Gates of Rome

CHAPTER 44

AD 54, Rome

It took several days, in fact, for Crassus and Cato to coordinate a meeting of their fellow conspirators. Crassus carefully arranged for two other ex-senators to discreetly join them; Cicero and Paulus, two more elders like Crassus, were alive because they too were wily politicians, and at the right moment had stepped away from the aborted attempt on Caligula’s life.

Cato brought with him a centurion he trusted from his cohort — the Palace Guard. Fronto. A muscular man in his early thirties with a scar running down the left-hand side of his face, and all his teeth missing on that side. One other conspirator, Atellus, was a tribune like Cato, but from another legion, the Tenth. Like Cato in his late thirties, muscular but lean, a career officer with a face that gave nothing away.

And, of course, Cato’s trusted old friend, retired Chief Centurion Macro. Just seven men prepared to discuss the assassination of a leader that was rapidly driving Rome — the only beacon of civilization in a dark world of savagery — towards a cliff edge.

‘Do you know how dangerous it is for us to even be in the same room together?’ said Cicero. He was referring to himself, Paulus and Crassus. Caligula’s spies kept an eye out for any huddled meetings of the few politicians left alive. ‘And you have us standing here… with these complete strangers! They could be — ’

‘They’re not spies, Cicero. I’m quite certain of that,’ replied Crassus. ‘They stand out far too much for that.’ He shrugged. ‘That’s why they’ve been my guests here, out of sight. Beyond the reach of spying eyes and wagging tongues.’

Rumours had a habit of travelling quickly through the narrow streets and tenement blocks of the poorer districts of Rome, rumours that could quickly reach the ears of an emperor. Macro had worked quickly to crush the stories being told by his tenants of the ‘invincible superhuman who had wiped out an entire collegium ’ in mere seconds. They’d all seen Bob take that mortal wound and walk away from it as if it was just a scratch. He’d spread the word among his tenants that the large man had unfortunately died of his wounds during the night. Sadly he was not an invincible champion of the poor and frightened, just a good fighter who, for a few moments, had provided onlookers a rare glimpse of hope and cheer.

Cicero looked at them all and finally nodded in agreement. ‘They do indeed look very strange.’

‘What did he say?’ asked Sal quietly. Maddy waved that away. ‘We’re not from Rome.’ She was getting used to the technique of muttering to herself what she wanted to say and then repeating aloud the Latin whispered to her. ‘We’re from another place, very far away.’

‘Britain, I believe you told us.’

Maddy shrugged. ‘America actually.’

The conspirators looked at each other. Sal recognized the word amid the Latin. ‘Are you telling them about — ’

‘ America? I’ve not heard of that place,’ said Cato. ‘Is that a region of Britain?’

Liam shot her a cheeky grin.

‘Not exactly.’ She smiled. No one’s going to hear of it for another fourteen hundred years!

Atellus was studying Bob intently. ‘Cato, you say this man is… is like Caligula’s Stone Men?’

Cato nodded. ‘Not one of them… but he is the same kind.’

‘The Stone Men are of particular interest to us,’ said Maddy.

‘Some of the men from the Palace Cohort think they’re evil spirits,’ muttered Fronto. ‘Don’t like being around them.’

Cato glanced at Maddy. ‘What is your interest in them?’

She looked at Liam. How much to say? How much to tell them?

‘We believe they come from the same place as us. We believe they are the remnants of a larger group of people who arrived here.’

‘You’re talking about the Visitors?’ said Paulus.

Maddy nodded. ‘We’ve heard so many different stories about what happened, about that day.’

‘I was also there,’ said Paulus. ‘I was a witness to it.’

‘Can you tell us what you saw?’

‘It was a long time ago. I saw things I couldn’t understand.’ Paulus shrugged. His old rheumy eyes closed. ‘Since that day I have wondered what we saw. Sometimes I almost believe it was a shared moment of madness.’ He laughed. ‘Bad wine even.’

‘Tell me,’ pressed Maddy. ‘What did you see?’

‘There were perhaps a hundred of them. To my eye, as I remember them, they looked like ordinary people, men and women. The Stone Men appeared to be their soldiers. Their protectors.’

‘Support units,’ Liam uttered in English. Maddy nodded.

‘One of them spoke to the crowd in the arena. He spoke in a voice inhumanly loud.’

‘Do you remember what he said?’

Paulus shook his head. ‘I recall small portions, but then I wonder how much of what I remember is a fiction my old mind has conjured up.’

‘Please… try and tell us what you remember.’

Paulus’s eyes twinkled with moisture as he reached back to try and relive the memory. ‘He spoke of bringing news… that our Roman gods were a cruel trick, a lie. I remember that. He said that there was only one God. This… for sure is part of what he said, because I remember thinking that peculiar notion reminded me of… of that odd, that very strange cult that was coming out of Judaea.’

‘Christians?’

