Miranda's Demons

by Ian Miller

  Gaius, on hearing the approaching footsteps, lay on the floor of his cell, near the door, feigning a stomach cramp. He knew that Munro wanted him alive, and hence if a guard saw him like that, the guard might just be sufficiently frightened to examine him. It was a long shot, but an infinitely better one than his scraping of the cell wall. The number of steps was depressing. Should he even try? Then he heard Marisa's voice. He turned over, and was quite surprised to see the ragbag collection of erstwhile guards who were almost pleased to be allowed into the cell.

  "It seems I owe you two once again," he remarked, as the door clanged shut on the frightened guards.

  "We'd better get out of here," Marisa said edgily. "So far, this's been too easy."

  "Agreed," Harry nodded, "especially because of Munro."

  "That's right," Marisa said apprehensively, as they made their way towards the stairs. "I'd forgotten about him. We've got to find him and stop him."

  "Why?" Gaius asked, as he bounded up the stairs in easy leaps.

  "He's dressed up to look like you," Marisa replied slowly. She was starting to gasp for air, but she was determined not to slow down. "He's going to pretend he's you, presumably at the big ceremony."

  "We've got to get you there," Harry muttered, as they reached the top of the stairs. "I'd just love to see Munro's face if two of you turned up."

  "I'm afraid that's out," Gaius said quietly.

  "You don't think we can get you there?" Harry asked, with almost a touch of hurt feelings.

  "I won't do it," Gaius said in a firm tone.

  "But . . ," Marisa spluttered, "he'll get away with it."

  "With what?" Gaius asked, as they reached the front door of the house.

  "I think I understand," Harry nodded, while Marisa stood there in stunned silence.

  "And what do you understand?" Gaius asked with a smile. His eyes bored into Harry, and gave the lie to his otherwise appearance of indifference.

  "All he can do is to wreck your political credibility," Harry said.

  "And you have no political aspirations anyway," Marisa added, as realization dawned, "but I'm not sure that's all he can do. Nothing good can come from his taking power."

  "It is not my intention that that will happen," Gaius said quietly.

  "Does that mean what I think it means?" Harry asked.

  "It means that I shall help you dispose of the Munros. Now, will you two commit yourselves to that end?"

  "We have already," they replied, almost in unison.

  "I see," Gaius nodded. "Then I shall help, but there's one other thing I have to do first."

  "Can we help?"

  "I don't know," Gaius said. "First, I'd better tell you Natasha's still alive."

  "What?"

  "But I saw the body," Harry muttered. "Nobody could resuscitate that!"

  "It wasn't the Commissioner?" Marisa asked hesitantly. She had regained a little composure.

  "It was a synthesized body, to fool the Munros who were trying to kill her."

  "But that's marvellous!" Harry exclaimed.

  "Unfortunately, it fooled everybody except the Munros," Gaius said sadly. "Natasha has been found, and the Munros are using her as a bargaining chip."

  "Then we've got to rescue her," Marisa said firmly. "We can find her, I'm sure."

  "No need," Gaius said bitterly. "They intend to have her eaten alive in front of me. To do that, they have to bring her here, because the threat will only work if I know she can be saved, and I have to see her. They will come to us."

  "Then we shall deal with them when they get here," Harry said calmly.

  "If they get here," Gaius added. His face was bleak as he stared into the middle distance, his eyes focussed on nothing.

  "What do you mean, if?" Harry said. "You yourself just said that they'd –"

  "If she's still alive," Gaius replied. "I can't help feeling they've already killed her."

  "You mustn't think like that!" Marisa implored. "You've got to believe she's alive."

  "I don't know," Gaius said. "The omens don't look too good –"

  "To me, the omens say she's rescuable," Harry said firmly, "provided we stop sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves. We'll look awfully stupid if they march the Commissioner up that drive while we're still standing around doing nothing."

  "Very true," Gaius noted. "We must make this place look as if it's still under Munro's control."

  "How do we do that?" Marisa asked curiously.

