TW11 The Cleopatra Crisis NEW (22 page)

"A grim-looking bunch, are they not?" said Caesar. "I am sorry if they make you feel uncomfortable. Apollodorus. tell them to take their posts outside. I very much doubt that I will be set upon in here." Apollodorus hesitated a fraction of a second, then moved to comply with Caesar's order.

"Do they go with you everywhere?" asked Lucas.

"Everywhere," said Caesar wearily, “if I would let them. I think they would sleep at the foot of my bed. Cleopatra means to protect my imperial person from murderous shopkeepers and senators."

"You joke," said Cleopatra somberly. "but you have many enemies. There are men in Rome who resent your power over them. You should not treat such things so lightly."

"Should I concern myself with a handful of malcontented senators when all the rest of Rome supports me?" Caesar replied.

"It takes but one determined man armed with a sword or dagger to end a life," said Cleopatra.

"I have survived many determined men armed with swords and daggers," Caesar replied. He turned to the others. "You see, we have had this argument before. Cleopatra acts as if we are still in the palace of the Ptolemys, where assassins lurk in every shadowed corner and intrigues abound."

"There are intrigues in Rome, as well," she said. "I only want to keep you safe.”

Caesar smiled. "I am as safe in Rome as I would be in the midst of my legions. The people love me."

"The people are cattle." Cleopatra replied scornfully. "They always have been. Their affections can be bought, as you well know, since you have spent so much to purchase them yourself. It is not the people you should fear, but those who stand to gain the most if you were to be removed from power."

"If I were to be removed from power, who is there who could take my place?" asked Caesar. "Antony? Perhaps, if he were to settle down and be more serious. But he is one of my dearest and most trusted friends and he does not wish to become serious. He would require a guiding influence, most probably a woman, but there is no woman in Rome strong enough to hold him in his traces.

“Save yourself, perhaps," added Caesar with a smile. "Antony would be no match for you. But I hardly think we need to worry about Antony. He is my staunch supporter. Who else, then? Cicero? He is an old man and much more suited to making speeches criticizing those who are in power than to rule himself. And though Cicero might still cherish dreams of the republic, he has no real ambition. Cassius, perhaps? An oracle once warned me to beware of men named Cassius, Casca. and Brutus. You remember, Lucius, you were there.”

“I remember that night well,” said Travers, nodding.

"Then you will remember the oracle also said that a man could change his destiny," said Caesar. "I took his words to heart and I have taken firm control of mine. I know that Cassius and his friends bear me no love. I do not underestimate them, but they would be incapable of ruling in my place. They would only fall to arguing amongst themselves. I have heard rumors that they plot against me, but these are but the idle whisperings of malcontented men. They would be fools to think the people would forgive them if they moved against me."

"With your bodyguard around you," Cleopatra said, "they would never dare."

"They would not dare in any case," said Caesar. "But with your Egyptians at my side, it makes my enemies believe I fear them and that only serves to bolster their opinion of their own importance."

"Caesar has a point," said Travers. "Though we know it is not true, there are those in Rome who believe that Caesar has become distanced from the people. An Egyptian bodyguard cannot help but contribute to that feeling."

“There, you see?" said Caesar. "Have I not said the same myself?"

"My concern is only for your safety," Cleopatra said. "I merely wish to keep you out of danger."

"Perhaps you overestimate the danger," Lucas said. “I, for one, find it difficult to believe that a general who was victorious in so many battles and who defeated no less a commander than Pompey the Great need fear for his safety in the streets of Rome."

Cleopatra shot him an angry look. “In battle, Caesar was surrounded by his legions. In Rome, he is surrounded only by bitter, jealous, and ambitious men. Is the Emperor not entitled to protection? Does he not have the right, the privilege, to maintain a bodyguard? Or would you have him travel about the city without a retinue, like any common citizen?"

“No one expects the Emperor to act like a common citizen." said Travers placatingly. "but perhaps the common citizens would take it better if the Emperor's retinue was Roman, rather than Egyptian. Please understand, I mean no insult, but there has been talk that Egypt has far too much influence with Caesar."

