Blood on the Water

by Mark Hildebrandt

  At first his business-like expression led Cassandra to believe he was serious, but as she watched, his expression slowly gave way to a smile, and she found herself smiling back. “I don’t think so Optio. I like to do this for fun. I wouldn’t want to ruin it by making it a job.”

  Chapter 24

  - No Senate Approval -

  Once again Marcus arrived at the office early, he had not been sleeping well. Irena had worked her magic, and relieved his tension, but even that did not help his sleep. He was concerned about James and Cassandra, couldn’t get them out of his mind. Everything depended on them. He did a quick mental calculation, and decided they should be safely away from Cuba, and out of Kukulcan’s reach. That damn barbarian Senator could ruin everything if he managed to abduct James. All of Marcus’s plans would collapse, and with them the Empire. He didn’t think Kukulcan would intentionally harm Cassandra, after all Marcus had not done anything to the Senators son. But if something happened to James, he had to find a way to get Cassandra back to her lab and conduct a second extraction as soon as possible.

  He forced his mind to refocus on administrative issues and summonsed his new assistant Aeliana. She had been sent up from personnel yesterday. She was young, smart and a fresh graduate from the University of Palermo. With a degree in Business, she may have been considered over qualified for the position, but Marcus needed more than just an ordinary office administrator. Of course, the most important attribute he needed was trust, but that only came with time in grade, and even then, wasn’t fool proof, as he was reminded by the memory of Quintus.

  “Yes sir.” She said entering the office carrying her data pad.

  Aeliana was tall and thin; even so, the thin did not preclude a well-formed feminine shape. She had dark hair and dark eyes. Marcus liked her from the start. Attractive and smart, but she did not seem to be afraid of him. Perhaps she could sense that Marcus, unlike all the other men she knew, was interested in her mind and not the regions further south. Marcus looked up from his messages, “Good morning Aeliana. I would like to spend a few minutes this morning reviewing my calendar for the next few days.

  “Very good sir. At nine this morning you are scheduled to meet with Max Brant. He is the CEO for … “

  “Yes Aeliana, I have read the schedule,” Marcus said cutting her off, “What I want is information on Max. Personnel information, I want to know what makes him tick. Start with the easy stuff. Public information, like is he married, does he have kids? Did he build the company, or did he inherit it? The usual. But what I really want is any dirt. Does he cheat on his wife? With women or men? Debts, vices, anything you can find. That is the kind of information I need on my appointments to ensure a productive meeting. Now go on.”

  “Yes sir. I’ll get right to it and summarize the mornings appointments.”

  Before Marcus could say anything, his communicator announced Josephus was calling, and with a wave of his hand, he dismissed Aeliana and made the connection. An image formed reveling a smiling Josephus seated behind his desk. “Hey Marcus, good news.” He paused seeing Aeliana leave, “Who’s that?”

  “My new assistant, she was sent up yesterday. Seems pretty good. You’ll meet her next time you come up.”

  “I’ll do that,” Josephus said slowly, and waited until she had left the office and the door was sealed. “I just received word from the Optio that your sister and Dr. Woodman have safely reached their destination. They are high in the mountains far away from any humans, and according to Optio, quite safe.”

  Marcus smiled, “Excellent Josephus. Which mountains?”

  “Don’t know. Optio didn’t tell me, but he said they would call at three this afternoon, you can ask him then. I will join you in your office, provided that meets with your approval?”

  “Yes of course. That will be perfect.” The word safe was like a magical elixir for Marcus’s mood. If they can stay that way for a few days, things should work out. “Josephus, I want you to trace the call this afternoon. I know Optio wants to keep his location secret, hell it was my suggestion, but we need to have a plane standing ready to extract them on a moment’s notice. If a Senate team gets anywhere close, I want them out of there.”

  “Yes sir. I will make the arrangements.”

  “Good. I’ll see you at three old friend.”

