Operation Rubicon

by Preston William Child

  “I saw,” Nina laughed. “Thank you both. You were fantastic. I'll be sure to put in a good word with Purdue. Keep this up, and you guys will find something incredible on your own, without having to follow me or Purdue into danger.”

  She really needed that talk. It was nice to bond with them after Elijah was trying so hard to cut ties with her completely. They might not have agreed with all of her decisions but she was glad to know that they respected her as a leader. She hadn't completely ruined everything by making the decisions.

  “Say hi to Purdue for me,” Riley said, reminding Nina of the conversation they had about his well-being. “I hope he's doing okay.”

  After saying their goodbyes, Nina headed toward Purdue's office. She was looking forward to catching him up on everything that had happened, but she was still worried about him. Hopefully, he was doing better than he was when she left.

  Before she could get to Purdue though, she was intercepted by a different old friend in the hall.

  “So, did I miss anything exciting?” Sam Cleave asked as Nina was walking through the Order of the Black Sun compound. He looked at her with some awkwardness and part of her wondered what he had been doing in the meantime since she’d told him he wasn't going on the expedition. She hoped he had kept himself busy. She still felt a bit bad about not taking him along. “Or just the same old?”

  “The same old near death experiences,” Nina said, hoping to get a real smile out of him. “Fighting for our lives. The usual.”

  She hoped that was enough to satiate him, but when Sam took a step in front of her, she felt guilt roll up her spine. She prayed he wasn't too mad. They went so far back, and had gone on so many adventures. She knew it was strange to deny him a chance to go on another together, but it was for the best. She knew it was, even if he didn't understand.

  “Listen, I really don't hold it against you,” Sam said and his mouth broke into an uncomfortable smile. “Really, I don't. I get it. You wanted to work with new people. I'm not some jealous ex-boyfriend, Nina...I just...it's getting a little tough. Not just this. Just...everything. Ever since we took over the Order of the Black Sun...”

  Sam was the one most opposed to taking control and repurposing the Order of the Black Sun. She knew that and he never tried to hide his feelings about it. He was quite content when it was just Purdue, him, and her, and the occasional specialist gallivanting around the world together. But, those days were gone, at least for a while. The Black Sun was the focus right now because, with it, they could change the world and protect history on a much larger scale than just finding a relic or two every so often together. Sam was just having trouble recognizing that advantage.

  Sam took a breath and composed himself. She could see the hurt in his eyes despite him trying to act like it wasn't a big deal. “It's just...since we became the Order of the Black Sun ourselves...with this Caesar sword thing...and with Genghis Khan's tomb...among all of the other assignments some of these new teammates are going on...I can't help feeling I'm a little out of the loop, you know? Like, you're all completely on board with this Black Sun thing, but I hate feeling like I'm on the outskirts of this, on my only little island and no one wants to let me jump on their boat and sail together.”

  “Sam...”

  “I would talk to Purdue about this but he's been locked in that office for days. He's busy with whatever the hell is going on...but I don't even know what that is because I'm so far away from everything that's been happening lately.”

  Sam really had been neglected by Nina and Purdue lately. It wasn't intentional, at least, it wasn't meant as a personal attack or anything. He’d just been put aside while they explored relations with their new allies in the Order of the Black Sun. Nina never wanted him to feel so left behind...but they’d excluded him a little.

  “And I don't want pity either,” Sam said suddenly. “Like you don't need to put me on your search teams. I really do understand, I'm just feeling...not great about all of the changes that are being made. It just all feels so different...”

  “Sam, listen to me,” Nina said and put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re going to get your chance in this. It's an adjustment, for sure. Change is...it's hard as hell...but you're going to have your moment. It was hard for me too but now...after this, I feel a lot better about all of it. You’ll have the same thing happen to you. I know you will.”

  “You think so?” Sam asked, and choked out something that was between laughter and sadness. “I just have to be patient, is that it?”

  “Yes,” Nina said bluntly. “It'll come. Trust me.”

  “I hope you're right.”

  Nina pulled Sam into a hug. It was the hardest she had ever hugged him before and she put all of her sympathy into it as she held him tightly in her arms. He needed to know that it was going to be okay, and she hoped this was enough to cheer him up a bit.

  Nina stepped out of the hug after a few moments. “As for Purdue, I'm sure if you talked to him, he’d understand--”

  “He's obsessed, Nina,” Sam said. “I'm not sure about what...but I haven't seen him this way since he was broke and you were Julian's prisoner. You should’ve seen him then. All he cared about was getting everything back. It was understandable, but he barely slept. It was all he ever thought about, every minute of the day. This is like that again. But at least then, he knew what his goal was. I don't think he does this time.”

  “He doesn't know what we're up against this time...” Nina muttered, mostly to herself. “I'll talk to him, maybe slap some sense into him.”

  Sam nodded. “Alright, thanks.”

  PURDUE WAS RIGHT where she’d left him, looking nervous and surrounded by old files. He looked exhausted and the bags under his eyes were more prominent than she had ever seen them. He was barely keeping awake. Evidently, Purdue hadn't gotten any better since she was gone. If anything, he was looking much worse than he had been when she left. He barely even noticed that she’d entered.“I almost get killed in the Roman Colosseum and yet somehow you look worse than me.”

