"You know I won't, Tarvitz."
Bjorn laughed low in his throat and stepped into the darkness. He opened his helmet's visor so he could smell the blood stench drawing near. The smell was no different from what he had expected—thick beyond belief, as if it could drown a man.
The lone wolf shook his head carelessly. Cowards who gave themselves wholly over to violence always smelled like this. But there were other scents mixed in as well. Some he knew very well.
He narrowed his eyes.
"Stick to the plan, Bjorn."
Saul Tarvitz's voice came through the comms channel, layered with the hum of the Walking Titan's operation until it formed a strange resonance. Bjorn yawned. "How about a different plan, Captain Tarvitz?"
He deliberately put heavy emphasis on the word captain. To an outsider, it might have sounded like the prelude to a provocation. But Tarvitz knew Bjorn was asking him to command.
He said, "You can't expect me to fight and tell you what to do at the same time, Bjorn. We've already reached an agreement with Honsou. We will fight alongside the Iron Warriors—I really never thought I'd say those words again."
"Oh, I can't fight alongside them." Bjorn ground his teeth and rested his Power Axe on his shoulder. "I have a few words to exchange with them."
"Them?"
"You know. Them, Captain."
As he said this, Bjorn came, step by step, to the end of the corridor. The reek of blood behind the door began to spread, slipping playfully through the gaps between steel and steel, teasing Bjorn's nerves.
He narrowed his eyes and began to breathe heavily. Screams came from behind the door. The Iron Warriors' mortal servants and crew were being slaughtered without mercy. He also heard several loud, familiar slogans, slurred and