  Marcus turned back to his mail, more able to concentrate now that James and Cassandra were safe. After a short time of deleting most of the messages and responding to the relevant ones, Aeliana called, “Dr. Vespus I have sent the background information on Mr. Brant. He should be here in fifteen minutes; I hope that is enough time. I will forward the information on the other morning appointments during your meeting.”

  “Thanks, Aeliana. It will be a little rushed, but I know from now on this information will be compiled before I arrive in the morning.” Marcus found and quickly read the information. He was impressed. She seemed to have a knack for this. It was arranged in an extremely easy to read and easy to digest format. Everything he wanted. He would have to tell her later.

  As soon as he had finished, Aeliana announced Mr. Brant had arrived. “Good send him in. And Aeliana, please contact Dr. Singh and tell him to meet me for lunch in the Directors dining room, twelve thirty – sharp.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The morning appointments moved with the efficiency it took Quintus the better part of a year to develop, and Aeliana had mastered it in only a day. Perhaps it was not such a bad thing that Quintus left after all. Aeliana managed the schedule with a practiced hand. The fluidity with which she would effectuate the end of one meeting and begin the next was impressive. Watching her, Marcus had almost forgotten about his troubles with the Senator from the Mayan provinces.

  He had turned to look out the window and reflect on the morning’s events, and slowly became lost in a world of his own construction. “Dr. Vespus” he heard softly. “Dr. Vespus.”

  He turned from the window to find Aeliana standing next to his desk. “Yes.”

  “I wanted to remind you of your lunch with Dr. Singh at twelve thirty. It is now twelve fifteen, and I thought you may wish to freshen up first.”

  “Yes, that is an excellent idea. Good job this morning by the way.”

  “Oh, thank you Dr. Vespus, I hope I didn’t make too many mistakes. I really do enjoy this position.”

  Marcus rose to leave but paused, “None of the mistakes were significant, and certainly nothing a little practice won’t fix.” He smiled and left, pausing once again at the door. “And Aeliana, I have a conference call here in my office at three with Josephus. Please clear my schedule. I don’t want any interruptions.”

  “Yes sir.”

  ◆◆◆

  Dr. Singh was pacing in atrium of the Director’s dining room when Marcus arrived. No wonder the man is so thin, Marcus thought, he never stops moving. Marcus approached, the two men clasped arms in greeting, and were led to the table. The Ministers table was next to the window in the corner of the dining room. Semitransparent, sound-absorbing panels surrounded the table, and afforded the privacy Marcus liked during a business lunch. The usual waiter instantly appeared at the table, and Marcus ordered without consulting the menu, “soup and salad, Brutus,” he said. Undaunted, and fully intending to take advantage of the rare invitation, Dr. Singh ordered a full meal. “Dr. Singh. I have been reviewing your progress reports. It appears things are moving along well.” Marcus began. “But since that is the way I asked to have the reports written, tell me the rest. What are the problems you have omitted?”

  “Well yes sir,” Dr. Singh said timidly. “I have, indeed, culled the negative results.” Marcus frowned, and Singh quickly added, “but there haven’t been many. Every experiment conducted confirms the phage works, it destroys the virus, but there are a couple of issues that my team is wrestling with.”

  Marcus nodded, “I assumed as much, what are the problems? But Singh, remember, we must be ready in about a week, and we must make that deadline.”


  Singh swallowed, “Sir we will make it. The only unresolved issues are the dosage problems we discussed at our last meeting. We are trying to get a quantitative viral titer, but on terminal patients it is proving to be a bit more difficult than we had anticipated.”

  “How so?” Marcus said, squeezing lemon into his iced tea.

  “The problem is, at the tertiary phase of the disease, virus concentration is not uniform. It tends to accumulate in various organs. We have done biopsies to confirm the partitioning and are using the results to develop a mathematical model. Once we confirm the model on other terminal patients, we will be able to quantify the phage dosage.”

  “Very good, will you be ready in time?”

