I nodded to no one but myself as I completed this analysis in a thought. I pulled my head back, but something caught my eye and I had to force myself from doing a double take. It seemed that many of the villa’s surrounding buildings were incomplete, or in various stages of construction. Some were completed, but the majority consisted of little more than a roof and its support structure. While, nothing seemed out of place by the scene, something about it tickled me in a bad way. Maybe this was a new town under renovation, but something felt off about its varying stage of completion.
Before I could think on it more, I felt Helena’s hand squeeze my shoulder, indicating everyone was ready to move out. I reached back and tapped her leg, confirming I understood her gesture. With another glance at my eyepiece to confirm the patrols were out of sight, I rounded the corner and set off into the town.
I pushed forward, my rifle held out in front of me in a ready position, my eyes partially focused through my scope. Walking us forward at a quickened pace, my team and I swept the roads for previously unknown assailants, stopping at every intersection we encountered. Our objective was to avoid contact before entering the villa by not drawing attention to ourselves. There were too many Praetorians patrolling the exterior grounds to ensure we remained undetected if we started dropping bodies.
It was child’s play. Back in 2021, even the most primitive of guerilla forces could be equipped with signal jammers that could block our communications or low level disruptors that sent out the briefest of EMP pulses that could short out everything from our UAV to our red dot sights. Needless to say, infiltrating this town was even easier than sneaking into the Roman provincial compound back in Caesarea.
But that didn’t mean I thought our infiltration would be effortless. We were about two thirds of the way to the villa when my eyepiece indicated one of the patrols was about to turn a corner and put them into direct line of sight with our line of movement. I raised a fist to signal a halt and shook two pointed fingers towards the wall to my right. Like most of the buildings, it was in a state of near construction. Built of clay, adobe or some such material, the building had multiple large windows cut into place. I leaned to my right and rolled myself over the lip of the sill and into the empty shell of a home. I crouched and leaned against the inner wall, keeping an eye on my eyepiece and waited for the four red dots coming up behind us to pass by.
Their progress was slow, calculated, and when they moved near enough for me to hear them, I heard nothing but the shuffling of their feet and the subtle clinking of metal on metal, be it armor, sword or both. No words were exchanged, nor was there any sign that they were doing anything but their jobs. It was almost disconcerting the level of discipline they were putting on display tonight. They were dedicated beyond reproach, stalwart warriors without equal. Either these guys were the last of Agrippina’s original Sacred Band, recruited from the best and most loyal Praetorian ranks, they themselves recruited from the best of the legions before that, or her new band of miscreants were more formidable than we thought — a thought that gave me further pause for thought. Roman legions trained and equipped in the art of modern warfare would be something worth considering. A few thousand of them wouldn’t sway the course of a world war, no, but they’d be an interesting variable thrown into the mix.
Something worth considering for the book I’ll have to write some day.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Helena and Vincent rise to their feet. A quick glance at my eyepiece confirmed the patrol had passed by us and were moving towards the villa. I rose to my feet and climbed over the ledge more carefully this time. Santino and his team emerged from a similar house across the road and stacked up, my team and Charlie doing the same. Without a word, I started moving again, following a safe distance behind the roaming patrol.
I could see them ahead of us as we approached the villa, their capes billowing in the light wind behind them, their feet marching in silent union. We paced them like patient panthers stalking pray, and I watched as the large villa loomed into view. It seemed far bigger than the aerial recon first indicated; the equivalent of a six, maybe seven story building, wide and long. It was an intimidating structure.
After another minute or so, the patrol peeled off in front of the villa and moved to the opposite side of the town. I paused at the last intersection until they were well out of sight, checked my eyepiece, and picked up the pace towards the villa’s outer wall. It’s most obvious entrance was up the exterior main staircase that pointed in the direction we had just come from, but it was too exposed. Maybe thirty yards long, the staircase rose almost a third of the way up the building and was well lit by torches that lined the steps.
A far more suitable entry point was on the side of the villa, a door Santino had identified when a small numbers of heat signatures entered and exited from that point at consistent intervals during our recon. The next use of the door wasn’t scheduled for another hour, plenty of time for us to access it.
Bravo Team was already at the door by the time the rest of us caught up a few minutes later. Santino had his snake eye cam under the door again and was scanning for potential threats. By the time Alpha stacked up behind me, he was already pulling it back under the door. He stood and coiled it up before placing it in a pouch on his MOLLE vest. He stepped to the opposite side of the door and nodded. I responded by placing a hand on the handle, yanking it open, allowing Santino and his team to stream in.
I led my team through at a more reserved rate, allowing Bravo Team to handle any immediate take downs, but when I stepped through the door there wasn’t a soul in sight. Instead, I was greeted by a long, narrow hallway that ended about thirty feet down a corridor where it branched off at a four way intersection, illuminated by a number of torches.
And this was when the entire mission rested squarely on Santino’s shoulders. If the rest of the village was any indication, the interior was liable to be level after level of random corridors and empty rooms, but I was confident Santino could find his way. When the hallway that led from the door deposited us into a large receiving room, little more than a gigantic hallway, I felt better about our situation. We’d been in dozens of administration buildings over the years and they were all laid out very similarly. Santino would know exactly where to go.
Like any castle or palace throughout the centuries, the large staircase outside delivered people here. The Great Room was immense, with the square footage of maybe three basketball courts placed end to end. Opposite the main entrance was another staircase that led up to the second level. Surrounding the room were a number of doors that led to offices, kitchens, maybe servant quarters and dotting the room’s flanks were a number of columns supporting the entire structure.
Santino’s team fanned out into the room, taking up defensive positions behind the columns. I led Alpha to the staircase where I took a knee just at the foot of the structure, making sure I knelt hidden in the shadows. Bordeaux swept Charlie to the left towards the main entrance, taking up position behind the columns there. We hunkered down and waited, suspecting a patrol would soon reveal itself.
A minute later, my night vision dimmed, the result of a bright light creeping up from somewhere.
“Alpha Lead, Charlie Actual,” Bordeaux voice commed over the radio. “Tangos inbound from staircase. Headcount: twenty.”