“You couldn’t have picked a better time to show up,” I commented. Are Vincent and Wang with you? You guys there?”
“We are, Hunter,” came Vincent’s Italian accented voice, despite being a native of Switzerland. “It is good to hear you.”
“Wang?”
“Aye, Hunter,” the Asian descended Brit said in his Welsh accent.
“God, it’s good to hear from you,” I said, unconditional happiness beginning to percolate amongst my dire spirits. Their presence was more than uplifting. Not only did I have new allies at my side, but the only other friends I had left in ancient Rome. Friends I hadn’t seen in years.
“Look,” I continued, my mind clearing as the stress of the situation ebbed and my blood pressure leveled, realizing we still had work to do. “We’ve got a lot to clean up here. Those two Romans out there with the IR strobes are Gaius and Marcus. Wang, find them and have them take you back to our apartment. They know the way. Keep it quiet.”
“I live to serve,” he joked. He’d always been a quiet jokester, not as overt as Santino but always one with a quick quip on his tongue.
Great.
“Bordeaux,” I continued, “we need your help policing these bodies. We can’t have any evidence of what happened tonight. Your gun show had to have awoken half the city, but let’s just hope they thought it was thunder, or the gods, or something. You, Santino, and Vincent get on that. Dump the bodies in the Bosporus.”
“Copy,” he replied.
“Helena, let’s get to work finding those IR patches scattered around and pick up the fisheye cams from Hide-2. Also, now that we have the UAV, we’ll see if we can hunt down any remaining Praetorians.”
“Sounds good, Jacob,” she said, all semblance of radio protocol abandoned.
I think that just about covered everything we needed to do. During my transmission, I glassed as much of the city as I could from my viewpoint, and only saw a few innocents peeking their heads out into the very early morning sky, only to find nothing amiss, and go back inside. I packed up my things and secured my bags before I swung my legs over the low wall and descended the ladder.
“Seems like you’re doing well as the leader of this group, Jacob,” Vincent radioed.
“He’s not our leader,” Helena corrected quickly. “We just like to follow him because he’s got a cute butt.”
“Yeah,” Santino agreed. “We… wait, what? No, no we don’t. People’d just think it was sexist if we followed you because of your cute butt.”
“Either way,” Vincent pushed on, remembering even after four years it was best to just ignore Santino. “It’s nice to have someone else do it for a change.”
“Honestly, sir, I’m not sure I’m up for it,” I said from the bottom of my heart. I wasn’t even sure I was up to it anymore. “Want the job back?”
“No thank you,” he answered easily. “Bordeaux’s already filled us in, and I’m not sure I could handle it. This is your plan.”
“Thanks,” I said with a quiet I think, “but things aren’t nearly as simple anymore.”
I had a lot to explain in the next few hours. Things weren’t nearly as crazy as capturing a child anymore, but only because I had a sinking suspicion that our lives were about to get far worse, but for now, it didn’t matter. What mattered was cleaning up Byzantium and getting reacquainted with my old friends. I didn’t have much to fall back on in these times of need. Just one beautiful woman and an annoying best friend.
I needed all the friends I could get.
VII
Mission Entry #7
Jacob Hunter
Byzantium, Thracia — July, 42 A.D.
No time to write.
Got the band back together.
Catch you later.
I couldn’t help but be brief in my last entry since Helena and I were way behind schedule. Everyone else had to be back in the apartment by now, and I was way too excited to take the time to write much more.
We were so late because one of the ninja-Praetorians managed to slip through our net, and it had taken us quite a while to chase him down. We’d found him a few hundred yards beyond the city, and Helena took him down with a well-placed shot to his back. We then had to dispose of his body, just like all the rest, and the task of hunting him down, dumping him and collecting our equipment had taken far longer than I’d anticipated.
I took the few moments Helena and I spent retrieving a small cache of indigenous clothing from its hiding place near our apartment to jot my thoughts down. Not overly insightful right now, but I was too giddy to form a compelling thought. Despite being caught off guard, the night had been a major success. We’d eliminated a numerically superior force, obtained one of the two time traveling orbs and had found our friends in the process. All I wanted was to get back to my room and celebrate, and I knew Helena did as well.
We donned our local clothing as quickly as possible and made our way inside our building and up the stairwell, sure enough encountering the night owls on the prowl. I went up first and watched in horror as one of the prostitutes walked towards me, trying to solicit my attention. I was about to deny her politely when Helena bounded up the stairs past me and body checked the nasty creature into the wall, hissing an apology as she went. I apologized more diplomatically, but didn’t break stride until I caught up to her at the entrance to our room. Helena opened the door and went in first while I followed, shutting it behind me.
We had a full house.
Gaius, Marcus, Santino, Bordeaux, Wang, Vincent, and two other people, one a young male, the other a woman in her thirties, were all present in our apartment. Space was tight, and everyone had spread out amongst the room as comfortably as they could manage. Bordeaux and the unidentified woman sat at the far end of the table, facing the door, with Gaius and Marcus across from them, facing the window. Between the table and the bed sat Vincent on the final chair in the room, while Wang and Santino sat on the side of the bed, already bickering about something.
I smiled at the two of them. They had become pretty good friends in that first year they’d known each other, but always seemed to fight over something. Whether it was tea or coffee, cricket or baseball, football or… football, they never seemed to agree on anything except their shared hatred of 80’s music.
The final soul in the room was a young man who leaned against the wardrobe, which stood against the wall opposite Vincent’s position
Every head in the room turned to face us, eager expressions on their faces.
But no one moved.
Everyone just sat in their seats, unsure or unable to do anything. All we needed was a spark to set the room off, which occurred when Helena dropped the 2x4 that secured our door with a loud clang. With that, the room erupted into excited confusion. I felt a flood of raw emotion overwhelm everyone as conversations were restarted, smiles blossomed, and Helena and I moved around to greet our long lost friends.
I quickly shook Bordeaux’s hand, as I’d seen him only a few months ago, but moved over to embrace Vincent and Wang, pounding each man on the back exuberantly, exchanging a few words with each. Helena likewise embraced her friends but also offered quick kisses on their cheeks as well. While Helena and I welcomed our friends, Gaius and Marcus moved their chairs near the door and Bordeaux angled the table so that it, the benches, the chair, and the bed formed a loose oval around the perimeter of the room. Once everyone was settled, Helena and I moved to sit upon the table, silence befalling everyone once again, no one sure where to begin.