The Alexander Inheritance Read online

  “What has happened?”

  “Your bodyguards tried to pirate my ship,” Floden said. His tone was icy cold and seemingly emotionless, which just made him scarier. “But you must know that. They are your men, after all.”

  Roxane’s eyes, of their own accord, leapt from face to face around the bridge. None of those faces showed any support. Not until she got to Dag’s face, and even he was not happy with her.

  “Captain, I had no knowledge of what they were planning,” she protested. “If I had, I would have stopped it, by informing you, if nothing else. I promise you, Captain. I swear on my son’s life. Before all the gods, I swear.” She said it and hoped they believed, for it was true. She hadn’t known they were planning this.

  She had known that her Silver Shields were not happy about the ship people’s trick. Not happy that the ship people had taken their property. Evgenij hadn’t been happy. She turned to face the commander of her guards. “Did you know?”

  “No, my queen, I didn’t know,” Evgenij said, but there was something in his voice.

  A new voice spoke from the door to the bridge. Marie Easley said, “Did you suspect, Commander?”

  Evgenij turned quickly and his hand moved in the direction of his empty scabbard, then stopped.

  “No!” he said firmly. “I knew they were unhappy. None of us are happy to have lost so much of our wealth when you took our slaves from us. But I did not know that they had anything like this in mind.”

  “Captain,” said Staff Captain Dahl, followed by “nonsense nonsense nonsense.”

  Roxane looked to Dag. Dag pulled out his phone and said the same words into it.

  “All this can wait,” said the phone. “For right now, we have a bunch of Silver Shields holding our people hostage.”

  “Evgenij,” Roxane said, “order them to surrender. Send his voice to wherever they are,” she added to the bridge in general.

  Dag started to use the app, but Marie Easley translated Roxane’s words before he could. She said more than that, but Roxane didn’t know what. She had left her phone in her suite, and Dag had put his away.

  Captain Floden looked at Evgenij, then he spoke to Marie Easley, and she said, “Captain Floden will let you speak to the people in the engine room, but I will be listening to everything you say.”

  Evgenij’s gaze went from the captain to Marie, then Dag. He nodded.

  ☆ ☆ ☆

  “This is Evgenij,” came over the speakers in the engine room. “Put down your arms and surrender.”

  “Fuck,” Koinos said.

  “What?” Orestes asked querulously. “Evgenij’s on our side. It must mean we’re winning.” Orestes was a good man to have at your back, but not the sharpest sword in the armory.

  “Evgenij wasn’t in on the plan, you fucking ox,” Koinos said. “That means they have him. The ship people have Evgenij.” He pulled out a phone he had taken from one of the prisoners and called up the app. “How do I talk back to wherever that voice is coming from?”

  By now the doors to the engine room were blocked by the ship’s soldiers in their white clothing. And Koinos was pretty sure that they weren’t going to be able to get past them.

  One of the prisoners pointed to one of the metal desks with buttons on them, and Koinos motioned him to do whatever he had to do.

  “What’s going on, Evgenij?” Koinos asked into the device. “Where’s Tyrimmas?”

  “Tyrimmas is dead, you stupid shit,” Evgenij said, and he didn’t sound happy. “What were you idiots thinking?”

  “It wasn’t my idea!” Koinos said. “Tyrimmas ordered it.”

  “Well, you’ll probably get killed over this.”

  “I won’t die alone, you bastard. You tell them that!” Koinos shouted into the thing.

  ☆ ☆ ☆

  “I probably shouldn’t have told him that,” Evgenij muttered as the shout came over the bridge speakers.

  “No, you definitely should not have,” Marie told him.

  “Give me the microphone,” said Roxane. When she got it, she said, “I order you to surrender yourselves to the ship people. You have endangered Alexander’s son and heir. Throw yourselves on their mercy. You don’t want to face my wrath.”

  “It’s all your fault! You let them take our slaves!” Koinos shouted back. Apparently Koinos didn’t understand that you didn’t have to shout to use the ship people’s telephones.

  Roxane could hear Koinos saying, “We could make a break for it.”

  Another voice, “But where?”

