There were a couple of dead sentries at the entrance to the building. Their cloaks denoted them as members of the Praetorians, and the small bullet wounds denoted their manner of killing.
“They’re already here!” I said, kneeling by the first man. The body was still warm.
I took my bow and notched an arrow. We entered the building, to find that lit torches were on stands at frequent intervals. The poor light was to our advantage.
“Grab the thickest shield you can find. The chances are the calibre is large and the velocity is low.”
“And that means what, exactly?”
“Okay, the missile will be quite big, but the power behind it won’t be that much. It means that a shield might not stop it, but it will slow it down to reduce it from being a potential kill shot to a mere wound.”
Why don’t I feel relieved to hear that?”
I grinned.
Another Roman guard was down in the corridor. He was not dead, but bleeding from a nasty wound in the abdomen.
“How many of them?” I asked.
He groaned in pain, frowning as he tried to think through his discomfort.
“Six, I think. They came out of nowhere. They were not soldiers, for they had no weapons, but one pointed something at me and it spat flame and made a loud noise. What was it?”
“Something that shouldn’t be here. Did they each have one or two weapons?”
He shook his head to denote he didn’t know.
I heard a shot coming from somewhere to our left. We left the wounded man and headed towards the noise. Three Praetorian legionaries came running towards us from another corridor to the right; they looked confused.
Gaius immediately told them what was happening.
“Assassins are after the emperor, follow us!”
In the absence of another senior officer, they fell in line behind us. They had pila and shields.
“If you see them and they are carrying small black devices in their hands, get behind the nearest stone wall or pillar. Also, get down low, on the ground if you can. They can kill you from twenty paces away!” he said. I smiled at him; he was learning quickly.
“Where is the bastard?” was shouted in Arabic somewhere ahead of us.
“They can’t find him, so we’re in time!” I explained.
We entered an inner courtyard, to see two dead Romans on the floor, and three men in robes kicking a locked door. They were not dressed in Roman uniform. Two were kicking at the door, and the third was facing us, obviously covering his colleagues.
I killed the man as he started to raise his gun towards us. My arrow took him in the chest, causing him to fall back, dropping his gun. It went off as it hit the floor, chipping the pillar to the left and making his friends aware of us.
“Spread out, don’t offer them any targets!” I shouted, diving behind an overturned table.
Another shot came, and I heard something thump into the table.
There was a balcony above us, and I saw two more men dressed in flowing robes running along it, checking the rooms that led off the landing.
Notching another arrow, the men above were not aware of us, or ignored us in their quest to find Trajan. I waited and loosed an arrow as one of the men stopped to check another door.
He squealed as the arrow penetrated deep into his left shoulder. He spun round, caring a gun in his good hand. He sought me in the gloom, but in my position he couldn’t see me in the shadows. My second arrow hit him in the neck and he slid down making a gurgling noise. His colleague picked up his gun and swore, still in Arabic.
I risked a peek around the table to see the men were almost through the door. I loosed another arrow and hit one of the men in the back.
“Pila! Throw your pila!” I shouted at the legionaries.
Without looking to see how successful they were, I leaped onto the large chest and clambered up to the balcony. The man I had shot lay where he had fallen. There was no sign of the other man.
If six had come in, then two were unaccounted for. I still had no idea where Trajan was. I ran along the balcony, glancing down briefly to see that the last man was impaled by two pila and Gaius was looking up at me.
“Where is he?” I yelled.
One of the legionaries said something.
Gaius pointed to the end of the balcony.
“That way; we will come up the stairs and meet you!”
I found another man down- a Praetorian. His sword was drawn and it had blood on it, but he had been shot in the chest. The breastplate had taken the brunt of the blow, but he was injured.
He regarded me, grimacing in pain.
“Who are they?” he asked.
“Nasty men. How many?”
“Three. I think I got one.”
Okay, that meant the original report of six was not right. So we had no idea of actually how many there really were.
“Where is the emperor?”
He nodded down the landing towards the last door.
“What is there?”
“Stairs down to the baths.”
“Baths?”
“The emperor was having a bath.”
“How many guards?”
“No more, just with his secretary.”
My smutty mind immediately thought of the sexual context. However, that meant he would not be wearing armour, so would be doubly vulnerable.
Cursing I ran on, and through the door. Stairs led downwards, so with an arrow notched, I carefully and silently descended.
The double door at the bottom was open. I could see only darkness beyond. That was not an advantage for a man with a gun.
Praising the technology of the Time Patrol, I knew my enhanced senses gave me not night vision exactly, but something that was vastly improved over normal eyesight.
I slipped through the door, keeping low in case there was anyone guarding the doorway. No one was, so I tried to hear some clue as to where they might be.
I rounded a corner, again low with the bow ready. A shot echoed alarmingly loud in the confined space and plaster chipped off the wall inches from my head. A man sat on the floor pointing his now empty gun at me.
I did not hesitate and shot him in the chest. When I reached him, I saw that he had a nasty sword slack across his chest. The praetorian had got one good strike in!
He was still alive, so I raised his wrist and tore off his bracelet.
“Who are you?” he asked, frothy blood came from his mouth, so I knew his had a lung wound.
“Emperor Trajan’s secret weapon,” I said, and drew my sword. He was dead before I could finish him. Two to go.
Curious, I picked up his empty gun. Like the others, it was a flintlock. I quickly searched him and found powder and shot in a small pouch. I did not have time to load the damn thing, so I stuck the gun in my belt and popped the pouch strap over my shoulder.
I heard running from behind me. Notching another arrow, I was ready when Gaius and two more men came round the corner.
“What took you so long?” I asked.
“How many more?”
“Two I think.”
A shot rang out from the chamber at the end.
We burst through the door into inky darkness. I could hear the noise of water, so imagined that here was the bath house. I had no idea as to the size, shape or depth of the pool, nor of what the layout was. Someone had extinguished whatever lights that had been in here.
I could hear movement to my left.
“Stay here and guard the door,” I said to Gaius. “Don’t let anyone leave.”
I inched forward, trying to see anything. Gradually, my enhanced sight picked up the vague luminescence of the water, and as I progressed, my foot came into contact with something on the floor.
I felt the body of a naked male. I hoped it wasn’t Trajan. I felt his face and it was a much younger man with a small nose; the secretary, probably.