Chapter 16

Outside Factorium

Lucilla sat in the carriage, watching the familiar countryside roll past in a blur of green and gold. She’d taken this trip so many times that she was almost comfortable with the bouncing and jostling, although they were turning for a detour, heading to the new work camp south of the manufacturing city. She was both eager and apprehensive about inspecting the new labor camp.

It was a necessary solution to their critical worker shortage, but the security complexities still troubled her. That was why she’d insisted on seeing the facility for herself, over the objections of her guards.

Glancing across from her, Lucilla studied the stern, chiseled profile of Praetorian Prefect Faenius who, along with Ramirus, was giving her a tour of the facility. The stalwart commander sat rigidly upright, fully armored even for this routine journey. She didn’t know the commander well, relying on Ramirus for most internal security matters, as he took care of coordinating most issues with the Praetorian. Apparently, Faenius had something on his mind as well.

As soon as he saw her turn her attention toward him, the commander said, “There’s something we must discuss regarding the priest Vesnius.”

“What did he do this time?” she asked, annoyed that she was going to have to once again deal with the troublesome priest.

“Last week, my men observed Vesnius meeting secretly with the consort Medb near the market, where they conspired in private in a side alley.”

“What do you mean by ‘conspired’?”

“My man overheard only part of the conversation, but it was clear she was inciting the priest to continue his attacks on your rule and pushing him to do more. It was evident to my man that she was manipulating him, and Vesnius was buying into it.”

“Why am I just now hearing about this?” Lucilla asked.

“My men don’t spend much time with imperial guests. I wanted to have my man see Medb when she made one of her trips out of the palace, to confirm that the person he saw was indeed the Ulaid consort. He only confirmed it was her yesterday.”

Medb. It made sense. Lucilla knew the former queen harbored ambitions of power, though Cormac seemed oblivious to his wife’s true motivations. It also explained Vesnius’s xenophobic tirades as of late. The high priest had always been naive, but she hadn’t considered he’d be this easily manipulated.

“You’re certain that what your man heard was Medb pushing him to preach more dissent?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Claudius is a good man. Smart and reasonable. I trust his report implicitly. I also believe this matter demands our swiftest action, before their schemes progress further. I can’t imagine she’s doing this just to cause trouble. She has something specific in mind.”

Lucilla looked out the window, contemplating the report. She had hoped to avoid direct confrontation with the irritating priest, but Faenius was right. This secret collusion with the scheming Medb was alarming and could not be ignored. Decisive measures would be needed to suppress the brewing rebellion and maintain stability in the kingdom.

“Very well,” she said finally, turning to meet the Praetorian’s gaze. “Have your men arrest Vesnius immediately, but do so quietly, away from any crowds. We cannot risk inflaming tensions by making a public spectacle of it.”

Faenius inclined his head, “Of course, Your Majesty. My people will be discreet.”

“See that they are,” Lucilla said. “Make sure he’s comfortable, but keep him away from anyone else. He’s always been a true believer, and if she’s warped his mind, we won’t be able to change it back. At least not quickly. We need him off the street and not causing any more trouble until I deal with Queen Medb.”

“I understand, Your Majesty,” Faenius replied, serious.

Lucilla gave him a nod. He was a good man, and she knew he’d take care of it. Now she just had to figure out what to do about Medb. This situation was rife with political and security risks. Ulaid citizens were still pouring into the capital, and they loved their prince, who in turn loved his wife.

He’d already been causing problems, almost certainly provoked by his wife. Now she was out there provoking the priest and who knew who else. She was definitely working on a plan, and it would result in people getting killed.

No, Lucilla definitely needed to deal with the queen. She just had to figure out how to do it right.

“We’re here,” Ramirus said, interrupting her thoughts.

Lucilla looked across at Ramirus and out the opposite window, catching her first view of the work camp.

She had to hand it to them, the large fence was impressive. The design was provided by Sophus when the project to build the prison camp started, it was unlike anything she had seen before. Strings of the new steel wire Hortensius was manufacturing were criss-crossed in a pattern making diamond-like shapes stretched between two metal poles, with the pattern then repeating to the next and the next pole, until it formed a see-through wall that encircled the new work factory.

When Sophus had first suggested it, she’d been skeptical. It hadn’t seemed that this chain-linked fence, as her disembodied friend had called it, would be strong enough to hold anyone in, but when wrapped tight against the metal posts, which were dug deep into the ground, it appeared to be surprisingly effective. The metal wire was extremely hard and made an effective boundary.

To make it difficult to scale, they had topped the fence with another addition provided by Sophus called barbed wire. This was more of the wire used for the fence, but with regularly spaced sharpened protrusions on it, like the thorns on a rose. It was rolled along the top of the fence in long coils that would both cut into anyone trying to climb over it and cause them to get wrapped up in it, since it wasn’t pulled tight, but only looped through the top set of gaps in the chain link. A second fence was then built outside of the first with a several-pace gap in between the two, meaning that anyone scaling it would have to scale one, and then scale another to escape.

That was only the external wall. The camp was also subdivided into sections, with a long prisoner barracks separated in one area, also with fencing around it, and a separate factory area. The entire complex was a maze of metal wire and walkways, with guards spread throughout, both on the ground armed with clubs and in towers, armed with rifles.

Yes, it really was impressive at first glance.

“Welcome, Your Majesty,” Ramirus said, coming around the carriage toward the main gate of the compound.

“This is very impressive,” she said, echoing her previous thought.

“I agree. The notes the Consul left you on this new fencing material are really what makes this possible,” he said, a sly smile on his lips as he continued. “Hortensius was particularly impressed with the new galvanizing procedure. I had to sit through a thirty-minute lecture about all of its benefits and his plans to rework one of his foundries to specialize in galvanizing large amounts of steel.”

