Harry snapped the glasses in two and threw them into the Tiber.
PART FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY
Cardinal Gaspar de Borja y Velasco actually clapped his hands once in sharp, exultant glee. “Senor Dolor, this is excellent news. And we owe our victory, it seems, to your excellent stratagems. Which you must explain to me: how were you able to defeat the Wrecking Crew when no one else in Europe seemed capable of doing so?”
Dolor shrugged. “By giving them what they expected to see. In every particular.”
Borja frowned. “More detail, please, senor: I am not a military man.”
Truer words were never spoken-particularly by you, red hat. “Your Eminence, you may use simple traps to catch simple beasts; a bit of food left dangling over a pit will capture most unwary predators. But Lefferts and his Crew were not unwary predators; like foxes, they were inherently wary of traps and ploys-having used so many themselves.
“So, in setting this trap, I was mindful that we had to create the illusion of a reasonable defense, but with a few subtle flaws that they could exploit.”
“Such as?”
“Such as their belief that we had only a third of the troops that we actually had stationed in the insula Mattei. To create that illusion, we had to mimic-in every detail-what an undermanned garrison would do. In this case, that involved denying casual access to the interior of the insula, thereby concealing our supposedly scant numbers. But careful observers would detect other hints of insufficient forces: our victualing from sutlers was sufficient for only one-third of our men. To make that possible, we had to stock the insula weeks beforehand with enough food and drink to supply the other two-thirds of our men for three months. So the Wrecking Crew drastically underestimated our true strength.”
“Also, the second story of the courtyard of the Palazzo Giacomo Mattei was the only site in the entire insula where it would be reasonable to house prisoners, and yet have them visible to the outside. Had Lefferts not been able to see his targets ahead of time, he would either have had to cancel or mount a general assault.”
“Which we would have crushed,” Borja asserted with chin raised.
“Yes, but with much greater cost to us, Your Eminence. It was essential to make Lefferts confident that he would be able to succeed with finesse, rather than brute strength. I do not think a brute strength approach would have worked in any event, but we could be sure of this: if the Wrecking Crew had resolved themselves to the idea that they could only succeed through direct, massive destruction, they would have been far more dangerous to us. Look what they did to the Tower of London. So I gave them a scenario in which it seemed reasonable-quite reasonable, in fact-to believe that they could achieve their objective by finesse. This is particularly attractive to the up-timers, who show marked concern with the amount of peripheral damage-and therefore, civilian casualties-they might inflict.”
“They are contemptibly stupid,” put in Borja.
They are excessively moral-a distinction you will certainly not perceive, Borja. “Whatever the reason, preventing unnecessary casualties is a routine component of their modus operandi, Your Eminence. And we counted upon it here. Sure enough, perhaps a week before Lefferts’ attack, we began to notice careful movement within and around the belvedere. We set up long-barreled wheel-lock rifles in the shuttered rooms of the courtyard’s loggia, each weapon mounted in weighted braces and held fast by vises. This ensured that their aim points remained constant unless we changed them.”
“You used them almost as if they were artillery pieces.”
“Your Eminence understands perfectly. From prior tests, we knew exactly the elevation and charge required to hit the belvedere, and had some reasonable wind indicators that the enemy would not notice. Unfortunately, one of our snipers was also killed.”
“Truly?”
Dolor shrugged. “Every gun flashes when fired-and if you are looking straight down the barrel when it flashes, it is only logical that its operator’s head is leaned over that barrel. So, if one aims a bit above the muzzle flash-” Dolor saw a shudder move through the cardinal. “As I said, the up-time tools are not to be underestimated. Nor are their operators; they are superbly trained and very disciplined.”
“It sounds as though you admire them, Senor Dolor. I hope I do not need to remind you that-”
What could be more tiresome than the pious indignation of a hypocritical cleric? “I am not a man much given to admiration of anyone or anything, Your Eminence. But I recognize capability when I see it. And I acknowledge it freely. That same clarity of perception, of understanding all the strengths and weaknesses of my enemy, was what delivered them into your hands last night, Cardinal Borja.”
Borja fell silent, eyes bright but not friendly. Dolor wondered: had he let some of his carefully controlled impatience edge into his tone? Or had the insufferable red hat simply bristled at being interrupted, even if only to reassure him?
“It seems your dispassionate methods are effective,” was Borja’s only response. “And yet it was still not enough to kill Lefferts. Are you sure it was he in the belvedere?”
Dolor shrugged. “It is hard to be sure of anything one does not personally witness, Your Eminence. But all conjecture points towards it. From the neighboring Jews we have already subjected to questioning, they had agreed to rent the roof of this tower to a man answering Lefferts’ description, although they were originally approached by lefferti — ”
“Verminous traitors,” supplied Borja.
Dolor did not understand how Romans working against the occupiers of their own city could reasonably be branded as “traitors,” but he pressed on. “However, even without those confessions, the belvedere was a logical location for Lefferts. From there he was able to send the signals that started the attack, initiated supporting fire from other persons with up-time rifles, and indicated it was time to withdraw.”
Borja waited a moment before his next comment, which sounded more like an accusation. “So, Lefferts escaped, although he is probably wounded. Indeed, I find it hard to understand why any of them escaped at all, Senor Dolor. Why did your wonderful plans not succeed in this particular?”
Dolor shrugged. “Because the attackers were smart enough not to depend upon any local resources when they infiltrated back into Rome. According to our informers, the Wrecking Crew did not inform Duke Taddeo Barberini’s court at Palestrina of their return, much less request assistance from that quarter. Nor did they depend upon lefferti to get them into Rome, for even if the lefferti are loyal, they would have had to make arrangements with other Romans, some of whom would surely have been on our payroll. Instead, Lefferts entered Rome in such a way that he did not need to inform anyone else ahead of time, and his group immediately went into hiding with the lefferti. This meant we had no information as to their whereabouts beforehand, nor any way to determine how they planned to exit the city after the attack. I surmised it would be by boat, but that did not help us very much. Without more precise information, we would have had to have set far more pickets along the Tiber-which would have shown the Wrecking Crew that we were expecting them.
“They also had a force armed with up-time weapons covering their withdrawal over the Ponte Fabricio, as well as diversionary explosions in Trastevere. Taken together, this significantly delayed and confused our pursuing forces. As I said, Your Eminence, even in defeat, the up-timers and their handpicked allies are not to be underestimated: they are far more accustomed to this style of warfare.”