“General—” Falco was surprised. He had always appreciated Cassius’s forthright attitude in the field, but here, in the emperor’s own palace, even Falco knew the words were inappropriate.
Cassius smiled. “Still guarding my sword side, Falco?” The reference was to the man who stood to the right in a shield wall, where one’s shield actually only covered half of one’s own body and half of the man to his left. It required all in the line to stand fast in order to be protected and to rely on each other. If one man broke, he exposed the man to his side, and the entire line could collapse.
“You can always count on me,” Falco said as he glanced down the table at the woman who had just taken the couch to the general’s other side.
The general caught the look. “Let me introduce the Lady Epione, wife of Senator Domidicus, nephew of the emperor,” Cassius indicated the woman on his left.
“Lady,” Falco bowed his head. In this matter at last, Cassius was being diplomatic, as he knew well the situation between Falco and the lady. The General had even tried intervening a year ago, another reason for his exile to the country and removal from affairs for the army and the state.
“Noble gladiator.” Epione was lying on her side, her blue robe flowing over her body. She picked up a grape and laid it on her tongue, slowly drawing it in before speaking again. “You fought well and bravely.”
“The gods were with me, lady,” Falco answered.
“Which gods might that be?” Epione asked.
Falco knew she worshiped in the cult of Isis, a very powerful group of women. “Whichever ones watch over the arena,” he answered.
Epione laughed. “Well phrased. Much better than that religion of the Jews where there is only one god. How can one keep track of all the needs looking after?” She had turned to Cassius as she said this, and Falco knew it was a barb at him for bringing Lupina back and putting her in his estate. The general did not rise to the bait.
She turned back to Falco. “I would like to talk with you later about the arena.”
“Falco could see the general’s eyes shifting back and forth between the two of them, but Cassius said nothing.
“Your likes are my commands,” Falco answered.
“Yes, they are, aren’t they?” Epione said.
“The emperor,” Cassius nodded his head toward the door, where people were hurriedly getting to their feet, acknowledging the entrance of Titus.
Falco scrambled off the cushions and stood, head bowed, as Titus made his way around the tables. An aide to the emperor was introducing each person that Titus didn’t know.
“The gladiator—“” the aide began, but Titus interrupted him.
‘Falco. I remember. Centurion of the most noble X Legion. We served in Palestine together. A most miserable place with a most miserable people. I was quite surprised to see you in the arena today. I understand you have been fighting in the arena for a few years now.”
“Emperor,” Falco bowed his head even lower, then looked up, meeting the emperor’s level gaze. He knew Titus had only recently been called back to Rome as Vespasian’s condition worsened and had just assumed the title upon his father’s death.
“And Cassius,” Titus turned and faced the old general. “It has been a while since I saw you, General. In fact the last time, Falco was also at your side, was he not?”
“Yes, Emperor,” Cassius said.
“Curious,” Titus muttered, looking between the two of them. “Most curious.” He slapped Cassius on the shoulder. “We will talk later. There are strange reports from the borders, and I know how much you like strange things.” Then the emperor moved on.
“What did he mean?” Falco asked Cassius as soon as the emperor was out of earshot.
“He fears all,” Cassius said, watching Titus. “He has to. Very few emperors survive to die naturally. He has two fears. One is for the health of the empire. And one is for his own health. The problem for Rome is that, no matter what the emperor thinks, the two are rarely the same.”
“And if he has to choose between the two?” Falco asked.
“What would you choose in his place?” Cassius asked in return.
*****
Kaia stood on the high mountain pass, looking back toward Delphi. She could sense the oracle standing in the sacred grove, looking up at her in the darkness, miles away. Reluctantly, she turned back on Delphi and strode off into the darkness toward the shoreline and transport to Rome.
As she walked, she searched for the third eye she had always had, an ability to see things distant in time or place. She had seen the man the oracle had told her of. The killer. Not his face, but his essence. She had no doubt she would know him when she saw him. Then she turned her inner gaze toward Rome. She could feel the power of the empire all around her, but there was a dark cancer in it, under it.
She saw a mountain with a cloud at the top. Then she heard the oracle’s voice echoing in her mind. The month of Augustus. The twenty-fourth day. Remember.
CHAPTER SIX
THE PRESENT
Dane was more concerned with rubbing his dog Chelsea’s ears than what the secretary of defense was saying. He’d missed Chelsea, an old golden retriever, whom he’d been forced to leave behind when traveling to the Caribbean. Her tail thumped against his chair as he scratched, to the annoyance of the chairman of the Joint chiefs to Staff, who was seated to his right. Ariana Michelet was seated to his left.
They were deep under the Pentagon in the War Room, and the mood was grim. Dane didn’t need his special ability to pick that up. Situation displays along the wall of the conference room showed the devastation in Iceland, Puerto Rico, and Connecticut wreaked by the Shadow. And they were no closer to knowing what the Shadow was.
Dane shifted his attention from Chelsea to the podium when Foreman took the secretary of defense’s place. He had first met Foreman over thirty years ago at a secret CIA base camp in Cambodia, just before he had unknowingly gone with his team into the Angkor gate. He hadn’t trusted Foreman then, and didn’t’ trust him now, but he did acknowledge that the CIA man was the foremost expert on the planet on what little was known about the gates.