  “It’s a big ship and they don’t know who we are.”

  “They know who I am, you fucking coward.”

  “Well, fuck you. I’m going to make a break for it.”

  At that point, Marie Easley said, “Someone is about to make a run for it. Warn…”

  Doug Warren was already talking, and then there were shots.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Koinos said.

  “Who is dead?” Roxane said coldly. “And it had better be one of yours, not one of the ship people.”

  “It’s Argaeus,” Koinos said. “The cowardly bastard.”

  “Surrender. I am running out of patience,” Roxane said.

  It took a while longer, but they did surrender, leaving twenty-nine Greek prisoners, four Greek dead, and two dead crew. As well as a frightened and angry security guard who’d been locked in a broom closet.

  And a major political and legal mess for everyone.

  CHAPTER 14

  Queen of the Sea, North Atlantic

  November 6

  “You can’t try them, Captain,” Allen Wiley said. They were in the captain’s office, a large room behind the bridge. “The maritime law of the twenty-first century doesn’t allow for it. They have to be tried by civilian authority.”

  “Congressman Wiley,” Captain Floden said, quietly for all the steel in that voice, “I will not have you interfering with—” There was a short pause as Captain Floden realized where this was going. “—ship’s administration. Besides, we tried that bastard Metello in the harbor at Rhodes.”

  “I’m not trying to interfere with ship’s administration, Captain, and I think you have realized that,” Allen said. “Maritime law in the twenty-first century was all about capturing criminals and transporting them safely back to shore, where the relevant civilian court could try them. Even military ships didn’t do shipboard court-martials. In Rhodes, we were dealing with the local maritime law, and you could have crucified Metello rather than just hanging him. Now we are on the high seas and twenty-first century law applies. Either that, or we use Roxane and let her apply contemporary legal practices.”

  Captain Floden’s expression was a study in discontent as he said, “I’m still not convinced that she was unaware of the situation. And I’d lay you good odds that that bastard Evgenij knew something was up, even if he didn’t know the details.”

  “I don’t disagree. But unless we are going to throw them all over the side—including the women and children—and raise the Jolly Roger, we have to deal with them. And if we are going to be anything more than just the newest barbarian with the biggest stick for the moment, we have to respect laws. We have to stand for something, Captain, not just be one more trade ship.”

  Captain Floden rubbed his eyes. “What do you want, Congressman?”

  “I’m reminded of a line from Jesus Christ Superstar. And as much as I dislike playing the role of a Pharisee, if we want them executed we’ll need to go to Roxane for the legal justification to do it.”

  Floden’s expression was a bit haggard. “I am Norwegian, Congressman. We abolished capital punishment in my country over a century ago. We didn’t even execute that terrorist swine Breivik when he killed over seventy people back in 2011. Whatever my personal feelings might be at the murder of my crewmen, I support that stance—and I am not about to agree to participate in what amounts to mass murder.”

  Wiley’s expression was a little on the haggard side as well. He r
aised his hands. “Then, what do you propose to do? We have no laws to go by—and won’t until we’ve established the colony at Trinidad and written some maritime law. After that the Queen can be registered out of that nation and you will have legal authority to act within certain broad bounds.”

  “I’ll want some input into the writing of those laws, Congressman,” Floden said, then quirked a smile. “Either that, or the Queen might change her registry.”

  “I’d expect nothing less, Captain,” Allen said with a smile of his own. “In fact, why don’t you write them, or have someone on your staff write them, and I’ll see about getting them passed.”

  Floden nodded. “I will do so. But in the meantime…”

  Dag had remained present when the discussion began, mostly because no one had ordered him to leave. Perhaps Floden and Wiley shared his own self-assessment, which was that he understood the people they were dealing with at least as well as anyone else aboard the Queen of the Sea and probably better.

  Now, he spoke. “We don’t have to do any of that, Captain. Congressman. What we are faced with is not a thorny issue involving law and justice, it is simply a practical problem.”

  Floden looked at him. “Explain.”

