His heart began to race as they passed through the tanks of Fifth Company.

Breve had not seen The Saint since they’d been forced to abandon her halfway up Tyrok Beach on the night of the landings.

As they passed along the line they found the tanks of Sixth Company. A number were missing. Breve steeled himself as he saw two crewmen pulling a body out of one of the Leman Russes. The inferno inside had turned the corpse into a calcified black husk. The crewmen had to break the spindly arms in half to get it out.

Breve looked away. He’d seen dead crewmen like this many times. They always seemed to have grinning teeth. It was always the teeth that survived, he thought.

Wulfe had gone on ahead. ‘Look here!’ he called out. Breve clambered down the side of an Executioner-class Leman Russ, and was amazed to see The Saint standing there, as if waiting for him.

‘Look at that!’ he said and clambered up to pat the turret emblem that gave the tank its name.

Wulfe, the gunner, had drawn the turret-art, but the inspiration had come from Minka herself. A winged golden figure, flying over Kasr Myrak.

Minka had been very specific about the details.

Wulfe checked the Chimera’s exterior for damage as Breve clamber­ed in through the open hatch. There was a hell of a lot of sand and grit on the floor, but otherwise, it seemed that the machine had survived. ‘She’ll be right as rain when we get back,’ he yelled from the cockpit. ‘And if she isn’t, then I’ll have words with them.’

He tried the engine. It turned truculently.

Breve climbed back up the hatch and poked his head out. He looked to Wulfe. ‘Know what I’m thinking?’

‘Time for a new powerplant?’

‘Exactly,’ Breve said. He pushed himself up. The tank graveyard stretched inland for acres. ‘There has to be one out there that will do.’

It took Breve an hour to find a suitable donor. It was a Rakallion Chimera with the name Ignatz emblazoned on the side. They had to get the powerplant out before the Adeptus Mechanicus priests found it and salvaged it themselves. Wulfe kept a lookout while Breve went in and started unscrewing the hatches.

It took both of them to manoeuvre the thing out.

By the time they returned to the camp that night, Breve was so happy he went to Minka’s cabin.

The door was open. He knocked as he stepped into the doorway. ‘Guess what!’ he said, but the words died on his lips.

The bunks were empty.

He checked next door.

Empty as well.

He found Kavik, pegging up a fresh thought for the day.

‘Where’s Minka?’

Kavik spoke through the pins in his mouth. ‘You haven’t heard?’

‘No.’

‘She didn’t make it.’

‘She didn’t? What the hell happened?’

Kavik shrugged. ‘None of them made it.’