  “Yes sir.”

  Lunch arrived. Marcus thanked the server and began on his soup. In between sips he continued, “Have you tried a gradual dosage increase to avoid hepatic accumulation?”

  “Oh yes sir,” Dr. Singh said around a mouth full of lunch, “At first it looked very promising. We were able to clearly chart the decrease in virus, unfortunately the tertiary patients died before we could get all the virus. There was too much organ damage by that stage for the patients to survive. At least we have been able to lower virus concentrations enough, so the patients were in less pain when they expired.”

  Marcus stopped eating and contemplated what he had heard for a few moments. The pause gave Dr. Singh the opportunity to attack his lunch. He had ordered Tandoori chicken with piles of Nan bread and yogurt. “Dr. Singh, you and your team are to be commended. History is on the verge of being written, and your name will be part of the record. Now I must ask you double or triple your efforts, get your people to work round the clock.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Good, because next week we need to be ready to test on a non-terminal patient. One with the virus in the dormant phase.”

  “What about getting the protocol approved by Senate committee?”

  Marcus frowned, “Singh, I told you once before that is my problem. I guarantee, there will be no Senate repercussions, resulting from our test work.” Marcus took a last bite of salad and watched while Singh worked on his chicken. “One-week Singh. Let me know, privately of any developments good or bad. Now if you will excuse me, I need to get back to my office. Please feel free to finish, oh and have some desert.” Marcus flashed a slightly less than genuine smile and left Dr. Singh to his meal.

  ◆◆◆

  Marcus returned to his office thirty minutes before his first afternoon appointment and decided to use the time to review the results from James’s physical. He began searching the file where the data should have been stored, but nothing was there. A few more locations, still nothing. He finally gave up and summonsed Aeliana. This should be a true test of her abilities, he thought.

  “Yes sir, I didn’t notice your return from lunch. Would you like some coffee?

  “No. But there is something I need. A couple of days ago, we did a complete physical on a Dr. James Woodman. Quintus had admitted the man, but I cannot find his file or test results. I want you to spend as much time as is necessary to locate his results. It is to be your only activity; I can manage my schedule. Send me the data as soon as you get it. Any questions?” She had been making notes on her data pad while Marcus spoke, “Yes sir. By chance do you happen to know Dr. Woodman’s Citizen Protection Number?”

  Damn, Marcus thought, what could Quintus have used for a CPN? “I’m sorry I don’t know. And what’s more I don’t think Quintus even used one, or if he did, it wouldn’t have been the correct one. It was Dr. Woodman’s wish to remain anonymous, and because he is a family friend I agreed.”

  Aeliana’s expression did not alter during Marcus’s explanation; instead she continued her questions, undaunted. “Do you know the date of admission and discharge?”

  “Yes of course, he was admitted late in the afternoon on Quintilis fifteenth and discharged in the afternoon of Quintilis sixteenth.”

  She nodded her head while making notes of the dates, “Do you by chance know which room he was in?”

  “He was in, hmm – let me see, ah yes it was Senatorial Suite number three.”

  There was a brief pause then Aeliana looked up from her data pad and smiled, “This shouldn’t take long. You have given me enough data points to be able to locate all Dr. Woodman’s test results. In fact, I’m certain I can manage both your schedule and find this data if you like.”

  Her desire to please almost reminded Marcus of a puppy. Well even a puppy needs to understand the rules, he thought. “Aeliana, your eagerness is greatly appreciated, but trust me I can deal with my appointments unassisted. What I cannot do is locate Dr. Woodman’s data. I have given you an assignment, please don’t question me again.”

  The smile slowly faded from her face, and she straightened her posture almost like a soldier snapping to attention, “Yes sir. I understand. You will never have to remind me again.” She then turned and hurried back to her office.

