Gaius held up a hand, and I followed it to where I saw Archer standing in front of a door, his face buried behind an open slit in the wood. Curious, I walked up behind him and placed a hand on his back. He didn’t immediately react, so I tugged on his shoulder, hoping to pry him away. When he finally did, his eyes were wide with amazement.
“What?” I asked.
With a shake of his head, either to clear or it or in response to my inquiry, he waved a hand at the door while he moved away to prepare some gear he had tucked away in a pouch at his belt. I watched him go for half a second before I stepped up to the slit, stood on my tip toes, and peered inside.
My eyes immediately widened. “Whoa…”
Inside was a man, strung up by his hands like the skeletons I’d seen along the way, his head slung forward limply. He was nearly naked, save for a bit of cloth around his waist and groin, and his long, black hair fell past his face, partially obscuring it. But I didn’t need really need to see his whole face. I could see enough. The man was enormous, muscular, his body rock hard, massive, and strong, and he seemed to glow in preternatural light that kept my eyes drawn to him, forcing them to study every inch of his body. His facial features were also flawless and my heart fluttered in my chest as I longed to squeeze through the narrow slit in the door just to help him.
I forced myself to pull away, one of the hardest things I’d ever done, and looked at Gaius.
“He’s…” I found myself struggling for words. “He’s gorgeous!”
Gaius rolled his eyes while Marcus chuckled.
“There is certainly something alluring about him,” Gaius admitted. “To look upon Remus garners the same reaction. I still do not understand how they cannot actually be gods…”
At that moment, despite all the reason and logic I thought I possessed, I couldn’t help but wonder as well. There was no way he was only a mere man. He had to be something more. And I was determined to find out what. And it would certainly be helpful if we could lose that loin cloth in the proce…
“Quit drooling, Diana,” Archer mumbled as he rudely pushed himself past me. “You’ll get to see him up close soon enough.”
The idea caused my heart to beat faster again, but I tried to ignore it, although it was very difficult. I tried to distract myself by watching Archer set up a half dozen thermite breaching charges along the heavy, wooden door’s iron hinges. They were among the last of our fancy gear, brought by Jeanne who hadn’t had much opportunity to burn through metal in Ancient Rome. He’d reluctantly offered them to Archer, sad to see them go and, knowing him, sadder that he wouldn’t get to use them himself.
I took in a deep breath as I watched Archer work. It would only take a few minutes to set up but the anticipation was killing me. I glanced at my watch. It was already well past noon. The rehearsal should have started by now.
I wondered how Jacob and the others were doing.
***
“I could kill her right now,” Helena said.
“Don’t,” I ordered, staring at the wedding party who had just arrived a few minutes late through my binoculars.
“I’ve never had her in my crosshairs before,” Helena whispered, and I could sense her finger tightening around the trigger. “I could do it.”
“Helena,” I warned with a bit of edge to my voice. “Don’t. She can wait. You kill her now and we’ll lose our window of opportunity.”
“I know,” she said wearily, and I turned to look at her as she turned to me. Her bright green eyes were tired but focused as she let out a long breath. “I know I shouldn’t want to do it so badly, but I can’t help it. I’ve wanted to kill her for years. I don’t even care if murdering her would be harder to justify than killing any of the others I’ve killed, especially with her simply attending her wedding rehearsal…”
“Helena, now isn’t the time for this,” I said. “You haven’t murdered anyone. Our time in Rome has been war.”
“War?” She scoffed. “Who’s war? Yours? Mine? Agrippina’s? Merlin’s?”
“Certainly not mine,” I answered angrily, but my frustration wasn’t directed at Helena. I looked through my binoculars to distract myself and watched the rehearsal, amazed at how similar it looked to any wedding rehearsal back home. I’d been a groomsman once in a friend’s wedding and had gone to the rehearsal, helped plan the bachelor party, and coasted the way through the wedding itself until the real fun began at the reception. It had all been so formal and traditional, and such seemed the case now.
