passed numerous rooms, and more artwork, the latter of which providing us some concealment as we kept moving. Santino, on point, started to slow as he approached the end of the hallway before it ended with another hallway running perpendicular to the one we’d just walked down. If Agrippina’s directions were right, Nero’s room should just be around the corner. So far we hadn’t seen any guards, which did little to ease my nervousness, but when Santino stopped, knelt, and looked around the corner using a small mirror, he indicated he saw two of them.
“You go first,” he whispered. “Take out the far one.”
I moved into position along the opposite wall, ready to hurl myself down the adjacent hallway. Securing one of my feet against the wall behind me, I nodded to Santino.
He held out three fingers, slowly counting them down to a clenched fist. When he did, I leapt into action. Using the wall as a springboard, I practically flew across our hallway, rounding the corner in as wide a turn as I could manage. Just as I caught sight of the guards, who were lazily resting their hands on the hilts of their swords, I fell into a roll, landing past the first guard, and right in front of the second. In one fluid motion I stepped up from the roll, and swung my elbow upwards into the second guard’s jaw. I heard teeth shatter, and felt my elbow bruise. I ignored the pain and wrapped my arm around the man’s neck, and stepped behind him, placing him in an effective choke hold. Using his body as a shield, I turned to face the first guard while I choked the life from the man I held. My carefulness was unnecessary, however, as Santino used my distraction to simply walk up behind the first guard, and shove his knife upwards into the man’s brain through the bottom of his jaw.
We dropped our fresh kills, opened the door into Nero’s room, and dragged them inside.
“I thought they only did rolls in the movies,” Santino wondered, dragging his kill.
“If you’re going to do anything,” I pointed out, “you might as well look good doing it.”
He snickered. A few seconds later, we had the bodies in the room, and the door shut behind us. We only had one real test left, and that was making sure the boy didn’t freak out when he saw us. He was only a baby after all, and I knew as much about them as I did women, which didn’t inspire much confidence. I could only imagine Santino knew even less.
Moving further into the room, we took up positions on either side of the small Roman style crib that rested against the far wall. We peeked over the edge to see a gurgling and sleeping baby boy, wrapped in a miniature version of a Roman toga. The toga even had a little purple seam.
“That him?” Santino whispered.
“Yup,” I replied quietly. “There lies the soul of a man with the potential to kill untold thousands of men, women and children.”
Santino regarded him closely. “Kinda cute, ain’t he?”
“Yeah, a little bit.”
The little guy did look kind of cute, especially with the mini toga on, but my mind refused to feel sympathetic towards him. Shuddering at the thought of what kind of man he could become, I bent down to pick him up, but just as I wrapped my hands around his small body I had to back off because he started to cry.
I looked at Santino. “I guess we probably should have thought this through, huh?”
“Here. Let me try,” he offered, reaching down into the crib. Picking the child up, Santino held him out in front of him, his elbows locked, keeping Nero as far away from his body as possible. The child didn’t cry though, and both baby and Santino looked at each other curiously. Apparently satisfied at what he was seeing, young Nero started gurgling and even cooed at Santino.
“Aw,” I said, “I think you made a friend.”
“Yah,” Santino said with a smile, cradling the child against his chest. “I guess I did.”
Santino’s motherly glow quickly evaporated once he patted Nero on the back, enticing the small child to spit up all over his toga. Santino wrinkled his face in disgust as young Nero gurgled and giggled at his expense.
I laughed with him. “Come on, mum. We need to get out of here.”
Santino nodded and placed Nero in a small carrying cradle, little more than a piece of cloth wrapped and tied into a type of sling bag. The bag was in common use in ancient Rome as a baby carrier, and Agrippina had set it up for us before we arrived in the city.
With the baby secured against Santino’s chest, we made for the exit. Since Santino was stuck playing babysitter, I took point this time, no need to place the child at any further risk. Back in the hall, we continued past the main hallway we had originally walked down, and counted three doors, entering the last one on the right. Finding the storage room, just as Agrippina had said, I located the cabinet and began pulling it aside.
And there was the door, again, just as she said.
Maybe she was on our side after all.
Reaching for the handle I gave it a yank, but it didn’t budge. Frowning, I tried pushing against it, again with no effect. Frustrated, I threw my entire weight against it, but with no more success. I leaned closer to the door and analyzed the seam. I discovered that it had been cemented together, and no matter how hard I tried, the door wasn’t going to budge.
I turned to face Santino. “We’re burned.”
“Figures,” he replied, pulling out his knife.
I didn’t waste any time replying. Instead, I moved towards the hallway we’d just come through, and gave it a quick glance. Still clear. Maybe the door was just another product of Claudius’ growing paranoia. Quickly abandoning the storage room, I led Santino back to the main hall. Another quick glance showed the immediate area to be clear, but with all the flora and fauna in the area, I couldn’t be sure. Knowing no other way out, I walked as calmly as I could down the hall.
We were about half way down the hall when doors started to open up all around us.
From the two rooms in front of us, a half dozen Praetorians emerged, and took up defensive positions to block our escape. From behind us, another door opened and only two Praetorians came out. The first of which was unlucky enough to walk into Santino’s knife, which he held in a reverse grip, and had thrust behind him through the man’s neck. The second man went down after I tore off my toga, pulled out my P220, and put a round through his skull. No more Praetorians came from behind us, so we stood side by side, in defensive positions facing our remaining attackers. It didn’t take long before I realized we had nowhere to retreat to, so we held our ground, waiting for our foes to make the first move.
The Praetorians didn’t budge though, at least not at first, appearing as if they were waiting for someone. Two minutes later, I realized who it was. Trailing behind another fifty or so Praetorians came Claudius, looking disheveled and unkempt, psychotic but alert, a devilish grin on his face.
As he approached, his Praetorians opened a lane for him to travel through. He was accompanied by a senior centurion I didn’t know.
He stepped out in front of his men, which was nice of him, because it gave me a clear shot at his head. His men tensed, but no one moved, while he opened his arms wide, and frowned.
“Jacob Hunter,” he said. “Is this how you treat friends from wherever it is you come from? I thought we had become instant ones the day we met.”
I didn’t dignify him with a response.
“Jacob, Jacob, Jacob,” he taunted. “You pain me. First, you accept my invitation to come see me, but you don’t visit, and now I find that you have kidnapped my son. Tsk, tsk.” He waggled his finger at me. It was easy to see the man had lost all control over his faculties, and was quickly descending into a Jeffery Domer state of insanity, just as Caligula should have, proving Vincent’s theory.
I was curious about one thing though. “What invitation?”
“What invitation?’ Why, the one I sent you, of course. Didn’t you get the message? I had to make sure it was you who came to see me after all, and not one of your other…” he waved dismissively at Santino, “whatever they are.”
“You don’t mean Agrippina?” I asked, confusion and anger swirling in my mind simultaneously.
“Agrippina? Did I send her? I do not know. Did I? It seems I’ve forgotten. What does it matter? She’s served her purpose. What does matter is that you are here, and now, we can have some fun. Centurion, retrieve my son. When he’s safe, the rest of you take them. Alive. No exceptions. Even the other one.”
The nameless centurion moved towards us.
“Wait!” Santino called, carefully removing Nero from around his shoulder, and gently placing him on the floor.