  "I shall set up some illusions. I may need some manpower in due course, but for the time being, you two can rest."

  "I've got some of alpha squad coming around here shortly," Marisa added. "Can they help?"

  "I'm sure they can," Gaius nodded in appreciation. "And there's one other thing we should do in the meantime. We need to know the Munro strategy and I think that young Troy will give us a fairly clear indication of that when he makes his speech. I see there's a view of the ceremony on the screen in there, so go and make yourselves comfortable. I'll be with you in a minute."

  "Shouldn't someone stay on guard," Marisa asked. "I'll do it. I wouldn't want –"

  "I'll arrange it," Gaius assured her. "Watch in comfort. You won't get any better security than what I am about to provide." He turned and waved, while Harry adjusted the sound on the player.

  "Harry," Marisa said softly, after Gaius had left the room, and they had planted themselves in a rather luxurious sofa.

  "Mmm?"

  "I haven't thanked you properly. I'm sorry."

  "What for?"

  "Once again, you've saved my life. It's becoming a habit."

  "I could have worse habits," Harry shrugged.

  "You have," Marisa muttered under her breath.

  "What was that?"

  "Anyway, this sounds silly, but thank you."

  "It's nothin', really,"

  "Maybe not to you, but it is to me!"

  "Oh, it is to me too! You're not going to be of much use flat on a slab!"

  "Oh! So you think I might be of some use to you?" the voice now softer, silkier.

  "Well, you know, after this is all over . . ." Harry started awkwardly.

  "Yes?"

  "Well, I thought we might –"

  "I might have to go back to Brazil," Marisa said simply.

  "But you can't do that!" This time, urgency in his voice.

  "Why not? After all, I do live there."

  "Well, I thought that . . maybe . . we could . . get together . . and –"

  "Sounds sordid."

  "And get married, and –"

  "You'd have to ask me first."

  "Well, would you?'

  "Would I what?"

  "Marry me!" This time, almost in exasperation.

  "That's not very romantically put," Marisa muttered. "Somehow I'd imagined something different to that."

  "Marisa Robeiro," Harry said, this time with much more composure, as he made a grandiose gesture of advancing and dropping onto one knee, "would you consent to be my wife?"

  "Perhaps," Marisa shrugged.

  "Perhaps!" Harry almost shouted, as he jumped back in total surprise.

  "Of course I will, you silly goose," she said, as she leaped towards him, and planted a kiss on his lips, "but I expect a little more commitment!"

  "You've got it," Harry said, as he returned the kiss. He held her for over a minute, before pulling back, and with a broad grin on his face, said, "You have my life on the line for you. From now on, I'll taste every one of your chocolates."

  * * *

  "The house is now secure," Gaius said, as he returned. He was now dressed in the more familiar grey, and he had a Krezell wand attached at his hip. "Anything happened?" he glanced at the two of them, and added with a grin, "assuming, of course, you'd have noticed."

  "Nothing of significance," Harry grinned at Marisa, then quickly added, "out there. But now the car with Mr Claudius has been seen, and it should arrive in about half a minute."

  "That will
be interesting," Gaius mused. "I wonder what young Munro thinks a Roman would say at a moment like this?"

  "I don't know," Marisa said impishly, "but I was intending to make a list of all the things he shouldn't have said, and run them all back to him later, while prodding him with a hot trident."

  "And to think you and Troy were getting on so well," Harry prodded.

  "You'll pay for that later," Marisa snorted. "Look, there he is."

  "I don't suppose anyone's going to pick this," Harry commented, "but he's just got out of that car as if he'd got out of thousands. Wouldn't a Roman be expected to be slightly more awkward?"

  "I think I could have managed," Gaius said, with a touch of pique.

  "He's very awkward going up those steps, though," Marisa noted.

  "He can't see," Gaius laughed, then added, as an explanation, "I think that rather quick-slap costume has slipped, and the eyes and eyeholes aren't quite matching."

  "Certainly he's not very dignified," Harry laughed. "Hey, who are they?" At the top of the steps, four men emerged from the shadows of the building. The two guards who were supposed to be at the top of the steps seemed to have disappeared.

