authority in the Helican sub-sector, for which reason he styled himself with the sub-sector's name in his appellation. On paper, even the cardinals of the Ministorium, the Grandmaster of the Inquisition, the senior luminaries of the Administratum and the Lords Militant had to answer to him, though as with all things in Imperial society, it was never as easy as that. Church, state and military, woven together as one, yet constantly inimical. In favouring Warmaster Honorius with the Bestowment, Lord Helican was throwing his lot in with the military – an overt signal to the other organs of government – and clearly expected the Warmaster to return the favour when he rose to levels of government beyond those of a single sub-sector. It was a dangerous game, and rare for so senior an official to play openly for such an advantage, though the battle-glory that surrounded Honorius made a perfect excuse.
And that made it a dangerous time. Somebody would want to redress that balance. My money would be on the Ecclesiarchy, though it's fair to say I'm biased. However, history has shown the Church to be chronically intolerant of losing power to the military or the state. I said as much.
There are many other elements/ Aemos chuckled, accepting a refill of dessert wine. 'The Faurlitz line is weak and lacks both support in the Adep-tus Terra and a ready ear at the Senatorum Imperialis and the courts of the Golden Throne. Two powerful families, the De Vensii and the Fulvatorae, are seeking to make gains against the Faurlitz, and would take this as an open show of defiance. Then there's the House of Eirswald, who see their own famous son, Lord Militant Strefon, as the only viable replacement for Hiju. And the Augustyn dynasty, let's not forget, who were ousted from power when High Lord of Terra Giann Augustyn died in office forty years ago. They've been trying to get back in with feverish determination these
last few years, pushing their candidate, Lord Commander Cosimo, with almost unseemly impudence. If Nayl's right and the Bestowment makes Honorius a certainty as Hiju's successor, he'd become a direct competitor with Cosimo for the High Lord's vacant position.'
Down the table, Bequin yawned and caught my eye.
'Cosimo's never going to make it/ Psullus put in candidly. 'His house is far too unpopular with the Adeptus Mechanicus, and without their consent, however tacit, no one ever makes it to High Lord rank. Besides, the Ministorum would block it. Giann Augustyn made no friends there with his reforms. They say it was a Callidus of the Officio Assassinoram, under orders from the Ecclesiarcy, that took old Giann off, not a stroke at all/
'Careful what you say, old friend, or they'll be sending one after you/ Ravenor said. Psullus held up his bony hands in a dismissive gesture as laughter rippled around the table.
'It is, still, most perturbatory/ Aemos said. 'This Bestowment could lead to a House war. Quite apart from all the obvious opponents, Lord Helican and the Warmaster could find themselves tasked by Imperial families who are thus far neutral. There are many who are quite comfortable with their situation, and who would strike with astonishing ruthlessness simply to avoid being drawn into an open bloody clash.'
There was silence for a moment.
'Psullus/ said Ravenor quickly, changing the subject with a diplomat's deftness, 'I have a number of works for you that I collected on Lethe, including a palimpsest of the Analecta Phaenomena…'
Psullus engaged the young interrogator eagerly. Aemos, von Baigg and Nayl continued to debate the Imperial intrigue. Bequin and Surskova made their goodnights and withdrew. I took my crystal balloon of amasec to the glass wall and looked out into the oceanic depths. Kircher joined me after a moment. He smoothed the front of his navy blue jacket and put on his black gloves before speaking.
'We had intruders last month/ he said quietly.
I looked round at him. 'When?'
Three times, in fact/ he said, 'though I didn't realise that until the third occasion. During night cycle about six weeks ago, I had what seemed to be a persistent fault on the alarms covering the seawall vents. There was no further sign, and the servitors replaced that section of the system. Then again, a week later, on the service entrance to the food stores, and the outer doors of the Distaff annex, both on the same night. I suspected a system corruption, and planned an overhaul of the entire alarm net. The following week, I found the security code on the outer locks of the main door had been defaulted to zero. Someone had been in and left again. I scoured the building and found vox-thieves buried in the walls of six rooms, including your inner chambers, and discreet farcoders wired into three communication junction nodes, spliced to vox and pict lines. Someone had also tried, and failed, to force their way into your void-vault, but they didn't know the shield codes/
'And there were no traces?'
'No prints, no microspores, no follicles. I washed the air itself through the particle scrubber. The in-house pict recorders show nothing… except a beautifully disguised time-jump of thirty- four seconds. The astropaths sensed nothing. In one place, the intruder must have walked across four metres of under-floor pressure pads without setting them off. In retrospect, I realised the two prior incidents, far from being system faults, were experimental tests to probe, gauge and estimate our security net. Trial runs before the actual intrusion. For that, they used a code scrambler on the main doors. If they'd actually been able to crack it, they could have reset the code and I'd never have known they'd been in/
'You've double-checked everything? No more bugs to be found?'
He shook his head. 'Lord, I can only apologise for-'
I held tip a hand. 'No need, Kircher. You've done your job. Show me what they left/
Kircher unrolled a red felt cloth across the top of a table in the quiet of the inner library. He was nervous, and beads of sweat were trickling down from his crest-like shock of white hair.
I hadn't wanted to alarm anyone, so I had asked only Ravenor and Aemos to join us. The room smelled of teak from the shelves, must from the books, and ozone from the suspension fields sustaining especially frail manuscripts.
The felt was laid out. On it lay nine tiny devices, six vox-thieves and three farcoders, each one set in a pearl of solid plastic.
'Once I'd stripped them out, I sealed them in inert gel to make sure they were dead. None were booby trapped/
Gideon Ravenor stepped in and picked up one of the sealed vox-thieves, holding it up to the light.
'Imperial/ he said. 'Unmarked, but Imperial. Very high grade and advanced/
'I thought so too/ said Kircher.
'Military? Secular?' I asked.
Ravenor shrugged. ^Ve could source them to likely manufacturers, but they likely supply all arms of the Imperium/
Aemos's augmetic optics clicked and turned as he peered down at the objects on the cloth. The farcoders/ he began, 'similarly advanced. It takes singular skill to patch one of these successfully into a comm-node/
'It takes singular skill to break in like they did/ I countered.
They have no maker markings, but they're clearly refined models from the Amplox series. Much more refined than the heavy-duty units the military use. It's just conjecture, but I'd say this was beyond the Ministorum too. They're notoriously behind when it comes to tech advancements.'
'Who then?' I asked.
The Adeptus Mechanicus?' he ventured. I scowled.
He shrugged, smiling. 'Or at least a body with the power and influence to secure such advanced devices from the Adeptus Mechanicus/
'Like?'
'The Officio Assassinorum?'
'Who would break in to kill, not listen/
'Noted. Then a powerful Imperial house, one with clout in the Senato-rum Imperialis.'