  Dag shrugged. “It is true that they murdered Jon Sonnenleiter and Knut Hedlund. On the other hand, thirteen of them were killed also. Let that cold arithmetic be enough to satisfy anyone’s desire for vengeance. For the rest of them, we have neither the authority nor—more importantly—the need to do anything except get them off the ship. We don’t have to try them, we don’t have to punish them. All we have to do is maroon them.”

  Wiley frowned. “On a desert island, you mean?”

  Floden shook his head. “Almost thirty men? That would be tantamount to a death sentence. We don’t need to do anything so…” His thin smile even had a bit of real humor in it. “So traditional, let us say. We can simply disembark them on one of the islands of the Lesser Antilles.”

  “That might get pretty rough on the natives,” Wiley said, dubiously. “Whatever else you want to say about them, those Silver Shields are some tough bastards.”

  The icy cold expression came back to Floden’s face. “I didn’t say we would let them take their weapons ashore with them. Let the Silver Shields find out how tough they are facing armed natives with their bare hands. They might very well wind up becoming slaves themselves—which would serve them right, as far as I’m concerned.”

  He looked at Dag. “Make the arrangement, please. If any of them give you any trouble.” He paused and took a slow, deep breath. “Shoot them and throw their bodies overboard.”

  ☆ ☆ ☆

  “Captain Floden will not allow Evgenij to remain in charge of the Silver Shields who are staying aboard the ship,” Marie Easley told Roxane and Evgenij together.

  Evgenij bristled, but Marie stared him down and continued. “His argument is that if Evgenij did know about it, he can’t trust him. And if he didn’t know, he should have, as their company commander. And, frankly, it’s a very good argument.”

  “Well, Evgenij?” Roxane asked.

  “It’s not that simple. You fight with men at your side for decades and you can’t betray them. I didn’t know, Your Majesty, I swear I didn’t. But, yes, I suspected they were planning something. Maybe I should have told you. but I’ve known those men longer than you’ve been alive.”

  “Which is Captain Floden’s point,” Roxane said. “What do you—What about Dag? He could be the commander.”

  “I think Captain Floden would accept that,” Marie said consideringly. “Though there are legal questions.” She looked to Evgenij. “What about the Silver Shields? Would they accept him?”

  “Those are my men—” Evgenij stopped at Roxane’s raised hand.

  “No. Those were your men…until you lost control of them,” Roxane said. “If they are going to continue to serve me, they will have to serve me in truth. Can they do that, or must I dismiss them all when we reach Trinidad in two days?”

  Evgenij was staring at her and then he nodded. No. It was more as though he bowed his head in submission. “We will obey Your Majesty.”

  Roxane turned back to Marie. “What sort of legal issues?”

  The legal issues were simply that Dag was an officer on the ship and therefore under the orders of the captain, and making him the commander of the Silver Shields would put him under Roxane’s command. “A man cannot serve two masters. Not and give full measure to both.”

  “No, it’s not an issue,” Roxane said. “Your captain’s objection to Evgenij maintaining command of the Silver Shields is that he doesn’t want an independent force aboard his ship. That is the truth behind the legal conflict. Very well. While the Silver Shields are aboard the Queen of the Sea, I will officially place them under the authority of an officer that the captain and I agree on. That officer will be Dag and I will not gainsay him in their command save to leave the ship.”

  “I’ll take it to the captain,” Marie said. “Now tell me a bit more about Eumenes.”

  Outside Sardis

  November 8

  Eumenes sat his horse well. He’d had plenty of practice. He had his wife, Artonis, and his brother-in-law, Pharnabazus, with him as he rode up to Sardis for the second time in three days. Cleopatra had been less than welcoming two days ago. Not rude, but not happy to see him. And definitely not ready to endorse him as regent for the kings. The news he brought of the ship convinced her not to order him and his army away, but only barely. She told him that if Antigonus were to arrive before further word, Eumenes would have to leave.

  The guards let them in and they rode up to the royal compound. He dismounted and helped Artonis down from the horse. Artonis was pregnant and Eumenes was concerned.

