The temperature in this corridor, which was supposed to be used as a freight corridor, was cold.

Because of the need for "Verchak" to avoid the eyes of others, the pedestrian still tends to choose the remote path that not too many people pass by. Under the guidance of careful resource allocation, no one thought that almost only the passage that maintenance servants would pass through and use needed to be covered by the heating system on the middle deck. Even for the sake of cosmonautics today, it is a matter of course that the hull material sandwich is well insulated, and the temperature in the area is still below freezing, thanks to the heat radiated from the more pleasant areas of the middle deck.

It was very close to the Void, and the airlock leading to the outside of the ship was a wall or two and less than twenty meters away in a straight line, and if you didn't take into account the damage, it would be only five meters if you used the electric plasma and hot melt to open the way. Rika Fujimaru has no doubt that this Coran Cadmus chose to attack this part of the journey because of this.

When the ship does not have the need to communicate with the inside and outside of the bulk cargo, this cold and only outboard cargo channel has always been unattended. This means that even if something happens to the emotional Sahar here, it will be easy to clean it up.

The universe is huge, even if the ship is anchored over Starport. As long as you throw the unwanted things out of the airlock, no one cares if there is any small garbage on the track, except for the unmanned operation ship that regularly empties the channel. Cadmus is very confident in this.

Sahar may have had two brushes, but at least so far, with the exception of the current one, he has had to complete all of the tasks that Vilcak has given him, no matter how lifeless they may seem at first. Like his other three kill team mates, Cadmus took this to his attention and came to the conclusion that "this cunning traitor is not easy to kill". But he, like his other three kill squad teammates, took it for granted that Sahar couldn't defeat any of us in a head-on confrontation. What's more, the inquisitor of the lord of Verchak, who was a friend, was also present.

Although she is a mortal, don't think that a "mortal" in the empire who can be a lord inquisitor will be a useless vase in close combat. The modified implants, defensive fields, and various weapons hidden under his clothes and jewelry on Vilchak's body can burst out with firepower no worse than a tank in an instant. And that's just part of it.

But will this firepower be as accurate as Cadmus had envisioned? He didn't know.

The creaking servants, as usual, didn't think there was anything wrong with the quiet conflict breaking out in the middle of the deserted hallway, and the preset programs in their remaining barren brains could not support their awareness of the potential danger. Inquisitor Verchak, though she had initially supported Cadmus's attack because of her usual bad character, soon remembered something and changed her mind:

"It's too close to the hull and we shouldn't be around here for too long." She first made a brief conclusion about Cadmus before turning to Sahar, "You should have known this. Are you really naïve enough to think that an envoy of the throne would really open up to an acolyte who once betrayed the Empire and betrayed his master? Of course, the same goes for Space Marine. ”

"You promised me!" Sahar snarled at Verczak, no doubt angry, but Cadmus always felt that there was something else underneath that was indistinguishable that something was wrong with him, "You promised to provide her with the medical treatment she needed—"

"—I did, but I never assured that the medical treatment I was providing to her was 'she needed' or 'I needed.'" Vilchak's smile at this moment is almost the best expression of the four words "brazen", "And I did fulfill every agreement between us." I mean, she's really 'alive' at this moment. So, now that you realize what the problem is, what do you want to do now? ”

She threw the question back to Sahar very viciously, but clearly didn't mean to hear his answer. Before the other man could speak, and even before Cadmus realized that the Inquisitor was about to move, a glittering arc of lightning crackled from Sahar's power armor. This bit of voltage had no effect on Cadmus, who was holding the gun, and Sahar's screams of rage were clearly evidenced by the fact that it was only due to the arcs generated by the overloading of some system, and that the main target was the person inside the power armor.

This is normal. If a cautious enough Inquisitor decides to take a traitor Astarte under his wing, it would be reasonable and efficient for her to do something with the client's power armor. The problem was that Cadmus didn't think that a shock of this power would kill an Astarte, even a firstborn who was a little weaker than him. But Sahar did collapse in this wail of pain, and for the next few seconds there was only a little tactical and instinctive struggle, and then he didn't move.

