He also threw the race,” said Andre.
Travers glanced at her sharply. “What?”
“I said, he threw the race.” she repeated. “It was fixed.”
“Are you serious? How can you possibly tell?”
“If anyone can tell, she can.” said Delaney.
They were seated in the stands within less than a hundredfeet of where Steiger sat with Antony. though they had no idea he was there.With his new face, they wouldn’t have recognized him anyway. They spoke in lowvoices, holding their heads close so that no one could overhear them.
“Andre grew up in medieval England.” Lucas explained. “Formost of her life, she passed as a male and was a mercenary knight, what theycalled a ‘free companion.’ The first time we met. it was in the lists at thetournament of Ashby.”
“You mean you were temporally displaced?” asked ‘Travers,stunned.
“It’s a long story.” she said. “I inadvertently became partof a temporal disruption and wound up being taken into the future by a memberof the Underground.”
We first encountered Andre on a mission to 12th century England.”said Delaney. “so you can imagine our surprise when we saw her again in 17th-centuryFrance. It’s quite a story. She was instrumental in helping us effect atemporal adjustment and since she had already been displaced from her own time,we took her back to Plus Time with us so her case could be reviewed, to makesure it didn’t result in any temporal contamination. Once the Referees weresatisfied, she joined the First Division and we’ve been a team ever since?
“Incredible!” Travers said. “You must tell me the entirestory later, but right now, I’m curious as to how you knew the race was fixed.”
“I learned how to observe horsemanship from jousting tournaments,”she said. “In a situation where your life often depended on knowing youropponents. you learned to watch for the slightest indication of any weak points.After a while, you’d get to where you’d easily spot subtle things that mostpeople would miss. The charioteer for the red team held back slightly on thefinal stretch. As you said, he’s an outstanding driver. Even a keen observermight have missed it, but I was watching very closely. out of habit. I suppose,and I noticed that on the last two laps. he was taking his turns just a littlewider than he had on all the previous ones.”
“I never would have spotted that.” said Travers. “Clocillusalways takes the turns so tightly, he’s almost. right up against the post.-
“That’s why he got away with it,” she said. “He takes a muchtighter line through the turns than the other driven, so when he went just alittle wider, it still looked like he was taking them pretty close. But he wenta little wider every time coming out of the turns and he held back a littlegoing into the turns, allowing the blue team to catch up. Aside from that, whenthose two chariots collided in the first turn. It was done on purpose. I sawboth drivers brace themselves for the impact as they went into the turn. Theywere prepared for it. before they should have known that it was going tohappen. And the driver whose chariot overturned in the last lap? That waspurposely done, as well. He was standing a little lower in his chariot goinginto the turn because he had his knees flexed, ready to spring clear. He timedit just right, so that he’d be at the apex of the turn. where the inertia wouldcarry him to the outside of the track, well away front the chariots behind him,who knew that he was going down and were prepared. He was already reaching forhis dagger an instant before he went over. Not that it still wasn’t prettydangerous, but with everybody knowing what was going to happen, the risks wereconsiderably reduced.”
“But that would mean that every one of the charioteers werebribed!” exclaimed Travers with astonishment.
“That would seem to be the obvious explanation,” Andre replied.
“That’s an incredibly serious offense,” said Travers. “Theycould all lose their lives for that. You’re absolutely sure’? There’s no chanceyou could be mistaken’?”
“If Andre says that’s the way it happened. Travers, you cantake it to the bank,” Delaney said.
“Find out who was the big winner at the track today and you’llprobably find your fixer,” Andre said.
“There’s only one man I can think of, short of the Emperorhimself, who could have gotten all the charioteers to work together in order tothrow the race: said Travers
“And that would be Marcian. But I simply can’t imagine himdoing something like that.”
“Who’s Marcian’?” asked Lucas.
“He’s the aedile who oversees the administration ofthe games.” said Travers. “He’s also an extremely wealthy merchant who providesmost of the horses and wild beasts for the shows in the Circus. he also stagesgladiatorial combats, sort of a private entertainment contractor. But he neverbets on any of the races. For a man in his position. It wouldn’t look good.”
“Maybe somebody got to him.” Delaney said.
“That’s hard to believe.” said Travers. “Marcian is one ofthe richest men in Rome. I can’t imagine what anyone could offer him to makehim take such a risk.”
“Political power?” Lucas asked.
“Possible. I suppose. but unlikely. His post carries anominal senatorial rank. yet Marcian has always steered clear of politics. Hehas the reputation of being a very prudent man.”
“In any case. it probably doesn’t concern us,” Andre said. “Notunless It might have anything to do with Caesar Is Marcian a friend of his?”
“No. not really. but he is a friend of Marc Antony’s, who isCaesar’s right-hand man.”
“Maybe we should meet him.” Lucas said.