You mean he actually thinks of himself as a god?” asked Andre.
“No. I doubt that. I’m sure he doesn’t, not in the literalsense. But with all he’s managed to accomplish, it’s clearly gone to his head.You know the old saying. Absolute power corrupts. absolutely. Caesar hasn’treally been corrupted. at least not in the same sense as Tiberius. Caligula.and Nero were. but be really does believe that he’s infallible. Besides, hismind isn’t really on what’s happening in Rome. Being emperor doesn’t seem tointerest him anymore. He’s bored.”
“Bored’?” said Lucas, raising his eyebrows. he’s run out ofchallenges. Since he became emperor. Rome has been at peace. And peace is notCaesar’s milieu. he’s a soldier. He’s not really alive unless he’s in the fieldwith his troops. It’s what he does best. He can’t wait to leave on that campaign.The old war dog wants one last taste of battle. He’s not a young man anymore.This is his last chance to go down in history as the greatest general who everlived, the man who surpassed even Hannibal and Alexander. ‘There’s a world toconquer out there.” Travers shook his head. “He’s not going to concern himselfabout a few malcontented senators.”
“I wonder what would have happened if he wasn’t murdered.”Lucas said, musing out loud. You think there’s a chance he would have pulled itoff?”
“I don’t think there’s much chance he wouldn’t have.” saidTravers. “Jesus, wouldn’t that be something’? Rome’s empire would have extendedall the way from western Europe to the Far East. Caesar would have become themost powerful ruler who ever lived. History would have taken a very differentcourse. Who knows how things would have turned out!”
“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.” Delaney said.
Travers glanced at him, as if suddenly remembering what theywere here to do. “Yes.” he said quietly. He sighed. “What’s our next move’?”
“Well, tomorrow we’ll have a good chance to take stock ofthe situation at Cleopatra’s house.” said Lucas “I’d like to look around andsee if there’, a good place I can drop in unexpected sometime.”
“Probably the gardens.” Andre said. It looked like therewere a few places where you could clock in unobserved. But I still can’tbelieve that Cleopatra could be a ringer. She just seems so … genuine. It’sApollodorus I have my doubts about.”
“You know how long he’s been with her?” asked Delaney.
“Since she was sent into exile,” Andre said. “She says he’sserved her loyally ever since. He was the one who smuggled her in to seeCaesar.” She looked at Travers. “You were there, you must remember him.”
“Yes. I do,” said Travers. “and I’ve seen him a number oftimes since then, but I’ve never really spoken with him.”
“What’s their relationship like?” asked Lucas.
“He seems to be a bit more than just a servant or a slave,”said Andre. “He defers to her, of course. but I noticed that he does try tomanipulate her, though that can’t be easy. He’s clearly in charge of thehousehold. Cleopatra said something that I found very interesting. She’sconcerned about Caesar’s safety, but she said it was Apollodorus who suggestedshe present him with a bodyguard. And he picked the men himself.”
“That is interesting,” said Lucas. “We’ll have to keep acareful watch on him.”
“We’ve got Castelli and Corwin watching Marcian and Sabinus.”Delaney said. “That leaves Andell and Drummond free. We could assign them towork shifts on Apollodorus. Watch the house while he’s inside, follow him whenhe leaves.”
“Hell. I almost forgot to tell you,” Travers said. “WhenCorwin relieved Castelli early this morning and Castelli came in to get somesleep, he reported that Sabinus has apparently moved out of Marcian’s house andinto a small apartment in the Argiletum.”
“Isn’t that sort of a working-class district?” Lucas asked,frowning.
“It’s not one of Rome’s best neighborhoods.” Traversreplied.
“Odd place to live for a man who just won a bundle at the races,”said Delaney.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Lucas said.
“I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something veryfamiliar about Sabinus,” Andre said. “I don’t know what it is. I don’t forgetfaces and I’m sure I’ve never seen his before, but there’s still something ….I don’t know. It’s just a feeling.”
Lucas glanced at Delaney. “Finn?”
Delaney shook his head. “He rang no bells with me, but thenI didn’t get a chance to talk to him. I was concentrating on Cassius and theothers.”
Andre shrugged. “Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know, it’s justsort of a hunch ….”
“I’ve learned to respect your hunches.” Lucas said. “We’llleave Corwin on Marcian and have Castelli stay on Sabinus. We’ll need to bringin some more people to relieve them.”
“I’ll go wake up Castelli,” Travers said.
“No, let him sleep.” said Lucas. “There’s time. When hewakes up. tell him we’ll need a couple more T.O.’s transferred in.”
“Just two?” asked Travers.
“For now,” Lucas replied. “I’d like to keep the numbers manageable.The more people we bring in, the more chances we’re taking of disrupting thetimestream. We’re taking enough chances as it is, interacting with the mostpivotal characters in this temporal scenario. Let’s walk softly, okay?”
Travers nodded. “That makes good sense to me.”
“All right.” said Lucas. “In the meantime, there are severalthings we’ll need to do. First, we need to set up safe transition points foreach of us somewhere in this house. Someplace where well be able to clock in orout, any time of day or night, without alarming any of the household slaves andwith no chance of two people clocking in at the same time.”
“I’ve already anticipated you,” said Travers. “I keep only afew slaves and they’ve all got strict instructions not to enter my privaterooms unless they’re told to.” He grimaced. “I would have liked to dispensewith slaves altogether, but I have to keep at least a few to maintainappearances. I’ve got a personal transition point with coordinates in mybedroom in case of emergency, and you can set up your transition points eitherin there or in the library. Those would probably be the best places.”
“Good. We’ll get those programmed in right away? said Lucas.“What about outside the house?”
You want to set up transition points outside the house?”asked Travers. puzzled. “Suppose we’ve got hostiles inside the house?” saidLucas. “We’ve got to consider worst case scenarios, such as if we blow ourcover to the S.O.G.”
Travers nodded. “Good point. What about the gardens down bythe riverbank? Or the roof?” use both,” said Lucas. “The other thing we’ll needis an arms cache. If we have to take on soldiers of the S.O.G., we’ll needlasers and disruptors. Where can we keep them safely?”
“I’ve got that taken care of, too,” said Travers. “I’ve gotsome concealed storage places underneath the floor in the library.”
“Excellent.” said Lucas. He glanced at the others. “Have Iforgotten anything’!”
“What about a safe house?” asked Delaney..
Lucas snapped his fingers. “Right. We’ll requite a house orapartment somewhere in the city where we can hole up in case this place iscompromised?
“I’ll see to it,” said Travers.
“Anything else?” asked Lucas.
Delaney shook his head. “I think we’ve got it covered.”
“I hope so.” Lucas said. he made a tight-lipped grimace. “Ihave a feeling this is going to be a tough one. God knows, we’ve had a lot moredangerous missions before, but I don’t think we’ve ever had one with so many variables.How the hell are we going to take out a dozen people who are constantly in thepublic eye without having anybody notice?”