The Last Roman (Praetorian Series - Book One) (26 page)

Her childish antics notwithstanding, on the twelfth
day of our vacation, I finally found the nerve to tell her my
“nurse” story. I was starting to feel like I could truly trust her,
and even though I’d been hesitant before, it was a story I’d been
longing to get off my chest since the day it ended between the
nurse and I. So, as we sat on the Capitoline Hill, with the Temple
of Jupiter behind us and the Tiber River running south in front of
us, I recounted my sad story.

With my first words, stating bluntly that the nurse
who’d taken care of me happened to be very attractive, Helena
rolled her eyes and turned away. We were seated on a low wall, with
our feet dangling beneath us, a thirty foot drop below that. She
used her position to kick my knee.

But not that hard.

“If this is going to be one of those ‘wild romps in
the nurses’ ward’ stories,” she said in annoyance, “I’d rather not
hear it. I’ve had enough of that from Santino.”

“It isn’t,” I said quietly, but she folded her arms
in doubt anyway.

When I began the story, her interest level seemed
low, but as the story slowly developed, just as it had in my head
back in the HMS Triumph, her attention started to grow. Her look of
disinterest quickly left her face, to be replaced by one of
concern, and something else I couldn’t quite place. She seemed
surprised at how close I’d grown with the nurse, and almost shocked
at the revelation that I’d thought about proposing.

As I completed the story, just as the nurse and I
had failed to find words as we parted, Helena and I couldn’t find
any as well. But again, just like the nurse, it was Helena who
spoke first.

“What was her name?”

It took me a moment to answer. “Cassandra.”

Helena paused a moment, giving me a chance to
recover from the very personal story. She took my hand in her own
and gave it a slight squeeze. “If it’s worth anything, Jacob, I
think you handled the situation as well as anyone could have. It
couldn’t have been easy.”

“Thanks,” I managed softly.

“Sounds as if we both come from depressing love
lives,” she commented distractedly. She looked regretful for a
moment before fixing her attention back on me. “I think it’s good
that you told me. Thanks.”

“Want to know the worst part?” I asked with a
frown.

“What’s that?” She asked, genuine concern in her
voice.

“She looked exactly like you.”

She reeled back slightly, releasing my hand, and
stared into the best puppy dog eyes I could muster. I almost felt
bad using her memory that I resembled her late fiancé, but it was
too good of an opportunity to pass up. My lips must have cracked a
bit, because her eyes quickly narrowed, and she looked very
angry.

“Wait a second,” she started.

I started to chuckle. I had a horrible poker face.
“I’m kidding. She looked nothing like you. She was blond, five and
a half feet tall, and you get much cuter when you’re angry.”

It felt so good to have the story off my chest that
I couldn’t help but laugh. The rage in her eyes only made me laugh
harder, but it faltered when I saw her eyes still ablaze in fury a
minute later.

Settling down, I apologized. “Look, Helena, I’m
sorry. It was a bad joke. I didn’t mean to bring it up again.”

Her mouth twitched, and her look softened, a smile
spreading across her own face.

“You’re so gullible, Lieutenant,” she said
slyly.

It took me a minute before I smiled as well. “Oh…
oh, you’re good.”

After that night, the two of us never hesitated if
either one of us needed to talk.

As for the team as a whole, we spent our nights
going through our gear and cataloging it. Needless to say, there
was a lot of it, much more than we originally thought. If the
situation called for it, we could spend most of our lives working
as a private mercenary group, and never need to pick up a shield
and sword. We’d be pretty expensive too.

I was also very pleased to find at least some of the
Future Force Warrior gear I thought I’d never see again hidden in
one of the containers. While we all still had our eye pieces and
computer systems, the only other gear we brought with us was on our
backs. While the traditional BDUs we found were nice, the other
clothing item we discovered inside was a godsend.

