No, let me rephrase that. She was still a human. If she had not been, our lords and masters in the Imperium would have terminated her. She was an augmented human in the same way that Ivan was, although she had been changed in ways invisible to the naked eye and with much greater sophistication.
‘I confess, I am surprised to find you here,’ I said.
‘No, you’re not,’ she said. She tilted her head to one side. ‘You expected that we would meet again. We always do.’
There was some truth in that. I did expect to meet her at unusual times and in unusual places. We had encountered each other off and on a dozen times since the start of the crusade. We had occasionally been lovers. I suspected it was part of her job to keep tabs on Macharius’s security contingent, but I like to think it was something more to it as well, that it is within the realms of possibility that she liked me.
‘Why is that exactly?’ I asked.
‘You know why,’ she said.
‘Apparently I have hidden the knowledge from myself.’
‘I am here to question you, to pick your brains.’
‘I thought it was because you find me attractive.’ She smiled with genuine amusement.
‘You see, you did know the reason after all.’
‘I find that hard to believe.’
‘I both like you and find you attractive, and I am still here to pick your brains.’
‘And that works better while you are naked,’ I said, sliding onto the bed beside her.
‘I thought we might amuse ourselves before I interrogated you,’ she said, kissing me. I ran my hands over her flesh. There were areas beneath the skin that were harder and heavier than they ought to have been. She was still very lovely.
Afterwards we lay on the bed. She studied me, head tilted to one side, cat-like. ‘What are you thinking?’ she asked, reaching out to touch my cheek.
‘I am still wondering why you are here?’
‘You are not the soul of romance, Leo.’
‘Nor are you. Let us not pretend otherwise.’
She shrugged and her face was for once mask-like. It was most unlike her.
‘Is someone going to die?’ I asked.
‘You know I would not tell you even if someone was.’
‘No. You would just leave me to find the bodies, like on Masara.’
‘You are still angry about that, I see.’
It was difficult to keep the anger out of my voice, even with this very dangerous woman, who could read me all too easily. ‘You killed two officers in Macharius’s guard.’
‘They were in the pay of the Autocrat of Absalom,’ she said. ‘They felt they had been overlooked for promotion and that their honour had been insulted.’
‘I know. We found convincing evidence of that afterwards. Very convincing.’
‘Too convincing is what you were going to say, Leo.’ She held my gaze steadily.
‘Can there be such a thing as evidence that is too convincing?’ I said.
‘Sometimes things need to be spelled out in such a way as there is absolutely no doubt. Particularly when the criminals are well connected, with relatives who have considerable influence in the high councils of humanity.’
‘This was spelled out in such a way that a child could have no doubts about it. Diaries, journals, letters, decrypted communications protocols, all pointing in only one direction.’
‘All of them authentic,’ she said. I rose from the bed and turned my back to her. If she was going to kill me I would not have been able to stop her anyway, and I did not want her to be able to look at my face and read my expression.
‘I can read the tension patterns of the muscle groups in your back as easily as I can read your facial expressions, Leo,’ she said, as if she knew what I were thinking, which I suppose she did. ‘It is one of the things I was trained to do.’
‘What is going on?’ I asked, turning to face her again.
‘I am here to be certain things go as they should with Macharius.’
‘He is still alive and the crusade rolls on,’ I said.
‘There are those who want him dead,’ she said.
‘Heretics have tried to kill him before. He is still here.’
‘It’s not just heretics, Leo. There are those in the Administratum who wish to see him fail.’
‘Why would they want that? He has added more worlds to the Imperium than any man since the time of the Emperor.’
‘Precisely because that is so.’
‘What?’ I turned to look at her.
‘Powerful men make powerful enemies, Leo, and Macharius is the most powerful man in the galaxy at the moment, with the exception of the one who sits in the Golden Throne on Terra.’ Her voice was flat but still she managed to communicate a surprising amount of reverence when she mentioned the occupant of the Throne. ‘There are some who fear what he might do with that power, now that he has accumulated so much of it.’
‘Macharius is a loyal servant of the Emperor,’ I said.
She shook her head almost pityingly. Her voice was very soft. ‘Leo, Leo, Leo.’
‘He is.’
‘I do not doubt it for a moment, but it is not me he has to convince. Macharius makes enemies just by being who he is. He demands efficiencies in the supply chain for his armies, that arms and supplies appear where they should when they should and with the minimum of spoilage.’
‘What is wrong with that? It is merely sound generalship.’
‘The wealth of merchant dynasties has been built on making sure those supply chains are not efficient. What Macharius sees as inefficiency, powerful men see as sources of revenue.’
‘Powerful, corrupt men,’ I said.
‘I do not disagree. The word to place the emphasis on is powerful, with money to spend and friends in high places. And Macharius is giving even the High Lords reasons to mistrust him.’
‘Really?’
‘He has been reaching out to the Adeptus Astartes in subtle ways. That is not something the Imperium encourages in its generals. It likes its various military arms to be separate.’
I thought about the Fist and the potential uses Macharius might have for it, and all the time I was aware of Anna studying me. Doubtless she was learning one of the things she had come to learn. ‘Why are you telling me this?’
‘Because you are part of his bodyguard, and you will be in the line of fire when his enemies move against him.’
‘They would be foolish to do that if he is as powerful as you say. He could crush them with ease.’
‘He would be fighting with shadows. Macharius has one sort of power, they have another.’
‘I think you will find that Macharius is adept at all the uses of power.’
‘No doubt, but so are his enemies. It may be possible for them to find those among Macharius’s followers who would replace him. They have armies too, great warlords whose soldiers are loyal unto them.’
‘They would never turn against Macharius.’
‘The same was once said of the Emperor himself. His greatest generals rebelled against him.’
‘That is close to blasphemy, Anna.’
‘Have I shocked you, Leo? Are you going to report me to the inquisitor?’ Her smile was mocking.
‘You already know the answer.’
‘I could report you for not doing so.’
‘There are many things you could have reported me for. You have yet to do so.’
Her smile turned pleasant. ‘I am serious, Leo. Some of Macharius’s own generals will be encouraged to plot against him. Perhaps it is already happening.’
‘Why would they do that?’
‘You are not so naive, Leo. You have seen some of these men up close. They are great generals in their own right. They too wish to write their names in the Imperial histories. Right now, they are merely moons reflecting Macharius’s solar glory. If Macharius were gone…’