Doctor Who_ Byzantium! - Keith Topping [96]
But the feeling didn’t last long.
After all, this was the inevitable fate of all who spy in Byzantium.
It was simply a question of when.
EPISODE FIVE
FOUR LANE ENDS
Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
He is not the God of the dead,
but the God of the living
Mark 13:26-27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The Culture Bunker, Part Seven –
Losing My Religion
And the veil of the temple was rent
in twain from the top to the bottom
Mark 15:38
It was all very strange for Vicki after her two weeks spent in the loving, yet impoverished, home of the Georgiadis family.
After she had been manhandled from the Greek quarter the previous evening and frog-marched back to the Roman barracks, each of her questions about where they were taking her, and why. had been met with a stony silence, then irritated looks from the legionnaires and finally a stinging mouthful of Latin swearing from the sergeant, who hauled her into the Roman compound, dragged her up a steep flight of stairs and pushed her into a bedroom that, although poorly decorated and unfurnished, was still the lap of luxury compared to what she’d been used to recently.
The atmosphere, however, was sterile and dowdy compared to Evangeline’s fireside and Vicki quickly climbed into bed, pulled the blankets around her and didn’t sleep at all, listening instead to the sounds of activity within the compound.
The next morning, they came for her early and she found herself in a military office facing the captain who had led the raid on the Georgiadis home.
‘Good morning,’ he said, without looking up from a scroll that he was reading, as the gruff and snarling sergeant pointed to the seat opposite the captain and made it clear that Vicki should sit in it and speak when she was spoken to.
So she did.
‘I apologise for any unnecessary roughness yesterday evening,’ the captain said, finally raising his head and giving Vicki a little half-smile that, she imagined, he reserved for people that he wasn’t about to torture. ‘We knew not with whom we were dealing. My name is Drusus Felinistius, tell me yours please.’
‘Vicki. That’s, erm, short for Vickius Pallister... us.’ She returned the half-smile and then sat back, swinging her legs beneath the chair. The captain gave his sergeant an odd look and signalled that he should leave.
‘And you are a Briton, yes?’
‘Uh-huh,’ affirmed Vicki, proudly ‘I’m from Londinium.’
‘Your Latin is most excellent, Vickius.’
For a fraction of a second, Vicki tittered coyly flattered that so handsome a man was giving her a compliment. Then, just as quickly, her indignity rose towards her Roman captor and she demanded to know what he wanted with her.
Captain Drusus Felinistius seemed surprised. ‘You were being held captive against your will by those Greek people.’
He pronounced the last word as though it were something vile. ‘They will, incidentally, be dealt with most severely.’
‘No, you’ve got it all wrong,’ cried Vicki quickly. ‘They were kind to me. Georgiadis rescued me when there was all that fuss and bother in the forum, and I lost my family They’ve been looking after me.’
‘And you were not abused, or forced into slavery by them...?’
Vicki considered mentioning the work that Evangeline made her do around the house, but then decided that wasn’t really what the captain had meant. ‘Not at all. I should hate for them to be badly treated for an act of kindness.’
‘Very well,’ said Drusus Felinistius, ‘your loyalty to them does you great credit. Nevertheless, it is unbecoming for a citizen of the Roman empire such as yourself to be living with subhuman scum like the Greeks. We will find a place for you within Roman society.’
Vicki snorted with derision. ‘The Greeks are a million times more civilised than the Romans,’ she said, standing up. ‘I know the drill, I’ll be in my room