Free The Wolf and the Lamb by Frederick Ramsay Page A

off.” Gamaliel and Loukas left an annoyed High Priest and headed for the Sheep Gate and Loukas’ home beyond.
    But first, Gamaliel turned to the boy. “Off with you, Marius. Report what you can to your master, and tell him I will join him at the fourth hour the day after tomorrow. I will expect him to have Priscus the Centurion available and also the legionnaires under his command.”
    “But Excellency, he told me to stay with you until I had—”
    “Something to report, yes, I know. Tell him you will do better the next time. Now go, be off.”
    “But tomorrow? Shouldn’t you be investigating or something tomorrow?”
    “Tomorrow is Shabbat. I do not work on Shabbat. Tell him—fourth hour, two days.”
    Across from them, the toga-garbed man asked one of his attendants to identify who had just spoken to the pair of Jews. He was told that the man speaking to the Physician and Rabban was the Hebrew’s High Priest. The official smirked and shook his head in disgust. He indicated to his men that they were to return to the Fortress. Aside from the fact they were both legionnaires and strangers to the city, they could have been twins. They had the fair skin and golden hair one associates with people from places like Germania or Britannia, and the ice-blue eyes of men trained as killers. He turned and signaled to a rat-faced man standing twenty cubits away. That nondescript person drifted off in the wake of Gamaliel and Loukas. He had every reason to believe his appearance would not attract attention. It never had before. It had served as his best insurance against reprisals. He believed no one would notice him this time either. He was wrong. There were others following the Rabban’s progress away from the Temple. They would join in the procession toward the city’s northern gates.
    The rat-faced man would not return to his employer that day, or ever. His body, stabbed in several places and dumped in the Gehinnom Valley, would be found days later, presumably someone the Sicarii deemed a משתף פעולה . But this one, like a few before him, would go unremarked. Bodies of felons, victims of felons, and riff-raff generally were routinely deposited in the valley and added to the city’s accumulated trash and offal. Unless someone was interested in them enough to inquire as to their whereabouts, they would be carted off and buried in what would later come to be known as the Field of Blood.
    ***
     
    Loukas opened the gate to his courtyard and called for his servants. Gamaliel took his accustomed seat under the shade of a fig tree and grunted.
    “In the Temple you said you had an idea to share with me later. Is it later, yet?”
    “Perhaps.” Loukas turned to a young woman. “Sarai, fetch our guest some food. The Rabban will take his evening meal with us tonight. He will need water to wash and a place to pray after a bit.” He turned his attention to his other servant. “Yakob, I believe you were a legionnaire in the past. As such I assume you were trained in the art of assassinating the Empire’s enemies. I will not ask you if you ever did that, but I wish to know about technique.”
    “Sir?”
    “Sorry, I have not made myself clear. Very well, if you were sent to dispatch someone who did not know you were present, how would you do it?’
    “I do not understand. We attacked, shield and sword, lance or whatever other weapons we found at hand. A dozen years ago I served under Germanicus and once dropped one of Arminius’ troopers a with a tree limb.”
    “You miss my point. Let us say you are alone and your target is…I don’t know…this trooper who had been standing guard. Your side has an impending raid planned, and you wanted to remove him lest he cry out and the element of surprise dashed. What would you do?”
    “I see. In that case, I would wait until his attention wandered. Standing guard can be boring. When the time arrived, I would approach him from behind, grab his chin, and either slit his