My heart didn’t so much as skip a beat. While it was pounding at a consistently accelerated tempo, the sensation was normal, and I was focused – on mission – a rarity for me these days.
A ticker in the upper right hand portion of my eyepiece reported forty six hostiles scattered throughout the village, the same number as last night. I clicked my com and radioed Madrina, who sat safe and secure in our forward operating base, little more than a mile away.
“Base, Alpha Lead. Prepare to receive UAV control from Bravo Actual now.”
I nodded to Santino and he returned the gesture with the tap of a finger. In an instant, Santino relinquished control of his UAV over to Madrina. While he could still update intel through his touch screen, Madrina now controlled the flight pattern for the UAV and would be our primary eye in the sky. She was using our spare set of interfacing equipment, something she hadn’t a clue how to use mere weeks ago, but could now operate with a certain amount skill. The hardest part had been convincing her she wasn’t practicing some form of black magic.
“Okay, Jacob,” she said and I winced at her lack of radio discipline. Santino rolled his eyes at the slip up but I pushed it out of my mind. She was doing her job as well as any fish out of water could. I’d had my doubts about allowing her to use anything we’d brought with us from the future, but Bordeaux had vouched for her, and that was good enough for me.
Everything seemed ready to go.
“Flash my eyepiece if you need to update our intel,” I ordered her, tapping Santino on the shoulder at the same time. When he turned, I hooked a thumb towards the door. “You’re on point.” I turned to Bordeaux. “Charlie’s rearguard.”
The Frenchman held his thumb up and signaled for his people to fall in. Helena and Vincent were already behind me, but by the time I looked back at Santino, Bravo Team was already stacking up behind him as he knelt by the door that would lead us into the town. I quickly moved to catch up, Santino already using a fiber optic cable that he had snaked under the wooden door.
The cable had a small monocular attached to the end, with two rings encompassing the device. Santino held it up against his eye, manipulating the rings to twist the lens beneath the door left and right, and to focus it. We used to have a fancy version that connected to our computers and projected images directly to our eyepieces, but I broke it two years ago. Stepped on it. Santino had not been happy.
Apparently satisfied, he pulled it back and tucked it into a pouch on his rig. He sent a nod to Titus, who slowly gripped the simple ring door handle and carefully opened the door inward. Wang stood just to the side, sticking his UMP into the opening. With a quick nod, Santino and Titus moved in, Wang following, with Alpha and Charlie behind them.
Laid out before us was a simple walled city, no more than a village by modern standards, and like any good Roman city, it was easy to navigate. Built along a simple grid pattern much like any legion fort, the city possessed five main roads that ran along its length. Its center road was twice the width of any two of the others and ended at the steps that led to the largest building in the town, Agrippina’s villa. Bisecting these roads were maybe twenty shorter ones that ran parallel to each other.
Along these roads were a series of smaller buildings. During our recon, we hadn’t noticed movement from anyone other than Agrippina and her Praetorians, so we weren’t sure what they were meant for. Whether the town had been abandoned prior to their arrival or if they had evacuated the city at the same time, we couldn’t determine. Either way, dozens of buildings were left scattered throughout that could contain any number of hidden problems.
I led Alpha team to the very first of these buildings, Charlie stacking up behind us while Santino directed his team to a building opposite the road we’d emerged onto. I kept one eye on my eyepiece to keep track of the patrol’s progress as I peeked around the corner to get my first real look at the villa.
It was huge, almost half as wide as the town itself, its bulk cutting off the inner two roads that flanked the main road. Our UAV scans had shown that it sat in the back half of the city from our position, and dominated everything around it. Maybe six or seven stories high, its peek offered a three hundred and sixty degree view of its surrounding area. The view must have been spectacular, with the Mediterranean Sea to the East and nothing but scrub desert as far as the eye could see in every other direction.
I nodded to no one but myself as I completed this analysis in a thought. I pulled my head back, but something caught my eye and I had to force myself from doing a double take. It seemed that many of the villa’s surrounding buildings were incomplete, or in various stages of construction. Some were completed, but the majority consisted of little more than a roof and its support structure. While, nothing seemed out of place by the scene, something about it tickled me in a bad way. Maybe this was a new town under renovation, but something felt off about its varying stage of completion.
Before I could think on it more, I felt Helena’s hand squeeze my shoulder, indicating everyone was ready to move out. I reached back and tapped her leg, confirming I understood her gesture. With another glance at my eyepiece to confirm the patrols were out of sight, I rounded the corner and set off into the town.
I pushed forward, my rifle held out in front of me in a ready position, my eyes partially focused through my scope. Walking us forward at a quickened pace, my team and I swept the roads for previously unknown assailants, stopping at every intersection we encountered. Our objective was to avoid contact before entering the villa by not drawing attention to ourselves. There were too many Praetorians patrolling the exterior grounds to ensure we remained undetected if we started dropping bodies.
It was child’s play. Back in 2021, even the most primitive of guerilla forces could be equipped with signal jammers that could block our communications or low level disruptors that sent out the briefest of EMP pulses that could short out everything from our UAV to our red dot sights. Needless to say, infiltrating this town was even easier than sneaking into the Roman provincial compound back in Caesarea.