There was no official name for what they were, as
far as I knew, but I liked to call them combat assault fatigues.
Both pants and jacket sets had numerous pockets festooned over
them, and were camouflaged in multicam, useful in almost any
terrain environment. We also found duplicate pairs, colored and
patterned in dark gray and black, meant for night operations.
Because its defensive abilities required tight contact with the
skin, each set seemed specifically sized for each of us, with a
left over set for McDougal.

Along the shins, calves, thighs, hamstrings, groin,
outer forearms and upper arms were thin pads that jutted out an
inch from the clothing. Inside the pads was a polyethylene type gel
that had a most unique property. In its normal state, the gel feels
soft and squishy, like a stress ball, but when struck by a sudden
and forceful impact, it instantaneously becomes as hard as
titanium. The gel then liquidizes a heartbeat later, ready for
another impact, and it could take the repeated hardening and
softening transition over and over again. Additional protective
measures the outfit provided were small thin strips of a very light
and flexible Kevlar like material that ran vertically down the
pants and horizontally along the jacket. For creature comfort, they
were water resistant and additionally equipped with an internal A/C
and heating system to keep the body comfortable in any weather
condition

During the war in Iraq, the polyethylene substance
was hoped to be the next evolution of the bullet proof vest, but
early testing indicated it wasn’t effective enough to risk the
lives of troops on it. It wasn’t until 2016 when advancements were
made in its base properties that the gel finally lived up to its
potential. It had been a ground breaking development for soldiers,
having saved thousands of lives since its implementation.

I only had one problem with it. If it was so soft
and flexible, I never understood why the entire pants and jacket
set wasn’t completely smothered in the stuff. Leave it to the
military brass to cut corners. Even the helmets supplied in the
containers were the old school versions that were notorious for
being anything but bullet proof. At least they had the decency to
cover the groin, but any impact to that region wouldn’t end well
anyway.

Sometimes I really wondered who was running the
military.

Other than the combat fatigues, there was little
other advanced equipment within. We were still supplied with
electronic equipment like night vision, flashlights, and the means
to charge their batteries, but I guess the papacy didn’t want to
make its new soldiers too reliant on technology, something I was
completely at ease with. A soldier was only as good as his
training, instincts, and determination. To rely on technology was a
recipe for disaster.

So the days went.

Thankfully, two weeks to the day after Caligula set
his time table, he sent us a message, indicating his three
assassins were required. That morning, the six of us spent two
hours prepping the team assigned on the mission.

Bordeaux gathered a large amount of C-4, at least
thirty bricks, enough to bring down the Colosseum had it been built
yet. Vincent borrowed Santino’s UAV for aerial recon, and Helena
grabbed the “Light Fifty” from storage. All three packed their
night ops combat fatigues, tents, and survival gear.

As they completed their preparations, Helena pulled
me aside, a frustrated look on her face.

“Jacob, there’s something I really need to tell
you.”

I groaned. Usually, when women “really” needed to
tell me something, I ended up spending a long night cleaning up
tissues.

Holding my hands in the air, I feigned innocence.
“You know. If this is one of those, ‘I may die tomorrow, so we
should be together tonight’ speeches, you really should know that
tomorrow is now, and we kinda missed our chance last night. I mean,
I could try and get it over within the two minutes we have, but I
think that would kinda ruin the moment.”

Surprisingly, Helena’s look wasn’t the one of
annoyed anger I expected, but instead, she wore a smile that could
make even the most womanizing of men’s hearts think twice about
her. I was ready for any reaction except that one. To make matters
worse, she took a step closer, bringing her mouth just to the side
of my ear and dropped her voice to a seductive whisper

“My, my, Lieutenant, aren’t you the naughty one.
Maybe you had better hope I don’t make it back, or I may make you
put your money where your mouth is.”

I sighed, surprised at how easily I shrugged off my
embarrassment. I really was getting used to her. “So, what is it
you wanted to talk to me about?”

Backing away and ignoring her little performance,
she cut right to the point. “I’ve never killed anyone with the
fifty. I’ve never even fired it in the field.”

“What!?” I practically yelled the word, enticing the
rest of the team to turn in our direction. Throwing them a smile, I
grabbed Helena by the arm and pulled her away from the group. “But
your record said you had confirmed kills with it. Dozens.”