Paulus frowned. Eventually nodded. ‘Yes… yes, I believe they called themselves something like that.’ He resumed his story. ‘The Visitor said that they were here to guide us all… to… to steer us to a better way of life.’ The old man shook his head, frustrated with his foggy recall. ‘He used words that made little sense to us all. Words… I am trying to remember, but…’ Paulus looked down at the hands in his lap. ‘Strange words… like…’ He looked up at Maddy. ‘That word you spoke a minute ago?’

‘Which word?’

‘The name of the place you said you came from.’

‘ America? ’

Paulus played with the word on his lips. Whispered it slowly to himself several times then finally nodded. ‘That is the word, I believe. The voice… he told us they had come to show us the Ameri-can-way.’

Sal, listening without the benefit of buds, picked that phrase out of the exchange in Latin. ‘Did he just say the “American way”?’

Maddy looked at Liam and Sal. ‘Some Americans came here? My God!’

‘Americans?’ Sal’s mouth hung open. ‘Shadd-yah! Remember that man? Cartwright?’

Cartwright. Maddy remembered him all too well; the classic X-Files type: dark suit and a bad smoking habit. He’d turned up out of the blue, knocking on their roller-shutter door. He and his top-secret agency, an agency apparently so secret even presidents had no knowledge of it. An agency spawned into existence by the discovery of a mere fragment of flint. She shook her head. A mere ‘breadcrumb’ left in time by Liam… and it had brought men in suits and dark glasses to their door, filled the sky above them with circling helicopters.

‘It’s possible, Sal. Thing is, we’ve got no idea who else in the future has got their hands on a time machine. It’s — ’

‘What are you two saying?’ asked Crassus.

Maddy listened to the Latin in her ear. ‘I’m sorry. We were discussing what your friend just said. The Visitor’s message.’

She turned to Paulus. ‘So, what happened next?’

‘Caligula descended into the arena. He approached them. We were all in fear of our lives. There was panic. But Caligula, I remember this so well… he was calm, almost as if he’d always expected something like this would happen. He spoke to them. Then he stepped aboard their giant chariot. The chariot ascended into the sky — ’

Crassus huffed. ‘There are so many different accounts. That a host of white horses suddenly appeared from beneath the chariot and carried it up. That the ghosts of all those who’d ever died in the arena emerged from the dirt and — ’

‘I heard it was a flood of water sprites that carried it up,’ said Fronto. ‘Beautiful sea-maidens with long silver hair and the most perfect — ’

Cato rolled his eyes at the soldier’s vulgar fancy. ‘Quiet.’

‘Anti-grav thrusters,’ rumbled Bob quietly.

Maddy nodded. Clouds of dust and debris kicked up by some craft taking off. She smiled encouragingly at the old senator. ‘Please… carry on.’

‘The emperor was carried back to his palace on the Palatine,’ continued Paulus. ‘And the next day he announced in the forum that he was to become God. That the Visitors had come to tell him this and that he must now spend every moment of his time in preparation for that role. That one day he was going to ascend to Heaven and rule Rome

… and the whole world from there.’

‘Caligula’s madness became worse. It had a purpose,’ said Cicero. ‘The purges. The mass crucifixions. His twisted new religion. From that day it all began.’

‘What about them Visitors, those chariots?’ asked Liam. ‘What happened to that lot?’

‘There are stories from some who say they saw them a few times after that,’ said Crassus. ‘The Visitors, that is. Caligula showing them some of the city.’

‘The chariots?’

Crassus shrugged.

‘They were never seen again,’ said Paulus. ‘I have sometimes wondered whether I actually saw some sort of trick arranged by Caligula. A chariot lowered into the arena by some concealed device.’

There was silence for a moment. The atrium of Crassus’s home echoed with the sound of his household slaves preparing food out in his courtyard.

‘But the Stone Men are very real,’ said Cato. ‘And dangerous. Caligula has made sure to demonstrate that very publicly. The question we have to ask is do you think your Stone Man could best Caligula’s guards?’

Maddy shrugged. ‘Possibly.’

‘Even to distract them for a moment,’ said Cato. ‘That’s all. A moment when I am close enough to him. Enough time to strike him down. That’s all I need.’

‘That’s possible,’ she replied. ‘But in exchange we need some help.’

Crassus leaned forward. ‘Go on.’

‘Those chariots… we need to find them. Are they somewhere in Rome still?’

Crassus shook his head. ‘Nothing from that day apart from the Stone Men has ever been seen again.’

‘But,’ cut in Cato, ‘there are places in the palace that Caligula will allow absolutely no one to go.’ The others looked at him. Maddy suspected that was information new to them. ‘He’s given very specific instructions to me on the deployment of the Palace Guard. There are places only he can go.’

‘Big enough to hide these chariots?’

‘The imperial compound is vast. But in the palace itself… yes. I’ve seen a reinforced doorway guarded by Stone Men. Perhaps in there you might find something.’

Maddy stroked her chin thoughtfully for a moment. ‘All right, then. Perhaps we can help each other out.’

Cato turned to look at Crassus and the others. Silent nods from them all.

Sal tapped her arm gently. ‘Any chance you’re going to tell me what we’ve just agreed to?’