The Cleopatra Crisis

10

Capt. Zeke Hollister of the Special Operations Group sat ona couch in his room at Cleopatra’s house, scowling and smoking a cigar. He wasscowling at the men standing before him, dressed in white cotton tunics andsandals. They were all standing at attention, their eyes firmly fixed on apoint somewhere above his head.

“At ease “ said Hollister in a voice that was quiet, yetlaced with barely suppressed fury.

The men assumed a position of parade rest, their eyes stillfocused on a point somewhere above him. They did not look at all at ease.

Hollister looked up at his platoon sergeant. “All right,Maselli,” he said, around his cigar, “what the hell went wrong’?”

Sgt. Robert Maselli’s jaw muscles tightened for a moment beforehe replied. “We got hit, sir.”

“I know you got hit. God damn it, what I want to know ishow? And by whom?”

Maselli swallowed nervously. “We don’t know, sir.”

Hollister stared at him for a long moment. He took a deepbreath and let it out slowly in an effort to control his temper.”Tell me whathappened.”

“We took three squads.” Maselli said. “Petrone led thefirst. Morton the second. I took the third. I figured we had plenty of time toconduct the operation. I knew we had at least a couple of hours once they wentinto the bedroom and I figured half an hour at most would be enough, plenty oftime to get the A team back before Caesar was ready to leave.”

Their platoon was divided into three squads-A team. B team.and C team. The A team was Caesar’s bodyguard. with Sgt. Morton in charge. Bteam, under Cpl. Petrone, remained stationed at the house with Hollister. Cteam. under Maselli, was recon and surveillance.

“It was going to be a fast operation,” Maselli continued. “hitand run and get out quick. Petrone led the detachment from B team againstSeptimus and the others. They set up an ambush on a quiet side street a shortdistance from their baseops. Morton led the group from A team against thatSabinus character and I went in with four men from C team to get Marcian. Iknow the idea was to take him alive for interrogation. but he was already deadwhen we got there.”

“Dead how?”

“Shot through the heart with a laser.” said Maselli. “Andthere’s one more thing. A guy was watching his house.”

“What guy’?”

“I don’t know, sir. I never saw him before. He was takinggood cover and we almost didn’t spot him. We took a risk and clocked straightin from the coordinates I picked up when we were at that orgy Marcian had acouple of weeks back. We found him dead in his room, with the door locked fromthe inside.”

“Suicide?”

“No chance,” Maselli said. “Whoever killed him had to haveclocked out.”

Hollister frowned. It wasn’t making any sense. “Go on.”

“We decided not to do anything about the guy keeping Marcian’splace under surveillance. Apparently, he didn’t know Marcian was already dead.so I doubt he was involved. For all we know, maybe he was just a burglar.casing the damn place.”

“You should have taken him.” said Hollister.

“I’m sorry, sir. I guess I made the wrong decision. It’sjust that finding Marcian dead really threw me. It simply didn’t make sense andI didn’t want to take any unnecessary chances.”

“All right.” said Hollister. chewing on his cigar. “What thehell happened with the other two assault teams?”

“After we found Marcian dead, we clocked over to back up Petrone’steam,” said Maselli. “Only we were too late. They’d already been hit. Nosurvivors. I left Church behind to take their discs and clock the bodies outand the rest of us clocked over to check on Morton’s group. They’d been hit, aswell.”

“I don’t believe it,” said Hollister. All right, Morton. let’shear it.”

Sgt. Morton picked up where Maselli had left off. “We clockedover to the Argiletum, where Sabinus had just moved into a small apartment. Wefigured he was only one guy, we’d have no trouble. We could probably take himalive for interrogation. Only there was someone keeping him under surveillance.We held back and while I was trying to figure out what the hell that meant.Sabinus came out and started walking down the street.”

“Alone?”

“Alone. And this guy started tailing him. So we startedtailing them both. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. But after a coupleof blocks. I was pretty sure that Sabinus or whoever the hell he really isspotted the guy who was tailing him so we decided to move in. Only before wecould, somebody opened up on our tail with lasers.”

Hollister frowned. “What the hell.

