TW11 The Cleopatra Crisis NEW (27 page)

All right, he thought, if they snatched Cleopatra, they could do a wash job on her brain. Program her and she'd come out believing whatever they wanted her to believe. They'd have to do the same with Caesar. Make him believe that he'd dismissed the bodyguard. God damn it. it'll work, thought Hollister. They've beaten us.

His heart sank with the realization. But it wasn't over yet. He was still alive. And if any of his men got out, they'd clock to their escape coordinates and rendezvous as planned. He wasn't finished yet. Even if he was the only one left, he could still do some damage here.

Hollister, well trained in temporal terrorist tactics, had quickly and professionally sized up the situation. He was not the sort of man to panic when things fell apart. He was a pro and he kept his mind on his mission. The parameters had changed drastically and he had to adapt to the new situation without a moment's hesitation. he realized that the success of the T.I.A. strike was totally dependent on everything being accomplished during this one night. The activities of mission support teams back at headquarters in Plus Time would have to be completely governed by the timetable of the team in Rome. The timing would be close. If they'd taken Caesar when they killed his men, which would have been the only time when they could do it. they would have to return him by morning in order to minimize the danger of a temporal disruption. Then, with their teams in place to monitor events, they would remain to make sure that Caesar was killed by the conspirators on schedule.

Only what if he died a week early, murdered along with his wife in his
own bedchamber?

There could then be no explanation for the sudden disappearance of the Egyptian bodyguard. The blame for Caesar's death would fall on Cleopatra, instead of on Brutus, Cassius, and the other conspirators. She would be arrested, tried, and executed. She would never live to join forces with Antony against Octavian. It would not be as great a disruption as they'd originally planned, but it would be a disruption nonetheless. It might even bring about a timestream split. Best of all, the T.I.A. wouldn't be expecting it. When they discovered that they'd missed "Apollodorus," they'd naturally assume that he'd escaped to some other time period. It would have been the logical thing for him to do. They'd never think he'd risk coming to the palace. It would be foolhardy. Almost as foolhardy as what they'd done tonight. Hollister smiled. Learn from your enemy, he thought. It was risky as hell, but it was worth a try.

Slowly, cautiously, holding his weapon ready, Hollister moved out into the corridor, heading toward Caesar's chambers.

They had counted on the element of surprise and they had lost it almost immediately. The scream from the rooftop had galvanized the opposition into action and even though they hadn't expected such a bold attack, they responded like the pros they were. They didn't run; they chose to stand and fight.

In spite of the swiftness of their attack, Cooper lost almost half his men in the first three or four minutes of the assault. Three more were wounded, two of them seriously. As Andre ran across the atrium, a laser beam lanced out and burned a hole right through the left side of her shirt, missing her kidney by scant millimeters. Steiger, running right behind her, took out the man who'd fired the shot, but another one they hadn't seen until it was almost too late fired at him as he was bringing up his stunner. The beam struck Steiger's forearm and burned a long furrow from his wrist up to his elbow. He cried out, but managed to hold on to his weapon long enough to fire a dart into his attacker, and Andre shot him with another one almost immediately. He crumpled to the floor.

"You all right?" asked Andre.

"I'm fine, go!" Steiger shifted his weapon to his left hand and followed her as they moved quickly from room to room.

Cooper's men had rappelled down from the rooftop and as soon as they secured the upper floor, they ran down the stairs to join the battle in the main part of the house. Cooper heard the sounds of their booted feet coining down the stairs and turned his head to shout a warning to them so they wouldn't fire on their own men. In that instant, a laser beam burned its way through his left cheek and out the right. Cooper was so psyched, he didn't even feel the pain. He spun around and fired, dropping his attacker, then kept right on going. If he hadn't turned his head just at the right moment, the laser would probably have killed him.

Delaney found himself pinned down behind a column in the atrium, under fire from three directions at once. Three laser beams bracketed him, one passing to either side of the column, the third grazing the marble, inches from his head. He dropped down low and risked a glance around the column. In that instant, he saw a sight that made his jaw drop.

