The Inquisitor watched the Deacon settle himself in to the hard chair the Cathedral staff had provided for the impromptu interview room. She wanted to rub her forehead. The headache was like lightning in her brain. But she refused to show any vulnerability in front of the deacon.
The day had started well with her conversation with Dahlia and her subsequent release. Then a short trip to the grand Cathedral for what Simone had hoped would be a quiet morning of contemplation of the Emperor. After everything she had felt the need to recenter herself. But she had only had a few minutes to herself at the rail in front of the huge ivory statue of the Emperor on his throne.
She had sent both Sander and Lucus to the private Guardsmen's chapel for their own contemplation's. She had offered the same to her Crusader Malachi but he had refused to leave her unattended. So they had made their way into the Cathedral proper.
She had felt her calm returning in the cool dim light of the nave. At the front railing she had knelt down and begun her prayers for seemed like only a few minutes when a young priest hesitantly approached her with a message from one of the senior priests.
She knew that after the sordid history that the Inquisition had here on Byzantium, her arrival had caused a bit of a stir. So this latest interruption wasn't really surprising. She and Malachi had joined the Priest in his private study. But what he had to tell her had shattered what calm she had found there.
36 Psykers had been abducted in a violent raid. Simone was stunned. The psykers had been well guarded and their loss was a major blow to the Ecclesiarchy. But even more disturbing was the Priest's suspicions that the door had been opened to the raid by someone within the Cathedral. That was when the headache had started.
Simone had had no choice but to jump in. If, indeed, someone associated with the Cathedral had helped with the kidnapping, it meant that things here on Byzantium were more dire then she had thought. The simplest beginning point she believed would be the Night's Watch records.
Banking on her authority as an Inquisitor, she was easily able to gain access to those records. She enlisted Malachi's help to go over the recordings. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. But after a short time she saw that the Watch was avoiding the door that had been used to gain access to the grounds. She pointed it out to Malachi. Something tickled her brain as she watched the door on the tapes.
After they were done with the records, Simone and Malachi went to see the door for themselves. She had expected to see some sign that the door had been breached: splintered wood or a broken latch. But the entire door and frame was completely intact. It was somewhat puzzling. Simone went back out into the main chapel and stopped one of the many priests going about the business of the Cathedral.
"Excuse me, Brother." She pulled the man aside. He bowed his head respectfully, "Lady Inquisitor?"
"The door in the fourth quarter there. Have your contractors already repaired it?"
The Brother tilted his head, "No Lady. There was no damage to the door during the raid at all."
"Hmm. Well, that's rather odd isn't it?" Simone entered the information on her handheld. She noticed that the Brother was fidgeting. She smiled to put him at his ease: not all Inquisitors breathed fire and brimstone. "What do you think of that Brother?"
The priest crossed his arms defensively over his chest, "I mean no disrespect Lady, but how can I speculate on what I did not witness?"
Simone arched an eyebrow, that was just a nice way of saying he wasn't going to tattle. She turned and started back toward the door, "Come with me Brother." She motioned for him to follow her. They made their way back to the pristine door. She pointed to the heavy electronic latch, "Someone who wanted in would surely have to break that latch. Or over ride it. " The Brother glanced at the door then back down at his feet. Simone waited patiently; he wanted to tell her something. She only had to make it easy for him. The Brother jumped a little as if he had been goosed. "It would be very difficult to defeat that lock, Lady." He looked up and into her eyes. She saw that he looked a bit – blank. "But it would only take one person to open it from the inside…"
Simone continued her investigation by going for a stroll in the beautiful gardens off of the cloister building. And much to Malachi's displeasure she walked by herself. He of course stationed himself at the tall gate of the garden were he watch her from a distance. Simone knew that word of an Inquisitor looking into the raid would spread through the Cathedral staff at the speed of light. And she knew that if she made herself available someone would be moved by the Spirit to talk to her.
She didn't have long to wait. By the time she had moved past the fountain at the center, another young priest had just happened to have been walking in the garden as well had stopped to say hello. Apparently her earlier chat with the Brother about the unbroken door had already made the rounds. And this priest had a name for her: Attius.
Attius turned out to be a Layman in the ranks of the Cathedral staff. He was a snufflely little man who couldn't look her in the eye. He seemed open but adamantly denied any real knowledge of the goings on that night. But his demeanor belied that. Simone only had to have Malachi put one heavy armored hand on the layman's shoulder and he told her that it was Deacon Helveticus she needed to see. Simone entered the name into he handheld but as she did she began to feel sick. She startled when Attius, babbling now in his eagerness for her to believe him, said the Deacon's name again. Her stomach clinched when he said Helveticus.
Everything was leading her to speak with Deacon Helveticus. She had arranged for a room to be set up for her to meet with the Deacon. After she sent a layman to fetch the Deacon, she was forced to take one of the pain killers Oded had given her. She hated having to resort to drugs but the headache had its teeth in her now. In fact it seemed like every time said even said the name Helveticus her head would throb relentlessly.
Now as the man himself came in to the room she felt as if she might vomit from the pain in her head. Simone motioned the Deacon to the chair and stood with her arms crossed over her thin chest. She had worn her armor on Malachi's insistence and for once she was glad. She knew had she been in her normal dress she would have felt …vulnerable.
"Please, Deacon, have a seat."
"Of course, Inquisitor," Father Helveticus bowed his head in recognition of her position. "How may I serve the Ordo Hereticus?"
Simone held up her handheld, "I see that you are listed on the Watch for the night in question." She smiled, willing herself to be gracious," I am hoping that you may have seen or even heard something that will help me."
"I wish that there was, Inquisitor," He replied, his eyes downcast. "I'm afraid I saw nothing unusual...though..." He paused, cocking his head slightly in thought.