“That’s just what I thought, sir. And right about the sametime, we got hit. as well. I don’t know where the hell they were. I never evensaw them. Randall and Biers were down before we knew what hit us. Sabinus andthe guy tailing him both clocked out to who knows where. Then we got the hellout of there ourselves before we all got wasted. That’s all there is. sir.”

“Son of a bitch!” said Hollister. through grittedteeth.

“What the fuck is going on? how many sides are there to thisthing’?”

“The only explanation I can think of is that it’s their Underground.”said Macelli. “They must have an entire cell back here. They’ve caught on to usand started backing up the T.I.A. team to prevent a disruption on their hometurf.”

Hollister nodded. “That would fit,” he said. “They could becovering the T.I.A. people, but that doesn’t explain the hit on Marcian. We’repretty sure that he was either in their Underground or another L.T.O. In eithercase, why take him out’? It doesn’t make any goddamn sense!”

“There’s obviously something going on that our Observers weren’taware of,” said Maselli.

“We allowed for the possibility of a T.I.A. adjustment teambeing clocked in,” said Hollister, “but we didn’t count on members of theUnderground coming to their aid. We should have foreseen that possibility. Butit’s still not necessarily a problem.” He got up and started pacing back andforth. “Marcian’s murder bothers me. It simply doesn’t fit. Why would they wantto take out one of their own people?”

“Maybe he wasn’t one of their own people,” Morton suggested.“Maybe we were wrong about him. Maybe he was just an ordinary Roman whom theyused.”

“Then explain the cigarettes we found in his room,” said Maselli.“And the warp disc and the laser he had hidden away. No. Marcian or whoever hereally was had to be either T.I.A. or Underground. We know their TemporalIntelligence agents used contacts in the Underground from time to time. Hell,we’ve done the same thing. So either way, it doesn’t make any sense that theyshould kill him. There’s got to be a part of the picture we’re not seeing. In anycase, it probably doesn’t matter anymore. If they had any doubts about us before,they don’t after tonight. I think it’s time we considered aborting the mission.”

Hollister spun around to face him. “We’re not aborting anything,Maselli! We’ve come too far and we’re too close to give up now! Besides, we’restill holding all the cards. So long as we stick close to Caesar and Cleopatra.they can’t touch us. Not without risking a temporal disruption. They can bringin as many people as they want, an entire fucking army, and it still wouldn’tdo them any good. Caesar’s got to die on the fifteenth and he’s got to bemurdered by Brutus. Cassius. and the other conspirators. Anything they do tochange that would play right into our hands. Even if they figured out some wayto get the conspirators past A team and take out Caesar we’ve still gotCleopatra. And we can still shift our objective to Antony or Octavian. Theirhands are tied by their own temporal continuity. We don’t have to worry aboutthat. do we?”

“No. sir, I guess we don’t,” said Maselli.

“You’re damn right, we don’t. Just about anything we do herecan constitute a disruption, so we stick to the original objective. Morton, youget back to the rest of A team. If Caesar asks about the missing men, tell himthat you sent them out for wine or something and they were set upon and killed.That should make Caesar think twice about discounting the rumors of aconspiracy against him. Maselli. I want you to bring the rest of C team in.From now on, A team sticks to Caesar like glue. B and C teams remain right hereat baseops. If Cleopatra decides to go out, B team stays as close to her aspossible. She’s our insurance. In the meantime, we’ll double the guard here,just in case they’re crazy enough to try anything. And nobody, nobody, getsinside unless they’ve been cleared through me first. Got that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Any questions?”

“No, sir. “

“Right. Dismissed.”

They all snapped to attention. Morton and Maselli bothclocked out and the others went back to take their posts. Hollister took hiscigar out of his mouth, spat out a soggy piece of tobacco, and crushed the buttout in a small dish he was using as an ashtray.

Merely a minor setback, Hollister told himself. So they’dlost a few people. They had expected that. They had all volunteered for thisassignment. this mission from which there would be no return, and they had allexpected to die, if not in this temporal scenario, then in some other one they’dclock to after they were finished in Rome. The plan was simple. Cross over andresearch one temporal scenario early in their history as thoroughly aspossible. create a disruption that would have maximum impact, then immediatelyclock ahead to another time period and try to pull off another one. Keep doingthat, building on the domino effect of temporal disruptions in their timelineuntil they were either all killed or until there was no possible chance of theT.I.A. being able to reverse their actions. Then, thought Hollister, their oneremaining chance for survival would be to find some time period that was stillrelatively safe. While the damage escalated of its own momentum elsewhere inthe timestream.

