The time dilation between the Warhammer universe and this one made it impossible to know how long the Carcharodons would need to produce results. Nolan had no way to check on the ten Gang Dogs he had sent through the portal, no way to accelerate whatever process Tyberos was running on the other end, and no productive use in standing in the rotunda thinking about it. He filed the matter under things that would resolve in their own time and went back to work.
The servo robots removed his power armour in the base lobby, the familiar sequence of releases and separations that returned him to his own frame. He sat at the metal round table and opened the planning documents David had been accumulating, the ongoing list of decisions that the organisation required him to make and that David had been staging in order of urgency. They worked through it together: the European bases and their maintenance schedules, the status of Imperial Heavy Industries' corporate infiltration programme, the question of which Astartes Chapters the diplomacy page's new entries might make reachable.
Nolan had also been pushing small samples outward through the diplomatic system, Antarctic vibranium power swords among the items, testing which factions responded and in what ways. The Adeptus Mechanicus responses, when they came, would be interesting. He was not looking forward to them in the way one did not look forward to a conversation that would be both necessary and exhausting.
He swiped through the simulator's support prayer page while David reviewed logistics. The Golden Throne's task rotation had completed its cycle and refreshed: a new set of Imperial pleas arrayed across the screen, the worlds in distress replaced by different worlds in different distress, the success rates uniformly grim. He noted several that fell within a combat scale his current equipment and personnel could actually affect without requiring the entire organisation to stop everything else. Future options. He did not begin preparation for any of them immediately.
"My lord." David's voice carried the particular quality it had when the matter was operational rather than philosophical. "One of our cargo and trading operations has encountered a problem."
Nolan closed the simulator page. "Where? Japan? The European installations?"
"Neither." The blue light in David's eyes shifted slightly. "Do you recall authorising Raditus to source original vibranium from the open market?"
"I do."
"Raditus delegated the acquisition work to me. I located the only viable large-quantity supplier operating outside Wakanda's direct control: a black market dealer named Ulysses Klaue. The initial approach went smoothly. I directed an Imperial Heavy Industries field team to make contact, agreed terms at twenty percent above market rate to ensure the transaction completed cleanly, and arranged for full payment and collection." A brief pause. "Klaue has since changed the terms. He is now requesting a direct face-to-face meeting with whoever is behind the purchase, rather than completing the transaction through intermediaries."
Nolan leaned back slightly. "Did you explain to him that this is not how black market transactions are conducted?"
"I explained it. I also demonstrated, as a point of emphasis, that I could remove every unit of currency from every account he holds, across every institution where he holds it, within approximately four minutes. He remained interested in the meeting."
"Which means he either knows something about us, or he wants something that money can't straightforwardly provide." Nolan considered it for a moment. "What's your read?"
"I believe he has made an educated inference about the buyers' identity. A black market operator of his experience would notice patterns in how Imperial Heavy Industries conducts its field operations. If he suspects what he is dealing with, he may believe a face-to-face meeting offers leverage, or opportunity, that a simple transaction does not."
"Or he is simply reckless." Nolan stood up from the table. "Either way, the logic runs the same direction. We recovered several complete brainwashing devices from the Hydra base. We have been looking for appropriate test subjects to assess their specific effects and calibrate the process before we use them for anything that matters." He looked down at David. "Klaue has volunteered himself for that assessment by insisting on personal contact. Send the Thunderhawk. Bring him and the vibranium both."
He paused before sitting back down.
"And tell Raditus to stay away from the brainwashing equipment until I say otherwise. No independent research. No curiosity projects. My order, not a suggestion."
David executed the instruction without requiring further discussion.
An unmanned Thunderhawk carrying the Thinker control system and two full Scyllax Guardian teams crossed the distance to the Indian Ocean in a direct flight. The operation from initiation to extraction took five hours. Ulysses Klaue was aboard an oil tanker that had been stationary in the same position for long enough that it had become effectively a permanent address, and the Scyllax Guardian-automata and the Thinker-directed systems made short work of the distinction between the tanker's mercenary security and anything resembling a defensible position.
Nearly two hundred kilograms of original vibranium came off the tanker alongside its previous owner. David's research had established that this represented the majority of Wakandan vibranium currently circulating outside Wakanda itself. The total supply of material loose in the world was smaller than Nolan had expected when he first began looking for it.
Klaue arrived in the base lobby covered in the remnants of his mercenaries, which he had not had the opportunity to clean off, bound in the mechanical grip of two Scyllax Guardian-automata. His eyes moved across the brightly lit space with the rapid assessment of someone whose professional survival had depended on reading environments quickly, and the assessment, whatever it concluded, had not produced anything resembling calm.
Nolan was sitting at the round table with a cup of tea.
"Ulysses Klaue." He took a sip before continuing. "I understand you wanted to speak with me directly."
"Strange friend, I want you to know that I had absolutely no difficult intentions here." The words came quickly, the tone calibrated toward reassurance in the way that reassurance sounded when it was also desperate. "The vibranium, the price you offered: I was satisfied with all of it. The market for this material has been shrinking for years because Wakanda has been increasing its recovery operations. My inventory was going to move one way or another. I simply wanted to discuss terms in person. That is a reasonable business preference."
"So you have not made any inference about who we are."
Klaue's eyes moved briefly in a way that was not quite agreement and not quite denial. "If I tell you the truth honestly, will you consider letting me walk away from this?"
"Tell me the truth first."
"I knew nothing when my people made the initial contact." He took a breath that was not entirely steady. "When the robots came aboard my ship and the situation developed the way it developed, I arrived at a conclusion. There is only one organisation currently operating that uses robots as its primary field force at that scale. The name that circulates in certain informed circles is the Guardians of Terra." The fear in his eyes had found its focal point now and was not moving off it. "I guessed correctly, yes?"
"You did." Nolan set down the tea. "David."
David stepped forward from his position near the wall.
"Take him through the brainwashing process. And remind Raditus that the equipment is not to be touched without my explicit authorisation."
Klaue's composure, which had been holding on the structural minimum, failed completely at the sound of David's footsteps.
"Wait." The word came out at significant volume. "I have something worth more than the vibranium. I know a route into Wakanda. A way to enter without triggering their detection systems. I also have verified identities on several Wakandans currently living in exile, people with useful connections and reasons to cooperate with outside parties. We could build something from that. I could be useful to you in ways that go well beyond one cargo shipment."
Nolan looked at him for a long moment.
"I don't doubt that you believe all of that," he said. "But here is what I need you to understand: after the process is complete, you will tell us everything you know with complete willingness and complete honesty, and you will continue to be useful in exactly the ways you are describing, and the cooperation will be genuine because there will be nothing left in you that is not genuine." He held the man's gaze. "You came here wanting to negotiate from a position of leverage. I am telling you that there is no leverage available, and also that the outcome you are afraid of is not what you think it is."
He nodded once to David.
"Ulysses Klaue, welcome to the team." Nolan picked up his tea again. "You are, in the sense that will matter shortly, entirely free."