“I’m Lucius Sempronius,” Gaius lied.“My father is the master of the Concordia, a cargo trireme out of Narbo Martius, and this is myfirst voyage with him.”
A new voice spoke then, also in Latin,although it was with a trace of the kind of accent that speaks of achildhood spent in Hispania, but more importantly, he sounded moresuspicious than curious.
“That’s all well and good, but thatdoesn’t explain what you’re doing here.” Before Gaius couldrespond, the same voice demanded, “How old are you?”
“I’m fifteen,” Gaius answered the lastquestion first, then went on, “but I wanted to see Alexandria. Myfather,” he shifted from one foot to another as if he wasuncomfortable, “told me to stay aboard, but he took the crew intothe city. And,” I could see him shrug, reminding me of the kind ofthing I would do with my mother when I had no real desire to answera question, “I decided that I would just go for a short time andget back before they did, and he’d never know.”
Because of the gloom, if I could have seenthem, it would have been impossible to tell by the facial featuresof the two guards whether they were accepting Gaius’ story;fortunately, the tone of the first man’s voice told us that hehad.
“That’s not good, boy,” he chuckled.“I think you may be better off staying here in Alexandria. YourTata is going to stripe you good.”
“I know,” Gaius said miserably,playing his role to such perfection that we heard both menlaugh.
And that is when I launched myself into arun.
It was the one thing that we had notdiscussed; what the signal would be when we moved to subdue the twoguards, but I knew this was the right moment, because men who arestill tense and alert do not laugh. In the moment, my concern wasmore about Gaius since he was essentially now standing in my path,yet before I could warn him, he clearly heard me coming, becauserather than take the risk of accidentally dodging into my path as Ishifted to avoid him, he simply dropped down onto his hands andknees so that I was able to hurdle over him. Immediately after myfirst foot hit the ground, I pushed off on it to launch myself inthe same motion, and I was close enough to see the widened eyes ofa man who, even in the eyeblink of time that I had, I still wouldhave recognized anywhere, the weather-beaten face of a man who hasmarched for Rome. There was a brief flash of pain as we collided,then I was falling with him back and downward, my left hand wrappedaround the man’s throat as I drove his body to the ground. Becauseof our proximity, I was blasted with a great gust that smelled ofwine and garlic as the air was driven from the man’s lungs, and Idrew my fist back to punch him, aiming for the point of his chin,since that seems to be the best method to knock a man unconscious.It worked perfectly, but whether the second guard had betterreflexes, or Septimus, who had been immediately behind me, was abit slow, what mattered was that just as I looked away from thenow-unconscious first guard, I saw that the second Roman had dodgedaside as Septimus flew past him to collide directly with the outerwall of Aviola’s hideout. This guard was just turning around,presumably to shout a warning when, out of desperation, I launcheda wild punch that completely missed my target of his cheek,striking him instead on the side of his head just above his ear. Ithurt, a great deal, and I worried that I had broken my hand, butwhile it did not render him unconscious, it did send him reelingaway from me. I do not recall how, but I somehow got to my feet,which enabled me to close the distance because he was still offbalance, and this time, my aim was true, my fist striking him inexactly the same spot as the first man, with the same result, as hecollapsed in a heap, out cold. Unfortunately, Septimus’ collisionwith the mud brick wall was enough to rouse someone inside, as whatsounded like a chair being moved, made a scraping noise, indicatedwhoever it was suddenly stood up.
“Flaccus! What’s going on outthere?”
“Nothing, Dominus! I justtripped!”
Septimus had done his best to sound like thefirst man, and he did a good job to my ear; unfortunately, whoeverwas inside was addressing the other man, or this was what Iimmediately assumed because they did not say anything, and insteadbegan running, the sound of his footsteps making it clear he washeading for the back door. I doubt a full heartbeat passed before Ilifted my foot to kick the door in, shattering it into kindling,some of the pieces flying backward into my face as I did theincredibly foolhardy, or as Alex would put it, foolish thing ofrushing headlong into the building. There was next to no light,only a feeble glow that shone through a doorway to my right acouple of paces from the entrance that led to the next room, but Isaw the dark figure of a man, running just a few paces ahead of me,and all I could think was, “Aviola’s getting away.” The idea thatit might not be Aviola did not even occur to me, so I did not breakstride as I went after him. And, just as I was passing by thedoorway, I got the barest flicker of warning in the form of a darkblur that slammed into me from my right side. If I had been anormal size, I would have been sent sprawling, yet despite notlosing my feet, I went staggering sideways to slam into the farwall, feeling it give way under my shoulder. I believe that whoeverit was who had rushed at me had counted on his target being his ownsize, because as I pivoted to put the wall to my back, I saw whatwas clearly a man standing there, yet not rushing at me; I also sawthe same thing happen to him
