do you have any more information about this supposed conspiracy?’

‘We do, but first we have some questions to put to you.’

‘And what would those be?’

My skin felt tingly now, and his outline swayed a little in my field of vision. ‘This is strong booze,’ I said. Mikhail’s smile became ever more mocking. ‘I can’t say I’ve noticed,’ he said.

‘What questions did you have?’ His face seemed to be growing larger. It became just about the only thing in the room I could focus on.

‘Do you think Macharius really intends to go to Terra?’

‘Not if he can help it,’ I said. The words just seemed to slip out. Mikhail looked very friendly and very trustworthy. Surely it was safe to tell him.

‘And do you think this is wise?’

‘I don’t think it’s wise for anyone to disobey a direct order from the Imperium.’

‘You think Macharius can get away with it.’

‘If anyone can, he can.’

‘And you, a sworn soldier of the Emperor, don’t see anything wrong with that.’

‘It is wrong to disobey the Emperor’s commands,’ I said.

‘And yet you have just said Macharius might.’

‘I did, didn’t I?’

‘Do you think Macharius is right to do so?’

‘No.’

‘What do you think of Macharius?’

‘He is the greatest general alive, a hero of the Imperium, a legend…’

‘But?’

‘But he has made mistakes. He is not the man he once was, not the man I once served.’

I was surprised to hear myself saying the words, even more surprised by the fact that I believed them to be the truth.

‘He has made mistakes, you say?’ Mikhail’s voice was friendly but disbelieving. ‘Where?’

‘On Loki. We died in the hundreds of thousands there and only afterwards did he reveal he has discovered the weaknesses of Richter’s position.’

‘You resent that.’

‘Yes. I saw thousands of good men die. I saw friends of mine die.’ Again I was surprised to find the depths of anger in me.

‘Some would say that what you are saying is traitorous,’ said Mikhail. I stared at them. There was no denying it. My head was swirling. I realised that I was more than drunk – I had been drugged. It seemed that Drake had lied to me about the anti-toxin.

‘You drugged me…’ I said. They looked at me and laughed as I fell face forward onto the table.

They lifted me to my feet. I tried to call for help but the words just came out as drunken, slurred babbling. I saw heads turn to watch me go, but all they saw was a drunk soldier being carried out by his not-quite-so-drunk comrades. There was nothing unusual about it.

I was bundled into the back of a groundcar, large and luxurious, and driven off into the darkness. I was aware of the heavy door thunking shut behind me and large men getting in.

The car drove off into the night, moving through the corpse-black, mirrored starscrapers. I was only partially aware of my surroundings. I could hear voices as if from a great way off. They seemed to be discussing something of no great importance, so I lay there, trying to avoid being sick. It suddenly seemed of great importance that I avoid vomiting over the clean, luxurious interior of this great vehicle.

The car drew up at a run-down building on the edge of the city and slipped through a raised door which slid down behind it. I knew that I had vanished off the face of the planet as far as anyone looking for me was concerned.

I was taken into a huge room, lit by dimly glowing globes that just seemed to hover in the air. A man in white robes stood there. He indicated a surgical table with one long lean hand. The men carrying me put me down on it. I tried to struggle, but my hands just flailed the air uselessly as I was strapped down. The man in white robes produced a long hypodermic. If he started making promises about anti-toxins I was going to hit him, I thought, if I was capable of it. I noticed that he was wearing small pebble glasses that caught the light. At times they were like mirrors full of flame. At times I could see cold grey eyes studying me.

My sleeve was pulled up. The needle went in. This time it burned like fire. My muscles suddenly felt under control again. My mind felt lucid. I tried to rise but I was strapped down.

The medic studied me the way a man might study a new and particularly interesting form of insect. He said, ‘I am going to give you another injection. It will not hurt you as long as you answer me truthfully. If you answer all the questions with the truth no harm will come to you.’

‘For some strange reason, I don’t believe you,’ I said.

‘It matters little whether you believe me or not, you will answer, and you will answer truthfully, your life depends on it.’

I did believe that, so I remained silent. Another injection was given and suddenly things did not seem so bad. I felt relaxed and amiable and I wondered why I had been so bothered just a few minutes ago; after all, these people were friendly.

The questions began, about Macharius, about how I felt about him, about my loyalty. I answered honestly. I spoke of my doubts and resentments and as I did so the questions took on a different tone. I was asked whether I really was prepared to oppose Macharius and what reward I would do it for. I spoke openly and honestly and was surprised to find I had a price, a high one, but it was there. The medic nodded as I talked and I realised what seemed like a high price to me seemed like a small price to him and I told him so. The price went up. He smiled and I could see that he was pleased. He wanted to help me. He wanted me to be happy. He wanted me to have a price and I knew that no matter how high it was he would meet it.

In the end, the questioning stopped and my white-robed interrogator looked over at Konstantin and Mikhail. ‘He is telling the truth,’ he said. ‘He will betray Macharius if his price is met.’

The two men looked at each other and then at me. They were measuring me now, testing me, weighing what I had said against other things that they knew, and I could see that my life hung on their decision. If they decided they did not believe their medical friend they had no reason for letting me live. I looked back at them, numb and a little afraid. I could just move my head. There was no chance of me breaking free from the table. Even if I did I was surrounded by enemies.

Konstantin looked at the medic. ‘You are sure?’

‘Certain. At this dosage, there is no chance he could lie to us. This man is, for our purposes at least, trustworthy.’

Mikhail still looked dubious. I could tell he did not like me, but then again, it looked like I was the sort of man he had been sent to find. He knelt down beside me and spoke very slowly and very carefully. ‘I am going to let you up now. Do nothing sudden and nothing stupid and you will become a very wealthy and powerful man. Do you understand me?’

