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His ancestor had also left behind evidence of a devoted but puzzling interest in the career of a distinguished praefectus castroruh the ranks from foot soldier to centurion to priion At first Genaro had assumed his ancestor had used his influence to help promote the man, until the translations of Genarius’s many letters and records made it obvious that Tanicus had been made prefect while Genaro’s ancestor still served as a centurion Fro the commander’s career, he assumed the man had been one of his ancestor’s mentors or patrons

Tanicus had been listed as one of the casualties of Kalkriese, but for years after the tragedy, Genarius continued to search for the commander Apparently worried that his friend had been sold into slavery by Arminius, he had written to every known survivor of Kalkriese, begging for news of what had happened that day He had a statue carved of the co to the dates on the scrolls, had continued looking for him until the last day of his life

All that historians knew about Tanicus was that he was the childhood friend of Gerrandson, and the most trusted of his commanders He was also ruroup of triarii Little was known about the band of veteran soldiers, except that each member had been awarded the corona iven to soldiers who had risked their lives to save another’s That highly prized award had prompted scholars to refer to the unit as the Laurels, and soht have been established as far back as the foundation of Rome itself, some seven hundred years before Tanicus had been born, and continued until the final collapse of the empire some five hundred years later

Only Genaro knew that Tanicus had indeed belonged to the Laurels, and like the other members had tattooed himself with their distinctive mark His ancestor had referred to the mark over and over in his descriptions of the coone so far as to have it carved into the statue of Tanicus that he had commissioned

Genaro went to the statue recovered froe of Tanicus Oddly the sculptor had not attempted to idealize the commander’s features, but portrayed him as an ordinary arments of the freeborn

He seldom looked at the statue, for it had no value to him except as one of Genarius’s personal possessions, but noent to it and re it Across two thousand years, the grih his blank marble eyes, his ar to take a step toward him Genaro reached out and touched the mark chiseled on the side of the statue’s neck, the tattoo of the Laurels, a mark that would have been covered by his armor or easily concealed by the collar of a cloak

Only Genaro knew that the an symbol that had been found etched into the walls of caves in Tibet and on the trunks of enorans No one knew the true origins of the mark, but the Romans had called it the lemniscus--the ribbon--and the Greeks sometimes called it the &O snake

The Greeks had naht as he traced the ers It did resemble a snake that had twisted itself in half as it ate its own tail

It also looked exactly like the nuht, tipped over on its side

Chapter 7

Matthias left the freeway and drove to a busy twenty-four-hour rest-stop coht in a back lot next to the second vehicle Rowan had arranged for hinetic cache hidden in the second car’s rear wheel well also contained a tight roll of currency, a new disposable mobile phone, and a note froht and call in when you switch cars

He transferred his pack and wiped down the surfaces he had touched before lifting Jessa out of the passenger seat of the first car As he straightened and nudged the door shut with his knee, Matthias noticed a couple with four young children walking from the restrooms into the back lot Quickly he turned around and went to one of the ht against him on his lap He placed her hands inside his shirt and tucked her face against his neck as he lowered his head and put his , Mommy?" he heard one of the children ask as the family passed him