In the Heart of Darkness

the tasks without hesitation. Those sailors were Rhodesmen themselves. John had handpicked them from the ranks of the Roman naval forces stationed in Seleuceia. Their officers had not even complained-not, at least, after they saw the letter of authority from the Empress Theodora which John carried with him.

The pamphylos began coming about, facing this new enemy approaching from the Sea of Marmara.

John peered intently at the oncoming dromon.

God, those rowers are good!

Several cataphracts were standing on the fighting platform in the bow of the galley, staring back at him. Their features were obscured by the helmets on their heads.

Well-used helmets, thought John gloomily. Just like their damned armor. And-oh, shit-don't they hold their bows with a practiced, casual ease? Just great. Just fucking great!

He stared at one of the cataphracts. A huge man, he was.

God, I don't even want to think what that ogre's bow pulls. Two hundred pounds, probably.

He began to turn away, heading for one of the scorpions. An idle thought caused him to pause. He glanced back at the huge cataphract. Then, he stared at the cataphract standing right in the prow of the galley.

A tall cataphract.

The tall cataphract removed his helmet. His face was no longer obscured.

John of Rhodes had excellent eyesight.

A moment later, Eusebius and the entire crew of the pamphylos stopped what they were doing. They were transfixed-gaping, goggling-by the sight of their commanding officer.

John of Rhodes leapt and capered atop the wood-castle, howling like a banshee. He sprang upon the port wall of the fighting platform and gestured obscenely at the fleet of transports bearing the Army of Bithynia across the Bosporus. Then, apparently unsatisfied with mere hand gestures, John unlaced his trousers, pulled out his penis, and waved it in the face of the still distant enemy.

'He's gone mad!' exclaimed Eusebius. The artificer hopped back and forth, torn between the urgent need to load the scorpions and the still more urgent need to restrain John before the maniac fell into the sea. The wood- castle extended two feet beyond the hull of the ship itself.

Fortunately, the naval officer's sealegs were excellent. A moment later, John laced up his trousers and sprang down upon the fighting platform. He bounced over to Eusebius, grinning from ear to ear.

It suddenly occurred to Eusebius that there was an alternate explanation for John's apparent insanity. The artificer turned his head and squinted at the dromon. The galley was now less than fifty yards away.

'Is that-?'

'Yes!' shouted John. 'Belisarius! In the proverbial nick of time!'

Still grinning, the naval officer examined the war galley in a new light. His grin widened. John's eyes danced back and forth between the galley, his own ship, and the fleet of enemy transports.

By the time the dromon pulled alongside, his grin was almost blinding.

'Oh, those sorry bastards are fucked,' he said cheerfully. 'Fucked.'

A minute later, John and his crewmen were helping Belisarius aboard the pamphylos.

After giving John a brief but powerful embrace, Belisarius immediately climbed up to the wood-castle. Quickly, he examined the bombs resting in open crates next to the artillery engines. The bombs were carefully nestled in wads of thick wool.

'Firebombs?' he asked. 'Or gunpowder?'

The general nodded toward Ashot, who was still standing in the bow of the dromon.

'Ashot told me you discovered the secret of gunpowder already,' he said approvingly.

John nodded.

'Yes-although I'm sure you'll have suggestions for improving the powder's quality. But these aren't gunpowder. For a naval battle, I thought firebombs would be better. They're my own special formula. I added saltpeter to the naphtha. Beautiful stuff! Beautiful! But you have to be very careful with it.'

The movement of Belisarius' eyes now imitated that of John's, not two minutes earlier. Scorpions-galley- enemy fleet; scorpions-galley-enemy fleet.

'You've got a battle plan,' he stated.

'Yes,' affirmed John. 'I'd only hoped to be able to destroy enough of those ships to give Sittas and Hermogenes a fighting chance after they landed. But now-with your galley-we can do better. Much better.'

'Give me the entire situation,' commanded Belisarius.

John blew out his cheeks.

'The heart of the traitors' conspiracy is at the Hippodrome. The Malwa bribed both the Blues and Greens-can you imagine how much money that must have taken? — and are relying on them for the real dirty work.' He glanced up at the sun, which had just cleared the horizon. 'In three or four hours-by noon, at the latest-they'll be assembled in the Hippodrome. Twenty, maybe thirty thousand of those street toughs. Irene also discovered that they've smuggled in several hundred Malwa soldiers. With gunpowder weapons. Rockets and grenades, we think.'

Belisarius nodded. 'Most likely. They'll be kshatriya. I doubt they were able to smuggle in any of their cannons, though.'

The general glanced at the enemy fleet. All of the transports had now cleared the harbor at Chalcedon and were well into the Bosporus.

'So,' he mused. 'They'll use the kshatriya as a spearhead, with a huge mob of faction thugs to provide the mass of their fighters. What else? Where do the military units in Constantinople stand?'

John shrugged.

'All of them are standing aside. Stinking cowards are hiding in their barracks.'

He nodded toward the fleet of transports.

'That's the Army of Bithynia. General Aegidius is part of the conspiracy. He's got eight thousand men on those transports, including a thousand cataphracts and their horses. According to Irene, his main function is to neutralize any military units that might come to the Emperor's aid.'

John's head turned to the west, studying the shoreline of Constantinople.

'Which amounts to Sittas and Hermogenes, and the small army they were able to bring here from Syria. Five hundred cataphracts and two thousand infantrymen. They've been hidden away in ships at Portus Caesarii since they arrived. But they should have marched out this morning. By now-I hope-they've taken up positions guarding the Harbor of Hormisdas. That's the landing site nearest to the Hippodrome and the Great Palace. It's where the Army of Bithynia is planning to disembark, according to Irene's spies.'

Belisarius nodded.

'Which means, I assume, that the only forces we have immediately available to suppress the kshatriya and the mob in the Hippodrome are my three hundred cataphracts and Antonina's cohort of grenadiers.'

'It's worse than that, Belisarius. John of Cappadocia has assembled almost a thousand bucellarii of his own. I'm sure he'll use them against the excubitores guarding Justinian at the Great Palace.'

Belisarius scowled fiercely. 'For the sake of God! Why didn't Justinian disband them?'

John winced. He understood Belisarius' astonished outrage. Under Roman law, private armies- bucellarii-were illegal for anyone to maintain except serving generals like Belisarius and Sittas. That law had been enacted over fifty years earlier, by Emperor Leo, precisely in order to prevent public officials and landowners from becoming too powerful.

'Justinian gave John of Cappadocia an exemption,' he explained. Then, with a harsh laugh: 'Not even that! He made the Cappadocian a general. Just a few months after you left for India.'

Belisarius rolled his eyes in disgust. 'That stinking chiseler's never been in a battle in his life,' he snarled. Suddenly, the snarl turned into a crooked smile. 'Which, now that I think about it, isn't such a bad thing.'

The general rubbed his chin, eyeing the transports.

'Have you got a count?' he asked John.

The naval officer nodded. 'There are thirty-one ships in Aegidius' fleet. Most of them-the bigger ones-are corbita.'

Seeing the blank look in Belisarius' face, John elaborated.