“A lot of the buildings are more run-down than I expected,”Andre said. “It’s a bit like towns and cities in medieval times.”
“Yeah. there’s a similarity.” said Andell. “Few Romansexcept wealthy aristocrats and merchants can afford to live in a townhouse or avilla. The majority of the city’s population lives in blocks of tenements likethis, no more than three or four stories high.”
“The streets are narrower than I expected, too,” said Andre.
“They won’t be widened until Nero’s time,” Andell replied. “Moststreets in the city, neighbors across the street from one another can reach outfrom their balconies and shake hands. When Augustus comes in, he’ll put aheight limit of seventy feet on houses because of the poor construction.Sometimes the tenements just collapse all of a sudden, so be careful when youwalk the streets. The average apartments are made up of small rooms overstreet-level shops, with shuttered windows looking out over the street or outinto an interior courtyard. Tenants can buy a room outright, so you’ve got youroriginal condos, but most people can’t afford it. so they rent. You can make agood income as a landlord. The rents in Rome are about four times higher thanin the country, anywhere from two thousand to thirty thousand sesterces. Forthat kind of money, you can buy a small house within sixty miles of Rome. Water’savailable from lead pipes coming from the aqueducts, but it’s a luxury only thewealthy can afford. They pay for it according to the size of their pipes. Mosttenants have no water pipes and they have to bring water from a public fountainor a bath. They also have to go to commercial bake and cook shops for theirfood, because most apartments don’t have kitchen facilities. So Romans tend toeat out a lot.”
“I don’t see many carts or wagons,” Lucas said.
“Just coaches and light carriages during the day.” Andellsaid. “That’s something new. By Caesar’s order, the heavy wheeled traffic isonly allowed in the city at night so nights in the city can get noisy, especiallyin the business districts. It’s like trying to get a good night’s sleep in NewYork, with sirens and shit going off all the time. Same thing. Carts and wagonsgoing by all night. drivers shouting, cracking whips, oxen bellowing … notthe best idea in the world. if you ask me, but it does cut down on trafficduring the day.”
The buildings look like a real fire hazard,” Andre said.
“That they are. Fires are real common, especially this timeof year. when people leave open braziers burning all night to keep warm. Theydon’t have anything like an organized fire department. at least they won’tuntil Augustus’ time, when he’ll form a sort of combination police and firebrigade called the Cohortes Vigilum. recruited from freedmen who’ll get fullcitizenship after six years’ service. But right now, a lot of people die infires. They usually just let the damn things burn, then knock down what’s leftand start all over. You get maps of the city in your programming?”
“Yes,” said Lucas.
“Good. You’ll need ’em. You’ll notice that there aren’t anystreet signs and the houses aren’t numbered. It can be hard to find your wayaround.”
They swung down another street. heading back toward the Tiber.”Travershas himself a villa by the river,” Andell said, “so you won’t be staying in oneof those rattraps. Being buddies with the
“So I’ll stink,” she said.
“I don’t think you’ll have to do that,” Andell said with agrin. “Travers has a small bath at his villa. That’s a big-time status symbolthese days. Just make sure you don’t bathe yourself. Have the slaves do it,even if you don’t like the idea. It’s expected.”
“Male slaves or female slaves?” asked Andre.
Andell shrugged. “That’s up to you. I guess.”
She grinned. “This mission might not be so bad, after all.”
“How long have you been on this tour, Andell?” asked Delaney.
“About seven years now,” Andell replied.
“All in Rome?”
“First four in Rome, last three in Alexandria. We’re notliable to run into anyone who knows me or any of the others, if that’s what you’reconcerned about. Nobody pays much attention to slaves, for one thing, and we’veall kept a pretty low profile. Except for Travers, of course, but his case isdifferent. He moves in more interesting circles and he gets to live in a nicevilla, instead of the rattraps we’ve been living in.”
“But then you didn’t have to go to the Gallic Wars, either,”Andre said.
“I wouldn’t have minded that one bit. I reenlisted to be asoldier, not a damn Observer. I’m due for a transfer in another year and I’mlooking forward to it. I’m hoping I can pull a combat assignment. And I misswearing pants.”
“Watch they transfer you to Scotland,” said Delaney.
“If you spent three years in Alexandria, you know about Cleopatra,”Lucas said.
“We didn’t exactly do dinner and dancing, you know,” Andellsaid.
“L.T.O.’s are the ones who get to rub elbows with the richand famous. But I
know about her, yeah.”
“What do you think of Travers theory?”
“I don’t know. I think it’s possible. The S.O.G. might’vepulled a switch while she was in exile. And she didn’t have a great deal ofcontact with her brother. Ptolemy, after she came back. If there was any changein her, her becoming a queen could easily explain it. People in Egypt aren’texactly in the habit of questioning their monarchs. In any case. she’s in Romenow, where nobody knew her from before. If it was me and I was going to pull asubstitution. I would’ve done it while she was in exile, just before she met upwith Caesar. There’s only one thing about it I can’t understand.”
“What’s that?” asked Lucas.
“Caesar’s Egyptian guard. I mean, like that’s a real obviousanomaly. It’s a documental fact that Caesar made a point of refusing to have abodyguard around him at this time. It stands to reason that the S.O.G. wouldfigure we’d have Observers back here and that’s like running up a flag. Again.if it was me. I wouldn’t give my play away like that. That thought’s occurredto Travers, too. It really bothers him. He just can’t figure it.”
“Unless, in their universe. Caesar did have a bodyguard.”said Delaney.
“You think so?”
“It’s possible. We know their history is different from oursin some respects. That’s why the confluence phenomenon is so dangerous. Theyinfiltrated Archives Section and managed to learn a lot about our historythrough other means. but their knowledge could be spotty.”
“Maybe,” Andell agreed. “But Rome is a reasonablywell-documented period. They could have infiltrated agents into any futuretemporal scenario and picked up the works of Suetonius or Plutarch or Tacitusor any number of the more modern classical historians. It would be standardmission preparation and not that hard to do. Stands to reason, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, it does,” said Lucas, frowning. “It doesn’t seem tomake sense.”
“Not unless they figure there’s nothing we can do about it,”Andell said. “And there really isn’t, when it comes to that. I mean, what areyou going to do, walk up to Caesar and say. ‘Excuse me, you know you’re notsupposed to have a bodyguard? Better get rid of them or you might not getkilled?’ Now that they’re there. the only ones who can get rid of them areCaesar and Cleopatra.”
“It could also be a way of drawing attention to what they’redoing.” said Delaney.
“Why would they want to do that?”
“To smoke us out,” Delaney said.
Andell nodded. “That’s an idea. If you try to do anythingabout the Egyptians, you’re liable to give yourself away. And if you don’t doanything about them and they’re still with Caesar on the Ides of March, theconspirators may not have a chance to kill him. What happens then?”
“Then we may have to kill him.” Lucas said. “Even if itmeans getting killed ourselves.”
They drove the rest of the way to Travers’ villa in silence.
