Free Muses of Roma (Codex Antonius Book 1) by Rob Steiner Page B

elevator began to hum. Kaeso turned to see the wall pad aglow and running through a startup routine.
    “Got it,” Flamma said.
    Once the pad's controls came on, Flamma pushed a button on the display, and the elevator cables began moving. The car rose above the floor, its interior light pouring from its partially opened doors. It stopped when it was parallel to the floor, and then the doors opened all the way.
    “How long will the battery last?” Kaeso asked Flamma.
    “An hour. I got another one, in case this takes longer.”
    Kaeso turned to the crew. “Ready?”
    They all nodded in their helmets, their eyes wide. Even Blaesus seemed a little nervous now that it was time to go underground.
    “Remember,” Kaeso said. “All we have to do is grab the paper in those vaults and we're rich. We won't have to work another day for at least...a month.”
    Each one grinned. Except for Daryush who still looked ill.
    Kaeso stepped into the elevator and the crew followed. Once everyone boarded, Flamma brought up the car's control pad and checked a few readouts.
    “I think we got the right place,” he said. “The display above the door says there's one level below ground, but the pad says differently. Just a few hacks here...and there...”
    The door slammed shut, and Daryush jumped. The elevator began to descend.
    “We’re on our way,” Flamma said.
    The control pad dinged when the elevator reached the basement level, but the elevator continued to descend. The crew remained quiet.
    “Schematics say the vaults are a hundred feet below ground,” Kaeso said, more to break the nervous silence than to provide information the crew could see on their own visors.
    “Check your 'Contagion' and 'Radiation' levels,” Nestor said.
    “Medicus,” Blaesus said, “if any were in the red, I think you’d have heard screaming by now.”
    The elevator stopped with a thud, and the entire crew flinched. Then the door opened to darkness.

8
    Kaeso stepped out of the elevator. His helmet lights illuminated the hallway fifteen feet ahead. A layer of dust coated the cream-colored floor, and billowed up when Kaeso walked on it. He swept the hall with his lights, illuminating the smooth walls. There were no decorations or patterns, and Kaeso saw through the dust and grime that the walls were the same cream color as the floor. Light domes ran down the center of the ceiling, but none were lit.
    Kaeso passed several doors on each side of the hall and followed the schematics to the vault room door. It was red, metal, with a hand-shaped identipad on the right side.
    “Flamma,” Kaeso said.
    “Got it, Centuriae.” The young Egyptian pulled out his tools and went to work on the pad.
    “Sir,” Lucia said, facing the black hallway.
    “What?”
    She shined her helmet light down the hall at two doorways. One was half-open and the other closed, its handle broken off.
    “We’re bound to find open doors down here,” Kaeso said.
    “I mean the floor.”
    Kaeso looked at the floor between the two doors. Foot prints and scuff marks in the dust allowed him to see the cream tiles. The marks were recent judging from how the tiled floor shined in his lights.
    Lucia glanced at Kaeso, then drew her pulse pistol. Kaeso did the same.
    “What is it, Centuriae?” Nestor asked from behind.
    “Everyone stay here,” Kaeso ordered. “Lucia and I’ll be right back.”
    Kaeso and Lucia approached the opposite doors cautiously, Kaeso in the lead with Lucia a step behind him.
    “Watch the closed door,” he told Lucia when they arrived. “I’ll check the open one first.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    His heart thumping, Kaeso held the pistol in a firing position with his right hand, and pushed open the door with his left. His lights showed a small room with metal shelves. Empty boxes and canisters littered the shelves and floor, some ripped apart. Or chewed apart. Cans with vegetable and meat labels, ripped boxes of dried rice and noodles, and garum bottles all lay empty