  "What are they doing there?" Marisa asked in a puzzled tone. "Look! That's Welly!"

  "Welly?" asked a puzzled Gaius.

  "Pennlington," Harry explained. "What's he up to?"

  As the purple figure reached the top of the steps, the four figures came towards him. Before anybody could react, there was a flash of silver. The four men had knives, and they struck and struck again. Two guards approached, with weapons drawn, but Pennlington held up his hand and signalled for them to stop. They were uncertain, and they did in fact stop. Pennlington then turned towards the cameras.

  "Citizens of Earth," he said, in a clear and well-rehearsed speech, "I apologize that this act had to be carried out before you, but it had to be done, and it had to be seen to be done. I shall now explain why.

  "This man, Gaius Claudius, came from a family of men who ruled because they believed they were Gods. As rulers they were brutal beyond our conception, and their brutality was matched only by their capriciousness. Wives of their most loyal assistants were raped. Citizens could be torn to pieces by wild animals for no other reason than the emperor did not like the look on his face. Pity the poor clerk who could be associated with a late arrival of corn. Never mind that the winds were blowing from the wrong direction, or even that the harvest in Egypt was late.

  "But, you say, this could not happen now. We are too civilized. We would not put up with such a ruler. My friends, my fellow citizens, we would have had to. We would have absolutely no defence at all. In those days, if the guilty could not be caught, the man's farm would be razed, his family put to death, and anyone else in the way would suffer similarly. Fellow citizens, we have no defence against those reprisals from space. As you may know, in the great war I fought in space and I know what these great space ships can do. They could destroy whole cities on Earth, and there is not a thing that we could do to stop them.

  "But, you say, this man Claudius wouldn't do that. He is a hero. He saved us from the M'starn. He claims nothing. Quite simply, that is not true. The man intended to rule. Today, he came here not to claim but to demand to be made emperor of Earth. He wished total power, he demanded total power. Citizens! I would not expect you to believe this, but you see, in his hands, his speech notes. I could read these, but you would always be suspicious. Soldier! Take the notes and read them to the citizens of Earth. Neither I nor my accomplices will touch them."

  A stunned soldier stepped forward, looked around in bewilderment, then, noting Pennlington's show of irritation at his slowness, he stooped down and wrenched the notes from the bloodied hand. He stepped back and read, his eyes almost popping from his head as he read a list of demands: the purple, a crown, the sole right to make laws, the intention of using his battleship to enforce his laws, the demand for a palace for his and his sister Drusilla's sole use –

  "Enough!" Pennlington commanded. "Keep the notes as evidence of what he intended. Citizens! You will now see why I acted, why I had to act. Like his namesake, the man was mad. Mad for power, mad for blood!

  "Who was he really? I don't know. We have only his word that his name was Gaius Claudius. The name of an emperor, perhaps taken by a man who wanted to be emperor. The man with a sister of the same name, if it is his sister. Presumably he would sleep with her, and a horse! Citizens, do we need this abomination? I say no! Most emphatically no!

  "Then you ask, surely this was not necessary. I say it was. The man was mad, but undeniably he had access to technology so far ahead of ours that we could never deal with him. This could not be done at just any time, because we had to get access to him. We could not shoot him from a distance, because his body armour reflects bullets. Citizens, I have fought the M'starn, a much weaker enemy, and I know how difficult it is. If an opportunity arrives, it must be taken, because it never comes again. This was the opportunity. He had to come personally, to demand the power. Because he thought that nobody knew of his intentions, he was off guard. This was the only time such action was possible. Citizens, you heard the demands. You know, deep down, that this was the only way to prevent him from succeeding.

  "Citizens! You must each decide how you wish to live. If you wish to live under the rule of an absolute tyrant, who can tax you, torture you, take your wives and daughters, do anything he likes for no particular reason, and who enforces these demands with the absolute power of a vehicle that sits in space undetectable by our technology, then you will find me guilty of murder. But if you wish to live in freedom, governed by your own people, even with their flaws, people who represent your wishes and aspirations, people who are born here, people who understand who we are, then I say to you, recognize that this deed here today, brutal though it is, is all that stood between the freedom you will have and the tyranny you have just missed.

