"Yes, Sir."
"Have my car ready to drive to the Square behind Caesar's tomorrow. See that the covermen in the houses around the Square are doubled and double-checked. But when we go to the show, let's not have too great an exhibition of Imperial power. We don't want this thing to backfire and cut our own throats."
"Yes, Sir." Del Ponta's grin widened.
"Dismissed."
Del Ponta came to attention, saluted and about-faced and left.
Prefect Lamberti opened his desk drawer and took out his old service pistol. It was a gamma gun. He had not released any of the deadly, slow-acting rays from its chamber in seven years. But it was ready.
He opened another drawer and took out a white cloak, marked across the back with a blue dove and the single word 'Liberacione.'
He checked the pistol.
"Does the Emissary from 1954 get to meet Caesar?" Jay wanted to know.