“We stopped this assault through the Bermuda Triangle gate.” Foreman didn’t waste time on preliminaries. “And we stopped the first attack before that, through the Angkor gate. I don’t think we’re going to be able to stop a third attack.”
“Hell,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs said, “let’s just throw some nukes through one of these things.”
“And most likely get them thrown back at us,” Foreman said. “Gentlemen, let us remember that the Shadow has shown itself to be quite adept at using our own weapons against us.”
Dane stirred. “The Shadow will come at us in a new way. We were lucky the first two times. They used our satellites against us the first time and our own nuclear weapons off the Wyoming the second. I think it’s obvious the Shadow learns from its mistakes.”
Ariana Michelet leaned forward. “The Shadow knows how to cause mass destruction. The loss of Iceland proves that. It used the juncture of two tectonic plates in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and gave the forces there a nudge, and look what happened.”
“I just checked, and Professor Nagoya in Japan has picked up muonic transmissions indicating the Shadow is probing out the Devil’s Sea gate off the coast of his country and measuring the Ring of Fire that surrounds the Pacific Rim. If they can do there what they did in Iceland, then half the world could be destroyed. I think Iceland was just a test.”
“The Shadow destroyed Atlantis over ten thousand years ago,” Dane said, “So we know they have the capability to do more than they did in Iceland.”
“We don’t even know what these gates are,” Ariana noted.
“Foreman answered, “They could be a door to another dimension in our own world; one that we have not been able to access yet but that coexists with the world we know. Or they could be a gateway to an alternate universe. Or they could be an attempt by an alien
culture to open an interstellar gateway from their planet to ours.”
“The Russians had a theory,” Foreman continues. “In 1964 three of their scientist with backgrounds in electronic, history, and engineering published a paper in Khimiyai Zhizn; the journal of the old Soviet Academy of Sciences, titled “Is the Earth a Large Crystal?” Their theory was that a matrix of cosmic energy was built into our planet when it was formed, and these gates are at key junctures of this matrix. They divided the world into twelve pentagonal slabs. On top of those slabs they drew twenty equilateral triangles. Using this overlay, they pointed out that these lines along the edges of the triangles have had a great influence on the world in many ways: fault lines for earthquakes lie along them: magnetic anomalies exist; ancient civilizations tended to be clustered along some of them.
“The places where the triangles met they labeled Vile Vortices, which also happen to be where most of our gates are located, so they were onto something, even if some of their logic was off. They put together a mathematical formula to explain the fluctuation of the Vile Vortices based on a crystalline structure.
“I initially dismissed that theory,” Ariana said, “because the lithosphere, the upper level of our planet, has been moving for millions of years. Thus a crystal formation would not be consistent in location, but perhaps this formation is deeper than the lithosphere.
“Maybe they weren’t so far off,” Ariana continued. She turned to Dane. “When Sin Fen transformed, her head changed into a crystal to channel the energy of the pyramid?”
Dane nodded. The memory of what happened to Sin Fen on top of the underwater pyramid near the Bermuda Triangle gate was something he would never forget.
“I also did some research and found out that this isn’t the first time crystal skulls have been seen. Apparently it is quite a popular subject among New Age enthusiasts and several skulls have been found in different places.”
“Where?” Dane asked.
“South America, Russia, other places. It’s hard to pin down because most of the skulls are in private hands, and there is also quite a variety of skulls out there.”
Dane considered that. “Were they found near pyramids?”
“I don’t know,” Ariana said.
“The only thing that has worked against the gates is this ancient weapon, combining a person like Sin Fen with the pyramid and Naga staff, “Dane said. “ I think we need to track down these crystal skulls. Try to find where they came from.”
“That’s a good idea,” Ariana agreed.
“The ancient people had help fighting the Shadow,” Dane said. “We saw that by what just happened in the Bermuda Triangle gate. Whatever that temple was, I don’t think it was human technology that designed it. We should send someone to check the pyramid where Sin Fen and I were. And we need to get in contact with these Ones Before. I believe that the enemy of our enemy is our friend. My teammate Sergeant Flaherty told me that also.”
“Your teammate who disappeared over thirty years ago,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs noted, “and who reappeared to you not looking any older in Cambodia. Right.”
“I can’t explain it,” Dane said. “All I can do is tell you what happened. You saw the Scorpion and its crew. The same thing. Disappeared for decades and reappeared with everyone looking exactly the same as the day they were lost.”
“And then destroying the sub pens at Croton,” the Chairman noted. “so why should we believe your friend Flaherty?”
Dane spread his hands. “Then believe what you want. It doesn’t get us any closer to solving our problem.”
“How do we get in contact with the Ones Before?” the secretary of defense asked.
“We go into a gate,” Dane said.
“That hasn’t been very healthy,” Ariana noted.
“That’s because we only entered gates when the Shadow opened them,” Foreman noted. “And we’ve only been able to go to the part of the gate that’s on our planet, where the Shadow has extended its influence. What we have to do is go through the gate into the Shadow’s world.”