Darkness suddenly appeared out of thin air and, moving faster than the speed of light, plucked the weapon from the hand of one man while he knocked him senseless with his cane. Then he materialized behind the second gunman and clubbed him to the ground, before his afterimage had even faded from where he had first appeared. He repeated the same procedure with the third S.O.G. man, but at the speed with which he moved, it all happened in the same instant and Delaney actually saw three of him. He jumped about a foot when Darkness appeared standing right beside him.

"Somehow I knew I'd find you in a situation like this," Darkness said laconically.

"Jesus. Doc," Delaney said, exhaling heavily, “I wish you wouldn't do that!"

"If I hadn't done that, you lunkhead, you'd look like a Swiss cheese."

"How's Bryant doing at the palace?"

"Knocking them dead." said Darkness. "You, on the other hand, seem to be having a few problems. Excuse--”

Suddenly he simply wasn't there anymore. Delaney heard a sickening crunch behind him and spun around in time to see Darkness dropping the limp form of an S.O.G. man whose head he'd smashed against a marble column. Then he jerked as he suddenly heard Darkness speaking beside him even as he saw his image disappear again.

"I'd move somewhere else. if I were you.”

"Thanks, Doc."

"Don't mention it."

He vanished.

Delaney crossed the atrium and encountered Cooper and two of his men coming the other way. Andrew and Steiger came running up behind them. Several more strike force commandos came running into the atrium from the opposite side.

"Our wing's secured. sir."

"Second floor secured."

"Grounds secured. sir."

"How many did we lose?" asked Cooper. glancing around quickly.

"Kaufman bought it outside," one of the men said.

"Hockett's dead," another man said. "He clocked in right on top of one of the roof guards.”

"Poor bastard,” said Delaney

"We lost Bishop and Grant."

"Campbell's wounded. We had to clock him out."

"How bad?" asked Cooper.

“Pretty bad. I don't know. He may not make it."

"Connors, you hit?"

"I'll make it."

"Where's Sharp?"

Silence.

"Damn it. Okay, you all know what to do. Find Sharp, see if he's alive. Search the house and grounds. All bodies. tranked or dead, get clocked to TAC-HQ. Make sure there aren't any weapons left lying around. Move it!"

"Well done, Colonel," said Delaney.

"You're hit."

"So are you."

"Yeah, but I'll be okay long as I don't drink any beer," said Cooper.

"Did you get your man?"

"No, dammit." said Delaney. "I had a shot, but I was just a second too late. He clocked out on us."

"Well, we might get lucky and track him down through one of the prisoners, but he's probably long gone." said Steiger.

"We'll have some of Bryant's people on Octavian and Antony, just in case." said Andre.

"Where's Darkness?"

“Who the hell knows?" Delaney said. "He saved my ass back there and then just popped off, like he always does. But he said things at the palace were under control."

"We'd better get back to the house and check on how it went with Lucas," said Andre.

"Cooper, why don't you clock out with your wounded and get yourself and them some medical attention?" Steiger said. "I'll take over here."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

"Okay, I'll meet you all back at the house," said Steiger. "Go tell Travers we pulled it off before he dies of an anxiety attack."

Andre and Finn clocked out while Cooper hurried to check on his wounded.

Steiger stood alone in the atrium. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I'll be damned, he thought. We did it.

"Steiger. . . ."

He turned around. One of Cooper's men was standing by a marble column about twenty feet away, holding a disruptor.

"What is it, soldier?"

"It's payback time, you bastard."

"Simmons!"

As Simmons fired, Steiger made a flying dive to the left. The deadly blast from the disruptor barely missed him. He rolled and came up with his laser in his hand. Both men fired at the same time.

“Now," said Lucas, and Caesar and Calpurnia suddenly materialized beside each other on their bed. Lucas heaved a deep sigh of relief. Andell was right on schedule. He laid his weapons on the bed and bent to remove the warp disc from Calpurnia's wrist, then went around to the other side to get the one that Caesar wore.

As he started to remove it, he heard a voice say. "Freeze."

An invisible fist grabbed a handful of his insides and started squeezing.

