absolute control. The stranger continued, “You may think of them as a sect, if you like. Yes, a religious sect, very like that. Small at the moment, but going to grow in the future.”
“How long were you a member of this sect?” the agent asked. He deliberately begged the question of Calvus’ participation in what appeared to have been an illegal organization.
The reaction surprised him. “Don’t ever say that!” shouted the tall man in an access of loathing. “I and – those?” His face smoothed itself with difficulty. The virulence of the stranger’s emotion was the more shocking for its contrast with the nearly flat personality he had displayed until that moment. “Yes, of course,” he said, aloud but not particularly to the men beside him. “You wonder how I came to know about the situation.”
Calvus attempted his smile again. He glanced toward Navigatus before continuing, “I’m afraid that for the moment, you will simply have to take it on faith that I’m correct. I’ll try to find an acceptable mechanism to explain my knowledge, but I don’t suppose that will affect your plans. That is – ” he turned up his right palm – “the worst case is that I will be proven correct. If you plan for that, then the event of my being proven wrong and a madman – ” he flipped up his left palm – “will not increase your risk or difficulties. Since the effort must be made in either event.”
If you think, Perennius mused, that I can’t find a way to grease you between here and Cilicia, and a tragic story of your end that’ll satisfy Gallienus or any damn body, then you’re wrong. But aloud he said to the placid face, “I used to – live with a woman who saw visions. She insisted I listen the same way I would if it were something she’d seen with her eyes. I didn’t much like it then, but I took it from Julia; and I’ll take it now, I suppose.”
Navigatus relaxed slightly on the other side of the tall man. He knew as well as the agent did that Gallienus’ writ ruled little beyond Italy and parts of Africa, at the moment .. . and that nothing but a sense of duty could be truly said to rule Aulus Perennius. Perennius had accepted the assignment now. That meant there was the best chance possible of satisfying this seeming confidant of the Emperor.
A small butterfly landed on the web of Calvus’ right hand. He watched it palpate him with its proboscis as he continued: “You will want to know the strength of our opponents. There are only six of them, we believe. Six – true devotees. But they may have any number of hirelings. And they are almost certain to have very powerful weapons, weapons that you could compare only to natural catastrophes, thunderbolts and volcanoes.”
Perennius smiled and said, “Yes, well … I told you, I have experience accepting the remarkable.” But the fact that he joked instead of nodding gravely implied that there was a level of belief in the expressed skepticism. As Calvus had said, it was cheaper to believe him and be wrong than it would be to be surprised the other way.
The shadows of the hills had cut off the sun. Now Navigatus glanced over his shoulder at the Headquarters building and saw the windows of the upper story were being swung shut by the cleaning crews against the threat of rain. The lamps hanging from the drawing-room ceiling silhouetted against the panes the figures of men whose need to see the Director outweighed their dignity.
Navigatus stood, scowling. “Here,” he said, “this is foolish. We’ll go to my house, bathe there, and discuss this over dinner.” He looked anxiously toward the bald man. “If you don’t mind something simple, Lucius Calvus? I work here so late that I almost never have time to attend a proper dinner party, much less give one.”
Perennius and the stranger rose also. “Marcus, I appreciate it, but your household servants already know as much about my affairs as I intend to let them,” the agent said. “Besides, if you don’t clear those out of your office properly – ” he nodded toward the lamps and those waiting beneath them .- “it’ll eat at you till you don’t sleep tonight. Even though there isn’t one of them who’s worth a gray hair to either of us.”