Alexander walked down 7th Avenue for several minutes. The sheer number of people walking down the street was astounding. Many of them held small rectangular devices in their hands. Many of them also had strange ear coverings. Alexander continued to walk and soon found himself in Times Square. The flashing billboards and millions of illuminated pixels were dizzying.

Truly this was a remarkable civilization. The magnitude of their grandeur was unprecedented. Alexander could tell that this square was a shrine. As he had traveled to see the Oracle at Delphi so too had many thousands of people travel to this site. Was there something holy about it? What insights could be gathered from this glittering acropolis?

Amidst the jarring sounds of what must have been music Alexander gravitated towards a crowd that appeared to be watching something. As he drew closer he noticed a performer. Alexander watched the gyrations of the man’s body as the crowd cheered. Alexander was witnessing his first break dancing performance. He watched as the performer skipped around the rectangle formed by the crowd collecting money. Once he had secured the amount he was looking for he continued to perform. Alexander watched dispassionately as the performer spun on his head and then back before jumping onto his feet and concluding with a back flip. He then took a bow and the crowd started to disperse.

Alexander walked up to the man. “Sir, I would like to hire you as my guide.”

“Nah, man get outta here. I don’t do tourist.”

“No, you just perform poorly on the streets.”

“Ah why you gotta be like that?”

Alexander reached into his pocket and removed three gold staters. “I mean no offense. I will pay you three staters for your service.”

“Three what?” The performer said as he took the coins. Are these solid gold or what?

“Currency from the reign of the great ruler Alexander.”

“Alexander who? The Greek guy?”

“He would prefer to be called a Macedonian.”

“Ain’t he been dead a long time.”

“Yes, unless he is still alive and walks the streets among us today.”

“That’s a weird answer man. And this is the big city baby, so I don’t think I can trust you. These are probably fake.”

“They are as real as I am standing before you and I will personally swear upon my life that they were in the personal property of Alexander as he conquered the east.”

“Find yourself another man.”

“I will make it 5 staters. And I remind you that there are terrible consequences for defiance in the presence of a king.”

“Yo, I don’t want nothing to do with you.” A stern look from Alexander made the performer quickly add, “but let me take these to a guy and see if they check out.”

“They will.”

“Ok, but I move fast and if you can’t keep up you are just outta luck.”

Alexander laughed. “Lead on.”

The performer put the 5 gold coins into his pocket and set off at a run. Alexander quickly followed. By virtue of his head start the performer was 20 feet ahead of Alexander and weaved between the crowd of tourists milling about Times Square. Alexander smiled as he stalked his prey. The greatest soldier in the history of the world was not going to lose sight of a mere street performer even within an urban jungle he had never visited before.

The performer turned west on 42nd street quickly making his way past the New Amsterdam theater and Madam Tussauds. Alexander had closed the gap to less than 10 feet when the performer dashed across 8th avenue as the bumper to bumper traffic began to roll forward. He slid across the hood of a taxi to complete his way through the intersection. He felt sure the stranger who had given him the gold would be unable to follow.

He glanced back to see and to his astonishment he watched Alexander leap over the taxi. The performer crossed north and then doubled back to the east on 43rd Street. As he approached the Hard Rock Cafe he saw Alexander was hot on his heels and he gave up. He slowed down and Alexander caught up to him.

“Now where are we going?” Alexander asked calmly.

The performer looked in awe as Alexander had not broken a sweat and wasn’t breathing hard at all. He had just sprinted more than 2 blocks and looked completely unfazed.

“To see a guy. Ain’t you tired?”

“Should I be?”

“Of course!”

“When swords and spears, and rocks are flying all around you a mere jog is nothing.”

“A jog, nah man, that was a sprint, not no jog.”

“It was too short to be troublesome.”

“Wait, wait, wait, what you mean by swords and spears?”

“I have fought many battles.”

“Who are you man?”

“I am Alexander. The son of Phillip. Now, take me where I want to go.”

“Not so fast. First we verify your gold.”

They walked up to 47th street and turned east. After crossing 6th street the performer ducked into a pawn shop. He walked up to the counter and got straight to the point.

“Is Jimmy in?”

“Who wants to know?”

Tell him it’s Sammy and I want to check on a score.”

“Sure thing boss.” The person at the counter disappeared for about two minutes before returning and said. “He will see you in the back. You know the way.”