"Don't look at me like that, I'll admit that the overload discharge part is just for fun." When talking about her remote-controlled modification of the Power Armor, Vilchak apparently didn't see anything wrong with it, "What really brought him down was the internal injection of sedatives. Alright, now take him and continue our trip. You're the one who opened your mouth to touch this mold first, so don't complain. ”

Cadmus was silent for a few moments before finally removing the muzzle of the gun that was still aimed at the immobile Sahar, and sighed almost inaudibly as he leaned down: "Okay. ”

——

There weren't many people along the way. Those who were "not much" knew that they should turn their backs and stop in other corridors, or hide in a nearby room, and pretend they didn't see anything, after seeing the ship's mistress walking silently in the shadows, followed by a Death Watch Astarte who carried his colleagues like a sack of rice.

This is normal. The vast majority of mentally healthy human beings have a nostalgic attachment to their ability to see and speak, and would not want to be ordered to gouge out their eyes, cut out their tongues, and then be assigned to do something that would kill an able-bodied person within a few months, or even be made into some form of atonement machine. Fortunately, Verchak was obviously not a very forgiving master, and the impression that the servants of the lord and inquisitor could be destroyed if they made a mistake in one step had long been ingrained; The crew members that Fujimaru Rika met along the way were still in the category of this "vast majority", so they did not encounter any "disturbing" episodes on their way to Vault 44.

When the heavy metal door of the vault slowly closed again behind them, both Rikka Fujimaru and Cadmus, even Sahar, who could not move or speak for the time being, and could only be forced to lock the monstrous anger in their hearts aggrieved, were more or less relieved. Of course, none of them actually physically exhaled the breath out of their lungs and still behaved as usual.

Rika Fujimaru mimics what the real Verchak would do in a similar scenario: ignoring any unimportant things happening around her, and moving forward with a clear goal and almost without stopping. Her séance had proven successful in a series of previous tests, at least the layers of authentication levels on the Shadow Hammer had never kept her out so far. Cadmus didn't react in particular, just silently took a few steps forward in the vault, found a position a little farther away from the door, and didn't get in the way, and put the weight of the black shield (Midnight Lord) on his body.

He looked up and watched as Verchak was expertly accepting the various certifications set up here by the ship's owner, and all of them passed without any problems. Vault No. 44 was not large, and it was obviously too small in terms of the authority of the lord commander, but according to the classification of the parties, she really didn't have much to protect in this treasury. As is customary in the past, Cadmus stood a little farther away, quietly watching the Inquisitor disarm the traps with his authentication, taking out a "scepter" from the reliquary with the static force field built-in, and resetting all the disarmed traps in a step-by-step manner, even though the chest was no longer empty.

"I often feel like you're a little too cautious sometimes." Cadmus's voice rang out behind Rika Fujimaru. To be honest, she felt a little, too, but from the subtle information from the empathy projected by Lingji, she could read with confidence that Verchak himself would do just that.

Perhaps someone who is not prudent enough cannot be a judge for hundreds of years, and this is no longer a matter of pure luck that can be explained. She slandered in her heart, and then imitated Verchak's proper tone, and said without any anger: "Brother Cadmus, you are a little strange today. You don't talk so much—"

After tidying up everything in front of her, Rika Fujimaru naturally turned around and directly met the muzzle of the black hole hole of the plasma pistol.

- and will not point a gun at me. She finished the second half of the sentence in her heart, struggled for a moment, and then raised her hands while still holding the scepter, sighed clearly, and asked calmly:

"Can I find out what went wrong? I think I act like that. ”

Cadmus didn't show any definite sentimental inclinations, but at least, he was willing to answer the question:

"Intuition. Actually, I don't see anything wrong with you, and I don't have any evidence to prove this suspicion until I went to the bridge to confirm the situation. The only mistake you made was choosing to surrender when faced with my gun. It's him," Astarte tilted his head in Sahar's direction, "this kid made me feel wrong from the start, he was a little too clean. ”

The face of the "Vilchak" in front of Cadmus finally revealed a complex expression that the inquisitor himself would never have shown in front of people, it contained confusion and confusion, and at the same time showed that the person concerned thought it was unreasonable: "The automatic assembly system has its own cleaning function, I should have remembered this." ”

"So, who the hell are you?" Cadmus ignored the other party's self-examination, and simply continued to ask, "Assassin court?" Kalitus? ”

“…… I don't think I've gotten to the point where I need to be in the Assassin Tribunal. Vilchak shrugged his shoulders in the vault, "Or maybe I did misjudge this, I just don't know." All I can guarantee is that I don't have half a Throne Coin relationship with the Assassin Court. ”

Cadmus snorted, presumably deciding to give up the possibility of seeking the truth in such a "light-hearted" way as it is now. Deciding to move away from seeking the truth in mere words, he threatened with the muzzle of a gun and issued an order to the other side: "Put down that scepter and come to me." ”

The distance between the two was about six meters, which was not "far" even by the average stride length of a mortal. At such a distance, facing an original cast Astarte who had already completed his aim and was only one finger away from a kill, the disadvantaged side was Rika Fujimaru no matter how you looked at it, even if she was really loaded with firepower comparable to a tank like Verchak herself.

