The Macedonian Hazard
Page 39
“You will send me more ship people to replace these two, or I will butcher you all.”
Lars was frozen by shock, horror, and growing rage. He just sat there, not hearing as Antigonus One-eye blathered on about his demands. But, thankfully, Lars wasn’t the only one on the call.
Marie spoke from beside him. Her voice was calm and icy. “Antigonus One-eye is dead, and ship people don’t talk to corpses.”
Then Dag spoke from Roxane’s suite. “Radio room, shut down communications with Station Babylon and disable the equipment.”
Dag and Roxane’s faces disappeared from their insert in his screen. Lars heard the radio tech say, “Captain?” And suddenly Lars was captain again. In careful Greek, he said, “Confirmed, radio tech. Antigonus One-eye is a dead man walking. Babylon Station is offline until further notice.”
* * *
Antigonus heard the ship people words, then the captain’s face went from shocked to hard, and he said in Greek, “Confirmed, radio tech. Antigonus One-eye is dead. Babylon Station is offline until further notice.”
A moment later the image on the screen went blank. The screen was now filled with little boxes of text, but they were in the strange, almost Latin, script of the ship people and Antigonus could not read them. Then a little box came up and writing appeared. Then the screen went completely blank.
Slowly it came to Antigonus that he might have made a mistake. He looked carefully at the device. There were still small glowing parts, but he didn’t know what they meant. He stood and turned. “Find me someone who knows how this works.”
He looked at the body and the blood and added, “And have this place cleaned up.”
EPILOGUE
To Kill a Corpse
Queen of the Sea, off Formentera Island
Sunset, December 11, 319 BCE
As soon as they entered the captain’s suite where Lars and Marie were waiting for them, Dag said, “Sir, we have to kill that bastard One-eye. Forget the Queen’s usual neutrality.”
“It has nothing to do with neutrality,” said Roxane. “The Queen holds its position in the world not simply—not mostly, being honest—because of neutrality. You hold the position you do because everyone fears to anger you. And with good reason. They remember what happened to Gorgias’ fleet and the men who seized the Reliance. If you let Antigonus live now, your authority will start slipping away. And Macedonia is no longer a hazard, now that Cassander is dead and Thessalonike will be ruling there.”
“I quite agree,” Lars Floden said. “Now please tell me how we are going to kill Antigonus—which, mind you, will require defeating his army as well. He’s in Babylon. That’s three hundred miles from the Persian Gulf, twice that far from the Mediterranean coast.”
“I don’t know, sir, but we have to find a way.” Dag sat down at the table. “We are going to need New America for this. They have some navy veterans in their navy and… Wait a minute…they converted that lifeboat they bought into a patrol boat. Could we do that?”
“Do we know if a lifeboat can get that far up the Euphrates?” asked Floden.
“I think so, sir. I think the reason Babylon is there is because it’s about as far up the Euphrates as you can get before you have to start portaging your boats.”
“But if we build them on the Queen every scholar on the ship is going to know what we’re doing,” said Marie.
“Yes, they will. We need to talk to New America,” Dag said. “Have them build the platforms, then have the Reliance bring them to us somewhere out of sight of anyone.”
“All right, Mr. Jakobsen. We have the start of a plan. It will need to be fleshed out, and it’s going to take months, all while what that bastard did to our people leaks out. And some of the locals are going to flock to his banner over it.” Captain Floden shook his head. “I never wanted to be a military man, Dag, but right now I would cheerfully trade the Queen of the Sea for an Abrams tank.”
“We’ll figure it out, sir. One way or another, we’ll get the bastard.”
Roxane sat next to Dag. “You will need Eumenes, also. And Attalus, if he’s still alive. And most of all…”
She paused, as if steeling her will. “You will need Eurydice—and Philip.”
Eumenes’ army camp
Evening, December 11, 319 BCE
Philip was sitting up in their bed when Eurydice entered their tent. He was working on his notes. Something mathematical.
“You heard?” she asked.
He didn’t look up. “Yes. Eumenes came in and told me.”
Eurydice herself had been attending a childbirth. One of the camp followers had had a baby that afternoon. It was not the first time she’d ever been present at such an occasion, but she now had a much keener interest.
Normally, she would have discussed the new political situation with Philip. He still found politics mostly a puzzle, but he did have flashes of insight. Eurydice had come to understand, over time, that in his own way her husband was quite brilliant.
But that had to take second place this evening.
“I’m pregnant,” she said. “I’m quite sure of it.”
Philip said nothing. He didn’t raise his gaze from the notes he was scribbling.