“You better have something good coming back here!” Jimmy growled as Sammy and Alexander entered the room.

“You must be having a rough day but maybe I can brighten it up for you.” Sammy answered.

“Unless you know a spot….” Jimmy noticed Alexander for the first time and stopped speaking. He glared at Sammy and then said “what’s the idea here? Who is he?”

“An opportunity. Look at this and tell me what it is.”

Sammy handed Jimmy one of the golden coins. For nearly three minutes Jimmy inspected it. He put it under the microscope, he even bit it.

“Where did you get this? And how did you find it in such mint condition?”

“Why what is it?”

“An Ancient Greek coin. From what I can tell it is authentic.”

“So what’s it worth?”

“I would give you $10,000 for it right now. But honestly it could probably sell for double that. How many you got?”

“This man, Alexander is his name, and he thinks he is pretty great, is going to give me 5 of these things if I show him around the city.”

“For how long?”

Alexander spoke for the first time. “The rest of the day maybe tomorrow. I will add an additional coin for each day thereafter if necessary.”

“How many of these things you got?” Jimmy asked.

“Sufficient for my needs.”

“Where you going to show him Sammy?”

“Ah, you know the sights. Maybe I will show him the Statue of Liberty. Sunset there can be spectacular. But you know I told him I would only work for him today if these coins were legit.”

“Yes, they are. Fortune seems to have smiled on you today. Now get outta my shop, I got things to do.”

Alexander smiled as they strode out of the shop. When Sammy turned around he was not expecting that look from Alexander. Undaunted he asked “so where do you want to go?”

Alexander put his hand on Sammy shoulder and guided him down 47th towards 5th Ave. “you remind me a little bit of Bucephalus.”

“What is that?”

“Who.”

“Who, what?”

“Who is Bucephalus?”

“Ok, who is that?”

“Bucephalus is my horse.”

“You’re comparing me to a horse? Come on man.”

“You have never ridden a horse have you?”

“I ain’t 200 years old. No one rides horses.”

“Well, you would consider yourself privileged if given the chance to ride such a majestic creature.”

“Whatever man.”

“Back to my point. Bucephalus had an unconquerable spirit. No man could ride Bucephalus. All who tried failed. It became such a problem that my father was going to have the horse killed. If a horse can’t be trusted how can it ride into battle. At the same time a horse had never been more majestic. For power and speed there was no equal.”

“I don’t see where you are going with this.”

“Be patient and you will see. I saw something in Bucephalus that no other saw. They only saw the problems. The horse could not be tamed. Therefore it had to go. But Bucephalus wanted to run. Bucephalus wanted to be the greatest. I saw this and I rode Bucephalus where all others failed. All the great trainers could not unlock his potential because they didn’t know how to connect with Bucephalus.”

“So you are some sort of horse whisperer that can talk to animals or something?”

“No, I am a great judge of talent and when I see talent I want it to excel.”

“So I am talented like your horse?”

Sighing Alexander looked at Sammy and said “I see that you want to run.”

“Nah, man I ran like two blocks back there and was winded. I hate running.”

“Think metaphorically.”

“Meteorically?”

“You have skills, but you are unbridled. You seek greatness. You want power but you also want approval and so you seek tutoring. You have association with the best trainers you could find. But they will never unlock your potential.”

“Why you say that?”

“Because they are transactional.”

“Aren’t you as well.”

“To an extent. But Jimmy wants to run you into the ground and leave you broken in the dirt as he rises higher. I would ride with you for life. I would see greater returns by investing in your success.”

“By over paying me to take you around the city.”

“I have bigger designs than this city.”

“Whatever man. Just let me show you what you want to see and then we part ways.”

“You intend to rob me.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because it is true. Jimmy will send men to kill me near this liberty statue you were speaking about and you will take my gold. Your plan will fail. I will kill his men and then I will take you back to Jimmy and I will kill him and then you will drink his blood before I kill you too.”

“You have a dark mind.”

“Am I wrong?”

“No, Jimmy wants your gold.”

“And you were going to help him.”

“I have no choice man. If I don’t do what he wants he will break my legs. Or worse.”

“You always have a choice.”

“Not on these streets.”

“Do you see that man twirling a little instrument in his hand about 100 yards away walking towards us.”

“The guy with the pen, yeah I see him.”

“You have a choice, you can choose me or you can choose Jimmy but you only have until he walks past us to decide.”

