Atlantis: Devil's Sea (6 page)

That made little sense to Kaia, but she said nothing.

The oracle held out a crystal. “This is yours. As it was your mother’s once, and mine before her.” As Kaia took the crystal, the oracle crooked a finger. “Come.”

Kaia followed her out of the grove and into the temple. Going to the altar, the oracle pointed. “Lift the top stone.”

Carefully, Kaia lifted the heavy marble. Underneath was a black slab with writing etched on it.

“This is the list of oracles, dating back to the first to come from Thera, Priestess Kala.” The oracle ran her old fingers over the markings. “Here is your mother’s name, the last to be etched. I will have yours added.”

“And if I don’t return?” Kaia asked. “Does the line end with me?”
“The things I see,” the oracle said, “are uncertain. The visions come from the gods, but who are the gods?”

“The gods are the gods,” Kaia said simply.

The oracle smiled. “So you have been taught. Let me tell you what I do know. I have spoken of the Shadow, but there are those on the other side, where the shadow comes from, who oppose the Shadow. They are called the Ones Before. They might be gods, I do not know, but they have helped us. Long ago they gave us the power to stop the Shadow.

“You need to talk to the Akrotirian Oracle at Thera. She knows more of this than I do. It was where our ancestors fought the Shadow last.” The oracle placed a hand on Kaia’s shoulder. “I suggest forgetting everything you have been taught. You must trust the visions you have. They are the gods speaking to you.” Her finger slid over the long list of names to the very first. “Priestess Kala was the first. She escaped the destruction of Thera. Let us hope you are not the last. It is time for you to go.”

*****

Gaius Marcus slapped Falco on the back. “An excellent fight, old friend.”

Falco barely acknowledged the praise, his eyes moving along the rows of tables in the banquet hall. He could feel her presence, a malignant tumor obvious even on the cancer that was Rome.

“On the last day of the games, I want you to do an exhibition with Corlius,” Marcus continued. “Wooden swords in between some of the fights.”

Falco nodded. “All right.” He had done many such exhibitions where neither man was injured. Gladiators of his skill level were rare and could not always be risked in mortal combat.

Falco saw her. “Excuse me.”

Marcus followed Falco’s gaze. “Careful.”

“I am always careful,” Falco said.

“In the arena, yes,” Marcus agreed. “You have something very special there. But this” –he waved, taking in the elite of Rome dining on their couches—“is a very different arena.”

“What would you have me do?” Falco asked. “Ignore her? Her brother is commander of the Praetorian Guard. Her family has links everywhere.”
“With the new emperor, things are liable to change,” Marcus noted.

“She has promised to tell me where my children are after the games,” Falco said.

“Why?”

“She says because of her love for me.”

Marcus laughed. “She loves only herself. She is playing a game with your mind, with your heart.”

“Does that make her worse than you?” Falco asked. “You only play with my life.”

“I do it as a job,” Marcus said. He looked at the woman. “She does it for sport.”

“You are the one who sent me to her in the first place,” Falco said.

“You know I had no choice. Servicing women like her is part of your life. You know that also. Everyone knows it.”

“But she is different than the other women,” Falco said.

“She wanted you,” Marcus said simple. “Be careful.”

“I will take care of myself. “ Falco walked around the edge of a table, greeting various noble men and women nodding at their praises for the day’s fight.

“Ah, Centurion Falco,” General Cassius raised a hand as Falco reached the head table. “Come here and join us.”

Falco settled down on a cushioned couch. A slave ran up and poured him some wine and setting a plate of food. He was rarely called centurion now, the rank he had held in the army, but he had served with Cassius in Palestine, where they had been members of the famous X Legion and present for the fall of Jerusalem. Cassius was a tall, thin man with a large nose, sunken, sad eyes and thinning white hair. His right arm was crooked at an unnatural angle at the elbow, where a javelin had pierced it many years ago in battle and the surgeon’s efforts at repair had not taken well.

“Greeting, General,” Falco said as soon as the slave had moved away. He knew Cassius had retired from the army, disgusted after what had happened at Jerusalem, and gone to live on his country estate. He had not had much of a future in Rome given that he had brought a Jewish woman back with him to live on his estate. Even among the debauchery of Rome such a union was considered ill advice. “How is Lupina?”

