Gates of Rome

CHAPTER 74

AD 54, Imperial Palace, Rome

Cato led them all back down the palace’s main hallway. They passed by the secret passageway they’d emerged from five minutes earlier.

‘Where are we going?’ called out Maddy.

‘There’s a slaves and merchants’ entrance on the far side of the palace. If we’re lucky, that idiot, Quintus, won’t have thought to block it off yet.’

‘He’s not exactly the sharpest arrow in the quiver,’ said Macro, puffing as they jogged.

‘Which is the main reason Caligula appointed him,’ Cato added. ‘If we’re quick, the section of Fronto’s men I posted there won’t yet know there’s a bounty on our heads.’

The hallway ended at the grand atrium and, as they emerged into it, they saw on the far side a dozen soldiers emerging from the hallway opposite. Not men of Fronto’s century but equites.

‘On the emperor’s orders, you there!.. Stay where you are!’ echoed a voice.

Cato hissed a curse. ‘Too late!’

‘We’re going back!’ cried Rashim. ‘Back to my cage!’

‘Be quiet!’ grunted Macro as they reversed into the flickering, lamp-lit gloom of the main passageway again.

‘This isn’t good,’ said Maddy. ‘We’re going to be trapped!’

‘My cage!’ trilled Rashim. ‘Going back! Yes! My cage! My Stone — ’

‘I said be quiet,’ Macro snapped, raising a threatening fist.

‘The Stone Men!’ said Maddy. ‘He’s right! Rashim… he could reboot them!’

The word didn’t translate well for her and Macro offered her a puzzled glare. ‘Put some boots on them? What the — ?’

She tried again. ‘Reactivate them! Awaken them!’

Cato nodded. ‘Yes…’ He turned to Rashim. ‘Can you do this? Make them take your orders?’

‘Oh yes, yes… I can make magic work!’

Cato pointed his sword back the way they’d come. ‘Then back! Back there quickly!’

They turned. Cato grasped Rashim’s painfully thin wrist and dragged him along as he jogged ahead with Macro. Bob bounded after them, Liam bouncing and groaning on his huge back. The girls kept pace either side, looking anxiously back over their shoulders at the clatter and jangle of armour and harnesses and the slap of pursuing nailed army sandals on the stone floor.

‘Here! It’s this one!’ shouted Sal suddenly. ‘This one!!’

She stepped towards the drape, pulled it aside to reveal the concealed passageway. They stepped in just as some more voices challenged them from further up the main hallway.

‘IN! IN! IN!’ screamed Rashim.

They stepped through the opened oak doors into the darkness inside. Bob placed Liam down on the floor, retrieved the locking bar from outside and brought it in. Then he quickly pushed the heavy doors to. He slid the locking bar across both sets of looped handles on the inside. The doors were secure for the moment.

A candle still flickered beside Rashim’s opened cage and by its light they saw the Stone Men, standing where they’d been left, calmly watching the commotion going on around them.

Rashim shuffled over to the nearest of them, out of breath and struggling to keep on his bow legs and arched feet. Sal hurried over and held an arm before he collapsed.

‘Thank you…’ he whispered. He turned to the Stone Man in front of him.

‘You are… you are in full diagnostic m-mode? Yes?’

‘Affirmative. All systems are nominal.’

Cato whispered to Macro in the dark. ‘I’ve only ever heard their leader talk,’ he said. ‘And only on one occasion.’

‘They sound like devils,’ Macro growled suspiciously.

‘I… I wish to talk to you.’ Rashim’s voice seemed to have settled. A lower, calmer timbre; a less manic delivery. ‘What is your current… mission status?’

‘I have no stated mission.’

‘That’s very good. And tell me, who was your last authorized user?’

‘Temporary-User Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. Also known as Caligula.’

‘Your… your last registered user is no longer authorized to issue you commands. Is… is that understood?’

The clone nodded. ‘You will need to provide me with a system password before I accept that as a command protocol.’

‘Of course. Of course.’ Rashim frowned for a moment. Long enough that Maddy felt her heart sink. He’s forgotten. Perhaps not surprising given that his hacking of these support units happened so many years ago.

‘Ahh… yes!’ Rashim slapped his head several times. ‘… I… I have it. I have it!’

‘Please state your password,’ the Stone Man calmly repeated.

‘The pass… the password is Patrick Starfish?’

The Stone Man’s eyes glinted by candlelight as his head slowly swivelled down to regard Rashim. ‘Your password is correct and accepted.’

‘I am your user now,’ muttered Rashim.

The clone nodded. ‘That is correct.’

‘And these people are my… friends. Protect them.’

It looked up from Rashim at the others, a smooth, cool sweep of machine-like eyes. ‘Affirmative.’

Rashim giggled. Pleased with himself. ‘Transmit your updated status and accepted password to your friend… over there.’ It nodded and began blinking rapidly. A moment later, the other Stone Man stirred to life and swept the chamber with its gaze.

Rashim turned to look at the others and spread a gummy smile. ‘Our friends now. Yes indeed.’

The oak doors suddenly rattled under the impact of something outside; the locking bar jumped as a vertical thread of light from outside appeared momentarily between them.

‘They’ve found us,’ said Bob.

Maddy looked at him then the others. ‘Well, that’s just fantastic

… now we really are trapped!’