“A teaching job? In Ancient Rome? Tempting…”
She rotated her face at me with another wide eyed, but completely different expression on her face.
“Never mind,” I said quickly, turning back to Vespasian. “Sorry, but I’m a historian, not a pseudo-scientist.”
“I see,” Vespasian said, “well, I must admit that your explanation is mostly meaningless to me, but it sounds like you understand the problem. Theory or no.”
Vespasian stood from his chair, moved over to his bedside stand and poured himself some wine. Goblet in hand, he took a seat on his bed and took a deep breath, a moment of weakness I had not yet seen in the man.
“It is time for us to take our leave from one another,” he said, “but not without leaving you with some information first.” He sighed again. “Even after all we’ve spoken of, I still can’t believe I am about to do this…”
He trailed off, before finally looking at me.
“Agrippina is near. She is staying a few miles outside of Tripolis, just north of Caesarea in Syria. She has brought her Praetorians to aid in the Jewish subjugation and to quell rumbles of insurrection in Parthia, providing us a unique opportunity. The best way for us to remove her is for you to do it. I cannot allow my legions to become involved. Find her and bring her to me, and we will take her back to Rome together in chains. The Senate is fickle, weak. She may have many senators under her influence now, but once I’m through with them, she will be hard pressed to retain their loyalty.”
“You want us to capture Agrippina for you?” Helena asked defiantly. “She could have thousands of Praetorians with her. There are eight of us.”
“Take your friends Gaius and Marcus,” Vespasian offered, waving towards the entrance and our two friends waiting just outside. “That should make it an even fight. She may even have your orb with her.”
That got my attention. If we could bring her to justice, remove her from power and get the orb all at the same time, we might actually be able to get home sooner than expected. Of course, I still had no idea how to work the damn thing, but with Agrippina out of the picture, Varus and I would at least have time to figure it out.
“We’ll do it,” I said, receiving a shocked look from Helena in return.
“Good,” Vespasian huffed. “You may go back to your friends now. I will order Gaius and Marcus to join you soon to inform you when it’s best for your group to leave. Speaking of, I must say that I look forward to meeting all of you at a later date, especially the one Galba referred to as, ‘the funny one.’ He seems quite entertaining.”
I smiled. I’m sure Santino will let that go straight to his head.
He always did.
“I’m sure they would like to meet you as well,” I replied. “When should we expect to leave?”
“Perhaps two days from now. I’ll make sure siege operations are light so you can prepare.”
I nodded my head and rose to my feet, following Helena as she rushed unceremoniously towards the entrance. I let her through, but paused briefly, a moment of weakness, or perhaps compassion, hitting me.
“Just one more thing, Vespasian. A favor, really.”
“What is it?”
“Once you put down this rebellion, please, go easy on the Jews. It wasn’t… completely their fault. Let them have some peace.”
Vespasian looked up from a document he was reading to look at me coldly. He held the look for a few seconds before he laughed to himself and punched his desk.
“I knew these Jews were acting bolder than I gave them credit for. They never would have had the balls to rebel on their own. Perhaps in a few years, but not now. I knew it had to have been instigated by someone else. Fine. In honor of your deeds as Vani, I will make sure the rest of this war is as devoid of bloodshed as I can help. What’s done is done, however, that I cannot change.”
I nodded. “Just remember when you’re settling terms to be gentle. I hate to break it to you, but from where I come from, Jews are still around to pester people, but Roman History is just a course taught in school.”
Vespasian lost his smile at that comment, so offering him an innocent smile of my own, I turned and left the praetorium. I waved farewell to Gaius and Marcus after retrieving my weapons as Helena finished by giving them quick kisses on the cheeks in parting. Together, my female companion and I marched definitely through the camp and out into the quiet, cold night.
It only took two steps before she had something to say.
“Attack Agrippina when she could have her entire Praetorian contingent with her? Are you fucking crazy?!” She was almost yelling.
“No, I’m not crazy,” I answered calmly. “I’m opportunistic, not to mention verging on desperate. If Vespasian sent his army, the potential political ramifications may completely defeat the purpose of what we’re trying to accomplish. We, on the other hand, can sneak in and take her without anyone being the wiser, and maybe even grab the orb in the process.”
“Jacob, you’re getting cocky again. What if she’s expecting us? Sets another trap?”
I let out a slow breath. I wasn’t getting cocky. Not this time, but how was I going to convince Helena that this plan had nothing to do with the over obsessed one we’d acted on months ago?
“When we get back to the city, we’ll discuss it with everyone else, and only act on it if it’s agreed upon by all,” I said. “Besides, Vespasian is obviously on our side. If he wanted us dead, we would be. Agrippina may be expecting us, but she won’t expect all of us. We can do this, Helena. We can get home.”
She didn’t look nearly so convinced, and she moved her hand down to her stomach, wincing at perhaps another stab of pain. She still seemed very angry and I figured it was about time for another Jacob/Helena speaking hiatus.
“You’d better not be wrong this time,” she threatened, with a finality that told me that was going to be it for the near future.
I sighed, condemning myself to the fate of silence that was sure to come.
“I’m not.”
X
Mission Entry #10
Jacob Hunter
North of Caesarea, Judea — October, 42 A.D.
Pardon the handwriting as I’m writing this on horseback. It wouldn’t have been a problem had we purchased those camels I’d wanted, but everyone overruled me on that one. Something about them smelling and having a bad tendency to spit.
I argued that it was llamas that spat, not camels, but no one listened.
Oh, well.
So, guess who we finally met?
Vespasian.
Pretty cool, eh? I love how plans come together in the end. With the way things had been going, I wasn’t sure if we’d ever meet him. Apparently, I wasn’t very good at plans.
As for Titus Flavius Vespasianus (his Latin name), the man was an enigma. Easily the most confusing Roman I knew, he came off like Santino at times but Vincent at others. He was a tough read and it was to know what he was thinking, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t worth listening to. In fact, he was the reason I was here.
It seems Agrippina’s pissed off one man too many. No surprise, there. Vespasian’s been done with her for a while now apparently, and has tasked us with capturing her and bringing her to justice.
I had to admit that going after Agrippina felt great. It was time for a little payback, and it felt especially good having Gaius and Marcus with us. I guess it was just great to be working for someone again. Working for ourselves for the past few years had its benefits, kept our own hours, the pay had been good, but it lacked fulfillment. While we weren’t on Vespasian’s payroll, simply having him send us on a mission was a nice enough change of pace. It felt more purposeful having someone like him making the decisions for once.