The cool morning air felt good to Leander. He had just finished his morning exercise, a run of 20 miles, the first he had done in a while. His friend Marcus Julius shook his head as Leander trotted up the remaining steps.

"I don't believe you still do that, Leander," he laughed. "You should be taking life easy, relaxing, my man!"

"Time enough to relax, old friend, when I cross the Styx. Have you got things set up with your contacts? Caesar's meeting with Pompey went too long for me to wait around. I'll have to try to set up an audience with him another day. Right now, I'd like to get our business settled."

Julius nodded, "Yes, for this afternoon. There's three who'll be here. I think that should just about take care of it. If we can get in on the ground floor trading with Caesar's new colonies, we should be able to put a lock on it." A wolfish grin crossed Julius' face.

"Yeah," Leander's equally wolfish smile gleamed back, "just keep in mind, Caesar's no fool. He's likely to have plans of his own regarding trade. Anyway, we can discuss all this with the others. The more minds we have working on the setting up of the consortium, the better laid the plans will be."

Julius nodded his agreement and the two men entered the house. In a few hours, the real work would begin.