The Eternal Empire (35 page)

"You little fool!" he yelled
at her. "It was your Roman wasn't it! He took them!"

Franz took a step towards her and
Katherine feared that he was going to strike her, such was the look of anger in
his eyes. Frederick stood up and placed himself between them.

"Will somebody please tell me what
is going on here!" he shouted in exasperation. "Who tied Katherine up
and what plans are missing?" Frederick looked from Franz to Katherine, his
face pleading for an explanation.

“Cornelius arranged to meet me here,”
said Katherine quietly, averting her eyes from brothers. “I thought the lodge
would be empty and that we could... be alone.”

“And then!” Snapped Franz.

“After I let him in he tied me up and
opened the safe”. Katherine did not dwell on how Cornelius had managed to gain
access to the safe trusting that her brothers would assume safe cracking would
be a core skill for a spy, which Franz would now believe he was. “I heard him
remove some papers from the safe and then leave.”

“Our plans....”

“WHAT PLANS!” shouted Frederick, now
both angry and exasperated.

Franz was visibly shaking with anger as
he spoke to his brother through clenched teeth.

"The plans for our attack on the
Empire. That Roman took them. How he knew they were here I don't know, but now
he's got them!"

"What attack on the Empire? No war
plans have been authorised by the council."

"You didn't think that we would
miss an opportunity like this did you," sneered Franz. "The King
knows what we are doing and has approved it all. Everything is in place. It
only needs his final go ahead."

"You're mad," said Frederick
horrified at what he had just heard. "Another war won't solve
anything!"

Franz ignored him and walked over to
the desk where he picked up the ear piece to the telephone. "He can't have
gone far”, he said as he dialled. "If we can stop him getting back to
Minden or across the Rhine we can still retain the element of surprise."

He stopped dialling and looked over
towards Katherine. She was sitting up and massaging her wrists. "I don't
suppose he mentioned which direction he was taking?" he asked
sarcastically.

Katherine did not say anything, but
shook her head. She had not said a word since Frederick had released her. Franz
resumed dialling and then waited impatiently for somebody to answer. When he
finally got a reply he identified himself and spat out a series of orders and
instructions.

When he had finished he replaced the
telephone and moved over to where Frederick was sitting with Katherine,
comforting her. Having done something, Franz felt more in control of himself.

"I've arranged for roadblocks to
be placed on all the main roads leading to Minden and to the Rhine crossings,
and for the embassy to be cordoned off," he informed Frederick. "That
should stop him. Now I must go and see General Godisger and inform him of this
... incident."

He left the room without looking at
Katherine or saying a word to her. She began to cry on Frederick's shoulder.

"My poor little Katherine,"
he spoke to her in the soothing way that he had used when she was small and had
come to her big brother when she had hurt herself. For Katherine he felt
sorrow. For Franz, Cornelius and himself he felt anger. Anger at Franz for the
war he was planning, anger at Cornelius for using and hurting Katherine and
most of all anger at himself for introducing Katherine to that swine in the
first place.

Katherine sobbed quietly. She cried as
a release from the tension and stress that she had been under since leaving
Minden.

And she cried for Cornelius, afraid that
he would not make good his escape from Saxony.

27th
July 1920

Saxony

Just before dawn Cornelius was about
forty miles from the bridge over the Rhine to Colonia Agrippina. He noticed
that the fuel gauge was on empty. Not wishing to run out of petrol and draw
attention to himself he stopped at a small village garage just as the sun was
beginning to appear through the trees.

The garage had not yet opened so
Cornelius waited patiently, keeping an eye on the rucksack on the seat beside
him. Fifteen minutes later another motor carriage, this one made in the Empire
pulled into the garage from the direction of the frontier. A large overweight
man in business dress got out and looked around at the deserted garage in
obvious disgust before noticing Cornelius and coming over to him.

Cornelius slid back the window and
smiled as the man approached.

"What time does this garage
open?" the man asked slowly in very bad German.

"I'm afraid I don't know,"
replied Cornelius in faultless Latin, "I've only just arrived
myself."

"A fellow Roman!" exclaimed
the man with a sigh of relief, "I was beginning to think that I was the
only one left in Saxony."

He introduced himself as Julius
Valeria, a sales representative for an engineering firm in Lutetia. Cornelius
listened politely to his catalogue of complaints about how bad things had
become since the new trade laws were introduced. He was only half listening,
nodding his head every now and then when Valeria mentioned being held up at a
road block. He then gave the corpulent businessman his full attention.

"What road block?" demanded
Cornelius.

"About five miles back," said
Valeria, slightly taken aback by the sharp tone, "It was just being set
up, I didn't have much of a problem, but those heading for Colonia Agrippina
were being checked. I saw a motor carriage just like yours’ being virtually
disassembled."

"What were they looking for?"
asked Cornelius with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"No idea," said Valeria,
"but they were certainly very thorough, and none too gentle either. Not
surprising when they have the army instead of the police manning the road
blocks."

Cornelius thought quickly. It was
possible that they were looking for somebody else, but that was unlikely as
they were only interested in those going towards the frontier and judging by
what Valeria had said they were concentrating on Imperial citizens. Even though
he was driving a Saxon made vehicle and dressed like a local, there was no way
that he could pass himself off as a Saxon. He would have to find another way
across the Rhine.