  Purdue let out a small laugh, realizing she was there. “Fighting in the Colosseum...I didn't realize that you’d become a gladiator. What did you face? Warriors? Lions? Partake in a chariot race or two, aye?”

  “More like psychopaths with masks and knives. The masks looked like Roman emperors.”

  Purdue looked understandably perplexed. “I just had to miss the weird one...”

  “That's on you.”

  “I suppose it was, aye. So how did it go then? Taking charge and all of that.”

  “Excluding the people trying to kill us, I think it went well. At this point, it’d be more surprising if there was a trip that didn't involve outrunning killers.”

  “You're not wrong. There's a definite trend. Troubling...” Purdue grew grave. “Those masked killers weren't the same people that attacked us by Genghis Khan's grave, were they?”

  “Not that I'm aware of,” Nina said honestly. “They seemed to be doing their own thing. I doubt anyone would want to work with unhinged people like they were. They wanted to bring back Ancient Rome.”

  Purdue almost laughed. “What do you mean by bring back? Like have emperors again? Reopen the Colosseum?”

  “Pretty much. Insane right?”

  “Very.”

  Nina usually didn't notice when someone was burnt out and ready to pass out, but it was very obvious with Purdue. The man needed to put aside what he was working on and get some rest; running the Order of the Black Sun was taking a serious toll on him.

  “What have you been up to?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come on, Purdue, I know you better than that. You haven't just been in here, sitting on your hands. You’ve been trying to find out about that man who tried to kill us in Mongolia. The one who talked about the old woman and the group that knows about the Black Sun. The one that Julian warned you about.”

  She knew she was right; and based on the expression that crossed Purdue's
face, she was completely correct. That's what he had been doing while she was running around Rome and Egypt—trying to figure out what this new threat might be. They both had thought they were done with shadow organizations after they brought down and then reorganized the Order of the Black Sun. But, if the rumblings they’d heard from the assassin in Mongolia and Julian Corvus were true, then there was something much worse out there. Something was stirring, they just didn't know what they were up against yet.

  “You're right, aye,” Purdue said, standing up from his desk and walking over to the blackboard behind him. He looked a little red with embarrassment, but there was no need for humiliation. She didn't blame him for taking so much time to try and find their new enemy. It was sensible, and he apparently knew she could lead in his stead. Purdue flipped the blackboard over, revealing a mess of chalk lines and messy notation. It was an entangled web of theories and ideas that Purdue had. “You saw what that man was like by Genghis Khan's tomb.”

  “I remember,” Nina said. “He tried to kill us all with a helicopter. Killed himself with a cyanide pill before we got anything...I know they're dangerous.”

  “And they know all about us,” Purdue said, grinding his teeth and turning back to the board behind him. “And we know nothing about them. Nothing at all. Just what Julian said, but that was nothing concrete.”

  “Have you tried talking to him again about it?”

  “I did, yes,” Purdue said and she could see how angry he was. “He just sat there in that display case. Just smiling. He refuses to talk about it anymore until we let him out of there. And it's not like he doesn't have all the time in the world. He's literally immortal now, eh? He's not going anywhere, but he can wait us out without a worry.”

  “We can't let him out.”

  “I know!” Purdue said, louder than he probably intended. His frustration was apparent. He'd clearly been driving himself mad in this room, trying to figure out how to beat an enemy who was practically invisible. “But if we don't do something soon...if we don't identify who these people are soon...who that old lady is...then who knows when they might try something again? And this time, maybe they will hit us a lot harder than before! Everything we've worked for, all of it...we could lose it all again. Even worse this time.”

  Purdue had almost lost everything thanks to Julian Corvus...and now that this unseen enemy was supposedly even worse...she could understand why he was scared.

  “David, listen to me.” Nina made a point of using his first name only when she was being gravely serious, only in their most intimate moments. “We can't do anything about them right now. We’ve no way of tracking them or anything like that right now. Right now...right now, you need some sleep. You need to rest. I think we all do.”

  “And what happens if they come at us while I'm sleeping, aye?”

  “Then I'm sure you'll wake up to face them...but please try to sleep. You look like shit.”

  Nina left Purdue in his office and made her way to her room. She hadn't quite gotten used to her new bed in the Black Sun headquarters yet but in that moment, she felt like it would be the comfiest place in the world.

  She did her best to not worry about this group that was apparently looming over them. She instead focused on how she’d just successfully recovered Julius Caesar's sword, and done it successfully with a team of Black Sun operatives that she trusted.

  They could worry about this hidden enemy later.

  Besides, she hadn't seen anything that indicated that this old lady was anywhere nearby lately.

  EPILOGUE

  THE REAL INSPECTION

  There was a knock on the Old Lady's door and then a tall, long-haired man entered as he had done so many times before. He always brought her such interesting information, so she always looked forward to what he had to say. He’d a great eye for observation and great ears for hearing what was important being said.

  “It has been quite some time, ma'am.”