A shadow crossed the old man’s face. “She passed away last winter.”

“I am most sorry, General.” Falco had been with the general on the return trip from Palestine and gotten to know Lupina quite well. A slight woman, not pretty, but full of humor and intelligence. He had seen the love between Cassius and Lupina, even with the strain of what had happened to her people in Jerusalem casting a shadow over it.

“Thank you,” Cassius said.

Falco could tell that Cassius did not want to talk about Lupina, that the wound of her death was still too strong. He understood that feeling. “I did not know you were in Rome,” he said.

Cassius grimaced. “The new emperor is, how shall I say, counting heads. Deciding which ones he can count on and which ones it might be best to lop off.”

“General—” Falco was surprised. He had always appreciated Cassius’s forthright attitude in the field, but here, in the emperor’s own palace, even Falco knew the words were inappropriate.

Cassius smiled. “Still guarding my sword side, Falco?” The reference was to the man who stood to the right in a shield wall, where one’s shield actually only covered half of one’s own body and half of the man to his left. It required all in the line to stand fast in order to be protected and to rely on each other. If one man broke, he exposed the man to his side, and the entire line could collapse.

“You can always count on me,” Falco said as he glanced down the table at the woman who had just taken the couch to the general’s other side.

The general caught the look. “Let me introduce the Lady Epione, wife of Senator Domidicus, nephew of the emperor,” Cassius indicated the woman on his left.

“Lady,” Falco bowed his head. In this matter at last, Cassius was being diplomatic, as he knew well the situation between Falco and the lady. The General had even tried intervening a year ago, another reason for his exile to the country and removal from affairs for the army and the state.

“Noble gladiator.” Epione was lying on her side, her blue robe flowing over her body. She picked up a grape and laid it on her tongue, slowly drawing it in before speaking again. “You fought well and bravely.”

“The gods were with me, lady,” Falco answered.

“Which gods might that be?” Epione asked.

Falco knew she worshiped in the cult of Isis, a very powerful group of women. “Whichever ones watch over the arena,” he answered.

Epione laughed. “Well phrased. Much better than that religion of the Jews where there is only one god. How can one keep track of all the needs looking after?” She had turned to Cassius as she said this, and Falco knew it was a barb at him for bringing Lupina back and putting her in his estate. The general did not rise to the bait.

She turned back to Falco. “I would like to talk with you later about the arena.”

“Falco could see the general’s eyes shifting back and forth between the two of them, but Cassius said nothing.

“Your likes are my commands,” Falco answered.

“Yes, they are, aren’t they?” Epione said.

“The emperor,” Cassius nodded his head toward the door, where people were hurriedly getting to their feet, acknowledging the entrance of Titus.

Falco scrambled off the cushions and stood, head bowed, as Titus made his way around the tables. An aide to the emperor was introducing each person that Titus didn’t know.

“The gladiator—“” the aide began, but Titus interrupted him.

‘Falco. I remember. Centurion of the most noble X Legion. We served in Palestine together. A most miserable place with a most miserable people. I was quite surprised to see you in the arena today. I understand you have been fighting in the arena for a few years now.”

“Emperor,” Falco bowed his head even lower, then looked up, meeting the emperor’s level gaze. He knew Titus had only recently been called back to Rome as Vespasian’s condition worsened and had just assumed the title upon his father’s death.

“And Cassius,” Titus turned and faced the old general. “It has been a while since I saw you, General. In fact the last time, Falco was also at your side, was he not?”

“Yes, Emperor,” Cassius said.

“Curious,” Titus muttered, looking between the two of them. “Most curious.” He slapped Cassius on the shoulder. “We will talk later. There are strange reports from the borders, and I know how much you like strange things.” Then the emperor moved on.

“What did he mean?” Falco asked Cassius as soon as the emperor was out of earshot.

“He fears all,” Cassius said, watching Titus. “He has to. Very few emperors survive to die naturally. He has two fears. One is for the health of the empire. And one is for his own health. The problem for Rome is that, no matter what the emperor thinks, the two are rarely the same.”

“And if he has to choose between the two?” Falco asked.

