‘That is a copy of the original tome that sits on Terra!’ the man had told Sparker, as if to instil the gift with extra weight.

In his time with the Astra Militarum, Sparker had heard a hundred facts about the Holy Palace, half of which contradicted each other. But he’d certainly heard that the Codex Exercitus was stored in its many leather-bound chapters that filled multiple floors of the palace library, where hexagonal rooms with statues of Imperial saints and heroes abutted one upon the other.

His copy was a paperbound and now dog-eared condensation. He picked it up and thumbed through it. It was all predictable stuff, restating the basics for savage world tribesmen. Ten troopers to a squad. So many squads to a platoon. So many platoons to a company. But there was always something that he’d forgotten.

He riffled through the pages a while longer and then tossed it down onto the desk.

He loathed the admin side of his job. He was a fighter, not a clerk. He hunched over it and screwed his nose up. Waiting was worse than going into combat.

After an hour or so, there was a knock on the door. Evrind put her head around the doorway. Sometimes the close combat expert resembled an oversized ratling with her wiry mop of curly brown hair.

‘The Valkyrie has taken off,’ Evrind said.

Sparker nodded. ‘Good. Keep me informed.’

Uleg’s flight kept low to the sea. The black mass of Crannog Mons rose to their right. It seemed impossible to know where they were to head for.

Uleg scanned the remains of Tor Kharybdis. The fountain of magma boiled up from within the crater, roiling black smoke billowing towards the tower of Ophio. He hoped it would scramble the traitor auspex.

As they swept towards the narrow coves of Faith, Josmane and Marius he lifted the nose and gave a flash of his front lumen. A code word. Another flash.

Uleg and Jimal stared at the hillside, straining for any sign of life.

Nothing.

‘Let’s go closer,’ Uleg voxed. He was in charge of this mission, and they were going to do it right.

The headland rose steeply ahead of them. Uleg cursed and banked to the right. He checked his bearings, matched up visuals to the map on his data-screen. He kept flashing the lumens as they flew over a narrow inlet. Nothing.

It was hard maintaining a safe distance from the cliff. He was about to call off the search when there was a crackle in his earpiece from one of the waist gunners. ‘Contact!’ he stated.

The word came so loudly and confidently it made Uleg jump. Jimal gestured to the right.

‘There’s a signal,’ he confirmed. Uleg checked. Sure enough, there was a light flashing up from below. He swung the Valkyrie down. Landslides had created a defile from which the signal came.

‘It’s too narrow!’ Jimal warned.