“I don’t know man, I don’t know anything about you.”

“You are Bucephalus. Jimmy can not train you. He will lead you to death. I am Alexander and I will lead you to glory. Ride with me. I don’t lose.”

“I don’t know man.”

“I will teach you one last lesson and then I will have your answer. What profession is that man?”

“Probably a lawyer. Why?”

“Just curious.”

The lawyer was twirling his pen between successive fingers until it reached his thumb and then he would twirl it in the opposite direction until it reached his pinky. As the lawyer passed Alexander reached out with his left hand and using his index finger and the thumb grabbed the pen mid twirl. Using his right hand he pushed Sammy against the wall at the exact same instant. Alexander took the pen in his left hand and thrust it at Sammy’s eye.

Sammy saw the pen flashing straight towards his eye at such speed he couldn’t react. He just knew that in the best case scenario he was about to be blinded. A fraction of a second before the pen plunged into his eye Alexander slightly adjusted the angle of his hand and the point of the pen went crashing into the wall in the small gap between the top of Sammy’s ear and his head.

Just as quickly Alexander moved the pen to his right hand and tossed it onto the ground a step in front of the lawyer. The speed of the operation was such that the lawyer thought he had just dropped his pen. That false belief would persist until he tried to use the pen and brick residue spilled onto his desk.

As Alexander was tossing the pen to the ground he looked at the visibly shaken Sammy and said “I never lose.”

When the color returned to Sammy’s face a few seconds later Alexander again asked. “Who do you choose?”

Without hesitation Sammy answered “I choose you.”

“Well done Bucephalus.”

“Can I get a new name?”

“Maybe in time. But now we have so much to do. I need to see a map.”

Sammy reached into his pocket pulled out his cell phone and opened the map app. He handed it to Alexander. Alexander took the small device and stared at it.

“What is this?”

“It’s a map man.”

“No,no, no, this contraption. What is it?”

“It’s a cell phone man.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“What do you mean you don’t know what a cell phone is?”

“This is the first time I have ever seen this type of thing. Is it just a map that fits in your hand?”

“Bro, where you from, not knowing about a cell phone?”

“Macedonia.”

“Where is that? Show me on that map.”

“I don’t know how to use this.”

“Put two fingers on it and slide them towards each other. That will make the map smaller. Then use 1 finger to move towards your country. Then you can zoom back in.”

Alexander shrunk the map to the smallest size it would go and stared at the vastness of the ocean he saw. He read and analyzed North America and then South America. Then using his thumb he spun the world over and over again.

“So this is what it looks like. There is so much more than I imagined. I have even more work to do than I imagined.”

“So where you from man?”

Alexander noticed the search button and he typed in Macedonia. He looked at the map and handed it back to Sammy. “I am from there.”

“So you flew over here.”

“What do you mean flew? Can men fly?”

“In an airplane.”

“How long does it take?”

“To fly?”

“Yes.”

“Probably like 9 hours or something.”

Sammy opened up the internet app on his phone and typed in airplane. Then he showed Alexander images of airplanes.

“Remarkable. What else can this machine do?”

Sammy reached into his pocket and pulled out his earbuds. He took the left ear bud and placed it in Alexander’s ear. Then he placed the right one in his ear.

“Don’t say anything. Just listen.”

“Ok.”

Sammy dialed a number. After three rings Jimmy answered. “The mark had to use the John. He has about 30 with him. You want to set it up on Staten Island or what.”

“That will work. How much muscle?”

“He is quick. I’d say three.”

“I will set it up. Be there at 7:15.”

The line went dead. Alexander was dumbfounded. “You can just speak to anyone in the world on these things?”

“Yeah. That’s what they are for. And sending messages too.”

“Remarkable. The gods have surely smiled on your people.”

“Man, you are one weird cat, man.”

“I understand your words but not the meaning.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“I want one of these instruments of the gods. Then I want to fly on one of these airplanes.”

“Then we are going to need money.”

“How many coins do you need?”

“Let’s sell one. It should be enough to cover our costs.”

“Lead the way.”

Sammy lead Alexander to the Antiquarium. As they walked he called to make a reservation for their arrival time. 30 minutes later they were walking out with $19,000 in cash. Next they went to a Verizon store and purchased Alexander his first cell phone. Rather than take an airplane ride Sammy decided to book a helicopter ride.