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 i
n 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.”