  As he was helping his wife down, Cleopatra came down the steps to greet them. Cleopatra was thirty-six and her dark brown hair was starting to be sprinkled with gray. She had a long nose and wide dark eyes, and there were lines around her eyes and mouth. Some laugh lines, but more worry lines. “There must be news?”

  “Yes. I understood you, Your Highness. There is news. I am endorsed by Roxane as strategos for the armies of her late husband, your brother.”

  “You? Regent? How did you manage that?”

  “Not regent.” Eumenes took the sheet that was worth a thousand talents of gold from the saddle bag and passed it over. It had already been read to the army, and Attalus was not happy with it. “Roxane will be acting as her son’s regent and endorses Eurydice as the regent for your brother Philip. I am simply her choice as general of her husband’s army. It’s the ship. It showed up at Tyre and collected her. So this is apparently her free choice, not coerced at all.”

  That brought a derisive laugh. Cleopatra was well aware of the level of coercion that could be brought to bear on a ruling monarch, much less on a king or a queen who didn’t control their army.

  “No,” Eumenes said. “It appears to be true. I, at least, put no pressure on Roxane. I couldn’t have.”

  “Not if the ship people really…” Cleopatra’s voice trailed off as she looked at the sheet. It wasn’t just paper. First, it was in color. The writing was black, but there was a picture of Roxane and Alexander IV in the top left corner. The quality of the picture was such that no painter in the world could paint it. In the top right corner was a picture of the ship, rendered with the same precision. Below that was the notation in Greek “Certified by the Queen of the Sea Notary Department.” Then Roxane’s full name and titles, followed by the body of the text. Cleopatra turned, still reading, and walked back up the steps, followed by Eumenes and his companions. He understood her distraction, as he had found the text rather distracting when he first read it.

  In order to provide for the welfare of all the lands inherited and taken by right of conquest by my late husband Alexander the Great, I take upon myself the role of regent and instructor for my son Alexander IV. In acknowledgment of the declaration of the army at Babylon at the time
of my husband’s death, I do hereby acknowledge the co-rulership of the empire of Alexander the Great by his son, Alexander IV, and his brother, Philip III. I endorse Eurydice as regent for Philip III.

  For the safety of myself and my son, I have moved to the Queen of the Sea. For the welfare of the realm, I name Eumenes strategos of the empire and reconfirm him in the satrapies that he was granted at the Council of Babylon. I likewise endorse the satrapies granted to Ptolemy and…

  There followed a list of satrap appointments that pointedly did not include Menander, Antigonus or Peithon. The satrapies that had been granted to them were granted to others instead. What had been Antigonus’ to Eumenes, what had been Menander’s to Eumenes, and what had been Peithon’s to Atropates.

  Attalus was named commander of the Companions, the post that Seleucus held after the partition at Babylon. Seleucus got nothing. At least, he got nothing from Roxane. Word was that under the influence of Antigonus One-eye, Eurydice had appointed him satrap of Babylon.

  Finally, she appointed three bodyguards, Dag Jakobsen, Evgenij, and Amyntas, the brother of Peucestas, who Eumenes knew to be a good kid, if a bit conceited like most Macedonian nobility. He didn’t know the other two, though he recognized Evgenij’s name.

  “Who,” Cleopatra asked, “is Dag Jakobsen? And what kind of name is that?”

  “I’m guessing it’s a ship people name,” Eumenes explained. “There is also a letter and a book.”

  For the next hour or so, Eumenes and his companions dined at Cleopatra’s table while she read and questioned them about what she read. They didn’t have many answers, mostly just what was in the papers.

  “I assume,” Cleopatra finally said, “that you have shown this to the troops.”

  “The proclamation certainly,” Eumenes said. “The butterfly book and the letter, I wanted to show you. But I will have copies made, to be given out to the troops. The galley only brought a few copies, and a member of the garrison from Tyre who went to Rhodes with Metello. There is a vague mention that there is another form of weapon made by Dag Jakobsen. Nedelko sent a man to report to Attalus, and I haven’t had a chance to talk to the messenger yet. I intend to have a talk with Attalus about that, but he was made commander of the Companions by the same proclamation, so there is very little I can do to the man.”