ground.
I found my place next to Santino and Vincent, while Agrippina went to stand next to her brother. I glanced over at Santino, who was looking at me expectantly.
“What?” I asked.
He didn’t say anything. Instead, he just turned and looked back at the maps.
I wasn’t afraid of how Helena would take Agrippina’s notice in me, but I decided to play it safe and ignore her. Instead, I looked at Caligula who was conversing quietly with his sister. She noticed my attention, and gave me a smile, flicking her eyes in Helena’s direction, before returning her gaze to me, her smile widening.
And I thought this day couldn’t get any worse.
Caligula turned back towards his staff after he finished his conversation with Agrippina. “Jacob Hunter. Are you ready to partake in this mission?”
It was the first time he had ever addressed me by name, and frankly, I was taken slightly aback by it. I’d spent months with him, accompanying Vincent numerous times during special briefings, but he’d never addressed me directly. I didn’t even know he knew my name.
“I am, Caesar,” I replied earnestly.
“Good. Who will accompany you?”
“I will,” Santino answered quickly.
“Very good, John Santino. You will leave at dawn. Your mission is to retrieve my nephew first, and plant your explosive material around the walls of Rome in preparation for our assault. My army will depart in two days. We will meet you outside of Rome upon your return. Do you understand?
“Yes, Caesar,” we responded in unison.
“Very good. Do not let me down. As for the rest of you, we will finish this briefing tomorrow afternoon.”
There was a chorus of affirmatives as the men and women in the praetorium began to file out of the tent. As I left I looked over my shoulder at Agrippina, her expression one of overconfidence and victory. She was hiding something, only I didn’t know what, but that hardly mattered at this point. What did was saving a child, and retaking Rome in the name of Caligula.
***
Later that evening, I was joined by the rest of my squad around a campfire Wang had created near our tent site. After the meeting, I had spent my time avoiding both Helena and Agrippina, an easy task since I had swapped watch duty with Bordeaux the other day and had to man the wall, while Agrippina spent her time in the praetorium. Even so, I’d spent the entire afternoon looking over my shoulder as I kept most of my attention on the tree line beyond the camp.
“We’re going to keep this short and simple,” Vincent began. “Some of us have an early day tomorrow. At 0430 tomorrow, Hunter and Santino will accompany Agrippina to Rome, and rescue Nero, as well as place C4 around key areas along the walls and gates. There’s no need to send six people when two will do. This way we can keep an eye on the legion during the invasion, whether Galba likes it or not.” He paused and waggled his finger at Santino and me. “I expect you to rendezvous with the legion by the time we can see the city walls. Hunter, I hate to put you on the spot here, but what did you and Agrippina talk about? Don’t leave anything out.”
I shifted on the log stump I sat on, unsure what to say. We hadn’t really talked about much of anything really.
“She tried to seduce me,” I started, but was cut off by a collective utterance of annoyances. Wang threw his hands in the air in desperation while Bordeaux just shook his head.
“Of course she did!” Santino cried before kicking dirt at me.
“I said ‘she tried to seduce me’, not that she did. I got out of there before things got too crazy.” I winced at my untactful wording. “She just wanted to assure me that her son really was captured, and that I had to do whatever I could to get him back,” I said, leaving out the details of the whole seduction part.
“But why would she need to pull you aside, mate?” Wang asked. “We all saw her in the praetorium.”
“Her tearful motherly routine was an act, or so she told me. A way to convince Caligula and everyone else since apparently she can’t actually portray real emotions. She said she saw something in me that made her suspect I knew better, and she felt compelled to reassure me. It wasn’t pretty.”
“But why?” Bordeaux reiterated.
“Well, because she was right. I was immediately suspicious of her the minute I realized who she was. I take it none of you are familiar with her? Sir?” I asked Vincent particularly.
He shrugged. “I know who she is, but we’ve already established you’re more familiar with Julio-Claudian history than I am.”
“Out with it, professor,” Santino ordered me impatiently.
“Well, to put it bluntly, she’s an egotistical, ambitious, agenda-driven charlatan who will do whatever she can to get what she wants, including murder. She’s very smart, very resourceful, and very persistent. Ancient writers credit her with poisoning Claudius, killing him, all to have her son Nero become emperor. She’s extremely dangerous, and I didn’t trust her. It’s not surprising that she would pick me out of the crowd. She is extremely sharp.”
“Why are we even trying to save Nero?” Wang asked. “I don’t know much, but…”
Bordeaux cut him off. “ Excusez, James, but I am confused. Why did she call him Lucius if his name is Nero?”
“Because his original name wasn’t Nero,” I explained. “He was born Lucius I Can’t Remember The Rest, and wasn’t named Nero until he was adopted by Claudius years from now. Gnaeus, by the way, was Agrippina’s husband.” I paused and turned to Vincent. “Interesting that Claudius chose Nero for his name even now, right?”
The older man nodded. “It truly is.”
“Anyway,” Wang put in before he question was completely derailed. “Wasn’t Nero bad? Like, really bad?”
“Maybe ‘not even worth saving’ bad?” Santino expanded.
“He was,” I confirmed with a nod. He brought up a good point and the others seemed to concur.
“We can’t let him die because we think we know what he may do in the future,” Vincent responded. “At this point, he may never do those things.”
Most of us nodded our heads in agreement.
“So what about Agrippina?” Santino asked.
“I don’t know,” I responded. “I guess we can trust her. For now, at least. Despite her affinity for tomfoolery and treachery, she did love her son, and I’d side with the fact that she does need our help.”
“I’m not so sure,” Vincent said. “Agrippina is not Nero. We know who she is and what she’s capable of. Our intervention here won’t change that like it may with Nero. I’m not so sure we can trust her.”
“I think we can,” I responded with a shrug. I noticed Wang and Bordeaux trade glances, and Helena continued to ignore the conversation, content to just stare into the fire. Vincent folded his arms and leveled his eyes at me, eyes that didn’t seem very happy. I looked at each of my squad members in turn to realize none of them were looking at me. Not even Santino. “What?”
“You’re wound up pretty tight, Jake,” Santino offered. “We’ve all noticed it. I think Vincent just wants to make sure you know what you’re doing.”
“I know what I’m doing,” I said sternly.
Santino nodded but didn’t look satisfied. The uncomfortable silence continued until Vincent unfolded his arms and rested his hands on his knees. “It’s your call, Hunter. If you and Santino are up for this then you have my approval? You’re going to need to go in light, just enough to conceal beneath a toga.”
“I’m ready,” I said as confidently as I could.
Santino nodded.
“Well, good luck then,” he stood and moved towards his tent before he finished his thoughts. “Get some sleep. We’ll see you in a few days.”