"You mean to say that I have too much influence," said Cleopatra angrily. "You disappoint me, Lucius. I should have thought that you, of all people, would be above listening to common gossip.”

"I am sorry. I did not intend to make you angry," Travers said, "but the truth is that it is more than common gossip. You should know that I would be the last to speak ill of you in any way, but there are those in Rome who do not know you as I do and who believe you have little respect for Roman freedoms and traditions. They see an Egyptian guard protecting Caesar and it makes them feel uneasy that their Emperor chooses to surround himself with the soldiers of a foreign queen. It is a matter of appearances."

"Why should Caesar care about appearances?" she replied hotly. "He is the Emperor! It is not for common men to question his decisions!"

"It is not for common men to question kings," said Travers gently, "but Rome will not be governed by a king."

"Enough," said Caesar, who had been listening to their exchange with a frown. "Let us not end this evening with an argument. I have always valued your opinion, Lucius, and I have had similar thoughts myself. But I am not convinced most Romans feel this way. The people of Rome know that my concern is only for their welfare. Still. I do not wish to give the appearance that I am fearful for my safety." He held up his hand, forestalling Cleopatra's response. "I will give the matter careful thought. But we shall speak no more of this tonight."

The streets were dark when they left Cleopatra's house and started on their walk hack to Travers' villa, a short distance away. Their way was lit by two slaves bearing torches and another five slaves accompanied them as their armed retinue. The streets of Rome were dangerous at night. They spoke in Greek, a language that would not be unusual for educated Romans to converse in and one which none of Travers' household slaves would understand.

"What did you think of Cleopatra?" Andre asked.

"If she's a fake, then she's a good one." Lucas replied. "I'm inclined to believe she's genuine. I think Apollodorus is definitely the one to watch."

"Caesar's guards all looked very capable to me," Delaney said. "Alert, high level of fitness, taller than average . . . they could easily be our men."

"Caesar seemed very ambivalent about having them around," said Lucas. "What do think, Travers?"

Travers sighed. "I think there's a good chance he may dismiss them, unless Cleopatra manages to change his mind. The question is, what will we do if he doesn't?"

"Well have to make sure he does," said Lucas. "An attempt on Cleopatra's life would convince him that there are people in Rome who fear her influence on him and conspire to assassinate her. He'd believe the threat to her was greater than any threat to himself and assign his Egyptian guard to protect her. That would get them out of our way."

"It might work, but it would be dangerous." said Travers.

"We knew that going in," Delaney said. "But we've only got a little over a week left. We can't afford to waste any more time."

They turned into a quiet side street.

"The best way to get inside would be through the gardens at the back of the house," said Lucas. “We go in wearing masks and we knock out the guards. We don't want to kill any of them, at least not until we're sure about them. The thing is, we want to get close, but not too close. We need to make enough of a commotion to arouse the guards inside the house, so that - "

Travers suddenly cried out as a bright beam of laser light penetrated through his left shoulder. It all happened very fast. The two slaves ahead of them dropped their torches and fell as laser beams stabbed through them. Two of their armed guard dropped before any of them had a chance to react.

"It's an ambush!" Delaney cried out, dropping to the ground as the street became a crisscross latticework of light. The three remaining slaves took off in fright. One of them, ran directly into a beam, screaming as he fell. Lucas vanished as he translocated and a second later, Delaney also disappeared as he clocked out.

"Get back to the house!" Andre shouted to Travers as he fumbled for the controls of his warp disc. Then, suddenly, it was all over. It had all taken no more than twenty seconds. Travers vanished, clocking back to the transition coordinates inside his house about three quarters of a mile away. Andre stayed put, stretched out behind the body of one of the fallen slaves. She had pulled the laser pistol, which she had strapped to her lower thigh, beneath the loose, ankle-length, pleated tunic she wore. She lay very still, staring intently into the darkness. The street was deserted. A moment later, she heard Lucas.

"Andre, it's me."

"Are you all right'?"

