Chapter 55: Trust and Heroism

Later that day, by the dock side of the Golden Horn Straits. Antonius awaits seating on a boulder in the seas as he watch his ships waiting to weigh anchor, and his marines, together with the soldiers provided by Giovanni, doing a last round of check on their gears before boarding the ships.

They are once again, ordered to remain utter silence, as Antonius did not tell anyone else except Giovanni and ship captains on the fact that they are going to leave the dock. Only the sound of the creaking boats by waves and the sea gulls that are filling the surrounding air with their beating wings and cries can be heard in Antonius' ears. He dipped his fingers in the sea water and tasted it, salty, just like the ocean breeze, bringing the tide along with it painting the coast white with waves.

From what Antonius can see, the ocean brings lives to this world, hundreds of thousands of people lives depending on the blessings by god in these deep blue waters, which is also bustling with lives. However, today Antonius is again not going to bring life to the ocean, he is going to bring death.

The sound of horse hooves appeared behind him just as he clapped his hands to clean the sand off and ready to go, a man approached him from behind, it is Constantine, the emperor.

"Lord De'Ricci…" Constantine called Antonius after he got off the horse and panted for a while. "Where are you and your men going?"

Antonius remained silent for a while and replied. "Emperor, we are not going anywhere, we are just going to have a drill in the Golden Horns just in case the Ottoman fleet come attacking…"

"You are lying." Constantine broke his words. "You don't trust us… and you don't trust me."

Antonius again, remained silent for a while, and replied. "Aye, I don't trust you and those monkeys in your government."

Constantine sighed. "Lord De'Ricci, I don't hope for gaining your complete trust, but I just wish that we can give each other their backs in these times of difficulties so we can work together better. I know you have your own plans; Lord Giustiniani has his own plans. But please, at least notify me before bolting into action, that will be better for all of us."

Antonius replied while he cleaned his stained with sand trousers. "I will think about it."

Constantine looked up in the sky for a while and continued. "The Ottomans can't come into the Golden Horn."

"Pardon?"

"The Ottoman cannot come into the Golden Horn, we Romans have a large metal chain from the sea walls of Constantinople to Galata which is first built seven hundred years ago by Leo III the Isaurian, which is hidden and locked away for most of the times and re-activated when the city is under siege… Thus, with this chain, the Ottoman ships cannot come in as the chain will tear their hull, but our ships cannot also come out."

Antonius stared at the sand beneath his feat and asked monotonously. "Interesting, nice tactic. So, is there anything else about your city that I do not know?"

Constantine grew nervous seeing Antonius' reaction. "Trust me there are a lot of things that even me, the emperor, also do not know. However, I can make sure that no one else will bother you with your operations."

"You have my thanks, emperor."

Constantine heaved a sigh of relief, hugged Antonius, patted him on his back and continued saying. "I will go to the sea walls personally and pull back the chains, while making sure that no one there expose the information. Wait for my signal of fire." He hesitated a moment and added on. "Please do come back safe, this country and me are still in need of you, your men and your heroism, which makes me envy sometimes."

"Hahahaha." Antonius gave a wild laugh, gave Constantine an interesting look and replied. "Don't worry emperor, we will come back in one piece, you have my trust for this time…and."

"And?"

"If a country requires her ruler to show valor and heroism, holding a blade and fighting with enemies in his own capital city, trust me that country is doomed."

Antonius left for his fleet laughing, while Constantine stared at his back for a while, shook his head and went to the sea walls to retrieve the chains of metal.

Around an hour later, Constantine gave Antonius the signal to go by setting up three fire beacons on the tallest tower by the sea walls. Without hesitation, Antonius raised the commanding flag sending signals to all the ships behind him ordering the fleet to go.

With that order, the massive fleet suddenly became awake from her sleeps, a massive fleet that the city has never seen into action together before for a hundred years started maneuvering herself in the narrow straits of the Golden Horn, led by Antonius' flag ship, the Formidata. The whole fleet consists of one massive Carrack ship, two barque ships all kindly 'donated' by Genoese merchants. Thirty war galleys that forms the bulk of his navy, and two dozen cog ships used for transportation.

Antonius too gave his flag ship an upgrade, his original flag ship carrying the same name of Formidata, which is a war galley, crushed itself against a well hidden boulder in the shadowy water of the Bosporus straits, causing water to flood in instantaneously, forcing Antonius to abandon the ship. However, he managed to force a passing Genoese merchant to 'donate' his Carrack ship by pointing his blades on the merchant's nose, which is much larger than an original war galley. Antonius named it Formidata after his previous flag ship.

After the fleet left the Golden Horn, Abraham holding the wheels asked Antonius. "Where are we going captain?"

"We are sailing to Kocaeli."

"Where the Ottoman fleet and their Kapudan pasha is based."

"Aye, may I know what our code for this operation captain is?"

"Oh yes, the code." Antonius thought inside his head for a while, and then saw a tiger skin carpet on his flag ship. "The code name is 'Tiger, Tiger, tiger.'"