Sunset of the Gods (24 page)

And as a result of all the sickening butchery on this plain Western civilization would live, to one day give humankind—for the first time—an economic system that allowed for at least the possibility of prosperity, a legal system that allowed for at least the possibility of justice, and a governmental system that allowed for at least the possibility of individual liberty . . . including the liberty of free scientific inquiry that would lead to the stars.

Rutherford wanted us to find out if there’s any truth to the tradition that the runner is none other than Pheidippides, and that he drops dead after delivering his message,
Jason recalled,
or if historians have been right to ridicule it . . . just as they’ve ridiculed the idea of the hoplites running to the attack. He also wanted us to find out the truth about the “shield signal” from Mount Pentelikon, because the mystery of that was never solved.

Too bad, Kyle. We don’t exactly have time for any of that at the moment.

“Come on,” he told Mondrago as he discarded his breastplate and greaves and tried to discard his exhaustion with them. “Let’s go. The aircar is concealed about halfway up here on Mount Agriliki. We’ll take it to Athens and—maybe—make it to Themistocles’ house and get that jar containing Chantal’s TRD before Franco does.”

They ascended the wooded slope behind the Greek camp, the sounds of shouts and screams and clashing weapons diminishing as the battle moved on. Jason concentrated on retracing his steps to the clearing. As a result, he almost missed the flicker of motion among the shadow-dappled underbrush.

“What?” Mondrago exclaimed, and bounded toward the barely-glimpsed movement. A figure broke cover and skittered frantically away.

It was Pan.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Mondrago scrambled uphill
and plunged forward, catching the fleeing Pan around the legs. A backward kick of cloven hooves caused him to lose his grip and yelp with pain.

But the split second that kick took enabled Jason to catch up. Avoiding the goatish legs, he landed atop Pan’s thrashing back, wrapping his left arm around the throat and gripping one of the horns with his right hand. The hybrid being was immobilized, and the force of his struggles confirmed an impression Jason had gotten when grappling with Pan before: that his muscularity was deceptive, or perhaps the word was “decorative.” He didn’t seem very strong, and there was an odd but unmistakable feeling of artificial fragility about him.

Mondrago got to his feet and drew the dagger that was part of standard
thetes
equipment. “I’ll kill the miserable little—!”

“As you were! I want information, not a corpse.” Mondrago subsided, and Jason addressed Pan, with a jerk on the horn for emphasis but a slight relaxation of the throat-hold. “Talk! What are you doing here? And how did you get up here anyway?”

“I came in a Teloi aircar,” rasped Pan in his squeaky voice, through a still-constricted throat. “The Transhumanists have to use them, since you stole the only one they brought with them.”

“Doesn’t that limit their mobility, having to use aircars with no invisibility fields?”

“Yes. Franco’s fury is terrible. But they have no choice. I came with one of his men, who was sent to kill the two of you. We were dropped off here on Mount Agriliki because of its location; the killer could slip down unnoticed behind the Greek center as it was being forced back. He ordered me to wait here.”

And of course you had to obey,
thought Jason. The Transhumanists had no need to worry that their “god” would run away and cut himself off from the drugs that made his existence endurable.

“Afterwards,” Pan continued, “I am to be picked up and taken to Mount Kotroni.” He pointed northward, to the left of the plain. “Franco has a machine set up there, which he is very shortly going to use to induce uncontrollable fear in the Persians when they form their second line, protecting the departing ships.”

Jason called up his map-display; it made sense.

“That will have to be very soon,” he said, listening to the distant battle-sounds.

“Yes. They’ll be here for me any minute now. I am to show myself on the slope, so the Greeks can see me. The Persians’ panic—” (Pan did not smile) “—will be attributed to me.”

Well, well,
thought Jason,
so
that
was what their aircar was doing on Mount Kotroni when I took it. They were scouting out a good location.

“Afterwards,” Pan went on, “we are to return to Athens in the Teloi aircar. Even traveling cautiously to avoid being observed, we will arrive there in not many minutes—long before any runner that can be sent from here. I will appear to my worshippers in the cave under the Acropolis and tell them of the victory before anyone else in Athens knows. The Teloi will signal from Mount Pentelikon the instant the battle is over.”

