Hoost had rented a van in the back of which they changed into their operational attire. As Hoost and Healey pulled security outside they helped Sebastian don his chiton, the classic robe of the Hellenic upper class. He would carry his calligraphy copy of the Iliad, which he had transcribed himself into Latin, on a parchment scroll wound between two ornate cypress wood pins. It was unknown if any Latin translations of Greek texts had been done by this time.
They had a hard enough time getting hold of the parchment. Papyrus, the actual literary medium of the time, had been impossible to come by in the United States.
The scroll was part of his cover, and an experiment as well. Sebastian planned on leaving the scroll at Delphi, which he was determined to visit. They would then search the archaeological record for any such anomalous find, or perhaps just an ancient reference to it, on their return. More importantly Sebastian’s cover was to be as an itinerate Iberian scholar searching the book stalls and schools of Athens for authoritative Greek versions of the classic against which he could check his own copy.
Sebastian’s Latin was impeccable, and his command of Greek letters was admirable. However, his heavily accented spoken Ionian would mark him as a barbarian, and he would have to prove himself as an intellectual. Aside from his chiton and scroll his only possession was a purse of gold and silver coin blanks—un-stamped coins Arlene had gotten from a contact at the think tank. He was carrying about four thousand dollars worth of coin. The Greek economy would be awash in Persian coin at this time and they did not want to take a chance of being short on funds due to inflation. Sebastian would buy whatever supplies they might need at Athens.
Arlene was adopting the role of a hetaira, a high class call girl of ancient Hellas, more akin to a Japanese geisha than to any Western equivalent. She wore a purple silk robe with alternating lace and opaque panels. Tina had actually designed the piece, and she would be passing it off as traditional attire for women of her class in her barbarian paradise.
How would Tina have handled Healey?
Tina was their 24th Century handler. Hoost was her muscle, not that Tina needed any. Tina Hesperia was a tall raven-haired golden-skinned geisha/assassin of the far future, with celebrity level sex-appeal and genius-level intelligence. She was the den mother for the female operatives, had adopted all of the primitive children retrieved from previous missions, and was married—in an odd sort of way—to Jay Bracken. Tina was a master manipulator and had actually assigned Arlene to be Jay’s lover, ostensibly to soak off some of the man’s excess testosterone. Arlene thought there was something more behind the arrangement. But she was so attracted to Jay and so irrationally committed to earning Tina’s approval that she had plunged into the affair headless of the ramifications.
I wish I were Tina. Being a genetically engineered super-freak sure would be preferable to being Arlene from Kalamazoo when the shit hits the fan on Men’s World back in 323 B.C.
As a companion she would be expected to recite poetry, and therefore brought her own scroll of passages from Sappho, Homer, Sophocles and Orpheus. She had a set of castanets and a lyre, both of which Tina had instructed her on. With a bare three months of practice she would most likely be a poor performer. Her strength would be her height, athletic body and long curly red hair, and her command of science and medicine. Her calculus, algebra and trigonometry were good enough to set her ahead of most of the ancient mathematics field.
Her true strength though, would have to be the fact that she was an experienced combat medic and medical technician. She could quite literally expect to be the most effective medical practitioner on the planet in 323 B.C. To this end she had packed an extensive first aid, diagnostic and surgical kit [and 3 months worth of wet wipes, tampons and maxi-pads for her and Selene and birth-control pills for herself] all in a top of the line 2012 Virginia Tech book bag. The book bag /medical kit was the key prop for her back-story: she was a companion/physician from the distant barbarian realm of Virginia Tech, located somewhere west of Ultima Thule [Iceland] in the land of America. This way she did not have to lie or make up a back-story that could be refuted.
Greetings, I’m Arlene from Virginia Tech. Take me to your leader.
Selene would also be a Virginia Techian; her assistant, porter and bodyguard, in barbaric pants and tunic instead of robes. Selene would have to keep a low profile since she was going to be about as socially unacceptable as a wild Amazon among the Athenian men. Their research into ancient Hellas had painted such a bleakly circumscribed picture of a woman’s lot in civilized societies that they decided that they were far better off as high class exotic barbarians. On the surface it seemed crazy to go in armed with nothing but Selene’s six foot white oak staff. But in such a violent, fractious and heavily militarized society, going in with a three person team left no option but diplomacy and their medical and academic skill set.
God, we are putting ourselves at the mercy of an alien sexist society! What were you thinking?
Tina and Hoost, and Charlie no less, thought this was doable.
Yeah, but Randy and Jan just shook their heads like we were going swimming with the sharks.
Because they are sexist pigs!
Yes, and in 323 B.C. you and Selene will be the only feminists on the planet!
We are the right team for the job. This is a zero-imprint event. They can’t let an animal like Randy go back in time and shoot his way through Athens!
They are waiting patiently while you melt down girlfriend.
“Sorry guys, just going over my mental checklist one last time. Let’s just buckle our sandals and get to it. It’s eleven-o-five. In ten minutes we will be in the deep past.”
The last thing she did was remove the silk sleeve from the platinum hoop, which would be covered up again back in the past, and described as her oracle hoop; a device that permits her to see the future and beseech the gods.
That should be the easiest part of this sham to pull off!
They were now piling out of the van into the dark, beneath the menacing shadows of Healey and Hoost. Now she felt vulnerable. At 5’ 8” and 130 pounds she was the tallest in their group, and at 5’ 6” and 145, pounds Selene was the heaviest. Either one of them could knockout or submit little Sebastian with ease—and had done so often in Jan’s self-defense class—and somehow they were supposed to survive in an iron-age world at war?
Two postmodern girls and a medieval sissy are supposed to recover the second most valuable person-of-interest in world history in the midst of a dynastic war? Whose idea was this?
It was your idea. All you have is your wits and your team. Make it work.
This is so unlikely it has to work.
Is that Venus in the northeastern sky, or is it Mars?
You mean, is it Aphrodite or Ares?
I don’t even want to know.
She set each of their three dials for 323 B.C., synchronized the master dial, and let the thing drop—and it didn’t! A magnetic whoop popped her eardrums and they all grabbed hold.
Whoa! This is it girl, your chance to plunder the past.