In such close combat, reflexes are often the most important factor in determining victory or defeat, and Cadmus is perfectly confident that he will pull the trigger first before his opponent is tempted to make any moves.

He believed that the other party did not have the capital to make any decent resistance in the current situation. But the "Verchak" in front of him was indeed not as easy to deal with as he had thought.

"If you want to physically control me, just walk up." "Verchak", who almost half-pushed and half-admitted that he was not Verchak, ignored Cadmus's request, and still stood firmly in place, without putting down the scepter in his hand, "You only need to walk even five steps, or a few seconds." If it was in your sprint, I would have been pinned to the ground by you before I could react - but you asked me to walk over. Why? ”

Cadmus's index finger, which tugged at the trigger, moved unsteadily.

"You're talking too much." He said this, then reiterated his request, "Put down your scepter and come to me." ”

"I'm really curious about that." Rika Fujimaru still didn't move, "If I refuse, will you come to me?" ”

Cadmus' plasma pistol unequivocally began to charge: "Don't force me to shoot. ”

"You know that the vast majority of defense fields are self-triggered, and you don't need the wearer to react to whether they are turned on or not, right?"

The disadvantaged "Verchak" was even laughing, and seemed to have no doubt that even if he was hit by the plasma mass, he would be able to survive with all his tails in his tail. This attitude visibly angered the dark angel, and his tone, which had been rather calm, was finally tinged with impatient emotion:

"You know that the whole bunch of questions about 'who are you' and the whole bunch of questions about it aren't really that important, are they?" By threatening, he was also making an ultimatum, "There are many psykers on board who serve the real Inquisitor Verchak, and even if we need to know the answers, we don't necessarily need a living person to answer them." ”

"Uh......" Vilczak in front of him had an embarrassed expression on his face that another Inquisitor would never have shown himself, "Do you remember that it's not just the two of us in this secret vault at the moment, right?" ”

"W-"

The word only managed to get half of Cadmus's mouth out. The other half of it was forced to eat back from a slam in the back. Almost instantaneously, the Magnetic Boots made a loud noise on the floor, but the Dark Angel barely managed to steady himself and didn't fall forward from the impact, but his center of gravity had definitely shifted, and in a hurry, he didn't have enough time to adjust:

In the next instant, Sahar's whole body pounced. Even the original cast Astarte was inevitably caught off guard in the face of a sudden collision of several hundred kilograms. In desperation, he had to give up his plasma pistol so that he could free his hands to deal with the almost random pushing of the opponent - Sahar could move now, but it was obviously not very bright in terms of movement, and he was able to suppress Cadmus for a while, and he still managed to hit the opponent by surprise.

The reason why he was quiet before was because the sedative was eighty percent true, and the dark angel didn't quite understand how this person got up from the spot in this state, and still maintained absolute silence and managed to touch behind him, but it didn't matter. The fight was pointless, and could only delay him for a few seconds at best—almost as soon as it was lifted, Cadmus realized that Sahar's hands were now incapable of grasping even with the help of Power Armor (which was perhaps why he hadn't pulled out his gun and slammed the trigger on the back of Cadmus' head), and the betrayer couldn't even succeed in knocking his opponent over in the current close-quarters wrestling.

At the same time, the pistol that Cadmus discarded in a hurry was thrown in front of Rika Fujimaru along a disturbed parabola. The subject hesitated for a moment, and after spending a moment comparing the size of the so-called "pistol" of the original Star Marine, and Verchak's palm, he chose to kick it deeper into the vault, away from its owner.

So it's not my problem that I feel that everything in the Empire is at least one size bigger than me. In that moment, such a thought crossed the mind of Rika Fujimaru, who was slightly relaxed-

— and thus, also in Verchak's consciousness.

(End of chapter)