Until tonight, everything had gone off like clockwork. Theone part he hadn’t liked was killing their own Observers, but there was noavoiding it. It had to be done. The poor bastards hadn’t known what was coming,of course. They had thought that they were just sent through to scout atemporal location for a baseops that would serve as a jumping-off point fortemporal assault missions further down the enemy timestream. But at least theywere able to make it quick and painless.

The rest of it was easy. Killing the real Apollodorus andtaking his place had proved no problem. Hollister had been carefully selectedfor the mission so that his body type would correspond with that of Apollodorusand the rest had been accomplished by cosmetic surgery. Cleopatra had neversuspected a thing. The rest of it, getting the others into place, had all beeneasy once he had assumed the identity of Apollodorus. Cleopatra trusted him.Even now. she was sleeping soundly in her bedroom, having had her bones jumpedby the Emperor of Rome, never suspecting that anything was amiss in her household.So long as she was there, she was the perfect hostage. There were guards outsideher door and all around the building and the grounds. Even on the roof. Theystill had a firm lock on the situation.

Hollister poured himself some wine and walked over to thewindow. The shutters were open to let in the cool night breeze. He looked outat the dark surface of the Tiber, and along its banks, toward the house whereTravers lived.

“Come ahead, you bastards.” he said softly. “Take your bestshot.”

The scene inside the library of the handsome Roman villa ofLucius Septimus was highly incongruous, to say the least. It was three o’clockin the morning. The library door was bolted, just in case any of the householdslaves felt restless in the middle of the night, heard voices in the libraryand decided to investigate. Travers had given strict orders to his householdslaves and they knew that certain rooms in the house were off limits to them,especially the library, but had they glanced inside, what they would have seenwould have astonished them.

Reinforcements had arrived. Finn Delaney, Creed Steiger. AndreCross. and Lucas Priest had all doffed their Roman tunics and were now dressedin black combat fatigues, with lasers holstered at their sides. They had sparecharge packs attached to their belts and combat bowies strapped to theircalves, above their boots. They wore extremely lightweight, black nylon.Balaclava-type hoods over their heads, leaving only the area from the mouth tothe eyebrows exposed, and those parts of their faces had been blackened withcamo stick. There were two dozen other people in the room, all similarlydressed for night fighting. Some of them, in addition to their laser pistols.were armed with night-scoped laser rifles, others with the ugly, mean-lookingdisruptors designed by Dr. Darkness, which looked incredibly innocuous for whatthey were. They resembled a cross between a small riot gun and an antiqueblunderbuss. but they were considerably more sophisticated than either, capableof firing a pulsed neutron beam on either tight focus beam or wide spray. Theirinventor sat comfortably in a carved ivory chair, observing the proceedings.

Lucas and Finn stood over a couple of hastily drawn interiormaps of both Cleopatra’s house and the imperial palace. Seeing Lucas had been ashock for those who had arrived, because they had all believed him dead. But itwas a mark of their professionalism that, stunned as they were, they simplyaccepted his remark that there would be time for explanations later. They wereall bursting with questions. but those questions would have to wait. They had amission to perform.

“All right, let’s go over it again,” said Lucas. “Bryant,you’ll take your team into the palace. Where are the guards’ quarters’?”

“Right here,” said Major Bryant. He pointed to the drawingwith his bowie knife. “There will probably be at least a couple of them postedin the corridor. We’re going to have to get in fast, clocking directly to the transitionpoints that Capt. Travers has supplied, which will put us here, here, here, andhere.”

“Good,” said Lucas. “Now remember, we don’t want any accidents,so be sure that everyone clocks in no closer than three feet away from eachother, Check your final coordinates now.”

He waited while they did so.

“All right. Caesar’s chambers are right here.” He pointed tothe diagram. “He sleeps there with his wife. Be sure to take out the guards athis door right away. And you’ve got to do it without making any noise. Now,these areas marked off here, with stars, are where Roman legionaries areusually stationed. Stay the hell away from them, whatever you do.”

“What if something goes wrong and we accidentally alert anyof the Roman guards?” asked Bryant.