Eurydice wasn’t offended or angry. This was just the way he was. She went over to the bed, sat down next to Philip, and squeezed him as tightly as she could.
After a few seconds, Philip asked, “Have you spoken to Roxane?”
“Yes.”
“The empire has to survive. It has to prosper. That means you and Roxane have to keep getting along.”
She smiled—and kept a tight squeeze. “Yes. Yes. Yes. She thinks all that is true also.”
“Good.” He went back to working on his notes. Eurydice didn’t release him. After a while, Philip spoke again.
“I have been reading about the ship people’s history. Their great empire was Roman, not Greek like ours.”
“Macedonian, not Greek,” she said sternly.
“There’s not really any difference. Not in the long run. But what’s important about that history is that the Romans often had two rulers. They made it work. They did, Eurydice.”
“I believe you.”
“We’re much smarter than Romans, too.”
“That’s true,” she said. “Although they’ll probably get smarter after…”
She decided not to finish the sentence the way she’d intended. After we conquer them might upset Philip. So she just said:
“After they spend more time with us.”
Again, he surprised her. “After we conquer them, is what you really mean. That’s all right. In the ship people’s world, they conquered us so it’s only fair we do it here. But first we have to deal with Antigonus.”
“Antigonus is dead.”
Philip shook his head. “That’s a silly way to put it. You need to study calculus. Antigonus is becoming dead.”
Cast of Characters
Abial: Captain of Nenet’s Dream
Agot, Karrel: Radio tech in Babylon
Alexander IV: Son of Alexander the Great and Roxane
Antigonus (“One-eye”): Satrap
Arrhidaeus: General for Alexander the Great
Attalus: Satrap
Banyous: Village headman in Thrace
Bayot, Tacaran: Radio tech with Eumenes’ army
Beaulieu, Elise: First Officer, Navigation, Queen of the Sea
Bryant, Eric: Ship person, assistant and translator for Quitzko, the king of a Central American tribe
Calix: Member of the Cabeiri cult; poisoner
Capot Barca: Carthaginian envoy on the Queen of the Sea
Carruthers, Jane: Hotel manager, Queen of the Sea
Carthalo: Indentured servant; Carthaginian glassmaker
Cassander: Eldest son of Antipater
Cleopatra: Sister of Alexander the Great
Comfort, Anna: New America politician
Cotys: Son of Seuthes III
Dahl, Anders: Staff C
aptain (Executive officer), Queen of the Sea
Davis, Yolanda: New America politician
Easley, Marie: Historian; passenger on the Queen of the Sea
Eumenes: General of Alexander loyal to the royal family
Eurydice: Wife of Philip III
Floden, Lars: Captain of the Queen of the Sea
Gica, Rico: Radio tech in Pella
Godfrey, James: Envoy and radio tech to Carthage
Godlewski, Susan: Radio tech in Babylon
Howard, Paul: Military adviser in New America
Jakobsen, Dag: Environmental Compliance Officer, Queen of the Sea
Johnson, Tina: Chief of Station, Carthage
Kinney, Eleanor: Chief Purser, Queen of the Sea
Lang, Daniel: Chief Security Officer, Queen of the Sea
Lofdahl, Bruce: Radio tech in Alexandria, Egypt
Lysimachus: Macedonian general in Thrace
Matthews, Stella: Glassmaker in Fort Plymouth
Menander: Satrap
Menelaus: Ptolemy’s brother, lives on the Queen of the Sea
Mirzadeh, Erica: Radio tech with Eumenes’ army
Miles, Laura: Chief Medical Officer, Queen of the Sea
Miller, Amanda: Ambassador from New America
Newton, Sean: Cleopatra’s boyfriend and financial adviser
Nike: Daughter of Seuthes III
Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great
Palmer, Walter: Radio tech in Athens
Pharnabazus: Macedonian general in Eumenes’ army
Philip III: Half-brother of Alexander the Great; husband of Eurydice
Ptolemy: Satrap of Egypt
Quitzko: Local, king and leading liberal light of Suthic tribe
Roxane: Widow of Alexander the Great; mother of Alexander IV
Scott, Adrian: Captain of the Reliance
Seuthes III: Priest-King of Thrace
Tanada, Malcolm: Radio tech in Pella
Thaïs: Hetaera; mother of Ptolemy’s children
Thales: Soldier in Eumenes’ army
Thessalonike: Foster daughter of Olympias; queen of Macedonia
Wai, TinTin: Radio tech in Alexandria, Egypt
Watanabe, Setsuichi: Chief Justice of New America
Wiley, Allen (“Al”): President of New America