Read To Crown a Caesar (The Praetorian Series: Book II) for Free Online Page B

“I don’t think so.  She’s only supposed to rescue us if we don’t check in after nine hours.  Besides, it doesn’t sound like her P90.”
    “Then, who?”  Santino asked, perplexed.
    “Well, if I had to guess, I’d say it was…”
    I was interrupted by a very large figure rounding the corner to the corridor, moving towards us with an ominous slowness as dust billowed around him.  He held a torch in one hand and a very large gun in the other, and his identity became instantly known.  He was wearing his own set of night ops combat fatigues and his face was covered by a black balaclava, only a narrow slit for his eyes visible.
    He looked between Santino and me before pulling off his mask, revealing the face of my favorite Frenchman.  “ Bonjour, mes ami ,” our friend Jeanne Bordeaux said, nodding to each of us in turn.  “Perhaps one day you will rescue me for a change, no?”
     
     
     
    II
    Planning
     
    Mission Entry #2
    Jacob Hunter
    Valentia, Transalpine Gaul - April, 42 A.D.
     
    The reason I ended my last entry so abruptly was because Santino, Helena and I had to take care of a little business. 
    Hostage negotiation, if you will.
    The original plan called for Santino and me to infiltrate a band of thugs responsible for the death of an equestrian Roman family and the abduction of a young girl.  Our insertion had gone smoothly, but when we arrived at their hideout, our cover was blown and we had to improvise.  Jeanne Bordeaux, formerly of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (say that ten times fast) and a former Praetorian squad member, came to the rescue.
    When Helena was on supply run duty a few days ago, part of her orders had been to get in contact with him, tell him what we were planning, and ask if he’d help out.  She reported that he said he’d think about it.  I guess we were lucky he was a quick thinker, and I was happy to see him.  He was another connection to our lost home and his mere presence was a reminder of better times.
    When he arrived, Santino had joined him in clearing out the rest of the cav e while I helped our charge, a seventeen year old girl named Julia.  She’d been stripped naked by her kidnappers and all she had to cover herself with was a blanket I gave her.  I was as careful and gentle as I could be with her, but she wouldn’t budge from her corner so I had to carry her out. Luckily, Santino and Bordeaux had done a good job clearing the cave complex.  On the way out, I noticed the leader of the group, Madriviox, dead with a neat little hole through his forehead.
    He got what he deserved.
    We immediately returned to the tavern we’d left from.  Helena is comforting and talking to the girl while Santino has run off with his barmaid again.  Bordeaux is at the table with me, and with him here, we can move on to the next phase of my plan.
    Until next time.
     
    I put my pen between the pages and wrapped a rubber band around the small leather bound journal, capturing the pen within.  Having spent a few years working at my college library , I knew it wasn’t the best thing for the binding, but I was lazy and it made finding my spot again just that much easier.  Not to mention a pen.  I dropped the book into a bag and turned my attention to the large man seated across from me.
    To say the man was large was like calling the Himalayas a series of rolling hills.  He was taller than me, significantly broader across the chest and shoulders and had the build of a professional wrestle.  His sharp nose and angled chin gave him a look I always associated with the French, and his bright blue eyes, scruffy light brown hair and short facial stubble made him a pretty good looking guy.
    He ’d joined the Papal Praetorians after his wife had been killed in a terrorist attack outside the Vatican, something that still haunted him deeply, and was not something he discussed very often.  It was a defining moment for him, an event that brought him into my circle of