  "Citizens! I give you the face of a tyrant, and I spit on it!" With that, he reached down and grasped the purple headpiece. He pulled, then stood back aghast. There was the face of Troy Munro.

  "What an amazing performance," Marisa remarked at last. "What's going to happen to poor Welly?"

  "I don't know," Harry replied. The guards, having seen the Munro face, had now advanced, and had taken the four men prisoner. The men had not resisted; they were completely dumbfounded.

  "What I don't understand," Marisa said slowly, "is how Welly knew what was in Troy's speech, without knowing it was Troy."

  "That's easy," Harry responded. "I noticed before the attack the man at the left rear had a piece of paper in his hand. I guess that when Troy got closer, he stepped forward and offered him the paper. Troy probably took it, not wanting to create a scene outside the chambers. Once he grasped it, the knives flashed."

  "So Welly wrote both speeches," Marisa commented, then she looked at Gaius. "That couldn't have been very pleasant for you. Please, we don't think those things."

  "I know," Gaius said, "but thanks for the reassurance."

  "Gaius," Harry asked cautiously, "I'm not trying to imply anything, but could you explain one thing to me?"

  "It's all right," Gaius said. "What?"

  "I didn't get that bit about the sister Drusilla. I thought your sister was Lucilla, not that I'm implying –"

  "It is Lucilla," Gaius laughed. "He just had that and a number of other facts wrong. As to what he was referring to, that's the story that the emperor Gaius slept with his sisters, of whom Drusilla was the favourite."

  "Did he?"

  "I didn't check," Gaius laughed, "although it's possible. As an emperor he became immensely unpopular amongst the senatorial class, who were the ones who would have written any history, and there is no doubt whatsoever that power had a bad effect on him."

  "Did he warrant such unpopularity?"

  "That's a matter of judgement," Gaius laughed again. "Not at the beginning, but at the end, he was cruel. He so much wanted people to like him,
and when he thought they didn't, he tried to force them. He was also greedy, and he so envied the money given to temples. He went so far as to tax everyone, including people who wanted favours, which was probably a little ahead of his time, and he taxed prostitutes, or tried to, which was hardly likely to win him popularity. As an aside, his name wasn't Gaius Claudius either. He was actually Gaius Julius Caesar. As another aside, he had my father and mother murdered."

  "So where does all this leave us?" Harry asked pensively.

  "I'd say it leaves you rather well placed," Gaius offered.

  "How come?"

  "Your opponents are making a concerted effort to dig themselves a hole. The whole incident was planned, of course," Gaius remarked. "It was too easy."

  "Except that the victim was wrong," Harry noted.

  "If he were," Marisa said slowly.

  "I was wondering about that too," Gaius nodded.

  Chapter 16

  Beth Hanson was fascinated by the television. She was so pleased Jennifer was going to watch the proceedings with her. Jennifer was sufficiently important that she probably could have got an invitation to be present personally, but instead she was here with Beth. It was so exciting. Such attractive uniforms. Such splendid buildings. The centre had been especially cleaned, the stainless steel was so shiny, the steps were carpeted, even the trees nearby had been especially greened and shined.

  The crowd had reached a fever pitch of expectation. Flags were waving everywhere. Where had they come from, and for that matter what were they flags of? Beth did not know, and when she asked Jennifer, Jennifer seemed strangely vacant, as if her mind were somewhere else. Flags had been very popular once, Beth understood, but now? But there they were. One she recognized from her history books: stars and stripes. Then there were a number with various combinations of three colours in vertical bands, there were some red ones, then there were some red and white crosses on blue, various stars and crescents. But to Beth there were two rather interesting flags that the cameras closed in on from time to time. One was a blue ball in a yellow diamond on green, the other was a purple eagle on various backgrounds.