But that didn’t mean I thought our infiltration would be effortless. We were about two thirds of the way to the villa when my eyepiece indicated one of the patrols was about to turn a corner and put them into direct line of sight with our line of movement. I raised a fist to signal a halt and shook two pointed fingers towards the wall to my right. Like most of the buildings, it was in a state of near construction. Built of clay, adobe or some such material, the building had multiple large windows cut into place. I leaned to my right and rolled myself over the lip of the sill and into the empty shell of a home. I crouched and leaned against the inner wall, keeping an eye on my eyepiece and waited for the four red dots coming up behind us to pass by.
Their progress was slow, calculated, and when they moved near enough for me to hear them, I heard nothing but the shuffling of their feet and the subtle clinking of metal on metal, be it armor, sword or both. No words were exchanged, nor was there any sign that they were doing anything but their jobs. It was almost disconcerting the level of discipline they were putting on display tonight. They were dedicated beyond reproach, stalwart warriors without equal. Either these guys were the last of Agrippina’s original Sacred Band, recruited from the best and most loyal Praetorian ranks, they themselves recruited from the best of the legions before that, or her new band of miscreants were more formidable than we thought – a thought that gave me further pause for thought. Roman legions trained and equipped in the art of modern warfare would be something worth considering. A few thousand of them wouldn’t sway the course of a world war, no, but they’d be an interesting variable thrown into the mix.
Something worth considering for the book I’ll have to write some day.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Helena and Vincent rise to their feet. A quick glance at my eyepiece confirmed the patrol had passed by us and were moving towards the villa. I rose to my feet and climbed over the ledge more carefully this time. Santino and his
team emerged from a similar house across the road and stacked up, my team and Charlie doing the same. Without a word, I started moving again, following a safe distance behind the roaming patrol.
I could see them ahead of us as we approached the villa, their capes billowing in the light wind behind them, their feet marching in silent union. We paced them like patient panthers stalking pray, and I watched as the large villa loomed into view. It seemed far bigger than the aerial recon first indicated; the equivalent of a six, maybe seven story building, wide and long. It was an intimidating structure.
After another minute or so, the patrol peeled off in front of the villa and moved to the opposite side of the town. I paused at the last intersection until they were well out of sight, checked my eyepiece, and picked up the pace towards the villa’s outer wall. It’s most obvious entrance was up the exterior main staircase that pointed in the direction we had just come from, but it was too exposed. Maybe thirty yards long, the staircase rose almost a third of the way up the building and was well lit by torches that lined the steps.
A far more suitable entry point was on the side of the villa, a door Santino had identified when a small numbers of heat signatures entered and exited from that point at consistent intervals during our recon. The next use of the door wasn’t scheduled for another hour, plenty of time for us to access it.
Bravo Team was already at the door by the time the rest of us caught up a few minutes later. Santino had his snake eye cam under the door again and was scanning for potential threats. By the time Alpha stacked up behind me, he was already pulling it back under the door. He stood and coiled it up before placing it in a pouch on his MOLLE vest. He stepped to the opposite side of the door and nodded. I responded by placing a hand on the handle, yanking it open, allowing Santino and his team to stream in.
I led my team through at a more reserved rate, allowing Bravo Team to handle any immediate take downs, but when I stepped through the door there wasn’t a soul in sight. Instead, I was greeted by a long, narrow hallway that ended about thirty feet down a corridor where it branched off at a four way intersection, illuminated by a number of torches.
And this was when the entire mission rested squarely on Santino’s shoulders. If the rest of the village was any indication, the interior was liable to be level after level of random corridors and empty rooms, but I was confident Santino could find his way. When the hallway that led from the door deposited us into a large receiving room, little more than a gigantic hallway, I felt better about our situation. We’d been in dozens of administration buildings over the years and they were all laid out very similarly. Santino would know exactly where to go.
Like any castle or palace throughout the centuries, the large staircase outside delivered people here. The Great Room was immense, with the square footage of maybe three basketball courts placed end to end. Opposite the main entrance was another staircase that led up to the second level. Surrounding the room were a number of doors that led to offices, kitchens, maybe servant quarters and dotting the room’s flanks were a number of columns supporting the entire structure.
Santino’s team fanned out into the room, taking up defensive positions behind the columns. I led Alpha to the staircase where I took a knee just at the foot of the structure, making sure I knelt hidden in the shadows. Bordeaux swept Charlie to the left towards the main entrance, taking up position behind the columns there. We hunkered down and waited, suspecting a patrol would soon reveal itself.
A minute later, my night vision dimmed, the result of a bright light creeping up from somewhere.
“Alpha Lead, Charlie Actual,” Bordeaux voice commed over the radio. “Tangos inbound from staircase. Headcount: twenty.”