"Get back to the house. Right now." She reached for her warp disc, which was disguised as a heavy bracelet, and punched in the preprogrammed transition code for Travers' house. Moments later, they were all together in the library.

Travers was in some pain, but fortunately, his wound wasn't very serious. The beam had penetrated the shoulder bone and gone straight through, cauterizing the wound.

"Well, it looks like the cards are on the table." Andre said as she examined his wound. "Did you see any of them?"

"Yeah,” said Lucas, frowning as he opened up the hidden weapons cache beneath the floor. "We found them."

She paused and glanced up at him. "You found them?"

"They were dead." Delaney said, taking a laser pistol from Lucas and checking its power pack. "We found six bodies. I recognized two of them from Cleopatra's house. One of them served us dinner. They'd been shot with lasers."

"What the hell'?" said Andre. “But . . .
who
?"

"We don't know," Delaney said. "But whoever it was saved our asses."

"It was probably the Underground," someone said from behind them. They spun around to see Sabinus standing casually in the entrance to the library.

Only he had spoken to them in English. There was something very familiar about his voice. Castelli suddenly came up behind him, putting a laser pistol to the back of his head.

"Don't move," he said.

Steiger froze.

"I'm sorry about what I said back at the penthouse, Priest," he said evenly, "but as you can see, I had my reasons."

“Steiger!"

"Jesus Christ." said Andre. "I knew there was something familiar about him!"

"It's all right, Castelli." Delaney said. 'He's one of us. Capt. Castelli, Col. Steiger."

"I'll be damned. Sorry about that, Colonel," Castelli said, putting away his gun.

"That's perfectly all right, Captain," Steiger said. “You did pretty good back there."

"I should have guessed," said Lucas. "That was you back there."

"No, actually, it wasn't me," Steiger said, coming into the room with Castelli following him.

Delaney frowned. "But I thought you just said—"

Steiger sat down in an ornate, ivory-inlaid chair. "I was talking about the hit they tried to put on Castelli, here. He handled himself real well."

"
What,”
said Lucas.

"I'm afraid I'm not following any of this," said Travers as Andre sprayed a medicated sealant on his wound from a first-aid kit. "Who is this person?"

"Col. Creed Steiger. Capt. Jonathan Travers," Lucas said, introducing them. "Col. Steiger's T.I.A. He used to be the senior agent in the covert field section. He's also head of the Internal Security Division for the agency."

"And he was also supposed to be back in Plus Time," said Delaney wryly, "because he asked to be relieved of duty on this mission."

"Up to your old tricks again, I see," said Andre.

"I'm sorry about that," Steiger said. “The idea was to back you up, just in case your covers got blown. Which is apparently what's happened."

"Terrific," Lucas said with a grimace. "We thought you might be the opposition. Damn it, Steiger, you could have screwed up this whole mission. Where the hell does Marcian fit in?"

"Marcian was really John Marshall, a former field agent who went over to the Underground," said Steiger.

"Was?" said Andre.

"Yeah, was. He's dead. Looks like the S.O.G. got him. Like they almost got Castelli and you. I came to warn you that this place is no longer safe. I suggest we move elsewhere, quickly. "

"We've got a safe house set up," Lucas said. "But we'd probably be safer here. This place is more easily defended."

"Will someone please explain to me what's going on?" asked Travers with a confused expression on his face.

"It's pretty simple, actually,” said Steiger. "I was officially relieved of duty in Plus Time so that I could clock back here undercover and back up the team. They didn't know I was here and they didn't recognize me because I'd had cosmetic surgery."

"Was this Forester's decision?" Lucas asked.

"Yes and no,” Steiger replied. "The truth is, I had my own agenda. I wanted to demonstrate to him that there's still a place for covert operations. I'd been bugging him for a chance to prove my point, so he decided to go along with it, only unofficially. Officially, I'm still on leave. That way, it's just my ass that would be hanging in the wind if I screwed up."

"You almost did just that. God damn it," said Lucas. "You realize we wasted valuable time and manpower keeping you under surveillance?"

"Like I said, I'm sorry about that. But I had no idea I'd done anything to give myself away. What put you on to me?"