Secret War: Upon Blood Sands

Chapter 29

Adelana slipped back the split second she saw the Cultist around the corner.

It was about five metres away and moving toward her with a wary slowness uncharacteristic for its kind.

The Cultist hadn't seen her, or else he would be charging like a maniac.

Adelana hissed a curse through clenched teeth. Wishing beyond wishing she'd taken her bolter. She slipped Attelus off her shoulder then sat him against the wall. Attelus was murmuring something, and she willed him to shut the hell up.

She had her hand plastered across Attelus' mouth. She would have liked to shut him up another way, but it wasn't professional and ethically questionable when done to someone barely conscious. Even though she knew he'd like it, for someone apparently trained to hide his emotions and himself, he was about as subtle as a punch to the face in showing his affection for her.

Adelana shook away the thought and glanced around the corner again. The Cultist was still approaching in strange slowness. His tunic was covered in blood, announcing his seniority in his cult, and he carried a chainsword, its teeth coated in bloody bits of human meat, some still with parts of flak armour.

Adelana felt a shiver slide through her; that could mean it was champion. Far out of her league in close combat.

She pulled back and started to gather Attelus up again. She'd need to try the other way.

It was then she heard the jets of the Guncutter through the roof above. The sweeping roaring allowed her to visual Darrance, turning it over the street to aim the lascannons at the building still with Serghar and his agents inside.

Adelana smiled again.

Agent 2k-3 was the first to hear the screeching of the Guncutter's engines.

"Master," she yelled while decapitating yet another Resurrected cultist. "It is Attelus' ship. It is here."

"Yes," said Serghar. "It seems once again I have underestimated my son's little bitch of a girlfriend, again. She is too clever for her own good. Agent 2k-3 go after my son; we still need him to retrieve the sword, so he cannot die here, not yet."

"Yes, master," she said and disengaged with such grace she seemed like a feline on enhancement stimms.

"1k-3, 3k-3," said Serghar. "Cover me."

"Yes, master," said both agents in one voice as Serghar lunged back, and the pair began holding back the horde.

Serghar calculated he had six seconds before 1k-3 and 3k-3 were overwhelmed. That hardly mattered as, like all of Etuarq's servants, Serghar himself included, they were utterly expendable. But Serghar knew for this mission he still needed them. He just hoped they wouldn't look too much into his allowing them to escape with him.

Serghar reached for the small, unassuming knife secretly sheathed behind a pouch on his belt.

The lascannon barrage then started to slaughter the building above them.

Adelana had made it halfway toward the left side of the building when she heard the shout behind her, and she turned.

The Cultist had stepped around the corner, seeing her somehow through the dark with ease. He let out a snarl and burst into a charge, chainsword revving and raised.

She cursed and slipped Attelus off her shoulder, then readied his sword, trying to ignore her heart crashing through her.

The Cultist was on her so fast Adelana had barely any time to react; it moved like one of Serghar's agents; it moved like Attelus.