“Make sure you don’t,” Delaney said, staring at him hard. “Ifyou have to, knock them out, but under no circumstances are any of them to befired upon. We can’t afford to raise an alarm in the palace. You’ve got onething going for you. None of the S.O.G. people will be wearing Roman uniforms.As part of their cover, they’ll be dressed as Egyptian soldiers. Either that,or they’ll be in their quarters, asleep. I doubt they’d expect us to tryanything this desperate. So with any luck, you’ll get most of them in bed. Ihope.”

“Yeah, so do I,” said Bryant.

“Use disruptors on all the bodies,” Lucas said. “I want themall to disappear without a trace.”

“How are you going to explain that?” asked Sgt. Neilson, who’dworked with them before on a mission in 19th-century London.

“It’s not your job to worry about that, Scott,” Lucas said. “Leavethat part to me. I’ve got it covered.”

“Yes, sir. Sorry. sir.”

“No need to apologize. You just do your part, well take careof ours. You’ll have more than enough to worry about. You guys are going tohave to move fast and there won’t be any room for mistakes.”

“That’s what I’ve always liked about you. Lucas,” saidBryant with a smile. “You always give me the easy jobs.”

“You’ll have the Doc here for backup,” said Lucas. “in caseanything goes wrong. But don’t count on him for everything. He can’t beeverywhere at once, even though it sometimes seems that way.”

“Glad to have you along, Doctor.” Bryant said.

“Just try not to trip over one another and wake up the wholepalace.” Darkness said.

“We’ll take our shoes off and walk on tippy-toe,” Bryant replied,deadpan.

“Okay, Cooper. let’s go over your end of it,” Lucas said.

Col. Cooper was the commander of the Temporal Counter insurgencystrike force headquartered in Galveston. The T.C.I. troops were elite combatcommandos, specially formed by General Forrester to deal with S.O.G. infiltrations.They were on constant standby. in combat readiness, and for this operation,Cooper had clocked in with a dozen picked men.

“We’ll be going in with Delaney. Cross. and Steiger to hitCleopatra’s house.” Cooper said. “There are some Roman soldiers stationedoutside, here at the front gates.” He pointed to the second diagram. “We trankthem with stun darts. I have three men clock in here, here, and here. Thatshould give them a good shot at the guards. What about traffic in the street?”

“There isn’t any traffic on that street this time of night,so the the risk should be minimal.” said Lucas. “But if any pedestrians happen toget in the way, trank them, too.”

“Got it,” Cooper replied with a curt nod. “The rest of mypeople clock in here. here, and here. Three on the roof, three in the backgarden, three in the atrium.”

“Right.” Lucas said. “Now here’s where it gets unpleasant.Some of the people in there could be Egyptian slaves, or they could all beS.O.G. Unfortunately, we haven’t got any way of telling that for sure. Thatputs your people in a pretty tricky situation. Except for the legionaries atthe front gate, anyone stationed on guard duly will be S.O.G. for sure, so don’ttake any chances with them. Take them out right away. But the moment you getinside the house, you run the risk of killing innocent civilians, so use yourstunners. Unless you see someone carrying any weapon other than a dagger or asword. In that case, take ’em out. But we need to get at least one or two ofthem alive for interrogation, just to make sure we’ve got them all. Now there’sgoing to be a risk factor involved in doing it that way. Anyone you trank, yougot maybe a second or two before they go down, and if they’ve got a concealedweapon on them. they just might have enough time to get off a shot before thedrug takes effect, so watch yourselves. Stay in your teams of three. Two mencarrying stunners, the third ready with a laser or disruptor. Again, speed’sgoing to be critical, but remember that these people are all pros. All right,Finn. let’s go over your part.”

“Creed. Andre, and I are clocking in directly to the peristylum,right here.” Delaney said, pointing to the drawing. “Our objective is totry to take Apollodorus alive, if possible. As soon as the house has beensecured, we conduct a thorough search, remove anything that doesn’t belongthere, then get right back here.”

“Right,” Lucas said. lie looked around at them. “Any questions?”

Cooper shook his head. “No. My people are ready.”

“None here,” said Bryant.

“I guess we’re set,” Delaney said.

Lucas took a deep breath. “All right, then. Everyone standby. Doc, you want to go get our guest of honor?”

