Крип / Kryp: Отряд_2.7

Part 2

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:22

Quarantine measures

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:37

Chapter 7

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:22

What do you want? - Fidus asked, not even trying to hide his tired irritation. He was going to spend his last hours before the trip down in silence and reflection. Not conversations with his worst foe and most loyal unfriend.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:38

"Where is the deference to age and position, my boy?" Inquisitor Schmettau responded with caustic politeness and fake participation. For his part, he made no effort to disguise his jubilation.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:40

"The Inquisitor should be addressed as 'You,'" Essen Pale, Kalkroit Schmettau's apprentice, and protégé, towering over the patron's shoulder, remarked in a bored tone. "This is obvious if only from the difference in years."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:43

"Yeah," said Kryptman with a smirk. "So what do you want?"

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:43

Normally, the Squad was recruited from the convict holds and the ships of the Ecclesiarchy (and evil tongues said that there was little difference), but for Kryptman, because of his unique situation, an exception was made. He arrived in the Ice Port system as an ordinary passenger, on a passenger liner with certain comforts. Which, however, he would soon have to lose.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:45

"Wine, sir," the servitor in his carefully tailored livery handed a small tray, topped with a single glass, with unusual elegance for a machine.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:49

Fidus took his glass and took a big sip, looking through the uninvited guests.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:49

The cabin was rather compact, but cleverly furnished and decorated, so that it seemed much larger than it was. There was a lot of red, velvet, and a mirrored wall that doubled the visible volume. Kryptman Jr. sat in a spectacular armchair with his leg over his head and seemed out of place in such surroundings. His stiff, stern face, his simple novice robe, and his freshly shaved head did not harmonize well with the graceful lines of the decor, implying decadence and gloss.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:51

The guests did not see fit to sit down, or rather, the inquisitor preferred to stand, and so his protégé stood on his feet. Schmettau, as usual, looked the least like a man who had devoted more than a hundred years to the Inquisition, and about a third of his own body. Not fat, however, he was stout, with a noticeable paunch and slightly disheveled hair, looking out at the world with a kind, slightly helpless gaze behind the lenses of his most ordinary spectacles. Kalkroit could have been mistaken for a writer of children's stories about the lives and good deeds of His faithful servants. Such men are much loved by women of age and by children, feeling in them faithfulness, sincere kindness, and thoroughness.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 07:54

He was handsome and stern, except that his face was a little too wide and his eyes were too close together. This gave him the uncomfortable feeling that he was always squinting at his companion. He wore a long dandy cloak of elaborately tanned leather, without a flap of concealed armor, almost to his heels. Dressed like that, Essen Palais looked more like a ceremonial commissar, lacking only a scarlet sash and a cap on the bend of the hand. Evil tongues said that Pale was not clever, and, to call things by their proper names, a little stupid. However, all - and critics, and well-wishers - converged on the fact that Essen is very performant, efficient and meticulous, the main thing is to let him off the chain in the right direction. And Schmettau's intellect was enough for both.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:03

Master and apprentice were as different as heaven and earth, as the slums of Necromunda and the shining spires of Ultramar, but they had one thing in common: looks. Kalkroit's slightly blinded eyes and Essen's deep-set pupils looked at Fidus with the same expression of mild contempt and confident triumph.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:10

"What do I want..." Schmettau looked up as if expecting to find the answer in the pink-red orchid ceiling. He ran his fingers over his chin with a look of deep thought. "Ah, that's what!"

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:16

He raised his index finger considerably, calling for attention and concentration.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:16

"I want to enjoy every second of it. I want to gloat and rejoice in your misfortunes. I want to revel in every minute of my triumph. Simple and understandable human desires."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:20

"Good," Fidus shook his head as he took another sip. "You'll have to do without the wine, then."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:21

The servitor froze by the chair, deaf and indifferent to anything but his master's orders. He trembled a little at the word "wine" and a moment later reverted to a half-living statue.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:23

"Nice, nice, nice," Kalkroit clapped his hands in time with the "nice". "No, I'd like some wine, too, but it's better this way. Seeing you try to bark back pathetically and ridiculously is much nicer."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:25

"Still settling scores with a dead man," Fidus shook his shaved head again. "I'd say that's silly. But such a remark implies some sort of morality, the ability to distinguish between what's decent and what's inferior. It's not about you."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:27

"Oh, yes, that's right, my boy. I am, I am settling an old score."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:27

Schmettau drew a rectangle with his fingers as if he were alluding to a check or other debt obligation.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:28

The kind writer of children's tales hid for a moment, like a folding toy in a magician's sleeve. In his place, with a heavy-handed grin, a completely different man, a werewolf, who had shed his mask of the do-gooder, grinned grimly. A few seconds and the kindly bespectacled man was back, spreading his arms with disarming good-naturedness.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:29

"Your father was a very bad man."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:29

The new leather on Essen's cloak creaked. The Inquisitor's apprentice was smiling, too, but without much emotion, like a mannequin or a very well-made servitor. He was bored; the commander's old scores were of no interest to Pale, but position obliged.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:30

"Don't speak ill of my father," Fidus clenched his glass tighter, feeling the stabbing pain building in his long-healed and repaired ribs. Emotions brought the mortal flesh to mind the wounds of the past.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:31

"What will you do?" Kalkroit asked sympathetically. "Will you throw me out? Or will you call me to order? Me, the inquisitor? You, who are now just a minor purificator?"