She sighed. “My government tweaked my record a bit.
They just wanted one of their own on the team and they knew the
Pope wanted a female, and the team was looking for snipers. I was
the only obvious choice. Don’t worry. I’m not a spy or anything.
Everything else you know is true.

I gave her a skeptical look, but I had to believe
her when she said she had nothing to do with changing her record.
It’s hard to trust the Germans. Opting to focus on the problem
instead, I put my hands on my hips, and looked at her sternly. “So
what’s the problem?”

She looked confused. “What do you mean, ‘what’s the
problem’? I’ve never had to do this before. I was nervous in the
training room with you backing me up for Christ’s sakes.”

“So the fuck what? You’re a trained professional.
Just do the math and don’t forget to breathe. You don’t need
me.”

“Are you sure? You said you’d always be…”

I reached my arms out and gently grabbed her
shoulders, staring at her reassuringly.

“Helena. I understand your confidence has taken a
hit since your late fiancé, but you know you’re a great shot. Just
focus. You’ll do fine.”

I gave her shoulders a squeeze, and smiled. She
couldn’t afford distraction on the mission, especially with two of
her teammates’ lives on the line.

She looked at the floor, sighed, and set her
shoulders before straightening her posture, the confident demeanor
I saw in the training room returning.

She looked up at me. “Thanks. I’m not sure where I’d
be without you.”

“Probably not in ancient Rome, for one.”

She hit me on the arm, but it was playful. “Very
funny. Anyway…” She said, glancing towards the rest of the team,
none of whom were paying us any attention. “… thank you. Your
confidence means a lot.”

Nervously, she leaned up on her toes, and kissed me
lightly on the cheek. Her kiss lingered just long enough to seem
suggestive, more than the peck a mother would offer her son. As she
pulled away, she looked sheepishly at the floor, before heading
back towards the rest of the team looking over her shoulder briefly
to smile at me.

I reached up and rubbed my cheek, ironically, on the
same side of my face she had punched weeks ago. I wasn’t exactly
sure how to respond.

What was that for? She can’t actually like me. I’m
not that lucky. I’m just some guy that resembled some other guy,
who she probably didn’t want to think about. Still rubbing my
cheek, my head shaking involuntarily, I turned to follow her.
Vincent was giving some last minute orders when he noticed me.

“Hunter. Nice of you to join us. We’re ready to head
out, but there’s a few points I need to go over first.” He turned
back towards the group. “First off, while we’re gone, Hunter’s in
charge. Wang,” Vincent looked over at the man who had been brimming
with confidence and cockiness just a few weeks ago, but no longer,
“I’m sorry, but you’re in no shape to take over.”

Wang had been steadily improving since McDougal’s
funeral. His sense of humor had returned, and considering how many
goofballs were already in the group, he slowly started fitting in
again. He and Santino had formed an allied front against me and my
music tastes, and their taunting made me miss my temporally lost
mp3 player more and more.

But Wang knew he wasn’t fully there yet, so he
accepted Vincent’s decision with a small nod.

“And Santino,” Vincent said, directing his attention
to the biggest goofball of them all, “sorry, but placing you in
command…”

Helena interrupted. “… would be about as responsible
as giving America’s nuclear launch codes to a toddler.”

Vincent’s shoulders slumped. “Basically.”

Santino was shocked, but not out of embarrassment.
“Strauss? Was that a joke? A real, honest to God joke? I can’t
believe it. There may be hope for you, yet.”

She looked him square in the eyes, pausing
dramatically. “It wasn’t a joke.”

Santino hesitated. A look of genuine hurt creeping
onto his face this time.

Helena smiled. “Just kidding.”

Santino’s own smile returned, although slower than
normal, realizing he had just been played. He offered a mock bow.
“How quickly the grasshopper becomes the master.”

Everyone laughed.

I laughed alongside everyone else, secretly happy
because I knew Helena’s jokes were a good sign. She’d taken my
advice to heart and her confidence had reappeared.