“I’d be delighted,” Darkness said. He disappeared.

Simmons listened on the headphones as he aimed the dish mikeat Travers’ house.

“What’s going on?” asked one of the Network men beside him.They were concealed behind a clump of bushes near the riverbank.

“They’ve clocked in reinforcements.” Simmons said. “From thesound of it. some of them are old First Division commandos and some are T.C.I.troops.”

“T.C.I.?” one of the others said. “Jesus. theybrought in the fucking strike force?”

“Yeah. Cooper’s in there. I can’t tell exactly how many ofhis people he’s brought with him, but I’d say at least a dozen, plus the T.I.A.assault team. Bryant’s in command, so it sounds like they brought in some ofthe old First Division people.”

“Shit. This just became a brand-new ballgame.”

“It’s still the same game, Rick. There’s just a few moreplayers, that’s all,” Simmons replied.

“The hell you say! Taking on First Division commandos is hadenough, but Cooper’s a stone-cold killer. Some of his strike force recruits don’teven survive the training. What the hell are they planning in there, a goddamnwar?”

“That’s about the size of it,” said Simmons. “They’re aboutto launch a simultaneous two-pronged assault against the S.O.G.. in the palaceand at Cleopatra’s house.”

“Fuck. They are crazy. No way do I want any part ofthis!”

“We came here to do a job, Warren.” said Simmons.

“Yeah, against Steiger and maybe the adjustment team. butnot a whole assault force. There’s only eight of us, for Christ’s sake!”

“We don’t have to take on the whole assault force,” Simmonssaid. “All we have to do is pick the right moment, take out Steiger in all theconfusion and we’re gone.”

“Forget it! I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m notabout to take my chances against those kind of odds. You want that bounty onSteiger so bad. Simmons, you’re welcome to it. I’m outta here.”

“Warren …” Simmons began. but Warren had already clockedout. “Warren? Son of a bitch!”

“Warren’s right,” one of the others said. “This whole thingjust became too hot to handle. Let’s get the hell out of here. It’s not worthit.”

“It’s worth it to me.” insisted Simmons. “That bastardbusted up some of our hest operations and he cost me my career. And he did thesame thing to every one of you.”

“So there’ll be other opportunities to square accounts,” theman named Rick said. “This one just went sour. It’s just too risky. I’m out.”

“So am I,” one of the others said.

“Me, too. I didn’t bargain for this.”

“Fine,” said Simmons coldly. “If you gutless wonders want totuck your tails between your legs and run, then go. I don’t need you. I’ll doit myself “

“Don’t be a fool. Why take the chance? There’ll be anothertime.”

“No,” said Simmons firmly. “It’s gonna be this time. Righthere. Right now.”

“Suit yourself.” said Rick. shaking his head. “It’s yourfuneral.”

“Oh, there’ll be a funeral, all right.” said Simmons. “Onlyit ain’t gonna be mine.”

There were two guards standing on either side of the doorwayto Cleopatra’s bedroom. Neither of them heard a thing as Darkness suddenlymaterialized beside the Queen of Egypt’s bed. He reached out and flung thebedclothes off her and as she jerked awake with a gasp. he pulled her into histachyon field and translocated. Before Cleopatra could even react to what washappening. she had reappeared with Darkness a nanosecond later in the libraryof Travers’ home. Corwin held her while Castelli fired a stun dart into herupper arm.

“Sorry about that, Your Highness,” said Castelli. “But it’llbe okay. you won’t remember a damn thing.”

She collapsed in Corwin’s arms with a small moan.

Lucas gave the order. “Okay, people. Move out!” Bryant’steam clocked out to the palace. Simultaneously. Cooper’s strike force unitclocked to Cleopatra’s house. “Okay.” Lucas said to Castelli and Corwin. “Youknow what to do. Move.”

Castelli and Corwin snapped a preprogrammed warp disc aroundCleopatra’s wrist and clocked out to the future.

“Andell. you ready?” Lucas said.

“Ready,” said Sgt. Andell.

“Okay, Finn, get going,” Lucas said.

“Good luck. Lucas.” said Delaney.

“You. too.”

“Travers. if we’re not back in ten minutes. get the hell outof here,” Delaney said.

“You’ll be back,” said Travers.