There was Remus and there was Agrippina, both dressed in their Sunday best, or whatever the contemporary equivalent would be – their blood sacrifice to the god Mithras best, perhaps – receiving instructions from a diminutive man I assumed to be some kind of Roman priest, perhaps one swearing allegiance to Jupiter. I didn’t know much about ancient Roman marriage rites and practices, but I’d thought them to be far simpler affairs than what was clearly being prepared here today. Just a simple beheading of a calf and the sprinkling of its blood and entrails to be read for omens by an auger. Then a quick signing of a marriage license, a kiss, maybe a few words spoken, then it was straight on to the reception.
But things seemed a bit different here today. The small priest was giving detailed instructions to Agrippina and Remus, which alone was quite humorous, seeing the enormous god of a man listening intently and taking orders from a creature he could easily step on and crush like a bug. The crowd stood watching like drooling idiots, but it was interesting seeing Agrippina so rapt and focused as well, looking serene and beautiful in a white dress that, for once, wasn’t cut with a plunging neckline or slits that ran up her legs and north of her waist. She looked quite normal for once, although a woman like Agrippina never looked completely pedestrian. She was still the loveliest creature down there, even when measured against Remus who was often difficult to look away from.
“And certainly not mine,” Helena continued, interrupting my inspection, her voice suddenly very angry. “This is it, Jacob. After this, I’m done. I’m never picking up this rifle again.”
I looked at her again. “What if we screw this up?”
She didn’t bother looking back at me. “We won’t. I swear on the life of our son we never got to raise, today is the last day I look through this scope, and the last thing I see through it will be Agrippina’s lifeless corpse… and everyone else down there if that’s what it takes.”
I frowned and turned away, not necessarily worried about her state of mind but concerned that in the moment, here, faced with the one person she truly hated in this world, her emotions may get the better of her and elicit an unwanted reaction. I wanted to trust her in this, and normally I would, but nothing brought her close to actual rage as Agrippina did.
I glanced at my watch. A quarter past noon. We were running behind schedule. The wedding prep wasn’t going to last forever, even if it was more thorough than I’d first thought. The Roman priest was just now pouring some wine into a bowl – a part of the ceremony. I assumed – and seemed about ready to perform some kind of ritual.
I only hoped it was a long one.
I glanced at my watch again, feeling sweat begin to bead on my forehead.
“Come on, Diana…”
***
“Clear!” Shouted Archer.
Gaius, Marcus, and I dutifully backed away, and I reached up to cover my ears, not really knowing if it was a necessary precaution or not. Archer triggered the magnesium fuse that activated the thermite strips attached to the bars, and I flinched away as they started to burn at nearly five thousand degrees, throwing sparks and bits of melted metal into the air, a single particle capable of leaving a permanent scar anywhere it touches the body. It was amazing technology, something I’d never seen before, but something that was commonplace in Jeanne’s once ample supply of demolition.
Luckily, we were all spared permanent scarring when the thermite compound burned itself out seconds later, leaving the iron hinges and bits of wood from the door as
smoldering ruins on the ground. Almost immediately, the massive door started to fall, and it was nearly comedic watching the pair of Praetorians lunge for it in an attempt to catch it. Marcus managed to get a hand on it, but the door must have weighed a hundred pounds, and he hadn’t a chance of stopping it. It crashed to the ground with a tremendous bang, but luckily I already had my ears covered. The noise reverberated down the corridor and through the structure, and I realized there was simply no way we were lucky enough that no one else had heard it.
Once calm had returned to the area, Gaius and Marcus turned to glare at Archer, who also had his hands over his ears, an oops expression spread across his normally impassive face. He shrugged, lowered his hands, and waved them into the room. Gaius shook his head but pressed a hand against Marcus’ back, urging him forward and to take the lead, but Marcus didn’t budge. He stared at his friend and shook his head, and the two looked about ready to bicker about who would go in first when I rolled my eyes, walked between them, and stepped inside the room.