“How do you propose to do that?” Dane asked.
“Professor Nagoya is working on that. It appears that there are two phases to a gate. The fog and blackness that comes into our planet is sort of the foyer they project into our world. But somewhere inside that gate is a smaller area, which is the actual doorway to the Shadow’s side, which Nagoya calls a portal.” Foreman checked his watch. “In fact, the first phase of Nagoya’s operation is about to commence. Dr. Nagoya has discovered some muonic traces that indicate there may be another ‘graveyard’ like one you found in the Caribbean. He’s detected a larger chamber in the deepest part of the ocean—the Challenger Deep. We’ve sent a specially rigged submersible to check it out.”
“What’s that got to do with the next phase?” Dane asked.
“We want to see if there is any reaction to the submersible from the Devil’s Sea gate, which isn’t far from there,” Foreman said. “If we get activity, Nagoya can use the data he picks up to check this theory and try to pin-point in the Devil’s Sea gate.
*****
Mount Everest could be dropped in the Challenger Deep with six thousand feet of water still between its peak and the surface. It was the deepest point on the surface of the planet, the lowest spot in the Marianas Trench, which swept in a fifteen-hundred-mile arc from just below Iwo Jima to south of Guam. It was due south of the Devil’s Sea gate, an area off the coast of Japan where mysterious disappearances of planes and boats had been recorded throughout history.
For the two members of the crew of Deepflight III, the opportunity to dive into the Challenger Deep was the equivalent of a climber given the opportunity to go up Everest. The major difference was the somber tone to the preparations as the craft was lowered over the side of its tender ship the USS Roger Reveille.
Deepflight III was a radical departure from previous submersibles. It looked more like an airplane than a submarine. The crew compartment was a titanium sphere in the center. Wings with controllable flaps extended from each side. Forward of the sphere was a specially designed beak that reduced drag when the submersible was moving forward. In the rear were two vertical fins right behind the dual propeller system.
The sphere was solid with just two holes in it; one a section that screwed out to allow ingress, egress, and the second, smaller one that accessed control and command cables. To see outside, the crew used various cameras and radar. Powerful spotlights were bolted all around the craft, allowing the crew to illuminate the area immediately around it. It was forty feet long, and the wingspan was fifteen feet. The submersible had been hastily rigged with a pod, the purpose of which had not been explained to the crew.
Inside Deepflight, Captain Gann insured that all checklists for the dive were completed, and then turned to his partner, Lieutenant Murphy. “Ready, Murphy?”
“Ready.”
“Release umbilicals.”
“Released.”
“We’re going down.”
*****
“The submersible is at ten thousand meters’ depth,” Ahana reported. “The pod is working. “ She looked up from her computer monitor. “Sir, do those men in Deepflight know what exactly their mission is?”
“Reconnaissance,” Nagoya replied shortly.
“Their real mission,” Ahana amended.
“That is Foreman’s responsibility,” Nagoya said.
“Sir . . .” she began, but stopped.
“It is dangerous,” Nagoya agreed. “But the pod is designed to be jettisoned. We don’t know what the reaction from the Shadow will be or if there will even be a reaction.”
“And if there isn’t?”
“Then we send the submersible into the gate itself. We’re hoping by just approaching the graveyard and using the pod to send out the frequency we’ve determined that we will draw some sort of reaction, but the crew will have a chance to escape. The odds are much lower if they have to go into the gate.”
/> “ And Russia?”
“Kolkov says he is working on a plan to insert their pod. That is phase two.”
*****
Deepflight III passed through nine thousand meters. It was descending into the center of the Marianas Trench, radar making sure they were clear of walls on either side. Gann and Murphy were focused on navigation, insuring that everything was functioning correctly. With the outside pressure at seven tons per square inch, the slightest malfunction could be fatal.
“Depth to bottom?” Gann asked.
“Two thousand, one hundred thirty-three meters,” Murphy replied.
“Right on target.”
*****
“There,” Ahana was pointing at her computer screen. The solid black triangle marking the Devil’s Triangle gate was changing shape, the southernmost side stretching as if giving birth.
“Everyone ready!” Nagoya yelled. His assistants bustled; making sure their gear was tracking correctly. They all watch as a circle separated from the triangle and began moving southward picking up speed.
“Just like the sphere from the Bermuda gate.” Ahana finally said.
*****
In the War Room, Dane looked up as Foreman activated a screen that relayed what was being picked up by Nagoya’s people in Japan.
“We have activity from the Devil’s Sea gate,” The CIA man announced.
They could all clearly see the sphere of muonic activity moving southward.
“What’s it going for?” Dane asked.
“Our probe,” Foreman said.
The secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs rushed out to the main operations center, leaving Foreman alone in the conference room.
“Do they know they’re bait?” Dane asked.
“They know enough to do the mission,” Foreman said.
*****
On Deepflight, Gann and Murphy were completely unaware of the sphere coming toward them. The bottom of the Challenger Deep was thirteen hundred meters below when Murphy noticed an anomaly on the radar screen.
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