“Okay.” said Lucas. ‘Let’s go for broke.” They all clockedout together,!caving Travers alone in the library. He crossed his fingers.

There were two S.O.G. men standing guard outside the door ofCaesar’s chambers. Two more were stationed in front of the sleeping quarters ofthe guards. There was a sudden whoosh. followed by a loud thwaack! One of the guards at Caesar’s door crumpled unconscious to the ground. Theother guard jerked around, startled, but he didn’t see a thing except theunconscious form of his companion. Suddenly a disembodied hand appearedfloating in midair, about a foot and a half in front of him. It was holding ablackthorn walking stick. The guard’s jaw dropped as he stared at it with astonishment.Whoosh. thwaack! Two down.

Major Bryant materialized in front of the two fallen guards.holding his disruptor. He glanced down quickly at their unconscious forms, thenlooked up to see Dr. Darkness leaning back against the wall, blowing animaginary speck of dust from the head of his walking stick. Bryant tossed him acasual salute. Darkness touched his walking stick to the brim of his hat.

At the same time, the other commandos of Bryant’s teamclocked in to their transition points. They fired their disruptors and theguards were briefly wreathed in the blue glow of Cherenkov radiation as theneutron beams struck them, then they disintegrated. They never even had achance to scream. Bryant aimed his disruptor down at the unconscious guards andquickly disposed of them, then moved quickly and silently toward the sleepingquarters of the other S.O.G. men. Moving softly, the commandos fanned outthroughout the room, covering the sleeping guards. One of them, either feelingthe call of nature or reacting subconsciously to their presence. woke up. hehad only an instant in which to register the black-clad men spread out through-outthe room. he opened his mouth to shout out a warning. but at that preciseinstant, they all fired. The room became bathed in the bright blue glow of Cherenkovradiation as the S.O.G. men, their bedclothes, and their beds alldisintegrated. It was over in a matter of seconds.

As Bryant and his team coped with the guards. Lucas and Andellclocked directly into Caesar’s bedroom. Calpurnia was sound asleep, but Caesar,a light sleeper with instincts honed by year of battle, awoke as they startedto move toward his bed. He sat up suddenly as Lucas quickly raised his stunnerand fired a dart into his chest. Caesar jerked and fell back onto the bed. Atthe same time. Andell fired a dart into Calpurnia. She jerked slightly andmoaned, then lay perfectly motionless.

“A trifle late, there.” Darkness said as he appearedstanding against the wall, toying with his walking stick. “How are the othersdoing?” Lucas said as he and Andell quickly started strapping preprogrammedwarp discs around the wrists of Caesar and his wife.

“Surprisingly, they seem to have the situation well in hand,”said Darkness. “I’d better go check on that great clod, Delaney, and see if he’smanaged to do his part without shooting himself in the foot.”

He disappeared.

“If you ask me. that man’s a few cards short of a full deck.”Andell said.

“Maybe,” Lucas replied. “but what cards he does have are allmarked. You ready’?”

“Ready,” said Andell.

“Okay, check your time. I want them both clocked back hereexactly one minute from now. Ready?”

“Mark!” Andell said.

“Go!”

Andell activated the warp disc on Calpurnia’s wrist while Lucassimultaneously clocked out Caesar. They both vanished.

“All right. I’m on my way,” Andell said. “Good luck, Lucas.”

“You, too.”

Andell clocked out.

Now came the tough part. Lucas held his laser pistol in onehand and his stunner in the other. he stood back against the wall, out ofimmediate sight of anyone who might be coming through the doorway. but in aposition where he could clearly see them. Now all he had to do was keep theroom secure and wait for the longest minute in the world.

Cooper’s strike force troops started moving the second theyclocked in. Three of them took down the legionaries posted at the front gates.aiming carefully and firing their stun darts into the exposed flesh at theupper arms and thighs of the soldiers, where their breastplates could notdeflect them. Then they immediately started moving onto the grounds. Three moremen clocked in on the roof and that was where they sustained their firstcasualty.