  Marcus immediately purged the discussion from his mind and went to the anteroom to retrieve his first afternoon appointment. He was not concerned about presenting the proper image this afternoon. All his appointments were fellow bureaucrats, aware of his position and stature in the Imperial branch of government, and as such he did not give Aeliana a second thought for the rest of the afternoon.

  He finished with his two o’clock appointment, early, at two forty-five. Good he thought. He would have fifteen minutes before Cassandra’s call. He turned his chair and looked out the window at Rome, and his mind slowly drifted, you will not destroy this great city, Kukulcan, the city that has ruled the world for two thousand years.

  His thoughts were interrupted when Aeliana appeared standing at his desk. “Dr. Vespus. I have found all of Dr. Woodman’s test results.”

  “Oh excellent. Where were they?” He said turning to face her.

  “Well sir, they had yet to be filed, and locating the results was a bit more difficult than I had expected.” She said very tentatively.

  “How so?” Marcus asked.

  “Because the results were hidden in plane site.” She said. The enthusiasm of having solved the puzzle was beginning to be evident in her voice. “Dr. Woodman’s results were not submitted under a CPN. Instead they were analyzed using a quality control code. The code is used when submitting blind reference samples to the labs. The quality control codes are used by several hospital monitoring agencies to determine the accuracy of the laboratory results. There are literately millions of results under the quality control codes, and several thousand under the one used for Dr. Woodman.”

  “If there were so many, how were you able to identify the ones for Dr. Woodman?” Marcus asked. He was beginning to be infected by Aeliana’s zeal.

  “When I filtered the thousands of results through the dates and room number you provided, Dr. Woodman’s results emerged. Just to double check, I searched Quintus’s files and found, he had used the same system in the past to hide sensitive results.”

  “Most excellent Aeliana. I’m very pleased. It would have been most unfortunate had those results been lost.” And he was impressed. He couldn’t believe the placement office had located someone this talented, with Aeliana’s credentials, and yet was still willing to accept a position as an administrative assistant. But his concern quickly faded as Aeliana continued.

  “I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to set up a file for Dr. Woodman. If you do I will need a CPN. In the meantime, I have created a temporary file in your mail box and put the results there.”

  “You two seem to be getting along well.” Came a cautious voice from Marcus’s doorway. “I don’t mean to interrupt, Dr. Vespus, but it is almost three o’clock.” Josephus said.

  “No not at all.” Marcus responded, rising to greet his friend. “Aeliana, please leave those test results in the temporary file, until I tell you otherwise. And thank you very much.” She didn’t need to be told she had just been dismissed. Aeliana quickly turn
ed nodded to Josephus and left the office.

  “Pretty girl.” Josephus said.

  “Yes, I suppose so.” Marcus answered, “But you know I don’t care about that, she is very talented, and I believe she is going to suit me quite nicely.”

  “Oh, come on Marcus. A pretty, talented woman is much nicer to have around the office than an ugly talented woman.” He said with a mischievous grin.

  “Josephus,” Marcus said frowning, “you know I could have a hundred women, pretty than her in this office at any time, ready to do whatever I wanted.”

  “That’s right, you’re in love.” Josephus said ribbing his old friend.

  “Maybe I am, I’m not sure about my wife, but of course that doesn’t make much difference. She is mine; she would sooner sacrifice her children and kill herself than allow anything to jeopardize the status she gets from being my wife. No, it’s not about wife and family. It’s not about fidelity. It’s just that one is enough, any more with all the commotion and turmoil they bring, and you run the risk of interfering with the really important stuff, like how to stop that bastard Kukulcan.”

  Josephus was nodding a somewhat insincere agreement when his communicator announced an incoming call from the Optio. “Well here is the Optio right on time,” and he directed the call to the holo-display in the center of the room.

  An image of Cassandra appeared. She was standing in a wooden structure that looked much like a primitive log cabin, standing slightly behind her on either side were James and the Optio. “Good morning Marcus.”

  “Oh, thank the gods, I’m so glad to see all of you well.” Marcus responded, “Are you safe?”