Empire

“I’ve read a lot about Augustus and Trajan, since getting these notes translated,” said Cecily. “They were great emperors. Not cruel. They really did seem to want to maintain stability within the empire. Bring Rome to its true destiny. Improve life for everybody.”

“So they were decent guys.”

“But they were dictators, Cole. They played up to the people. To the army. To the Senate. They kept themselves popular. They also had their opponents murdered. They stayed in office till they died. And once you’ve got an emperor, even a good one, you can’t be sure the next one will be an Augustus or a Marcus Aurelius, or a Trajan or a Hadrian.”

“Could be Nero,” said Cole. “Caligula.”

“Then I keep thinking—am I being Brutus? He and his friends were worried about Julius Caesar becoming dictator, and so they conspired to murder him to save the republic. But his death just launched the civil wars that brought Octavian to power, that renamed him Augustus and put an end to democracy.”

“Such as it was, in Rome.”

“It was a lot, for those days,” said Cecily. “And it’s a lot for us, too. They’re going to nominate him, Cole. You know they are. Both parties. He’s going to run unopposed.”

“The two-party system isn’t going to die in one election.”

“If we have another.”

“Come on.”

“Oh, he’ll allow another election, and another, and another. Augustus kept all the forms of the republic. He just made sure that nobody was nominated that he didn’t approve of. He kept control of the army.”

“Torrent doesn’t have that, I can assure you.”

“I know. I’m just worried about nothing. Except.”

“Except what?”

“What if Torrent’s benign image is just that? Just an image?”

“You said he had a history. What?”

“He’s been teaching a long time. And he’s a noted teacher. His books are very popular. So all of this might be coincidence.”

“All of what?”

Cecily handed him a list of names.

The first name on the list was Aldo Verus. He had attended two seminars of Torrent’s, years ago—seminars called “History for Future-minded CEOs.” Cole hadn’t heard of most of the rest of the people, but Cecily provided a description of their activities along with their link to Torrent. They were all prominent in the Progressive organizations that were tied to Verus.

“He had a lot of students,” said Cole.

“I know. I said so, didn’t I? But the thing is, he did have these students.” She handed him another sheet. It contained only two names.

Reuben Malich and Steven Phillips. “I’ve talked to Phillips.”

“He’s not in jail?” asked Cole.

“Nobody can prove that he knew any more than Reuben did what was being shipped and to whom and from whom. I’m not inclined to press it with him, because then people might press it with Reuben, and I know he didn’t know.”

“Me, too,” said Cole.

“Phillips says that Torrent asked him if he’d be interested in being approached for some extra assignments. Just like Reuben.”

“But Torrent didn’t actually give him any assignments.”

“He just asked if he’d be interested. He said the people would use his name. But when the approach came, they didn’t mention Torrent. Same with Reuben. So Phillips—and Reuben—were never sure if these people had been sent by Torrent or not.”

“But they took the assignments.”

“Because they thought the assignment was from the President. And because… because it was secret and exciting and… these are men, Cole. And in the back of their mind, they thought it probably was from Torrent, and they knew he was such a brilliant guy, everything must be on the square.”

“As if brilliant equals good.”

“Exactly,” said Cecily. “But we still don’t know if he had anything to do with it. And we don’t know who the people who approached Reuben and Phillips even were. Phillips doesn’t know, anyway, and Reuben never said and never wrote down anything.”

“So Torrent may or may not be involved with Verus.”

“No, that’s not the point,” said Cecily. “I’m almost sure he’s not part of Verus’s operation. Verus was in control of everything about his operation. People reported to him, and he reported to God. Or history. Whatever he believed in. Not to Torrent. And can you imagine Torrent reporting to him?”

“Maybe. It’s possible.”

“I don’t think so,” said Cecily. “You met Verus.”

“I didn’t see him at his best.”

“But can you imagine that if Torrent worked for him, Verus would sit still for Torrent being nominated by both parties? Essentially handed the presidency?”

“Of course he would,” said Cole. “If it means he wins after all.”

“Okay, maybe,” said Cecily. “But I don’t think so. Because of this.”

She handed another sheet of paper to Cole. It had only one name on it. DeeNee Breen. Took a class with Torrent as an undergrad at Princeton. Got an A.

Cole felt sick. “But it was just a class.”

“From Torrent. At Princeton. Coincidence. Lots of students took classes from him. Not all of them murdered a major in the U.S. Army, but I know I’m reasoning backward. It’s no proof of anything. It’s just… I had to tell somebody. I had to show somebody or I’d go crazy, watching Torrent do this—this rocket ride to supreme power.”

“Who would keep a secret like this?” said Cole. “This conspiracy would be too—”

“Cole,” said Cecily, “who would believe Verus could bring off his conspiracy? Anyway, I don’t know if it was a conspiracy. It might have been more like some kind of evil Johnny Appleseed. Torrent might just have gone around planting seeds. Who knows what he said to Verus that maybe provoked him. Like, ‘You talk about how committed you are, Mr. Verus, but you don’t do anything. You took the name of a Roman Emperor, but you act like a lobbyist.’ That’s the way he talked. Challenging. Goading. He goaded Reuben. Called him ‘soldier boy’ all the time. It made Reuben all the more eager to prove himself to Torrent.”

Cole remembered that day when Torrent led them through the reasoning process that pointed to Chinnereth and Genesseret. “You’re saying that he already knew where Verus’s operations were?”

“No, no, that’s the beauty of it. He goads Verus. Makes him read history books that will point him to certain courses of action. But he isn’t actually in on it. I think he really did figure out where Verus was exactly the way he showed us. Maybe he had some scrap of inside information—after all, he was NSA, he had access to intelligence reports that he wouldn’t necessarily share with us. But he wasn’t in on it, any more than he was directly in on what Reuben and Phillips were doing.”

“And DeeNee?” asked Cole.

“That’s different. The men who were waiting to ambush you—they’re dead. We can’t question them. Did they know she was planning to kill Reuben? Were they planning to kill him, or just subdue him and get the PDA? Did they work for Verus or Torrent or some third party we don’t know about? It’s all so murky and I don’t know. But she was a student of Torrent’s.”

“Were the guys who were with her?”

“No. Nobody else.”

“I don’t know, Cecily. I just don’t know.”