One of the S.O.G. guards on the rooftop just happened tomove to the same spot where one of Cooper’s men was clocking in. Two objectscould not occupy the same time and space simultaneously. There was a brief,agonized scream, and then a hideous, misshapen mass of bloody, writhing fleshthat was barely recognizable as being human fell to the rooftop. For aninstant, the other rooftop guards were too shocked to move and in that instant.Cooper’s men fired their disruptors. The S.O.G. men were briefly wreathed in ablue aura, then they disappeared.

“Oh. God,” one of Cooper’s men said, staring at the horror lyingat his feet.

The other one fired his disruptor at it, disintegrating thesickening remains of two fused human bodies. come on, snap out of it! The wholehouse must’ve heard that scream!”

Indeed, the whole house had. In that moment, the element ofsurprise so necessary to the speedy conclusion of the raid was lost. Hollisterheard the scream and came awake instantly. rolling out of bed and lunging forhis weapon. He was already shouting out a warning at the top of his lungs ashis fingers closed around it and he went running out into the hall barefoot,dressed only in his tunic The guards outside Cleopatra’s bedroom immediatelyran inside to seize their hostage and were dismayed to see the bed empty. Theywasted valuable seconds looking for her around the room. By the time they heardthe sounds behind them, it was already too late. The stun darts struck them asthey turned and collapsed to the floor.

Outside on the grounds, laser beams crisscrossed in the darknessas the firelight erupted between the S.O.G. men on security duty and the men ofCooper’s unit. As Delaney. Steiger, and Andre clocked into the peristylum, they could already hear the sounds of shouting and running feet.

“God damn it!” said Delaney. “Come on. let’s move!”

They ran across the open space of the courtyard, heading towardthe servants’ quarters.

“Watch it!” Andre shouted.

She dove to the ground and rolled as a laser beam stabbedthrough the air above her and fired as she came up. One of the S.O.G. men fell.Delaney dropped another one and they kept going, moving as quickly as theycould, the adrenaline pounding through their systems.

Hollister spotted three men moving down the corridor andfired without hesitation. Two of Cooper’s men fell dead, one of them the manarmed with the disruptor. The third man brought up his stunner and fired, butHollister quickly ducked behind a column and fired. The third man went down.

Laser beams made a webwork of light in the atrium as the twoopposing forces met in the central hall. Cooper’s team had taken casualties,but the S.O.G. men in the grounds had all been dealt with and the fight nowmoved entirely indoors. Several of the household slaves ran screaming in terrordown the corridors and were dropped by stun darts, though a few ran directlyinto the path of laser and disruptor beams and ceased to exist. Others coweredfearfully in their quarters, convinced the world was coming to an end, while afew simply dropped down to their knees in supplication before the invadingdemons and were quickly tranked.

Outside. Simmons moved carefully across the grounds. crouchinglow and taking advantage of the darkness, holding his laser pistol ready. Hiswarp disc was already preprogrammed with his escape coordinates. Screw the others,he thought. Who needs them? This was the perfect opportunity. In all theconfusion, he could slip in and nail Steiger. then be gone before anybodyrealized what had happened. He bent over the body of one of Cooper’s men.Perfect. He quickly stripped off his own clothes and started putting on thecorpse’s T.C.I. fatigues. He slipped the black Balaclava hood over his head,then smiled as he picked up the disruptor. Hollister came bursting into Cleopatra’sroom, then stopped as he saw the unconscious bodies of his men lying on thefloor. There was no sign of Cleopatra. Somehow, incredibly, they had managed toget her out. He couldn’t believe it. He heard running footsteps coming down thehall. He quickly punched in a preprogrammed sequence of transition coordinatesand clocked out just as Delaney came diving through the doorway, firing hisstunner. The dart passed harmlessly through empty air.

Lucas waited tensely, glancing every couple of seconds atthe readout on his warp disc. The time was almost up. Andell had clocked toPlus Time with Caesar and Calpurnia, as had Castelli and Corwin. withCleopatra. It would take days for them to be properly conditioned by the psychteams at TAC-HQ, but then they would be clocked back to Minus Time so that onlyone minute would have passed since they’d been gone. They would reappear,sedated. safely in their own beds. They would wake up several, hours later.completely oblivious of what had happened to them.

