Simon Hawke - The Cleopatra Crisis

“It looks better from a distance. First time in Rome. eh?” Andellsaid.

“I’ve served a hitch in Rome before,” said Lucas, ‘but forFinn and Andre. I think it’s the first time. Still. Rome was very differentthen.”

“Oh. yeah? When did you pull a tour here?”

“Second Punic War.” said Lucas. “I was with Scipio in thewar against Hannibal.”

“No shit. really? The old arbitration wars. I was there.too.”

“You’re kidding,” Lucas said. “Which cohort?”

“Wrong army,” Andell said with a grin. “I was with Hannibal.”

Lucas frowned. You were with Hannibal ? How can thatbe? The U.S. Temporal Corps contingent was infiltrated into Roman forces duringthat Time War.”

“I wasn’t with the U.S. Temporal Corps,” Andell said. “I wasfighting for the Nippon Conglomerate Empire back then. Freelance mercenary.”

“That explains it.” said Delaney. “I was wondering why someoneyour age was still a sergeant. “

“Yeah. Big black mark on my record.” Andell said. “Ex-mercenariesare scum of the earth, far as TAC-HQ is concerned.”

“But you’re American. aren’t you?” said Lucas. “So you hadto start out regular Corps before you went merc. What happened?”

“I caught a real bad tour that made me want out in a bigway,” said Andell. “I served a hitch in the War Between the States. I was withthe Union troops at Shiloh.”

Delaney whistled. “That must’ve been a rough one.”

“Tell me about it. It made the Punic Wars seem like a cakewalk.I got shot up pretty had and wound up just lying there on the damn battlefield,wondering if I was going to die or if the damn hogs were going to get to mefirst. There was a bunch of ’em rutting around the corpses. And some of themweren’t even corpses yet. Not too far off from me, this huge pig was chewing ona guy’s exposed intestines and he was still alive. I can still hear the poor bastardscreaming.

“My God.” said Andre.

“It gets worse,” Andell said. “Somehow, I. got the strengthup to crawl away and get into the woods. Packed my wounds with mud and thenstarted trying to limp back to our lines. Only a rebel patrol found me first. Iwound up in Andersonville.”

“Jesus.” said Delaney.

“Yeah Maybe the worst prison in American history. But therewas a Union doctor there and he managed to get me patched back up, sort of, andI eventually managed to escape with a small group of men. We made our way toSherman’s troops and then, boy. we sure got even. Eventually, S amp; R foundme and clocked me back. I spent some time in the hospital and then took mydischarge. I figured I’d had enough. Only a funny thing happened.”

You couldn’t hack civilian life,” said Lucas.

Andell nodded. “You know about it. huh?”

“Yeah. I quit once, too. But there was just no going back.It was either reenlist or go crazy.”

“Then you understand,” Andell said. “War does funny thingsto some people. I don’t know, maybe it’s that after you’ve danced on the edgeof the sword blade, you can just never go back to ordinary life. Lot of peopledo. but me. he shook his head. “I never would’ve figured it. I thought I’dnever want to go back in the military again, but civilian life just drove mearound the bend. I started drinking. Got into drugs. Got busted a few times.”

“That’s why you couldn’t reenlist,” said Delaney.

“Yeah, they don’t take convicted felons in the service. So Iwound up going merc. Ran into a corporate recruiter in Miami. Next thing Iknew, I was on a shuttle to Tokyo. They processed me, put me through detox,then clocked me out to Spain with a merc: unit they were using and we joined upwith Hannibal there.”

“So you were in on the crossing of the Alps?” said Lucas.

“That’s right. Not exactly your average day hike. But I’lltell you something … you’ll probably think I’m crazy, but I loved everyminute of it.”

“How’d you wind up with the Observers?” Andre asked.

“I re-upped after I completed my hitch for Nippon and got assignedto the T.O. Corps.”

“But what about your record?” Andre said, puzzled.

“They didn’t know I had a record.”

“I don’t understand,” said Andre, frowning.

“The Nippon Conglomerate gave him a new identity.” Delaneyexplained. “Some countries do that for mercs. It’s sort of a recruitinginducement. Do a good job for them. complete your tour without getting yourselfkilled, and they’ll give you a brand-new identity, fully documented. You get tostart off with a clean slate.”

“So Andell’s not your real name?” asked Andre.

It is now.”

“Aren’t you taking a chance on telling us all this?” sheasked.

“No, not really. Even if you turned me in, which I don’tthink you would, HQ wouldn’t really care. They’re kind of pressed for manpowerthese days. As long as my official record’s clean, they’re not going to careabout who or what I was before.”

“But they’re not going to promote you. either,” saidDelaney.

“No, that’s for sure. I’ll never make it past sergeant. Butthat’s okay. I never much liked officers, anyway.” He grinned. No offense.”

“None taken,” said Delaney. “I know exactly how you feel.”

“You’re talking to the man who actually holds the record forthe most reductions in grade in the entire Temporal Corps,” said Lucas,smiling.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“And you still made captain?” Andell shook his head. “Youmust be a real hotshot. Sir,”

“I just don’t understand it,” said Delaney. “I keep takingthe damn bars off and they keep slapping them back on

Andell grinned. They were entering the outskirts of thecity. “So, you want the orientation lecture or you just going to let theprogramming kick in?”

“No, go ahead” said Lucas. “We can always use the perspectiveof someone who’s been in the field for a while.”

“Well, like I said, the city looks better from a distance.Once you actually get in the city itself, as you’ll notice in a littlewhile, there are still a lot of truly beautiful buildings, especially the templesand the villas of some of the aristocrats, but the streets are choked with whatare essentially your basic slum tenements. This time of year. it’s not too bad,but in the summer, you wouldn’t believe the stink. They just throw theirgarbage out into the streets. Lot of people die from fever in the summer.

At this point, we’re actually entering the city,” hecontinued. “Passing through the gates of Rome has become sort of a misnomer.Rome has outgrown its walls and gates. The streets and houses are spread outwell beyond them

The citizens of the republic are so secure these days thatthey feel they have no need of protective walls. Except around the betterhouses in the city, to keep the riffraff out.”

“What road is this we’re on?” asked Lucas.

“The Via Flaminia,” said Andell. “You’ll notice that it’spaved, but it’s got two dirt roads running along on either side, like shoulders.The Roman method of building roads is to first excavate a ditch with slopingwalls, then fill it with layers of gravel, stone, and mortar. After the ditchis built up in this fashion, the top layer of stones is laid and the road iscrowned slightly so water runs off to the sides. The dirt roads running alongeither side are for the unimportant traffic, your farm carts, peasants, andslaves. The legions have the right of way over everybody else.

“The outlying areas of the city we just passed through areprimarily farms, olive orchards and vineyards, with several roadside inns alongthe way. Right now, we’re in the suburbs, which will get denser as we comecloser to the old city walls built in the 4th century B.C.