There were still pieces of wreckage to untangle from the trireme, and broken oars to pull in. Even then we ought to have caught up. But as we set off in pursuit, we ran into the regatta I had seen earlier as we first sailed towards the island. The Sea Scorpion had already positioned herself the far side of this line so our great craft had no choice but to pick its way diagonally through the little boats, none of whom understood that we were involved in a chase. Their owners were senators' sons and equestrians' nephews, and once we had disrupted their race these high-spirited youths decided it would pay us back if they dodged their zippy yachts round us like mad minnows pecking at a waterlogged bread roll.
'Oh, for heaven's sake!' roared Gordianus. 'Pertinax must have overpowered Laesus somehow, and now he's making off!' A thought struck him. 'He's got Milo-'
'Never mind Milo,' I uttered in a hollow voice. 'He's got my nephew Larius!'
The trireme carried a sail, but it had been lowered for action so we lost precious minutes raising her mast again and setting the canvas aloft. Meanwhile, the merchantman was running for the end of the peninsula. The breeze which had carried us out to Capreae was still sending her along at a good five knots as she made for the headland. Then she turned in around the Amalfi coast, and we lost sight of her.
'How could he manage it?' Gordianus fretted.
'Well-placed friends!' I said grimly. 'Your ally and mine, the trustworthy Laesus, must have been in league with Pertinax from the start!'
'Falco, what do you mean?'
'I mean we're victims of a Calabrian clique. When I first met Laesus in Croton that was no coincidence; he must have been there to meet Pertinax. I thought he looked shocked when I said Pertinax had died! Once Laesus discovered what I was there for, I'm damn sure he tried to poison me. Then when Pertinax attacked your deputy at Colonna, I'll bet the Sea Scorpion took him off. When Laesus conveniently agreed to take you to Paestum, he was marking you for Pertinax-'
'But why?'
'They both come from Tarentum. They must have known each other long before Marcellus adopted Pertinax. Tarentum is the sort of crooked Calabrian town with unshakeable local loyalties.'
I remembered with a sinking feeling that Laesus had admitted he used to sail to Alexandria: Pertinax must have asked him here for his knowledge of the corn ships' annual run. Crispus was dead, but now Pertinax was on the loose with full knowledge of his colleague's plan to blackmail Rome. Pertinax, whose adopted father had filled him with ludicrous ideas of his own worth…
On the face of it, compared to a candidate with heavyweight talents like Crispus, Pertinax posed no threat to the Empire at all. But I happened to be more cynical. Think of Caligula and Nero: Rome has a habit of taking lunatic would-be emperors to its heart.