As soon as the operation at Cleopatra’s house was concluded,assuming that it was concluded successfully, the survivors would be clocked toPlus Time and interrogated under drugs. The household slaves would then he separatedfrom any surviving S.O.G. infiltrators. Castelli would take charge of a teamthat would clock out to ancient Egypt. where they would purchase slaves thatwould replace the S.O.G. men. Once those slaves had been acquired from themarkets in Alexandria. they would then be tranked and clocked to Plus Time,when: they would be conditioned to believe that they had been in the Queen of Egypt’sservice all along. Cleopatra herself would be conditioned to believe that theyhad come to Rome with her. Then Castelli and his team would clock back in withthem, all before daybreak.

Cleopatra would remember nothing of what had happened toher. She would recall meeting Marcus Septimus and his wife, Antonia, though shewould believe that they had left Rome. Both Caesar and Calpurnia would recallhow he had dismissed his Egyptian bodyguard because he did not wish to give theappearance that he feared his enemies or that he was too much under theinfluence of a foreign queen.

In a matter of seconds. Lucas thought, if all goes well.Caesar and his wife would reappear in their bed and they would wake up in themorning as if nothing had ever happened. Cleopatra and her new slaves would beclocked back into her house.

They had put the plan together quickly. but it seemed toLucas as if they’d covered every contingency. At least, he hoped they had.Everything hinged on the assault against the S.O.G. unit at Cleopatra’s housebeing successful. Lucas checked the time again. Another few seconds. Heswallowed nervously. Had they covered everything? All right. he thought, comeon. What have we missed? What else can go wrong?

Hollister materialized inside the quarters assigned to hismen at the imperial palace. And froze. absolutely stunned. He recovered quicklyand glanced around, sweeping his weapon around the room, but Bryant and histeam had already left. He had missed encountering them by scant seconds, hemoved quickly to the door leading to the corridor and listened intently.Everything seemed quiet. For a moment, he simply stood there, not moving. Herisked a glance out into the corridor. There was no sign of his men. They wereall gone, every last one of them. Jesus, Hollister thought. they must have hitthe palace and the house at the same time! He was staggered by their audacity.They must have clocked into the palace, and while Caesar slept just a shortdistance down the hall, they had killed every one of his men and gotten outagain, a lightning operation, brilliantly executed and devastatingly efficient.He had never dreamed they would dare take such a risk. He had vastlyunderestimated them and it had cost him. It had cost him everything.

His mind reeled as he realized that his operation wastotally undone. All that work, all that preparation, wiped out in just onenight. It was beyond belief. How in hell had they managed to snatch Cleopatra?And how could they cover everything that they had done without risking atemporal disruption? He had to think. He had to put himself in their shoes andimagine what he might have done if he were in their place. And if he weredesperate enough to try something like this. Desperate. hell. he told himself,the bastards had actually pulled it off.

All right, he thought, if they snatched Cleopatra, theycould do a wash job on her brain. Program her and she’d come out believingwhatever 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 escapecoordinates and rendezvous as planned. He wasn’t finished yet. Even if he wasthe only one left, he could still do some damage here.

Hollister. well trained in temporal terrorist tactics, hadquickly and professionally sized up the situation. He was not the sort of manto panic when things fell apart. He was a pro and he kept his mind on hismission. The parameters had changed drastically and he had to adapt to the newsituation without a moment’s hesitation. he realized that the success of theT.I.A.

strike was totally dependent on everything beingaccomplished during this one night. The activities of mission support teamsback at headquarters in Plus Time would have to be completely governed by thetimetable of the team in Rome. The timing would be close. If they’d taken Caesarwhen they killed his men, which would have been the only time when they coulddo it. they would have to return him by morning in order to minimize the dangerof 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 onschedule.

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

There could then be no explanation for the sudden disappearanceof the Egyptian bodyguard. The blame for Caesar’s death would fall onCleopatra. instead of on Brutus, Cassius. and the other conspirators. She wouldbe arrested, tried, and executed. She would never live to join forces withAntony against Octavian. It would not be as great a disruption as they’doriginally planned, but it would be a disruption nonetheless. It might evenbring about a timestream split. Best of all, the T.I.A. wouldn’t be expectingit. When they discovered that they’d missed “Apollodorus,” they’d naturallyassume that he’d escaped to some other time period. It would have been thelogical 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, butit was worth a try.

Slowly, cautiously, holding his weapon ready, Hollistermoved out into the corridor, heading toward Caesar’s chambers.