Hostage to Fortuna

at it, because he was working on it the entire time we werewatching.” Turning serious again, he went on, “The second man isnot on that side of the street, and it took me some time todetermine that the man I found must be one of Aviola’s men, becausehe is standing in between two of the houses across the street, justout of sight. In the dark,” he shook his head, “he will bedifficult to see.”

“I made a rough sketch of the spot.”Alex opened the tablet as he laid it on the small table so that Icould see it. “Once Demeter pointed out this fourth man, I wentanother block over to see if that space he’s hiding in runs all theway to the next street.” Using his stylus, he pointed down wherethe incised lines that represented the walls of the adjacentbuildings suddenly stopped, well short of the perpendicular linethat marked the edge of the next street. “As you can see, itdoesn’t. Or,” he allowed, “it’s not obvious, but I didn’t want toget too close or pay too much attention to it.”

“If we do it right,” I shrugged, “themost we need to deal with are the two men in the front.”

“And since when has that happened?”Alex scoffed. “You know nothing ever goes the way it’s planned,Gnaeus.”

While I do not like being rebuked,especially in front of others, Alex was correct, which I signaledby asking, “So what’s your suggestion?”

“Oh,” he answered cheerfully, “I agreethat we come in from the front, but I’m also saying that we need tobe prepared for at least four men. Which,” any sign of humorvanished, “is why I’m going with you.”

“If Alex goes, I’m going,” Septimusspoke up.

“Centurion,” Demeter broke in before Icould tell them to forget this idea, “now that I have seen it withmy own eyes, I was going to suggest we bring at least one more man.Two is better because it would make the odds close toeven.”

“Demeter,” I did my best to keep mytone under control, “I assure you that I can handle more than justone man, I don’t care how good they are.” This made me think ofsomething, and I asked both him and Alex, “And what kind of men arewe talking about? The Gabinians died out a long time ago,” I saidjokingly. “And they would be the only men I would worryabout.”

“Actually,” Alex replied, and whilehis face was sober, I got the distinct impression that he enjoyedtelling me, “at least two of them were Legionaries, and I saw oneof them with his identity disc outside his tunic, so at least he’sone of them who did a full enlistment.”

“Fuck me,” I muttered, and I wasforced to acknowledge, “that changes things.” Something elseoccurred to me, and I asked Demeter, “How strictly is the curfewobserved? And,” I confess my heart was in my throat, “does the22^nd mount roving guardpatrols at night?”

The22^nd Legion has been the onlyLegion stationed in all of Egypt for well more than twenty years,and as I mentioned, there is no Praetor, so the Legion is commandedby the Praefectus Augustalus,and I did know that his name was Gaius Galerius, although this wasall I knew about the man.

“Yes, there is a curfew, and yes theRoman Legion here has patrols out in the city. But,” Demeter heldup a hand, clearly seeing that I was about to explode, “they do notgo into the Rhakotis unless there is trouble, Centurion. It’sanother of the…arrangements that have been made with the citizenshere. Fortunately, the Rhakotis is only a few blocks from the cityend of the Heptastadion.”

This was at least better than I had feared,but it also meant that nothing could go wrong to the point where analarm would be raised. It also convinced me that I needed more helpthan I planned.

By the end of the first night watch, we hadhammered out a plan, one that bore little resemblance to myoriginal idea of essentially walking in, knocking Aviola over thehead, and walking out with him slung over my shoulder. I stillwould be the one carrying Aviola, and I had already prevailed onDemeter to have one of his crewman skilled in such thing to make alarge sack, using the canvas all ships carry to repair sails, whichI would be putting Aviola in. Not, I was aware, that it was much ofa disguise; essentially anyone with eyes and a modicum of sense whospotted me would think, “There is a large man carrying another manin a sack over his shoulder,” but it was the best we could do, andI hoped that in a city like Alexandria, it would not be altogetherunusual to see. One sticking point, and what quickly became aquarrel between Demeter and me, our first real disagreement of theentire voyage, was my absolute insistence that we did not kill thetwo men Alex had identified as Romans.

“You do not know they are Romans!”Demeter argued. “And we cannot afford to leave anyone behind thatmight identify us, Centurion! You,” he pointed directly at me, “areeasy to identify, even with a beard and not wearing your soldier’stunic!” When I still demurred, he persisted, “The man Alexandrossaw could have won that in a game of dice!”

I had been irritated, but now I was gettingangry, and I sensed the others shifting nervously as I crossed thesingle pace between us to look down on Demeter.

“No Roman Legionary who served a fullenlistment would gamble away that disc,” I said coldly.

Unfortunately, Demeter did the worst thinghe could do under the circumstances, which was to snortdismissively and sneer, “I have seen almost as many old Legionarieswho were drunkards who would sell their mothers as I have seen oldwhores.”

Even as my hand shot out to grab a fistfulof his tunic, there was a part of me that reminded myself that ithad been earlier in the day he had learned of Lykos’ betrayal; thatwas the only reason that I did not throw Demeter into the wall ofthe cabin, but I still lifted him bodily so that we were lookingeach other eye to eye.

“Demeter,” Alex’s voice cut in as weglared at each other, “what Gnaeus is saying is