“Aha!” Mondrago burst out. “So that’s the famous ‘shield signal’ that everybody has always wondered about.”

“Right,” Jason nodded. “The Greeks will think it’s traitors signaling to the Persian fleet, even though the meaning and purpose of such a signal will be hard to understand, and afterwards no treason will ever be proved. But now we know what it’s really for: to let Franco & Co. know exactly when they can proceed with the ceremony. It’ll make it even more of a belief-strengthening miracle for the true believers when their god appears to them and tells them about the battle just as it’s ending. A very precisely choreographed operation all around.”

“And one which we’re now in a position to abort!” said Mondrago wolfishly. “You’ve gotten your information out of him. Now let me kill him.”

Pan stiffened with fear.

“No!” said Jason, without really knowing why.

“Why not? Franco will have egg on his face when the ‘god’ doesn’t show up as promised.”

Which, Jason was forced to admit to himself, made sense. Only. . . .

All at once, it came to him. He wondered why he hadn’t thought of it before. But of course he
had
thought of it before, when he had last spoken to Pan on the Tegea heights above the road from Sparta.

“Listen, Pan,” he said hurriedly. “We’ve got to go. I just need to know one thing: do you know how to pilot the Teloi aircars that the Transhumanists are using?”

“Why, yes.” Pan seemed puzzled, as did Mondrago. “They taught me how, in case I should ever need to do it when alone.” He didn’t need to add that he could always be relied on to go to the destination he was ordered. In light of that utter reliability, it made perfect sense that the Transhumanists would have availed themselves of the flexibility of training him to pilot himself. But Jason had had to be sure.

“Good. Now, if I let you live, I know you’ve got to stay and do as Franco tells you . . . and I know why. But I’m going to do it anyway.”

Mondrago began to splutter, inarticulate with outrage. Jason shushed him.

“I’m going to leave you here. But I’m going to stop the Transhumanists from using you as they intend to, over there on Mount Kotroni. And afterwards I’m going to take you to Athens.”

“How will you accomplish all this?” Pan asked in a tone of dead incredulity, too hopeless even to sneer.

“Good question,” muttered Mondrago.

“Never mind that for now. Just remember what I told you before about getting help for you, and freeing you from your dependence on the Transhumanists and the Teloi? Well, I swear to you that I’ll do exactly that, in exchange for your cooperation.”

“Cooperation in what?” The high-pitched voice was no longer entirely lifeless, for a flicker of eagerness had awakened in it.

“I’ll want you to appear to the cult members and tell them that you’re no god, and that the Transhumanists are some kind of evil supernatural beings—I’ll leave the details to you—who’ve duped them. Do you agree to my terms?”

“If you do indeed take me to Athens, and protect me from Franco and the others, I’ll do as you ask.”

“Good.” At that moment, the tiny blue light began to flash that told Jason a grav repulsion vehicle was approaching. In this era, when such vehicles weren’t supposed to exist, it could mean only one thing. “The Teloi aircar is coming for you. We have to go. Remember what I said.” He got to his feet and motioned the still visibly thunderstruck Mondrago to follow him. Mondrago looked at Pan, and then at his dagger, with obvious longing, but he obeyed.

The two men hastily ascended the short remaining distance, flung themselves into the Transhumanist aircar, and engaged the invisibility field. As they went aloft they saw, in the ghostly grayish world viewed through the field, an open-topped Teloi aircar flying low for concealment.

“Well,” said Mondrago with a gust of released breath, “here they come to take Pan over to Mount Kotroni so he can put on his little performance—and there’s not a damned thing we can do about it about it now. What, exactly, was the purpose of all those lies you told him?”

“I wasn’t lying,” said Jason distractedly as he set a course for Athens. “I meant every word.”

“
What?
But how—?”

Jason turned to meet Mondrago’s eyes, and all the distraction was gone. When he spoke, the bullwhip crack of command was in his voice. “At the present time, you have no need to know that. For now, you will simply follow orders. And any more borderline insubordination on your part will go into my report.
Is that clear?
”

Mondrago came to as close to a position of attention as the aircar’s cramped passenger seat permitted. “Yes, sir!” he said with a new snap.