“What would you choose in his place?” Cassius asked in return.

*****

Kaia stood on the high mountain pass, looking back toward Delphi. She could sense the oracle standing in the sacred grove, looking up at her in the darkness, miles away. Reluctantly, she turned back on Delphi and strode off into the darkness toward the shoreline and transport to Rome.

As she walked, she searched for the third eye she had always had, an ability to see things distant in time or place. She had seen the man the oracle had told her of. The killer. Not his face, but his essence. She had no doubt she would know him when she saw him. Then she turned her inner gaze toward Rome. She could feel the power of the empire all around her, but there was a dark cancer in it, under it.

She saw a mountain with a cloud at the top. Then she heard the oracle’s voice echoing in her mind.
The
month of Augustus. The twenty-fourth day. Remember.

CHAPTER SIX

T
HE
P
RESENT

Dane was more concerned with rubbing his dog Chelsea’s ears than what the secretary of defense was saying. He’d missed Chelsea, an old golden retriever, whom he’d been forced to leave behind when traveling to the Caribbean. Her tail thumped against his chair as he scratched, to the annoyance of the chairman of the Joint chiefs to Staff, who was seated to his right. Ariana Michelet was seated to his left.

They were deep under the Pentagon in the War Room, and the mood was grim. Dane didn’t need his special ability to pick that up. Situation displays along the wall of the conference room showed the devastation in Iceland, Puerto Rico, and Connecticut wreaked by the Shadow. And they were no closer to knowing what the Shadow was.

Dane shifted his attention from Chelsea to the podium when Foreman took the secretary of defense’s place. He had first met Foreman over thirty years ago at a secret CIA base camp in Cambodia, just before he had unknowingly gone with his team into the Angkor gate. He hadn’t trusted Foreman then, and didn’t’ trust him now, but he did acknowledge that the CIA man was the foremost expert on the planet on what little was known about the gates.

“We stopped this assault through the Bermuda Triangle gate.” Foreman didn’t waste time on preliminaries. “And we stopped the first attack before that, through the Angkor gate. I don’t think we’re going to be able to stop a third attack.”

“Hell,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs said, “let’s just throw some nukes through one of these things.”

“And most likely get them thrown back at us,” Foreman said. “Gentlemen, let us remember that the Shadow has shown itself to be quite adept at using our own weapons against us.”

Dane stirred. “The Shadow will come at us in a new way. We were lucky the first two times. They used our satellites against us the first time and our own nuclear weapons off the
Wyoming
the second. I think it’s obvious the Shadow learns from its mistakes.”

Ariana Michelet leaned forward. “The Shadow knows how to cause mass destruction. The loss of Iceland proves that. It used the juncture of two tectonic plates in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and gave the forces there a nudge, and look what happened.”

“I just checked, and Professor Nagoya in Japan has picked up muonic transmissions indicating the Shadow is probing out the Devil’s Sea gate off the coast of his country and measuring the Ring of Fire that surrounds the Pacific Rim. If they can do there what they did in Iceland, then half the world could be destroyed. I think Iceland was just a test.”

“The Shadow destroyed Atlantis over ten thousand years ago,” Dane said, “So we know they have the capability to do more than they did in Iceland.”

“We don’t even know what these gates are,” Ariana noted.

“Foreman answered, “They could be a door to another dimension in our own world; one that we have not been able to access yet but that coexists with the world we know. Or they could be a gateway to an alternate universe. Or they could be an attempt by an alien culture to open an interstellar gateway from their planet to ours.”

“The Russians had a theory,” Foreman continues. “In 1964 three of their scientist with backgrounds in electronic, history, and engineering published a paper in
Khimiyai Zhizn;
the journal of the old Soviet Academy of Sciences, titled “Is the Earth a Large Crystal?” Their theory was that a matrix of cosmic energy was built into our planet when it was formed, and these gates are at key junctures of this matrix. They divided the world into twelve pentagonal slabs. On top of those slabs they drew twenty equilateral triangles. Using this overlay, they pointed out that these lines along the edges of the triangles have had a great influence on the world in many ways: fault lines for earthquakes lie along them: magnetic anomalies exist; ancient civilizations tended to be clustered along some of them.