We can't see much, but light is getting in through the grid and so is air To my surprise, my uncle seemed to be taking charge. Now he began calculating odds. I was the ex-soldier; that was my job. There's one of him, and two of us."
I have a sword, though no room to use it." We were packed in very tight. Fulvius could not avoid knowing that I had come armed.
We are safe enough down here." My uncle was a complaisant swine.
That's nice," I said sarcastically. Some maniac has locked us in and we're stuck until they come with the quaking initiate tomorrow morning."
Scared, Marcus?"
Only of what I am about to find out, I really want to know," I said, as patiently as possible, what your position is in this. I was told by Caninus that you are the Illyrian."
You were told wrong."
So put me right."
Did you believe him?"
How should I know, Uncle?"
There is an alternative." I got it in first. The Illyrian could be Caninus himself?"
Oh smart boy!"
So the navy is not investigating the ransom scam."
Maybe they are," said Fulvius. What do you think / am doing here?" My uncle was an agent? Can you prove this statement?"
I don't have to prove it." When I said nothing, Uncle Fulvius insisted, You have never seen me damned well dressed like a woman."
Face paint and slippers are just not your style? Such a relief for the family! All I know is, you were going to Pessinus but you got on the wrong boat." Fulvius chuckled. I got the boat I wanted. Did you meet Cassius?."
Now I remembered the beggar behind the Temple of Rome and Augustus. Cassius?… Of course, I thought the grime looked self applied."
He likes to throw himself into things," Fulvius boasted. An innuendo I preferred to ignore hovered crudely. Cassius and I have been together for a quarter of a century." Well, that answered one question. They were a stable couple.
Mother will be so pleased you have settled down! Cassius was on the boat, I take it. The boat you decided was the right one?"
He was on the boat."
I am happy for you, Uncle. But we're wasting time. We need to get out of this."
We have to stay put."
Sorry, Uncle, I'd prefer not to make Cassius jealous by lingering. I tried shoving the door. Uncle Fulvius allowed me to exhaust myself, grunting in protest as I crushed him.
Shut up and sit tight. The shrine above is the meeting place. Zeno told me. When the money is handed over, we can listen and collect the evidence."
Zeno was the boy runner?" I was getting my breath back. You befriended him? So where is Zeno now?"
A priest of Attis is feeding him hot milk and sesame cakes." That did not reassure me. Still, the child could be extracted later. Extricating us might be more difficult.
Will your Cassius bring help?"
Of course." That was reassuring, but I still did not like being trapped underground in the dark. Waves of panic swept over me. There must be drainage, but caverns that have been drenched in gore acquire a horrendous smell. I fought claustrophobia. If initiates could stand this in isolation, I could live through the fear… Possibly.
Whatever did you have for lunch?" demanded my uncle pompously. I was breathing in his face; there was no alternative.
Funeral fare."
Onions." Oh, Fulvius was fastidious. Now I wanted to laugh. While we waited for something to happen, I nagged my uncle to tell me about his role in this fiasco. He said he worked for the navy, as a corn factor; Pa had told me that. And I knew that the army, so presumably the navy too, often made use of their corn factors to gather intelligence. Fulvius had been involved with supplying troops for years. From Salonae, where he lived, his contacts were with the Ravenna Fleet. He was at Ravenna."
Caninus?"
Got it!"
I am an informer, Uncle. Whatever you've heard from the family, I happen to be good at it. I find this unlikely I found it appalling – but are you saying you do similar work to me?"
Maybe."
No need to be secretive. I was an army scout. Now I take on imperial missions."
Good for you, boy!" Fulvius changed the subject, without admitting anything. Our paths never directly crossed until now."
Well, I'm glad that this business has not ripped up old friendships . So he tells me you are the Illyrian, and you say it's him."
You just listen to me," ordered Fulvius.
Perhaps I will Or perhaps not. How did Caninus go bad?"
He made the wrong friends when he was supposed to be monitoring the Illyrian seaboard."
Wrong friends? When we talked at that bar with Geminus, you were defending the coastal folk yourself."
I was explaining what has happened to the dispossessed," argued Fulvius. The men you call pirates come from poverty-stricken communities, where the options are few. Young lads off the land are sent to sea because it is the only option."
Cotys and the others, the Cilician community, seem happy with their lot."
Don't despise them as rifF-raff," said Fulvius. There was a long tradition of coastal groups giving shelter to men fleeing poverty often seamen of talent who simply found they could not get a ship. What you call pirate ships were high class vessels, manned by the best quality mariners." I had picked up a nuance. One of those communities gave refuge to you and Cassius?"