Romulus appeared even more majestic at this distance.
He still hung from the multitude of chains attached to his wrist, his arms splayed open uncomfortably to hold up the weight of his entire body, but his head was up now and his eyes tracked me like a predator’s. They were an icy gray, almost silver, very much like Jacob’s and mine but distinctly brighter. His massive body dominated the room, and there wasn’t a spot within the cell that I could stand in without being close enough for him to ensnare me somehow.
Not that I would mind…
I tried to edge around him so that I stood just opposite of him, while Archer came in next, keeping his distance and holding his hands out in front of him as though he were preparing to do combat with a wild animal.
I glanced at him. “He’s not a caged lion, Archer. He won’t bite you.”
He flicked his eyes at me. “I’d probably bite the first person that came into my cell if I was strung up like this.”
He had a point and I found myself stepping backward until my butt made contact with the wall, only a half a step behind me. I jolted at the contact, causing Romulus to smile at my display. And then he opened his mouth to speak, and what came out, while completely unintelligible, was spoken with such grace and beauty that I didn’t think I needed to understand him at all. I could listen to him speak all day, not understanding a word of it.
But I knew I couldn’t do that, and I shook my head to clear it. Turning to Gaius, I asked, “Do you understand him?”
He shook his head. “I do not. His words seem familiar but I cannot make sense of them.”
“Darn,” I said. “This is going to be harder than we thought.”
“Show him the orb, Diana,” Archer suggested.
“Right,” I said, having nearly forgotten about it. I’d made a conscious effort to ignore it the entire time I’d been around it, doing everything I could to ignore its draw and keep myself from falling under its spell. I’d kept my mind actively engaged on anything else that required any amount of concentration. It had seemed to work, because after a while the orb’s pull had melted away and I had completely forgotten that I’d been carrying it in a knapsack this entire time.
I slipped on a pair of gloves I’d also brought and reached for the orb at my waist. Tim had taught me how to focus on not inadvertently using the orb, which was actually quite easy now that I’d done it once, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I pulled the orb from the sack tied to the makeshift belt that secured my raggedy trousers around my waist, nothing more than a piece of cord, and held up the orb, letting Romulus see it as it pulsed gently in my hands. He must have known that I was somehow able to use the orb, although I wasn’t sure if he’d accept it. In his mind, he, Remus, and Tim were the only three people capable of activating and using the orbs. He had no understanding that I was from the future and possibly one of his descendants.
Or maybe he understood everything.
He looked at the orb curiously, then at me, then Archer, Gaius, and Marcus in turn before returning his eyes to mine. They bore through me, tantalizing and menacing all at the same time, as though he was trying to pierce into my soul and find out more about me than what was simply displayed on my face and through my body language. For all I knew, he was capable of such a thing, but while it was impossible to know what he was thinking, I couldn’t help but remain in awe of him, so much so that I simply knew he would come to understand and decide to help us.
Finally, after nearly a minute, he leaned back and stood upright, taking the slack off his burdened shoulders. His eyes never left mine, and I was rewarded with the sight of his thick but defined muscles constrict, tighten, and flex with every subtle movement. It was quite a show, but I found it hard to really appreciate it under the scrutiny of his gaze. Even now, I wasn’t quite sure if he was preparing to kick my head off my shoulders or not.
But instead of such a gruesome act, he took in a deep breath and let it out, and said one word that was as clear and understandable as if I’d said it: “Remus?”
I nodded. “We need your help. You have to confront your brother. Remus.”
His eyes didn’t flinch, but something of understanding seemed to pass behind them in the guise of anger and pain. It was obvious he felt betrayed by his brother, for reasons still so far beyond my understanding, and was willing to help anyone who stood against him. He shook his arms, causing the dozen or so chains affixed to them to rattle. Even standing, he had little slack to pull against them, and perhaps he was still weakened by whatever Tim had given him, so it was clear why he couldn’t free himself.
