Henry of Atlantic City (8 page)

Procopius said the emperor rarely ever left the Palace grounds except to go to the Hippodrome. He was always surrounded by people. They came from all parts of the empire and grew so numerous after the wars with Persia and Carthage that he ordered a special hostel built in the Palace for them to stay in. Henry had only seen the emperor once before. It was a long time ago during the Easter festival in the Forum of Constantine, where Henry and his father were supervising the slaughter of the Paschal Lambs. Justinian and Theodora were generous at Easter. They provided lambs to be roasted for all the people of Byzantium. Not just a few but thousands and not just in the Forum of Constantine but in all the public areas throughout the city. As captain of the Blues Henry’s father helped keep order during the festival. Just as the big charcoal fires over which the lamb would be cooked were being lit, Justinian entered the Forum with Belisarius, who had just returned from the war with Persia. At first nobody noticed because they were not dressed in their normal regalia or accompanied by the
regular guard. They just rode into the Forum of Constantine on their horses as if they were ordinary people. It was noisy and the air was thick with smoke from the fires and everybody was watching the soldiers do the slaughtering. Henry figured it was what battle looked like. There was blood everywhere and a strong smell of viscera. The two men rode through the crowd and when somebody shouted, “Hail Justinian, emperor of Rome,” and someone else shouted, “Hail Belisarius, commander of the armies,” a cheering began that drowned out even the bleating of the doomed animals. The people pressed around the two men on all sides and the emperor and his general made their way slowly until they reached the big pit where the meat was being cooked and then one of the Blues gave them each a leg of roasted lamb. Belisarius ate his but the emperor refused because he always fasted at Easter and took nothing but water and bitter herbs for three days. They sat on their horses and watched the festival while the people cheered them. Then a detachment of the Palace guard made its way through the crowd and surrounded them and made the people stand back. That was before the Nike riots, when the Hagia Sophia was burned down, and before Belisarius was publicly disgraced and made to walk the streets of Byzantium as a beggar and when the emperor was not afraid of the people.

They followed the guard down a long corridor lined with statues. Some statues were missing arms and some were missing heads and one was missing completely. The
pedestal had a little card on it. The emperor was a great lover of antiquity.

“You behave yourself, kid,” Henry’s father said.

The emperor was sitting behind a big desk and was surrounded by his generals. They all looked up when Henry and his father and Sy entered the room. Henry was surprised because they were all old men and the room smelled kind of sour, like old men. The emperor motioned for everybody to be seated. He beckoned Henry to come to him. Henry walked around behind the desk and the emperor leaned forward in his chair and whispered into Henry’s ear. “Do you love your father?” he asked. He turned his head so Henry could answer.

Henry whispered into the emperor’s ear who is he that exists except the Father alone?

The emperor looked across his desk at the room full of men and smiled. Then he picked Henry up and sat him on his knee. He was much stronger than he looked. He swiveled in his chair so their backs were to the men in the room and they were looking out the window over the beach. The waves crashed silently in the distance and outside it was cold and gray December. The emperor stroked the back of Henry’s head. “Tell me, son. Should I believe what your father has come here to tell me? Is he telling the truth?” One of the generals sneezed and blew his nose. Without turning around Henry knew it was Sittas the Thracian because he had a cold he could never get rid of. He had caught it in the mountains when he was trying to
persuade the Armenians to leave their mountain homes and become part of the empire.

Henry cupped both his hands over the emperor’s shaggy ear and said if we know the truth, we shall find the fruits of the truth in us; if we unite with it, it will bring our fulfillment.

The emperor was quiet for a long time and kept stroking the back of Henry’s head. The generals were getting restless. Then the emperor whispered in Henry’s ear, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Henry cupped both hands over the emperor’s ear again and said a saint.

The emperor laughed and then he lifted Henry off his lap and told him to go sit down. Then he swiveled around so he was facing the men in the room. “Okay, gentlemen. What have you brought me?”