“He gets enthusiastic,” Lucilla, who’d been forced to sit through many of those lectures, said.

“Let me show you the camp,” he said, extending his arm toward the open front gate.

It had taken some doing to get her guards to agree to this tour, since there were obvious risks to putting their leader this close to so many prisoners, but she was still concerned about this entire notion of using them as workers and wanted to see what Ramirus had set up first hand. In the end, for them to agree it had required Faenius and a hundred of his men to be present, in addition to her guards and the normal camp guards, as well as having every prisoner locked into their barracks, which was in turn locked behind the wire fence. In spite of all that, her men and Faenius looked nervous as they started the tour.

There was still one unoccupied barracks as Faenius continued to vet those prisoners who volunteered. While it wasn’t exactly comfortable, with rows and rows of beds, a small chest at the foot of each, where dozens of men would sleep at a time, it was preferable to the tents and dirt floors they’d used in the camp outside of Devnum. That had started as a temporary solution and they didn’t have the cleared land there to build something large like this. One of the reasons the site of Factorium had been selected was the available land not being used for farming that could be used to expand into. It also helped that this was only a small portion of the prisoners they currently held. There were just too many captured Carthaginians to make this kind of thing practical for all of them.

The factory itself was more concerning. Although it was in its own fenced-in area, the building was set up like all of Hortenisus’s other factories, except that instead of being devoted to one thing, it was larger with sections to produce each of the products from his other factories. At first, she’d thought they might have some kind of protective walls here, but the more she thought about it, the more it was clear that wasn’t possible. So many pipes and metal shafts ran across the building that it just wasn’t possible. What that meant, however, was that this would be the largest concentration of men in the complex, and they would be using sharp tools and fire, and they weren’t blocked from moving around freely in the building.

The only different feature was a series of catwalks near the ceiling, presumably for armed guards. It was unlikely they’d have enough bullets to kill everyone on the shop floor if everything fell apart. Possibly it was a deterrent, since they could kill some of the prisoners, and no one on the floor would know if they would be one of the unlucky targets.

“I’m worried we may have made a mistake here,” she said, turning to the two men with her. “This seems impossibly risky. I can see a dozen tools that could be used as a weapon from right here, and I’m sure there’s more I’m not taking into account. Things could get out of hand here faster than the men we’ll have guarding them can react.”

“I agree, it’s a problem,” Faenius said, looking from Lucilla to Ramirus. “My Praetorians are spread too thin to properly vet each prisoner volunteer as it is. We’re relying on secondhand information from other prisoners and gossip, which is far from ideal. The only troublemakers we’ve been able to weed out are the ones who’ve given my men trouble directly or who my men have seen cause problems firsthand. It’s unlikely that we’ve kept all of the real problem cases out.”

“Both valid concerns, which is why we’ve built in all the precautions we have,” Ramirus said. “Yes, it’s possible that we might get violence or lose control of the prisoners. That’s a problem even in the holding camps where these men have all been living since being captured. If anything, we have more control of them here than we do in their current camps. Even if it does get out of control, the building itself is locked down. The prisoners are contained within the double fence. At best, they’d take the building, but we’d be able to take it back.”

Lucilla remained unconvinced. The vast space of the factory was filled with heavy machinery, assembly lines, and vats of molten metal. She could see the potential for chaos if a riot broke out among the prisoners working the machinery.

“I’m going to be blunt,” Lucilla said. “I think we moved too fast on this plan and may have jeopardized security in our haste to address the urgent labor shortage.”

“The realities that drove us to this decision haven’t changed. We could shut everything down, but we’d be right back to falling dangerously behind on producing what we need for the war effort,” Ramirus said, and then paused a moment before continuing carefully. “Are you ordering me to shut the work camp down?”

Lucilla pressed her lips together. She was stuck. As much as the risks worried her, they didn’t really have much of a choice.

“No,” she said finally. “But I want you and Faenius to go over all of the security arrangements again. Make absolutely certain we have contingencies in place in case things go badly here.”

She turned and surveyed the sprawling factory grounds, her sense of unease not abated. The web of chain-link fencing might seem secure at first glance, but people could do amazing things, especially when they were desperate. The insurrection and the waves of attacks by her brother’s loyalists had all but proven that.

In the end, it came down to a balance of risks. They had to win this war, or the Carthaginians would make a prison uprising look mild in comparison to the death and destruction they would unleash. It’s why she’d agreed to this in the first place, despite her better judgment.

Seeing this place in person, with its fences and guard towers, and this large open factory floor, she was worried she was being forced into a mistake by her own desperation. But ... they were still desperate. Maybe not in the same way they were when the Carthaginians were right outside their walls, but the stakes were just as high even now.

She could only hope that they’d made the right choice ... and brace for the consequences if they hadn’t.

Belgica, Near the Rhine

Ky rode his horse through the dense woods behind the rows of legionaries, their formation broken by a mass of trees. Although this was part of the plan, he was uneasy. This was exactly the type of terrain he’d been trying to avoid fighting in since arriving on the continent. It limited the use of his rifles and made cannons all but useless. Cannonballs would only go a few dozen meters before hitting a tree, deflecting and plowing into the ground, and canister would hit more trees than people. Since they broke up the front shield wall, he’d been forced to leave the artillery in the rear, waiting to be called up. Worse, it also limited the usefulness of his rifles. He still had enough of them to kill many of the enemy, but the trees would also break up the enemies’ formation, making them less massed and less vulnerable to volley fire.