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:32

"No. I will confine myself to stating the obvious fact," Fidus, with a careless (at least he hoped so) movement of his hand, ordered the servitor to approach and placed a glass with a couple of drops of unfinished wine on the tray.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:33

"Kalkroit Schmettau, you are pathetic and miserable. You couldn't get back at father, and now you're trying to take pity out on son. That only humiliates you, not me. For as low as you have thrown me down, we both know..."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:36

Fidus leaned forward slightly, locking his fingers together.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:36

"...That all this is a convulsion of powerlessness. You will never match the true servant of God the Emperor Kryptman, inquisitor, thinker, and hero. You know it, I know it. Live with this knowledge from now on."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 08:55

"Babble, Fidus, babble," Essen entered the conversation, tilting his head back with his short and carefully arranged hair. Apparently, to look at Kryptmann a little more from above, with even more superiority. But then Schmettau indicated sparing applause. Essen stopped smiling and fell silent as if in an instant he became speechless.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:01

"That was good," Schmettau said seriously, clapping his chubby hands one last time. "Really good. No matter how I felt about him, I have to admit, Kryptman Sr. had undeniable virtues. And among other things, he knew how to hold a punch. Even when all seemed lost... or was actually lost. At times like that, boy, you are like your father."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:08

"Always at your service," Fidus indicated a buffoonish half bow.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:15

"But I don't care what you think about it or what verbal ostracism you subject me to," the inquisitor continued as evenly, with benevolent irony. "It's a pity, of course, that my colleague and comrade-in-arms have long been scattered in ashes and become part of the universal carbon exchange. But I will still rejoice to see his son suffer."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:16

"What's the point? - Fidus asked sardonically.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:16

"In satisfaction," said Schmettau very seriously. "In compensation. In balancing the scales. He and I were companions, brothers. Each of the two of us had to stand more than once between a comrade and death, but we did not hesitate. Schmettau and Kryptman, it sounded proud and frightening. Frightening to heretics, of course."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:18

"Kryptman and Schmettau, that's more accurate," Fidus quipped, leaning back.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:18

"As you wish," the inquisitor brushed it aside. "We knew how little empty queueing meant in our brotherhood. Until your father betrayed me."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:25

"Father didn't betray anyone," Fidus cut him off.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:26

"He betrayed me," Schmettau repeated, stressing the word "me," his eyes clouded and the corners of his lips lowered as if he were plunged back into old memories, unpleasant and extremely painful.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:26

"I devoted everything to our work, even a part of myself."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:28

Kalkroit extended his palms forward, quite lifelike in appearance, imperfect as the hands of a man of age should be. Only completely devoid of the hairs and spots natural to naturally born flesh.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:29

"And he betrayed everything that bound us together. He denied all our duties. He abandoned me at the most important moment, on the threshold of my greatest triumph."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:31

"Father had obligations," Fidus honestly tried to be cool and dispassionate, but it was not going well. The Kalkroit apprentice watched Kryptman silently, and in Essen's narrow-set eyes one could see a sincere, malicious superiority.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:35

"He appreciated you and your friendship," Fidus continued. - I know that all too well. Because..." the young man's voice trembled a little. "Even family was a step below for him. Schmettau, you've been my curse, in a way, all my life. A paragon and a standard against which my father compared me daily, hourly. But his duty to the Emperor and Humanity he considered above your ambition. So you may as well give the dead man and me, as well as the Golden Throne."

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:37

"Oh, no, kiddo," Kalkroit snapped his jaws like a real mutant ogre, stepping out of his well-fed goody-goody persona again. "Not my ambition!"

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:39

The Inquisitor's face twisted into an angry grimace. He stepped forward quickly - too quickly for the average man of years and a couple of dozen extra pounds - and loomed over the seated Kryptman. Fidus seemed to have succeeded, after all, in uncovering old sores. Essen Palais tensed slightly, ready to defend his patron if necessary.

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:45

"A Case!" Schmettau growled, shaking his weighty, not at all elderly fist at Kryptman's nose. "We had a Case that Ordo had been working on for almost a quarter of a century. A cult that had its tentacles in two Sectors. Billions in wasted thrones. Dozens of agents are dead. A quarter-century of painstaking, deadly work! Twice as much as you, unworthy, carry the inquisitor's badge! And all this he abandoned! Left me behind, taking with him the entire technical team and the strike force! No explanation, no warning, because he has once again seen horrible, deadly xenos! What is this if not betrayal? Our friendship, our duty, our Orde, our God?!"

Camrad_RIP 15.11.21 в 09:56