I nodded again and pulled the orb away, reaching out with the other hand calmingly, palm up. He returned the nod and seemed to grow more comfortable, so I motioned for Archer to get to work. Without further prompting, he moved to Romulus’ side, risking a nervous glance up at the larger than life god-man, but then diligently began the process of applying what few thermite stripes he had left to the junction point around his left wrist where all the chains conjoined. When he was finished, he moved to ignite the fuse, but then hesitated and looked at me.
“How are we going to warn him that this might hurt?”
I didn’t know but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. Catching Romulus’ attention I held my right forearm with my left hand, opened my mouth wide, and started jumping from foot to foot as though in serious pain. I kept up the charade for a few seconds until it started to look ridiculous. Archer looked at me with wide eyes before looking away in embarrassment. Romulus looked at me curiously as well, a wry smile on his face, and nodded.
“Good enough for me,” Archer mumbled as he lit the fuse and backed away.
Sparks flew and bits of incinerated metal fell around Romulus, and I flinched when a number of them landed against his arm, but he didn’t even blink at them. He simply looked at them, his eyes studious as he drank in every detail. When the specks of thermite burned themselves out upon his skin, little was left but a slight burn that would heal in time.
A second later, he yanked his arm and broke his bonds, and Archer repeated the process on Romulus’ second arm. When it was finished, and Romulus was free, I expected him to pull himself up straight, puff out his chest, roar at the top of his lungs, and storm from the cell to seek out revenge on his brother. It seemed like an apt image for such a gargantuan figure.
But he simply stood with a calm air about him, looked down, picked up a chain and yanked it from the wall easily. He then looked down at me for only a second before stepping out of the room, having to duck and basically crawl through the low doorway before disappearing around the corner. I traded glances with Gaius, Marcus, and Archer, each as nonplussed as the next, clearly uncertain what to do next or just amazed that freeing him had been so simple. I shrugged, mostly at myself, before I rushed to the door and followed the three of them out of the cell.
Gaius and Marcus were already running to catch up to Romulus, but Archer paused just outside the doorway when he
noticed me stop suddenly. After glancing down the corridor, he took a quick step toward me and reached out a hand. “Ready for this part? We’re going to have to be fast.”
I looked at his hand dumbly, but then found myself reaching out for it against what I thought to be my better judgment. I really didn’t want to like him, but I couldn’t help it. He’d always been a curt, macho jerk, but he’d also been quite gentle and understanding as well, exactly why I’d grown to adore him so much once before, and why it had hurt so much when I’d realized he’d been no better than any other heartless asshole. And after what he’d done to Jacob, I never thought I could bring myself to even speak to him again, but this whole “under orders” concept was starting to become clearer to me as I spent more time around all these military types.
With that thought, I took his hand, feeling comfort in his strong, hard grip that didn’t seem capable of letting go. I looked up at him and I saw him smile. “Just stay close,” he said. “I’ll keep you safe.”
My lips tightened into a smile and I started moving, letting him pull me along behind him as the two of us rushed to catch up to an inevitable clash between two gods.
Were we insane?
***
Things were starting to change down at the venue.
Preliminary instructions appeared complete, and the miniscule priest seemed ready to lead the loving couple through a complete walkthrough of the proceedings. Off to the side I could see a number of burly men leading an equally burly cow up to the stage, and it became obvious that this dry run was about to become everything but dry.
Romans never did anything half-assed.
So far, everything had gone according to plan. Our combat units were in place, high value targets were present and where they were supposed to be, and no one had done anything to compromise the security of the mission. But this was the easy part. Reconnaissance was always a simple enough matter when it came to the simpletons of the Roman Empire. Had something already gone wrong, I wouldn’t have been above calling off the mission completely because of sheer incompetence. However, while my friends were many things, the one thing they most certainly weren’t was incompetent.
Praetorian Series [4] All Roads Lead to Rome Page 41