A man in grease stained overalls opened
the doors to the garage workshop and walked over to the two vehicles parked
next to the fuel pumps.

"At last," said Valeria.
"Now we can fill up and be on our way."

"You go first," said
Cornelius needing time to think, "I'll be stuck at the road block
anyway."

Valeria thanked him and began to give
instructions to the bemused Saxon attendant in his broken German.

Cornelius took out a map of the area
and began to look for an alternate way across the frontier. He found a minor
road that forked off the main route a couple of miles out of town and then ran
parallel to the river. The distance between the road and the river was over
thirty miles. It was hilly and heavily wooded with a railway track through it
connecting the major Rhine cities, and some unpaved dirt tracks to service the
small communities in the area. He decided to take one of these tracks to the
Rhine and then cross by boat.

While the garage owner filled up
Katherine's motor carriage, Cornelius took the rucksack and went over to one of
the village shops that had just opened. There he bought some bread rolls, dried
sausage, tinned soup and bottled water. Returning to the garage he paid for the
petrol and drove off, hoping that he would not meet a road block before the
turn off.

Saxon
Staff School

Count Godisger sat behind his desk,
staring silently at Franz Maleric standing at attention in front of him.
Maleric had informed him of the theft of the plans and the actions that he had
taken to apprehend Cornelius. Fully expecting to receive the full fury of
Godisger's anger Franz had resigned himself to enduring a withering indictment
of his shortcomings as an officer. But it did not happen. Instead the general
just sat behind his desk, his face drained of colour and with an expression
that Franz had never seen before. At first he could not place it, but then
realised that it was fear.

The 'ice general' rarely showed any
sort of emotion, except anger, yet here he was looking like he had seen a
ghost. Why? Franz had been the one who had lost the plans.

Then Franz understood. His plan for
defeating the imperial armies was the fulfilment of the dream that he had had
for thirty years, revenge for the defeat three decades ago which had decimated
Godisger's generation. Now it looked like that dream was fading away. Another
chance may never present itself. He was scared that he had missed his chance.

Franz saw an opportunity to salvage
something from the night’s fiasco and possibly turn it to his advantage.

"Despite this setback," he
said choosing his words with care, "I believe that we can still proceed with
our attack, although it will need to be brought forward."

"What!" exclaimed Godisger.
"With the Romans in possession of our plans. Are you mad Maleric!"

"The 'Romans' do not have the
plans sir," explained Franz in a slightly condescending tone. "Only
'a Roman', who is still in Saxony, cut off from his embassy and with the
frontier sealed. Also, he only got the operational plans covering the
mobilisation and deployments. The strategic plan on how we would destroy the
Roman army on the Rhine was not in the safe. "

He began to speak with more confidence
when he saw that he had Godisger's attention and his idea began to clarify in
his mind. "If we strike now we still have the element of surprise! Even if
they eventually get their hands on the stolen plans it does not reveal
everything."

They looked at each other and Franz
could see the general struggling with the decision before him. It was a choice
between two fears - the fear of condemning another generation to die in a
fruitless war or the fear of missing his opportunity for revenge. When he
finally spoke, Franz knew that he had won.

"Are you certain that the spy has
not crossed the Rhine?"

"Absolutely. The frontier was
alerted within an hour of the plans being taken, and the embassy is surrounded
by a regiment from the Minden garrison."

"What about the movement of
equipment into the staging areas?"

"We have 90% of the arms and
supplies in place already." It was closer to 70%, but Franz told the
general what he wanted to hear.

"And the advance teams?"

They can be across the Rhine and on the
way to their objectives within 24 hours." Most of them anyway, Franz
admitted to himself. In actual fact about a quarter of them were still forming
along the eastern frontier and would need at least three days to re-deploy
across Saxony to the west.

Godisger continued to stare at Franz.
The colour had returned to his cheeks but the determination and decisiveness
that Franz had admired so much was gone.

"Are you sure that all the
elements of this operation can be executed exactly as planned?"

"Yes sir," said Franz firmly,
"the advance teams will go into action at the same time as Sea Lance, with
the ground attack following at first light."

Godisger looked down at his hands which
he had clasped before him, and Franz thought that he was praying. After a few
moments he looked up.

"All right then," he said.
"We go."

"Yes sir!" said Franz,
"but what about the King's signature?" he added, slightly worried.
Saxon troops could not leave Saxon soil without the King's express approval.

"I'll worry about his
Majesty," answered Godisger. "You worry about getting the army ready
to attack - and make sure that the Roman spy doesn't warn them."

28th
July 1920

Saxony,
near the frontier

Cornelius turned off the main route to
Colonia Agrippina, onto the smaller road marked on the map. According to the
map the first dirt track through the forest towards the Rhine was some fifteen
miles further on. From there it was about thirty to thirty five miles of track
to the frontier. Cornelius estimated that he would be on the banks of the Rhine
in about two or three hours. There he would either have to pay someone to ferry
him across, steal a boat or hail one of the river patrol craft of the Rhine
flotilla. He should be on his way to Augusta Treverorum by nightfall and then
Manual Dikouros would have to believe him.

After about twelve miles Cornelius
started looking for the junction with the dirt track, when he saw a small
column of soldiers in the distance. They were followed by a small horse drawn
wagon and to his horror, Cornelius saw them turn into the woods. As he drove
past them he saw that they had taken the dirt track that he was looking for and
that they were busy setting up a road block.