Oh Salonae is perfectly civilised!" Fulvius cried angrily. But I know people in Illyria. I know the good and the bad. I had been to Dyrrhachium. So I was asked to keep an eye on Cotys unofficially, when he seemed to have been lured into new, unacceptable ventures. I soon spotted that he was being protected by a bad apple in the Ravenna Fleet. When Caninus got himself transferred here, ostensibly to shadow Cotys, then I was asked to shadow him."
Was it the first time you had been used in intelligence gathering?"
No." A horrid thought struck. Who asked you to do it? You don't work for Anacrites?" Uncle Fulvius uttered something quiet and crude. I do not." Interesting. He obviously knew who Anacrites was, though.
Who commissions you then?"
Who wants the seas kept sweet and clean?"
The Emperor?"
I suppose so, though we try to ignore that dreary aspect."
We, is you and Cassius? And who pays you two?"
You don't need to know, Marcus." If I was ever to trust him, I did need to know.
Don't treat me like a lad. I've done enough stinking official missions of my own."
We are not offering you a partnership."
I would not take it!" We both seethed quietly. It was like a low moment at a family birth day party. After a while I asked the inevitable professional question. So what is the going rate for intelligence, with the Ravenna Fleet?"
More than you get, probably." His arrogance was hard to take. Now I knew why, in the family, Fulvius had always been unpopular. Don't be too sure of that!" I said. The discomfort was getting to me. What's happened?" I wondered restlessly. Mutatus set off hours ago from the temple with the money. If this is the rendezvous, where has he got to?"
Fake trail," Fulvius said curtly. According to Zeno, Mutatus has been sent to a series of false drop sites. He'll get about three messages until he is passed here. It's to unnerve him, and perhaps shake off any followers. By the way," said my uncle offhandedly. I may have let you reach the wrong conclusion earlier. It wasn't Caninus who locked us in; that was Cassius."
What?"
If Caninus sees the door locked, he will never suspect that anyone is down here listening. I need to overhear what happens. He is an official; we have to trap him with hard evidence." Oh great. So Fulvius and his life's partner were not just government agents, they were a pair of idiots. I should have foreseen this. I was not sharing a well-planned exercise with a master spy; I was stuck in a hole with my mother's elder brother. Fulvius was a sibling of Fabius and Junius. It followed that he was a lunatic.
Clever?" asked Fulvius, condescendingly.
Not clever! At least Cassius is still at liberty, on the outside."
We can't rely on the navy. He's gone to fetch the vigiles."
And I suppose," I said viciously, you and Cassius think that they live in an old shop by the Temple of Hercules Invictus?" That caused a silence. I just had to hope Uncle Fulvius was deliberately riling me. Fulvius complained of swollen ankles. I too had aching legs and feet, plus a pain in my back as I tried to avoid collapsing on my uncle. Suddenly we heard noises above us. Footsteps. We strained our ears to work out who was now in the shrine. It could be a priest, unconnected with our mission. I was hot and increasingly uneasy. None of my own associates knew where I was. Our only back-up was Cassius. Thrills. Faintly audible, someone paced about. I was all set to risk calling up to ask if it was Mutatus, when a new person joined him.
Where is the money?" Caninus, muffled, but recognisable. Not close; probably near the shrine door. Fulvius nudged me excitedly. Mutatus, closer and louder, answered. The money is safe." He must be right beside the floor grille, immediately above our heads.
Where?"
I can get it. Falco was right. We don't believe you have Diocles, but if you really can produce him."
Falco, hah!" There came an abrupt movement. Things went wrong. We heard an angry shout. Caninus, closer, exclaimed, You fool!" Something clanged and skidded, like a weapon falling on the grid. Down in our vault, Fulvius shouted out, but went unheard. Feet; went pounding away from the shrine. Two sets? I thought so.
All you had to do was hand over the money!" Caninus, voice retreating, somewhere outside. A short scream, then more sounds of pain and fear. In the distance the sacrificial bull started bellowing, agitated by the commotion. Someone returned to the shrine, moving slowly. Filled with dread, Fulvius and I kept quiet. There were three awkward footsteps, a thump directly above us, then footsteps running out. The trace of light that had once penetrated the tauroboleum pit through its upper grille had vanished.
I have a bad feeling," I said softly. Fulvius listened. Something is dripping down on us…" Then he added in horror, It feels like blood!" It was not the bull. We could still hear him bellowing… Fulvius and I realised the terrible truth. just above our heads lay Mutatus, either finished already, or now bleeding to death.