To Crown a Caesar (The Praetorian Series: Book II) (54 page)

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 T
eam 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.

S
antino’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, m
y 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 a
t 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 a
rm.  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.

By the time we traveled halfway down the corridor, encountering no doors, we came to a
nother 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.

Helena and I moved to cover down the
long hallway, while Vincent watched Bravo’s backs.  We sat there for a few minutes, waiting in eerie silence.

“It’s quiet,” Helena whispered to me.

“I was just thinking that.”

“There aren’t any rooms.  Just hallways.”

I nodded.  “I’ve noticed.”

“It’s creeping me out,” she elaborated.

I didn’t smile.  “Me too.”

She started to speak again, but was cut off when Santino voice came over the radio
.

“W
e’ve got a bogie.  A doorway with a large room behind it.  Minimal visibility.  Suggest Alpha and Charlie regroup.”

I sent a quick double click
and heard Bordeaux’s follow just after mine.

I patted Helena on the shoulder, letting her know I was moving out, and made my way down the hall at a trot.  I quickly found myself at the door Sant
ino described.  It was very plain, almost morbid in its simplicity, but the doorframe was far different.  Ornate, decorative and possibly colorful, it could easily allow four Bordeaux’s to walk through shoulder to shoulder.

I squinted at the frame, noting
some kind of serpent dragon stretched along the doorframe, from base to ceiling to base again.  Small wings protruded from it body along the portion that ran horizontally along the ceiling, while at the foot of the door on the left side I could see a head with a forked tongue extending from its mouth and at the base on the right was a tail that more closely resembled that of a rattlesnake.

Very interesting.  The design was clearly Asian in origin, and had no reason for being in ancient Syria.  There were many mythical creatures in most major mythologies of the area, but none as straight forward as a simple dragon.  There
were creatures like Cerberus, the three headed dog, or a chimera, an animal with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail, and creatures like griffons and the Pegasus, of course, but no dragons.

Fascinating.

“What’s with the décor, professor?”  Santino asked.

“I have no idea,” I answered truthfully.  “
There’s something off about this entire building.  Besides the exterior and first level, there’s nothing about it that resembles a Roman structure.  Maybe whichever Roman ordered its construction hired someone from Asia to do the decorating and they decided to leave their own architectural and mythological mark here.”

“That seems like a bit of a stretch,” Helena mentioned, catching up behind me.

“Any better ideas?”  I asked her.

She thought for a second.  “No.”

“What about the tail?”  Vincent asked.  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but rattlesnakes are indigenous to the Americas, yes?”

“Last time I checked,” Santino said unhappily
.

I shrugged.  “It’s not
that complex of a design. I assume it must symbolize something else.  Any of you an expert on ancient Asian cultures?”

No one said anything.

“Wang?” I asked, turning to the small man of Chinese descent, who stood beside Santino.

“I’m from Cardiff,” he replied matter of factly.