The Cybernetics of the Hydra — Chapter 5
5
Friends with psychopaths
Once it had been a while since they started working, Aurelio decided to respond to Skoal’s question.
“We are friends because I work with them.” said Aurelio with what seemed the first honest expression of emotion: proudness. Skoal stared him for a moment and then looked back to the servitor he was fixing.
“Do you believe they trust you?” said the novice technician.
“They don’t seem to understand that word as verb, boy. There is no trusting among the masters of secrecy.”
Skoal understood he wasn’t the wittiest pup in the cub, but he hated when someone knowingly condescends him, particularly when it was obvious that he already knew it. In this case, Skoal was pissed because everyone knows that the Alpha Legion lives in shadows beyond even the Emperor’s awareness.
“You know what I mean.” said Skoal.
“Hey hey, little boy. It is important for you to know that the stereotype of extreme secrecy goes beyond than a masterful cloak and dagger.” responded Aurelio, noticing the triggering from Skoal.
“Beyond how? Different in what sense to the common understanding?” asked the novice.
“Let’s say I don’t trust them, they don’t trust me, and you also shouldn’t trust. But you asked why we were friends with an Astartes from the XX Legion, right? Well, before I explain it is important to know that we are not friends. But I do know what you mean. I can’t tell one from another so you can’t really begin relationships, you know. I think there are a couple of them that interact with me more frequently, I call them Adam and Bob. Still is kind of hard to tell them apart! Around five years ago one of them reached out to me, presented himself as the Primarch and proceeded to assign me to several projects. Clearly, even if this interlocutor was the lowest of their legion, I still didn’t have a choice to say no. I kept working on whatever they assigned me to, always with the most engineered secrecy. They have valued that I do an acceptable technical work while not talking about this.”
Skoal’s expression was the only reaction that Aurelio needed to clarify.
“I haven’t told this to another soul. I’m talking because I know who you are, Skoal drop-out of the Xeno-antrhopology School at the Unitas University from Stygian Prime. And what I know, you should know.”