I nodded. He undid the straps. I noticed a small but powerful-looking pistol was pointing right at me. Konstantin held something similar.

I was led out into another room.

This room was better furnished. A bottle of Belial whisky sat on the table along with a few glasses. Konstantin poured some and offered it to me. I shook my head.

‘You’ll forgive my reluctance,’ I said, ‘but after my last drink with you I am not inclined to take another.’

Konstantin smiled at that, no hard feelings. ‘I am sorry, but we had to do this. We needed to know that you are the sort of man to do what is needed and not betray us.’

‘A traitor, you mean.’ I could not keep the bitterness out of my voice. No one likes to discover they have a price.

‘You are not a traitor to the Imperium, Macharius is. He refuses to obey orders from his superiors. He refuses to make way for his successors. You said yourself he is slipping. It is time he stood aside and let those who are still capable get on with the job.’

I thought about him and I thought of the vast whirlpool of intrigue that swirled over this planet. I tried to tell myself that this was only to be expected, that the great generals were all products of the Schism, that they were used to thinking in terms of personal ambition and personal glory. Macharius had once overcome them on the field and bound them to his service; now they saw the chance to break away and follow their own personal interests again. All of them looked at what Richter had done and thought I could do that, and Septimus had offered them a way to do it and still remain loyal to the Imperium.

Mikhail said, ‘We must apologise for what we did. We are playing for high stakes and we needed to know whether you were trustworthy.’

‘I think the question is not whether I am trustworthy but whether you are,’ I said.

‘We have no reason to betray you. We must trust each other.’

‘Really,’ I said.

‘Yes. If you betray us then you fall with us. We have a record of all you have said.’

‘I was drugged,’ I said.

‘So you will claim. But your words were true, were they not?’

‘Yes,’ I conceded.

‘And it does no one any good for word of any of this to become public. The crusade must present a united front even after Macharius is gone,’ Mikhail said.

‘Especially after Macharius is gone,’ said Konstantin.

‘He is not gone yet,’ I said.

‘But he will be soon,’ said Konstantin. ‘One way or another.’

‘We will return to the tavern now,’ said Mikhail, ‘and we will drink.’ś

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘That seems like the best thing to do.’

‘You did something to my mind,’ I said to Drake. He sat behind his desk and studied the gargoyle lantern. His face was shadowy in its under light.

‘If I had not you would now be dead,’ he said. ‘Those men treated you with powerful truth drugs in dosages that were very close to fatal.’

‘I said things,’ I said and fumbled for the words to explain what I meant.

‘You said things that you have thought in your secret heart,’ Drake said. ‘You spoke aloud doubts that you have carried for a long time.’

‘Yes. No. But…’

‘Because you have doubts does not mean you are disloyal,’ Drake said. ‘It means you are human and that you are quite intelligent.’

I looked at him. It was not what I would have expected him to say. He always seemed a fanatic in his own way. He smiled. ‘I can assure you that dealing with doubt was one of the earliest parts of my training and the most comprehensive.’

‘They seemed very sure Macharius will go,’ I said. ‘One way or another.’

‘Oh yes,’ said Drake. ‘They ought to be. I have let it be known, through some informers we share, that Macharius has no intention of standing down.’

‘What?’

He raised an eyebrow. He was not used to lowly sergeants taking that tone with him.

‘We are surrounded by conspirators here. They need to be drawn out.’

‘Is that not rather dangerous? We are outnumbered by more than ten to one.’

‘Only if all the regiments unite against us. That will not happen.’

‘I wish I shared your certainty,’ I said.

‘You are assuming that all of Macharius’s potential replacements are prepared to work together, Lemuel,’ he said, sounding like a schoolmaster explaining the facts to a particularly dim pupil. ‘Even a most cursory examination of the situation will show you that is not the case. Simply because a man would like to replace Macharius does not mean that he will support another man’s claim to do so. Indeed there are many here who would rather see Macharius stay than have one of their rivals take his place. That is one reason the Lord High Commander has remained in command for so long.’

‘I thought it was because he was appointed to the task by the Imperium,’ I said.

‘There is no need to sound so sardonic, Lemuel. It does not suit you. Of course, Macharius was put in charge, but many of those generals had no respect for the writ of the Imperium before he forced them to have. They were the most successful warlords of the Schism and many of them served the Imperium in name only and only when it suited them. If they did not fear Macharius and covet his position they might well go back to doing so.’

‘Then you play a very dangerous game by baiting them.’

‘Macharius will not live forever,’ he said. ‘That is a self-evident truth. Before that happens those who serve him must be brought to heel or the Schism will start all over again.’

My realisation of where this was all going must suddenly have become evident on my face. ‘If they are found to be betraying Macharius, they will be discredited.’

He smiled, a teacher whose dim pupil has shown a sudden, unexpected flash of understanding. ‘It’s always good to have a reason to remove someone. It’s even better if that reason is a true one.’

I wondered then at the cynicism of this man, and whether he realised that his own reach might exceed his grasp. The truth of it was that Macharius was surrounded by grasping, opportunistic, ambitious men, and Drake was not the least of them. The difference was that I could understand what it was that the generals sought. I could not understand what it was that motivated him.

‘I seek what is best for the Imperium, Lemuel,’ Drake said. I wondered whether he had read my mind or whether what I was thinking was simply written on my face for him to read.

‘You are playing games with all our lives,’ I said.

‘It is not really your place to judge me, Lemuel,’ he said. His tone was mild but there was steel in his voice.

‘Someone has to,’ I muttered under my breath.