His laser and his stunner were both on the far side of the bed.

"Don't try it," Hollister said. "You'll be dead before you get your hands on 'em. Just straighten up slowly and keep your hands at your sides, where I can see them."

Lucas knew his only chance was his thought-controlled transponder. All he had to do was concentrate and . .

"Move away from the bed."

Nothing! Lucas tried again, with the same result. It had finally decayed.

He had hated the damn thing, but of all the times for it to go out. . . .

"What's your name?" asked Hollister.

Lucas swallowed hard. "Priest. Col. Lucas Priest."

"You in command?"

"That's right," said Lucas. His mind was racing. but there was no way out. The weapon in the S.O.G. man's hand was dead steady. And dead on target.

“And what do I call you? Apollodorus?"

"Name's Hollister. Captain. That was some job your people pulled off tonight. Took a lot of fuckin' balls. My compliments, Colonel."

"Thank you. Captain," Lucas said. "I'm just sorry they missed you. Mind if I ask how it went?"

"First-class operation," Hollister replied. "Your people took some losses, but I'm afraid we lost. However, the war's not over yet."

Lucas moistened his lips nervously. There was no chance to rush him. He'd be dead before he got two steps.

"It's funny," Hollister said. "I came here to prevent Caesar's assassination and instead. I'm going to be the one who kills him."

"Of course." said Lucas. "Caesar and his wife are murdered in their bed, the Egyptians turn up missing, and Cleopatra gets the blame. Very good, Captain. That'll change the whole scenario. For a piece of last-minute improvisation, that's not had at all. I don't suppose there's any way that I could talk you out of it."

"I'm afraid not, Colonel. I've got my orders. Sorry."

"Hollister, wait." said Lucas quickly. "Listen to me. You can't ever go back again."

"I know that."

"I give you my word of honor as an officer and a gentleman that if you surrender to me. I'll see you're treated well. And I'll guarantee that the men we've taken prisoner from your unit will get the best of treatment."

Hollister smiled. “You know something. Colonel? I believe you. And because I believe you. I'll make you a deal. I know you'd be willing to die to stop me, but you'd never make it, so why die for nothing? You give me your word that you'll see my people are well treated and I'll let you live. Sorry. but that's the best I can do."

Lucas sighed. "Damn you." he said softly. "All right. you've got my word."

"Thank you, Colonel. Now, just to make sure you don't attempt any last-minute heroics, would you be so good as to lie face down on the floor?"

Lucas hesitated.

"Now. Colonel," Hollister said. “Unless you want me to burn a hole in your kneecap."

If I dive across the bed, thought Lucas, he might not kill me with his first shot and I may have a chance to-Hollister fired and Lucas screamed with pain as his leg buckled underneath him. He fell to the floor, clutching his kneecap and moaning in agony.

“If it's any consolation to you. Colonel, you never would've made it," Hollister said. “I'm a dead shot. Remember, sir, you gave your word."

He raised his laser and aimed it at Caesar's sleeping form.

Whoosh, thwaack
!

Hollister cried out as the weapon was struck from his hand and clattered to the floor. The blackthorn walking stick whistled through the air once more and Hollister crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

Lucas looked up, grimacing with pain, and saw Dr. Darkness standing over him.

“Got yourself shot again, I see,” said Darkness. “Cheer up. At least you didn't get killed this time."

"Feel up to some visitors?" the nurse said, smiling. Lucas looked up as Finn, Andre, and Travers walked into the room. Forrester came in behind them and the nurse left to give them some privacy.

"How's the knee?" asked Forester.

"They tell me it'll be fine after I've had some therapy." said Lucas. He grimaced. "First a bionic eye, now a nysteel kneecap. If I keep this up, before too long I'll be a cyborg. How's Hollister?"

"He's busted up a bit, but he'll live," said Forrester. "Darkness fractured his skull and broke his wrist. He asked about you too, by the way."

Lucas smiled wryly. "He could easily have killed me."

"Why didn't he?" asked Andre.

"Because he was concerned about his men. He said he'd let me live if I gave my word as an officer and gentleman that they would be well treated."