I replied with a double click, turning towards Alpha Team and flicking my fingers towards the rear of the staircase, where an opening would allow my team to cross beneath it to the opposite side of the stairs. Helena and Vincent nodded, and Vincent led the three of us under the stairs to the opposite side. The two of them took up position beside the steps, but I stepped off to the right to hide behind the nearest column.
It was at about that time when the patrol descended to the bottom of the stairs, their progress indicating they were heading towards the main entrance. I flicked on my infrared laser sight, watching as another eight beams of light joined my own, and centered it on the nearest Praetorian’s back.
When I confirmed the others had found targets of their own, I pulled the trigger, the quick burst of fire finding its mark just below the neck. Helena and Vincent dispatched their targets in a similar fashion, the three men crumpling to the floor in a pile. I immediately shifted my aim towards a second Praetorian, and put a single round efficiently in his head. By the time the bullet was making its way towards my second target, Bravo and Charlie had opened fire on the lead Praetorians. Before I could blink, in a hail of coughs and the faintest flashes of lights, there was a large pile of corpses lying in the middle of the room.
“Wait one,” I radioed, and with the flick of my wrist, ordered Alpha to follow.
I walked to the scene slowly, silently crossing one foot over the other, falling on the outer sides of my feet to ensure complete silence, keeping my rifle trained on the pile as I crept forward. Within the bloodbath, I found but one Praetorian still amongst the living. He was gurgling blood from a neck wound that had missed his artery, but had nicked his windpipe. He reached a hand out towards me, but before I gave it another thought, I put a round through his forehead.
My eyes lingered on his lifeless face for a few seconds, fascinated by the fact that I felt nothing. Five years ago, I would have understood putting someone out of their misery, but it would have eaten me up inside.
Now, I didn’t feel anything at all.
Then it struck me that this man may have well been a father himself. A husband. A brother. Certainly a son. He may have had a lovely family he was only trying to provide for. Or he was one of the ruthless scum bags Gaius told us Agrippina had been recruiting for her Praetorians.
Still, I felt nothing.
I was the one with a baby on the way
I did, however, feel a hand on my arm. A familiar gesture that confirmed it was Helena’s well before I turned to face her, and any lack of feeling was gone, replaced by happiness that I’d gotten him before he’d gotten her.
I looked down the hall and saw Bravo Team approach with Charlie behind them. Wang was already checking doors, looking for an unlocked one. He wasn’t having much luck, so he borrowed Santino’s fiber optic device, and looked for rooms that were at least empty. He found one on the second try and pulled out a small bone saw from his medic bag. With it, he sawed through the plank of wood on the inside of the door that kept it barred shut, through a small gap between the door and the wall. It didn’t take long, and with a quick jiggle, he finagled the door open. He let the rest of us haul bodies into the room while he cleaned and sterilized the saw before replacing it in his bag.
I hated to think about it, but Wang may need to use that saw again, and not for cutting through planks of wood.
Once the bodies were secure, we took a moment to mop up the floor with towels and sheets we had stowed in Titus’ pack, dumping them in with the dead Praetorians as well. Once the door was secure, Santino took us out once again, heading in the direction of the stairwell.
We climbed to the second floor, little more than a balcony that overlooked the atrium below. Santino ignored it and continued straight up towards the third floor, its staircase even longer and higher than the last. By the time we reached the third floor I estimated we’d traveled nearly half the length of the building. Our UAV flying silent overwatch outside confirmed my suspicion as it projected our position within the building directly onto my eyepiece.
At the top of the stairs, Santino was presented with two options as a long hallway that ran perpendicular to the stairs went off in either direction. No other options presented themselves so Santino simply chose to go left, and the rest of us followed.<
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By the time we traveled halfway down the corridor, encountering no doors, we came to another perpendicular intersection that headed both ways along the length of the villa this time. Santino halted, checked his corners and reached up to activate his radio.
“Charlie, post up here. Alpha, follow,” he ordered. Bordeaux double clicked his com, and by the time I turned the corner to the right and was following Santino down the corridor, Charlie was already dug in and covering our backs.
As we crept along the hallway, I felt an odd sensation beneath my feet. There was no need to stop and investigate because the sensation only came when I was moving. It felt as though the floor was not level, and was in fact sloped, giving me the impression that we were not only moving deeper into the villa but moving higher into it as well. It was one thing our UAV couldn’t confirm as we continued our journey.
Another minute later, we were again faced with yet another T-junction intersection, this one heading back towards the center of the building or continuing straight back to its end I felt a sudden twinge of frustration at the uninspired design choice of the building. Not only that, but I was starting to feel thoroughly creeped out. I couldn’t be sure, but not only did I feel as though the hallways were gradually elevating, but it also felt as though the corridors were narrowing as well. Combined with its maze of corridors I couldn’t help but feel like we were being corralled somehow.
The building was the exact opposite of those carnival funhouses with all those mirrors and windows, but it felt just the same and was easily as freaky.
I sighed when Santino ordered Alpha to hold out at the junction while they scouted forward. I assumed if we ran into yet another T-junction, he’d order Charlie up and we’d continue to leapfrog thusly.
To Crown a Caesar (The Praetorian Series: Book II) Page 38
