Rogue Emperor by Crawford Kilian

Author:Crawford Kilian [Kilian, Crawford]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Venture Press
Published: 2018-01-03T07:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

The cooks were the only ones up when Pierce returned to the palace. He went into the servants’ dining hall and demanded breakfast; the cooks gave him a big bowl of hot cereal laced with honey. He wolfed it down and asked for dried apples. A junior cook gave him a double handful out of a wicker basket. Pierce ate some and stored the rest in a fold of his tunic.

Back outside Maria Donovan’s door, Pierce settled himself on his straw mattress and picked cereal grains out of his teeth with his dagger. He was relatively safe, thanks to the Militants’ own efficiency. They had destroyed the Hesperian embassy and slaughtered all the uptimers in Rome; anyone who turned up claiming to be a Christian Goth must therefore be what he claimed, especially if his theology was so close to the Church Militants’.

But he could make a misstep, as he had by mentioning viruses to Dennis Brewster. At the first hint of suspicion from the Militants, he would have to vanish. Better yet, he should vanish while they still trusted him, preferably with some kind of beeper.

Pierce considered branching choices. The Militants had brought considerable stores of uptime goods, including drugs; that was a major reason for his embarking on the masquerade. In the convoluted theology of the Militants, viral diseases were divine punishment for minor or major sins. Bacterial infections, however, were natural; antibiotics and painkillers were acceptable treatment for them. Pentasyn had originally been a painkiller, and a good one, before the Agency had discovered its usefulness in reducing the symptoms of extended Conditioning. Somewhere in the palace, therefore, was a pharmacy that would include Pentasyn or some of its analogs; even aspirin would help a little.

Martel would have a treasury as well — all of Domitian’s wealth, plus that of the rich families slain in the proscription. A pouch full of aureii and denarii could keep Pierce fed and sheltered for a few weeks anyway, until the Agency finally came to the rescue.

It seemed likely, however, that the Militants were still using knotholers, bringing in supplies from uptime. If he stayed in the palace he could find out where the knotholes were and might be able to use them to get uptime on his own. It would not be easy, but it might enable him to be deBriefed weeks earlier, and to prod the Agency into moving against the Militants. What he had already learned about them would make the Agency’s counterattack far more effective.

Remaining in the palace would also enable him to sabotage the Militants whenever the opportunity arose, and if Aquilius were to fall into the Militants’ hands, Pierce would be in a position to help.

So staying would be a calculated risk, but one worth taking. As he dozed off, Pierce admitted to himself that it was also fun, in an ugly kind of way.

*

The snap of the bolt being thrown roused him instantly. When Maria emerged, he was standing in the doorway, his mattress rolled up to one side.

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