Germanus leaned forward in his chair. “How about the whole story?” he said in a low voice. Germanus had married an Anicii. The Aniciis came to Byzantium from Rome after it was conquered by the Ostrogoths. They were about as old and noble as families that could still call themselves Romans got and Theodora hated Germanus and his wife because they were aristocratic and rich whereas she had once been an actress who took off her clothes on stage and people knew what she looked like naked. Everybody knew that Theodora hated them only because she was jealous and they were never welcome in the Palace, which suited them just fine because they hated being anywhere near the rabble.
People called Germanus the Grand Seigneur because he dressed in fancy clothes and spoke in a fancy way and had estates and palaces all over the empire.

“There’s not much to say,” Sy said slowly. “Except that I was asked to carry some money out of the country.”

“What were your exact instructions?” Germanus asked.

“To deposit the cash and return with the deposit slip.”

“Which bank?”

“ICCB. The International Commerce and Credit Bank.”

“Did you ask why?”

“No.”

“Did you have any idea yourself?”

“I assumed it was a tax thing.”

“A tax thing,” Germanus said. “What were you offered for helping out with this tax thing?”

“Two percent.”

“And what did that come to?” Germanus asked.

“A little over sixty thousand dollars.”

“So the total sum of the deposit would have been a little over three million?”

“That’s correct,” Sy said.

Germanus didn’t look satisfied with Sy’s answers and clasped his hands together with his fingers pointing up and put them to his lips like he was trying to wedge something between his front teeth.

“That’s a nice little fee for taking a trip to the Bahamas,” Solomon said. Solomon had been Belisarius’s chief of staff
in the Carthage expedition where the Arian Vandals were defeated and Gelimer, their king, was brought back to Byzantium in chains and made to walk in procession through the streets of the city. As he walked he looked around him and said, “O vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” and when he reached the imperial box in the Hippodrome he was forced to prostrate himself before Justinian and Theodora. Solomon was from Daras in Mesopotamia and had a high, squeaky voice because he was a eunuch. He said it had happened in battle but everybody else said it had happened in a brothel in Tyre when he was asleep. The woman who did it to him was angry because he refused to take her back to Byzantium with him. As punishment she had her breasts cut oft and the joke among the soldiers was a ball for a tit but anyone caught telling it had his head cut off, which gave rise to even more jokes.

“What made you change your mind and bring us the money instead?” Solomon asked.

“I didn’t change my mind,” Sy said. “I was told there was going to be a change of plan.”

“Oh? You mean someone told you that you weren’t
really
going to steal three million dollars after all? Is that it?”

“I wasn’t told anything. I was just doing what I was told.”

“Did you have any ideas about what you were involved in?”

“Yes.”

“And what did you think it was?”

“Embezzlement.”

Germanus lifted his fingers away from his lips. “We understand that. The question is by whom.”

“I didn’t want to know about it. I was just doing what I was told.”

“You weren’t even curious?” Solomon asked.

“No. I figured that kind of stuff was par for the course.”

“Par for the course?” Solomon asked. “You telling me you think embezzlement is par for the course?”

“Let’s just say that once I was asked, it never occurred to me to say no.”

“Why not?” Germanus asked.

“Because I figured once I was asked, no was not an option.” He smiled in a funny way, as if to say he’d made a joke. But nobody laughed. “It wasn’t until the airport when everything got explained to me that I realized I was in deep shit. And I then I
really
knew I didn’t have any options.”

“Mind explaining that?”

“Look, there I am waiting in the airport with a suitcase full of cash, okay? And suddenly here comes the chief of security and tells me I can cooperate with him or I can kiss my ass good-bye. Those were the exact words. I thought I was dead meat.”

“So you went along with him?”

“Of course I went along with him,” Sy said. “What else was I supposed to do?”

John Troglita cleared his throat and spoke for the first time. “You say he caught up to you at the airport?”

“Half an hour before my flight.”

John Troglita was also called John the Troglite. He was famous for his bad temper and was a specialist in search-and-destroy missions and punitive expeditions. The emperor had sent him to Africa to clean up after Belisarius’s victory. He had carried out the emperor’s orders by depopulating the place. Some people said he was insane but everyone agreed he was a great military man and there was even a long poem about him written by a Carthaginian schoolmaster that nobody read anymore.

