“No, Caesar.”
To his credit, he was the only who did not seem to be totally shocked, or irritated for that matter. He simply sat back, crossed his arms in a pose with which I had now become very familiar, and only asked, “And why is that, Pullus?”
For what was probably the hundredth time in my life I had said the first thing that popped into my head without thinking things through beforehand, but never before had things been so potentially explosive. My mind raced; this was not the time or the place to bring up the animosity and distrust that the men of the 6th held for the men of the 28th, for a number of reasons, not least of which was that Cartufenus was sitting there watching me. It was easy to see by the expression on his face that he knew exactly why I was objecting, and I felt a pang of sympathy. I had come to like Cartufenus a great deal, and while it might not have been his intent, he taught me a lot. For example, it was from Cartufenus that I learned that sometimes pure leadership is not enough, that a healthy dose of luck is almost as important in certain circumstances, and it was Cartufenus’ circumstances that showed me how lucky I had been in my career at that point. In that moment, standing before Caesar, I had no desire to do any further damage to Cartufenus, since his career was, for all intents and purposes, finished the moment that the 28th had almost mutinied, unless some sort of miracle occurred. I was struck by a sudden flash of what I hoped was inspiration.
“Caesar, if we combine our forces and leave by the same gate, we'll be moving almost 900 men in one group.”
“Yes, Pullus. That is the point,” he said mildly, and I could hear the snickers of a couple of the men.
I tried to ignore the heat rising to my face as I continued, “That would mean running almost a mile with a force several hundred yards long, which would make a fat target. Even if we catch them by surprise, it’s likely that the last Centuries won’t be clear by the time the Egyptians recover and start hurling the gods know what down on our heads.”
“Then have the men march in testudo,” interjected Nero, and I tried not to give him a look that conveyed my contempt at the idea.
While Nero was not completely useless, I considered him to be the weakest of Caesar’s generals.
“Yes, sir.” I kept my tone neutral. “And that would be a very wise maneuver, if we weren’t expected to go into battle just a few moments after marching such a distance. I realize, sir, that you've never had occasion to actually be part of a testudo, but I can assure you that even for men superbly fit, marching in testudo for more than a hundred yards can be exhausting.”
Even though I addressed Nero, I was trying to judge Caesar’s reaction out of the corner of my eye and I was relieved to see that upturned lip that I had come to know. Some of the other men, the generals Hirtius and Pollio in particular, were not so circumspect and were grinning broadly; Nero was not taking my retort with as much good grace, making me happy to see that now I was not the only one with a red face.
Having disposed of that question, I turned back to Caesar. “As I understand the plan, sir, we'll have to load into a number of different boats, which will require even more exertion, as you well know. Then, it will probably take no more than a tenth part of a watch to row from the enclosure to the island, where we're going to have climb the rocks, probably under fire. Caesar, if we do as General Nero suggests, which I would agree if we were to march with our forces combined would be the right tactic.” I was not completely politically inept, so I threw this bone to Nero. “The men won't be sufficiently recovered by the time we're expected to assault the island.” I could see that I had gotten Caesar’s full attention, and I pressed the advantage. “The other benefit of splitting the force and having them come from different points in our position is that it will spread the enemy a bit more thinly. We can compound the surprise if we leave at exactly the same time, on a prearranged signal.”
Caesar considered this, then gave a nod. “Very well. You'll lead the 6th, and Cartufenus will lead the 28th, and you'll leave our position at different points, but at the same time.”
And with that, he turned his attention to other matters. I had escaped Caesar’s wrath.
As Cartufenus and I left headquarters, he said quietly enough so that only I could hear, “Thanks, Pullus.”
I was somewhat surprised, and I looked at him with a question in my eyes.
“I know why you really don’t want to combine our forces,” he said quietly, then sighed. “And I can’t say that I blame you, or your men.”
I looked at him in sympathy, clapping him on the shoulder. “No worries, Cartufenus. You'd do it for me.”
He gave me a speculative look at this and shrugged. “I hope so, Pullus. I hope so.”
~ ~ ~ ~
Now, we stood waiting for the sound of the bucina that would signal that it was time for us to leave. While the building in which we were hiding was large, it was still crammed full of men, the smell of sweat and fear hanging rank in the air in the close quarters. I glanced at Valens, who gave a grimace.
“It stinks in here,” he said, and I laughed.
Suddenly, the bucina sounded. Without hesitation, I threw open the door, roaring as loudly as I could to Fuscus, who I had ordered to be present to ensure there would be no mistakes, to open the gates. Running across the street, I heard the men clattering behind me as they followed. Fuscus bellowed at the men standing at the gates, who grabbed the attached ropes to begin pulling them open. Fuscus had timed it perfectly, and we did not need to slow down as we ran through the open gates, whereupon I took a left turn, heading for the nearest corner leading to the north-south thoroughfare. Even with the clatter of the men pounding behind me, I could hear the cries of alarm from the Egyptian sentries, though they did not start yelling until we had already covered a couple hundred paces. I just hoped that it would be enough of a head start to avoid taking many casualties, because even if a man was wounded, if he could not keep up he would be left behind, and everyone knew what that meant. It was inevitable that we would lose men running this gauntlet; I just hoped that it would not be too many. Keeping my head turning, I looked not just at the rooftops, but also when we approached an intersection, although the biggest threat to us was from missiles thrown down at us. We were more than halfway before the first resistance was met, the men above us starting to hurl stones or whatever else was at hand down at us, though they did little damage. It was not until we could actually see the harbor that the first volley of proper missiles rained down at us, and I heard a couple of men shout in a manner that told me they were hit, but we nevertheless continued running. Bursting out of the relatively confined space of the city streets, we ran the rest of the way down to the enclosure, where Caesar had assembled a few score of small boats that would act as our landing craft. The guards at the gate to the enclosure threw them open and we ran down to the docks, where most of the other men of the 37th were already loaded in the boats. A provost directed us to the boats designated for our use, and we immediately began loading the men into them. Each boat carried a contingent of oarsmen, the boats themselves all open-topped with no decks, which was a mixed blessing. It made loading and unloading easier, yet it also meant that the only cover from artillery and missile fire would be what we could provide ourselves with our shields. The 28th arrived shortly after we did, but it appeared that they suffered slightly heavier casualties than we had. For our part, we had three men wounded to the point that they could not keep up, with another half dozen slightly injured. I pushed the thoughts of the three men out of my mind, knowing that we could not do anything for them. The loading operation was finished in a matter of moments, then the signal was given for the men at the benches to begin rowing, and we set off for the island.