“Good.” Jason allowed his expression to soften into a smile. “Oh, and by the way, thanks for saving my life. That also will be in my report.”

With no need to conceal the movements of a vehicle that was, in the present milieu, supernatural, they were at Athens in minutes and were able to pick a landing spot with care.

While he was doing it, Jason spared a moment to consult his map display.The red dot that marked Chantal’s TRD was still at Themistocles’ house. He ordered his weary body not to go weak with relief. Now, no matter what happened to him and Mondrago, he would be able to scupper Franco’s plan to use Chantal as a mole.

There was a small clear area just within the city wall near the “Hangman’s Gate.” Jason settled the aircar gently down and made sure no one was in sight. Leaving Mondrago to keep the power on, Jason got out with the invisibility field still activated. To an observer, he would have seemed to step into existence from nowhere. Fortunately, there were no observers. He hastened through the narrow alleys, encountering no one, for all the women and old men and children who currently occupied Athens were either keeping to their homes or milling uneasily about the Agora, waiting for news.

Reaching Themistocles’ house, Jason pounded on the door. The slave who opened it gasped at the sight of him—either from recognition or from sheer horror at the apparition, encrusted with dust and gore. This was no time for subtlety. While the slave was still goggling, Jason jabbed him in the solar plexus just hard enough to double him over, then wrapped an arm around his throat in a choke-hold that induced prompt unconsciousness. Then he rushed into the house, sending maidservants fleeing screaming as he went to the storeroom where he had left “Cleothera’s” possessions. The jar was still where he had left it. He opened it to confirm the presence of the TRD, then ran from the house and retraced his steps to the open area and the carefully-memorized location of the aircar.

“Got it!” he told Mondrago as he took the aircar aloft. “We beat Franco to it.”

“He probably thought he had plenty of time and no need to hurry,” Mondrago opined. “Now he’s going to be shitting rivets.”

“Maybe.” Jason frowned. “We’ve got to get out of Attica—and not just because the Transhumanists are going to be hunting for us. Themistocles is going to think we’re deserters—and if the house slaves recognized me, he’s going to think I’m a thief as well. I hate that.”

“So do I. I like Themistocles. I’m glad he survives the battle.”

“Not everyone does. Callimachus, for example, dies in the final battle on the beach, by the Persian ships, transfixed by so many spears he’s propped up and can’t fall to the ground.”

“Shit.” Mondrago shook his head at the thought of the gallant old war archon, to whom history would never accord as much credit for the victory as he deserved. “At least Miltiades lives, right?”

“Right—but he probably would have been better off getting killed.” Seeing Mondrago’s puzzled stare, Jason explained. “Later this year, the Athenians will give him command of their fleet, and he’ll take it around the Aegean on an expedition against islands that collaborated with the Persians. At Paros, though, he’ll be defeated and badly wounded in the leg. On his return to Athens, his political rivals, the Alcmaeonid family, will smell blood. They’ll put him on trial and hit him with a fine of fifty talents—an impossibly large sum—as an alternative to execution. But by then he’ll have gotten gangrene in his wound, and will die shortly after the trial.”

“Shit!” Mondrago repeated, but in a very different tone. “So these people are going to do
that
to the man who, along with Callimachus, masterminded the victory of Marathon for them. And you told me how they’re going to ostracize Themistocles after he does the same thing for them at Salamis when the Persians come back ten years from now. And I seem to recall something about making Socrates drink hemlock.” He looked down at the receding maze of Athens. “Tell me again about how these are supposed to be the
good
guys!”

Jason was silent for a moment. When he spoke, it was to himself as much as to Mondrago. “Infants are awkward and messy—even the ones who end up growing into worthwhile adults. Democracy in Athens in this era is awkward and messy. But it had to survive this day. Otherwise, the world we come from could never have been.” He fell silent again, then spoke briskly. “Anyway we’re going to have to lay low for a month and six days, and as I said, we’ve made Attica too hot to hold us now, even if there weren’t Transhumanists running around in it looking for us. We’ll need to go somewhere else.”

Mondrago held his peace about the promises Jason had made to Pan concerning the events of this very day, here in Attica. “Where?” was all he said.