The Iron Triangle
Maurice was actually grinning. Thinly, true. But it was still a genuine grin, full of nothing but amusement.
"Yes, general, he's late again. Like he has been for every shift since she got here."
Belisarius glanced at the empty chair where Calopodius normally sat. The scribes at the table were in their seats, with their implements in hand. But they were simply chatting casually, waiting for their boss to arrive.
They didn't seem any more disgruntled than Maurice, however. Calopodius was popular with the men who staffed Belisarius' headquarters bunker.
"I thought she'd hit this place like a storm," Belisarius mused. "I know for a fact that the medical staff was trembling in their boots. What I hadn't foreseen was that Calopodius would absorb most of it."
"His pallet, rather-and thank God I'm not one of the straws. Be bruised and battered bloody, by now."
"Don't be crude, Maurice."
"I'm not being crude. Just recognizing that once you strip away the mysticism about 'the Blind Scribe' and 'the Wife,' what you're really dealing with are newlyweds-for all practical purposes-neither of whom is twenty years old yet. Ha! Randy teenagers. Can't keep their hands off-"
He coughed, and broke off. Calopodius was hurrying into the bunker.
"Hurrying" was the word, too. Blind he might be, but by this time Calopodius had the dimensions of the bunker and the location of everything in it committed to memory. And he had an excellent memory.
The position of the people in the bunker, of course, was less predictable. But, by now, they'd learned to keep out of his way. Belisarius watched as one of the staff officers, grinning, sidestepped Calopodius as he half-raced to the table.
"Sorry I'm late, General," the young man muttered, as he sat down. "Anna-ah-had a bit of trouble with her uniform."
Under the circumstances, that was perhaps the worst excuse he could have come up with. The entire staff in the bunker-Belisarius and Maurice included-burst into laughter.
Calopodius flushed. As the laughter continued, the flush deepened until he was almost literally red-faced. But the expression on his face also became subtly transmuted into something that was ultimately more smug than chagrinned. Most young men, after all-even ones raised in Constantinople's haughty aristocratic circles-are not actually embarrassed by having a reputation for being able to keep their wives in their beds, and happy to be there.
As the laughter faded away, Luke and Illus came into the bunker. They were both smiling, too, as they took their accustomed places on chairs near the entrance.
"Accustomed," at least, for Luke. Illus was still settling into his new role as one of Calopodius' staff. Officially, he was a bodyguard; just as, officially, Luke was a valet. In practice, Calopodius used either or both of them in whatever capacity seemed needed. Fortunately, the two men seemed to get along well enough.
"Right," Calopodius said briskly. He turned his head toward the scribe to his right. "Mark, I think we should-"
The radio began its short-and-long buzzing noises. The noise was different from the typical click-clack made by the telegraph, when it received an incoming message, but had a basic similarity. Aide-like Link-had not tried to design anything more complex than a spark gap radio system. So the radio used the same "Morse code" that the telegraph did.
The Malwa used the same code, except when they were transmitting encrypted messages. That was not really so odd, since that code was the common one in the history of the universe that had produced both Aide and Link.
"-start with the dispatches-"
– bzzz-bz-bzzz-bzzz-bz-bz-bzzz "-regarding…" He trailed off, his head swiveling toward the radio. Calopodius, unlike Belisarius, could translate Morse code instantly. It was by now a language he was as fluent in as he was in Greek or Latin.
– bzzz-bz-bz-buzz-bz-bzzz-bz-bz-bzzz "General…" Calopodius rose to his feet.
Belisarius, frowning, tried to interpret the messages. There was something…
Yes! Yes! Yes! Aide was doing the equivalent of shouting. It's starting!
What's starting? I can't Be quiet. I'll translate for you, starting from the beginning.