“So at the airport you just decided to drop everything and follow this new plan. That was it?” John the Troglite asked.

“That’s right.”

“He told you that you were helping to lay a trap?”

“Yes.”

“Describe the trap.”

“It seemed pretty straightforward. Instead of taking the money out of the country, we would bring it directly to you. The story back at the Palace would be that I had stolen it. We’d give her time to doctor the books, then the money would be returned and she’d be exposed.”

Henry’s father stood up and put the suitcase down on the emperor’s desk and turned it around and flipped it open so the emperor could see what was inside.

“Why should we believe a goddamn thing you’re telling us?” John the Troglite asked.

Sy was quiet for a minute. “Maybe you shouldn’t,” he
finally said. “I’m sure there’s a lot more going on here than I could ever know about.”

“He’s right about that,” Henry’s father said. “Mind if I talk now?”

John the Troglite nodded.

“The numbers were cooked from the start—in case he
did
run. Either way, she figured she’d be covered.” He spread his arms. “A million here, a million there? What’s the difference, right? Either he does what he’s told and she’s got a little offshore account set up for herself. Or he runs, takes the heat, and the cooked books cover her for the difference. Not a bad little scheme, huh?”

John the Troglite got mad and shouted at Henry’s father: “Listen to me, you son of a bitch, I’m not asking you what
she
expected. The books say there’s seven million dollars missing! Seven! I want to know why you only brought us three. Where’s the rest of the money?”

Henry’s father didn’t look at John the Troglite; he looked at the emperor. “The books were cooked, sir. She had them cooked. It was part of the plan. I swear upon the soul of my mother and my mother’s mother what you have there is everything.” He looked at John the Troglite. “I am an honorable man and have acted out of loyalty to you.”

John the Troglite was red in the face and about to start screaming again but the emperor held up his hand.

Henry’s father looked around at all the men in the room. “It’s all there. You have my final word.”

Germanus unclasped his hands. “It’s all a little too goddamn
convenient,” he said. Then he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the emperor and shook his head. “As far as I’m concerned we ought to get rid of the whole stinking bunch.” He waved his arm like he was sending something back to the kitchen.

John the Troglite agreed.

The emperor was quiet. Then after a few minutes he told Henry’s father to stand up. “What punishment would you recommend?”

Henry’s father looked around at the generals and at Sy. He looked everyone in the eye, proud and tough. “It’s not for me to say.”

“If you can make accusations, you can suggest punishments. Go ahead. You have my permission.”

Henry’s father looked at the ground for a minute, then looked up and smiled. “Give me her job.”

The emperor drummed his fingers on the desk and then raised his hand and slapped it down hard. “I’m too tired to listen to any more.” He beckoned to Sy.

Sy’s face turned pale and he didn’t get up from his chair.

The emperor beckoned to him again.

Sy rose and walked up and stood at the emperors desk.

“I hear that you got married recently.”

Sy nodded but didn’t say anything.

The emperor opened up the suitcase. “Marriage is a sacred institution, and it sickens me to see it falling into ruin. Do you plan to have children?”

Sy nodded again and put one hand on the edge of the desk for support.

“Children are a great treasure,” the emperor said and handed Sy three stacks of bills from the suitcase. “Thank you for the trust you’ve repaid me.”

“I can’t accept it, sir,” Sy said.

“Take it,” the emperor said. “Tomorrow is Christmas. Go and celebrate.”

Then the emperor looked at Henry’s father. “I will consider your request,” he said. “You will have my decision after New Year’s day.” Henry’s father held out his hand but the emperor didn’t shake it. Instead he beckoned to Henry and took him on his knee. He stroked the back of Henry’s head and said, “Don’t worry, son. Don’t you worry about a thing. And don’t forget what you heard here today. One day you will understand and everything will make sense.” Then he put Henry down and told everybody to leave.