Simone sighed as if in disappointment. "I thought not. After all, I'm sure you would have already reported it to your Bishop." She assumed a more relaxed pose " I see from your records that you were assigned to the Sabatina area." She looked eagerly to him, " A street ministry must have been a true challenge, Deacon."
"Yes, but it is those poor folk who need the Emperor's guidance, most...do they not, Inquisitor?"
She nodded as if she happy with his answer. "But Sabatina. That is a particular challenge. You must have had experiences there that most missionaries only dream of."
Helveticus' eyes darted up for an instant before returning to the floor, "I'm not sure what you mean by that, Inquisitor. I should think most priests would much rather have an easier assignment."
Simone tilted her head, she felt something. She wasn't sure what. But the pain had receded a bit when the Deacon had hesitated. "So many of our Brotherhood never get to truly deliver the Words of our Emperor to the people. You must have grown tremendously in your faith just having to preach in Sabatina."
Simone looked back at the handheld, "And you did a wonderful job." She looked back up at him, her stomach roiled as if she had swallowed something vile. Deceit hovered around the man like an oil cloud. Oily, that's what she felt. Almost tasted when she looked at him. He felt artificial.
"So what I don't understand is why, a Deacon with such a illustrious record didn't know that armed men had broken in." Her demeanor changed abruptly from friendly to aggressive.
"I...well...it is a large Cathedral, Inquisitor. I can't be everywhere at once." Helveticus rubbed his chin. "That and...well...I was unsure of reporting this at first...but...I think I smelled sulphur." He glanced toward the door. "I thought perhaps I imagined it...but I tried to follow the scent."
"Hmm, sulphur." she arched an eyebrow, "And did you?"
"I...I must confess, Inquisitor...I hesitated. The idea of daemons in the Cathedral is...preposterous...isn't it?" He took a deep breath, "I cannot be sure...but I think the scent led me in the direction of the convent of the Adeptus Sororitas."
Simone nodded, " So did their night Watch join you in the hunt for this sulphurous presence?" the deacon was shifting slightly on the chair his hands clenched and unclenched. She was sure that he was trying to mislead her. Now the trick would be to give him enough rope to hang himself.
"I thought...I thought it best I investigate myself, rather than pull other resources from their posts...and..." He swallowed uncomfortably. "...well...the situation could be delicate. To insinuate impropriety on the part of the Sisters..." He shrugged, slightly exaggerated. "...and if I was wrong..."
Simone frowned, "You could smell sulphur across the length of the Cathedral coming from the Sororitas but they couldn't detect it coming from their own compound?"
"Well...that...does sound suspicious," He nodded, giving the Inquisitor a knowing look. "I hate to suggest it...but perhaps...perhaps there is a...failure of discipline among the Sororitas?"
"Yet it was your Watch that was compromised."
"Yes..." His eyes met hers almost brazenly, "...but I believe we might have been betrayed. There might be a...corruption in the convent..."
"So you are admitting that you were unable to control your Watch in the face of adversity?" Simone pushed into his space, her disgust evident.
Helveticus leaned back in surprise, his eyes wide as the Inquisitor advanced on him, "But...Inquisitor, did you not hear me? I think there may be corruption among the Adeptus Sororitas! At first I feared to make such an accusation, but now I believe it is a danger that cannot be ignored."
"You failed your Watch! You failed to report a breech in our security! A betrayal from within our own ranks, Helveticus!" Her voice was low and dangerous. The Deacon was sweating now his scent high and revolting. Simone's headache had reached a crescendo. She could almost hear his voice jabbering in his head as he tried to convince her that the Sororitas were the source of the breech. She held his eye as she reached into the pouch at her belt and withdrew the palm sized Excrutiator, holding it were he couldn't see it. "You failed our Emperor, Helveticus." She quickly pressed the device against his temple and flipped the switch.
The Preist wailed as the rest of his body went taut, every muscle rigid as stone. Agony coursed through his nerves as he tried to crawl away, but his body failed him. After what seemed like an eternity, she cut the circuit and he collapsed into the chair, limp and panting.
Simone backed away from him giving him a "safe zone" She sighed, " The Emperor still loves you, Helveticus. Even though you failed him. He holds out redemption through my hands." She turned the Excrutiater over in her hands. "Tell me what happened that night on your Watch, begin your journey back into the Emperor's grace."
When his eyes could focus, he turned his eyes to her, wide and imploring, "Inquisitor, please! Do not be misled by this ploy! The enemy is there in the convent..."
"Tell me the truth." she infused the simple words with deadly sincerity.
"I swear to you by our most holy, upon the Golden Throne that succours our immortal...Emperor!" He exclaimed with a barely perceptible pause.
"You hesitate, Helveticus." She turned the Excrutiator were he could see it. "Why is that, I wonder?"
"You're right...I hesitated..." His eyes bored into hers with unmasked hatred. "I should have done this the moment I saw you..." His hand flashed inside his robe and withdrew a long dagger, leaping at the Inquisitor.
Simone reeled back as the Deacon leapt for her throat. She brought up the Excrutiator and let his own momentum carry him into it. She triggered the device at its full power and sent the deacon screaming to his knees. But, as he fell, he twisted around and drove the knife into opening of her armor at the junction of her arm and shoulder. The knife sank into the flesh of her upper arm. She cried out but it was lost in the Deacons screams. Malachi was at her side in an instant. He grabbed the deacon and bodily threw him across the room yelling for the guards who waited outside of the door.
As the guards secured the weeping Deacon, Malachi hurriedly unbuckled the shoulder plate of her armor and pulled it off. He pressed a hand against the bleeding wound and shouted into his vox for Oded. Simone shook her head, "I knew he wasn't telling me the truth…"