The burly man picked up the notebook, smaller than his palm, and flipped through it. His chiseled face quickly turned grave.
"A Subspace Passage... The Ratfolk really did find a way around."
The Empire was hardly ignorant of Subspace. Blackwatch had fallen because of it; of course they had investigated.
But their investigation had focused on the Chaos Cult, overlooking the Ratfolk to the north.
A few minutes later, after reading the notebook several times, the man looked up. "The investigation lays it all out. What do you want us to do?"
"Destroy the Subspace Passage."
"Wouldn't that be a waste?"
Minister Steve's word was law in the Empire. Only a handful of people could question him—and the man before him happened to be one of them.
"We'd get better results if we struck when the Ratfolk made their move."
"The moment the Ratfolk built a Subspace Passage under our noses and gained free passage through the Empire, we lost. There's no point trying to save face now. We need to disrupt their plans as quickly as possible and salvage the situation."
The man clapped. "No wonder they called you 'Steve with the Biggest Brain' back at the Academy. There's nothing barbarian about the way you work."
Minister Steve glanced at the hourglass in the room. "You've wasted time on another sentence."
"All right, Your Excellency. I'll see to it." The man tucked away the notebook and left the study.
He wound his way through the Military Affairs Department, a labyrinth like some enormous fortress, as familiar with it as his own home. He descended flight after flight of stairs, until the view beyond the windows changed from streets to brick walls.
After an endless descent, windows appeared beside the spiraling stairs again. Red light filtered through their prison-barred openings.