  Donatello Amaro stood in the doorway, awkwardly refraining from coming any further into the room. He was an odd man, but the Old Lady didn't mind. A little peculiarity was worth it when he also had such a staggering strategic mind. She could tolerate his quirks if it ensured victory.

  “How have things been?”

  “Fine, fine,” she said eagerly. “I hope you’ve come with something good.”

  “I have, yes,” Inspector Amaro crossed into the room and took the chair across from the Old Lady's. He shifted his body around in it, trying to get comfortable before moving to another seat nearby. He seemed satisfied with that one so he remained. Most people would have found that off-putting, but the Old Lady didn't mind.

  “So what news have you brought me?”

  “Well, Rome was something of a roller coaster of late. Its museums were plagued by a group of vermin called the Third Triumvirate. They were thieves that had ambitions to make Rome the dominant world power like it used to be a few thousand years ago.”

  The Old Lady balked. “Ridiculous.”

  “Undeniably, but they were fairly capable with the thievery part. They stayed four steps ahead of the police for quite some time.”

  “But you caught them? Yes?”

  “Of course, it took some assistance but they were arrested and taken into custody. The three of them are currently in holding. Should I let the justice system devour them for their crimes or would you prefer that they make a miraculous escape?”

  She loved how dutiful he was.

  “That depends. Based on what you’ve seen of them, would they be helpful if we brought them into the fold?”

  “Perhaps. Even if we just need some expendable fodder for something. I'm sure we can find something for them to do. They’ll just have to forget about their fantasy of reviving Ancient Rome.”

  Inspector Amaro reached into his coat pockets and pulled out some folded up pieces of paper. There were blood stains blotched on some of the sheets as he handed them over to the Old Lady. They were the handwritten letters that the Third Triumvirate had made; all of their ravings and rantings about restoring Rome into a powerful empire again. The Old Lady only read a few sentences before she chuckled and dropped them to the floor.

  “Yes,” the Old Lady smiled. “Show them that our dream is so much more than that, and that it’s something far more attainable as well. Make them the offer...and if they refuse...”

  “Bury them in so much legal consequence that they’ll never see the outside of a holding cell ever again.” That notion pleased Amaro and the Old Lady knew that there were plenty of people rotting in prisons that had suffered that same terrible fate thanks to Amaro. The inspector continued, running a finger across his chin in thought. “Or, if you prefer, we take a more dramatic approach, we could just dispose of them entirely if they say no?”

  “I’ll leave that up to you and your own discretion, Donatello.” There was another pressing matter that she wanted to discuss with him. “What about Dr. Nina Gould? She was involved in all of this, wasn't she?”

  “She was, yes,” Inspector Amaro said. “She led a small group of Black Sun members on a search for the sword of Julius Caesar himself. She was...tenacious, to say the least. Stubborn. And in the end successful in her quest.”

  “What else?” The Old Lady asked.

  Amaro didn't respond at first, looking uncertain.

  “What else about Dr. Gould? I want to know more about her.”

  “Oh, I can tell you quite a lot about her,” Inspector Amaro said with a proud smirk. He reached into the inside of his jacket and seemed to be rummaging through all kinds of things inside. He pulled out the small notebook that he’d used while interviewing Nina, and dropped it on the table in front of the Old Lady. “The rest is in there. All of my notes. Everything you could possibly want to know without seeing her in the flesh with your own eyes.”

  The Old Lady took the note book and flipped through its small pages. Most people would’ve assumed that it was filled with notes pertaining to the crime case; e
ye witness accounts, descriptions of crimes scenes, things like that. But this note pad had none of those things. The contents of that book were far less broad.

  Every notation inside was a description of Dr. Nina Gould. Every observation that Amaro made while in her presence while she was speaking with him. It was a trick that he often employed; making it seem that your notetaking was for deduction purposes for the police work when the real analysis was focusing on the one being interviewed.

  Nina Gould had no idea that all of her mannerisms had been analyzed and recorded in that little notebook. Every imperfection on her face, every word she pronounced incorrectly, even how many times she blinked in a minute normally. Amaro was sure to also take note of all of her responses to his questions and how carefully she tried to keep him from learning about her secret society.Inspector Donatello Amaro hadn't been inspecting the crime scenes or the case. He’d been meticulously assessing Nina Gould herself the entire time—and it was a thorough analysis.

  “You did well, Donatello. She didn't know what you were doing?”

  “No...I performed all of my tests, all of my examinations without her suspecting a thing. I even tried to take the sword from her just to see how she’d react. It's right there on the last page. I thought she was going to run me through with it...she's a tough one, that much is certain.”

  “Thank you for your report,” the old lady flipped through more of the pages of notes. “Go back to Rome. I’ll call if I require anymore need of your services. And I’ll await to hear what you decide to do with those three prisoners.”

  Inspector Amaro's mouth twisted into a thin, toothless smile as he rose to his feet and bowed his head. “Don't hesitate to call. I’d love the chance to make some more observations of this new Order of the Black Sun that has formed.”

  Inspector Amaro left, closing the door behind him. The Old Lady found herself alone again, but now had a lot of reading to do. She sat there in her rocking chair, looking over all of the extensive notes that Amaro had taken about Nina Gould.