“He’s a prick, but…shit.”
“Just needed the proper vehicle around him’s what.”
The medicus is watching Ajax too, likely ready to pester him as well. Only Kyber isn’t watching Ajax. She leans against the tank, her jaguar eyes slits.
Markus turns on me. “Dominus,if he doesn’t kill you, can we keep him?”
“I think that can be arranged,” I say and watch Ajax fly back. He lands with a bang.
“Water?” Drusilla asks.
Ajax seizes the hose and drinks for a half minute. He spits when he’s done. “And they said this place would be a second Rat War.” He points at my guards. “You four.” They wait for an insult. “That fire support. You deserve statues.”
“Thirteen,” is all Drusilla, Demetrius, and Markus say, but it sounds more likeobviously. A knight like Ajax only really comes unlocked when he can close. That takes a good fire team.
“Your mother taught us,dominus,” Markus adds. It is shockingly charitable, but not as much as when he says, “You’re the best closer we’ve seen.”
“Since her?” Ajax asks, annoyed.
“Period.” Ever.
Ajax goes blank, nods, and turns to me, deeply touched. He doesn’t know what to do with that compliment. The medicus comes to pester Ajax. Kyber raises her rifle and shoots the medicus in the head. We’re all stunned. Kyber approaches the medicus and opens his hand to reveal a trigger mechanism.
Suicide bomber. He was waiting for Ajax to blow.
“How’d you know?” I whisper, still a little stunned.
“Didn’t. Gut,” she says.
Ajax is even a little irked by her. “I owe you my life.”
“Thirteen.” She nods to me, meaning Ajax owes me the debt because she is Legio XIII Dracones, and Legio XIII Dracones is an extension of me. She glances at the other three Praetorians with a strange expression on her face.
“Let’s get back to it,” I say. A moment later, Rhone exits the tank. I enter. He doesn’t look happy.
“We’ve got a problem.” He shares a feed from our landfall on the moon’s surface. A ragged enemy dreadnaught is exchanging fire with our ships and escaping back toward the safety of Sector Three. “That’s thePandemonia.”
Ajax senses the tension and fills the tank entrance behind me.
“I thought Julii was tied up on the pole—”
“She was. She just punched through and dropped her own Rain. Here.” His finger falls between Horatia’s force and Bastion One.
“How many did she drop?” I ask.
“As many as they could in a minute. Twenty thousand? More?”
I frown. “That woman is mad, but brave. I’ll give her that. Still I don’t see a problem. This is why we have Cicero in reserve. Send him from Bastion One to cut her off.”
“Cicero isn’t in Bastion One,” Rhone says. “Neither is his vanguard.”
I look back at Ajax. He’s dumbfounded. I’m already hailing Cicero with the tank’s powerful antennae. His face soon fills the display. He’s flying. He shouldn’t be. “Cicero, where are you?”
“Can’t talk. We’re hot on Augustus’s tail. She’s on the run through the latrine lines.”
I pause. Apollonius was to have Virginia. That was his price for giving my operation his public support. “Cicero, how many men do you have with you?”
“My vanguard, of course.”He goes on.“I know you’re wroth, but I’ll not have a Martian taking the glory. This day was made possible by Mercury. Her people and her honor should not play second fiddle to a vainglorious madman like the Minotaur.”
