I was less restrained.
"What was the point of that hideous manoeuvre?" I raged, making free with my contempt. "Don"t tell me Vespasian ordered it - Vespasian has better sense!"
Aemilius Rufus hesitated. He still possessed those startling looks, but the confident air which had once impressed me seemed a tawdry gift, now I had watched him in action and learned he was one more aristocrat with erratic judgement and a total lack of practical intelligence. I had seen it in Britain during the Great Rebellion, and here it was at home: yet another second-rate official with fool"s gold in his pedigree, sending good men to the grave.
He made no answer. I expected none.
He had been scanning the rescued crewmen, trying to hide his agitation because he could not see the one man we all knew he was looking for. His elegant, fair-skinned face revealed the moment when he decided not to approach Gordia.n.u.s - an irascible elder senator, who would give him short shrift. I had the honour instead.
"Rather unfortunate! But it solves the problem of Crispus-"
"Crispus was not a problem!" My terse answer unsettled him.
"Falco, what"s happened to Pertinax?"
"Feeding the Baian oysters, if it was up to you! Oh, don"t worry; he should be safe on the Sea Scorpion--"
I ought to have known better.
When we all turned to the rail and looked for my old friend Laesus and his st.u.r.dy merchant ship, we discovered that the Sea Scorpion had slipped her anchor during the malt. She was already far away from us, heading south for the open sea.
LXXII.
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 Seel" 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 heavens" sake!" roared Gordia.n.u.s. "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?" Gordia.n.u.s 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 d.a.m.n 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.
The magistrate Aemilius Rufus came up: more trouble.
"We"ll soon overtake," he boasted. Wrong as usual. We never caught the Sea Scorpion. When we finally made it round the headland towards Positanum, the sea was full of litter from her decks, but the ship had disappeared.
There was no point in hurrying; they reefed our sail.
Then a marine yelled. The Pax rowed up nearer and gently stopped. Some of the sailors were there, clinging to driftwood; we pulled them in. Then I let out a hoa.r.s.e sob of relief: Grinning weakly, but so tired he could not speak, I recognized my nephew floating on his back. He was desperately struggling to subdue a half-submerged figure who was thrashing stupidly: "Milo!" cried Gordia.n.u.s. "Falco, your brave young nephew has saved my steward!"
I muttered that Larius had never showed much sense.
We must have missed quite a party. When Milo saw Atius Pertinax grinning in triumph as he was greeted by the sea captain, the steward ran amok. In the process of being overcome he was beaten and roped up with fishing lines. Meanwhile, my nephew stood by looking innocent; the sea captain suggested to Pertinax keeping Larius as a hostage.
"Did he, by Jupiter! But how did you get in the water, Larius - and where is the ship?"
Larius a.s.sumed his expression of playful nonchalance. "Oh, I could see the Sea Scorpion needed a new coat of pitch so I guessed she was pretty barnacled. I pretended to feel seasick and went below decks. I had a chisel in my satchel from when we were selling lead, so I just set to in the bilges. The worms had nearly done the job anyway; she was so spongy one good storm would have claimed her as a wreck. I soon punched her hull full of more holes than a wine strainer-"
"Then what happened?"
"What do you think? She sank."
While my sister"s boy was being treated like a hero, I discovered that when the Sea Scorpion had started to wallow everyone had leapt overboard. Those who could swim, did. Milo was still tied up. My nephew"s tricky conscience made him save the steward: no small task for a fourteen-year-old lad. Even when Larius edged a floating spar half under them, buoying up fifteen stone while Milo wrestled around in panic took a determined effort. By the time we found them, my boy looked pretty limp.
We rowed the Pax as close to the rocks as possible, and took b.u.mboats ash.o.r.e. We picked up a few more soggy crewmen, but both Laesus and Pertinax had made good their escape. They had been spotted heading up into the Lactarii Mountains together. Aemilius Rufus took the trireme into Positanum and made a great fuss organizing a search.
He had no success. Trust him.
I stayed in the port below the steep little town and bought a meal to revive Larius. Milo stuck to him too, with pathetic grat.i.tude, but if I was hoping he would repay us by digging into his pocket for a flagon I was wrong. Once things quietened down around us, Larius murmured privately, "Pertinax has a bolt hole he uses, back towards Neapolis - he said something to the sea captain about hiding up."
"On the farm!"
The quiet voice came from Ba.s.sus. We had pulled that big, breezy man from the water after the trireme had sunk the his, just before he was submerged under the weight of his own gold amulets. Here he had been drinking heavily in silence: mourning the loss of his employer, the yacht, and especially his livelihood. I signalled him to join us. The bench sagged dangerously under his bulk as he huddled in with Larius, Milo and me.
"You been to this farm, Ba.s.sus?"
"No, but I heard him complaining to Crispus that it was grim. That was his excuse for coming aboard with us-"
"Ba.s.sus!" Ba.s.sus, who was already drably sozzled, frowned as he dimly deciphered that my appeal was made to him. "Ba.s.sus, give us a clue about this hideaway."
"He said it was a farmhouse - and it stinks."
Then Milo contributed, "Must be that run-down dungheap."
"You know it?" I rounded on him urgently. "You tailed him there? Can you find it again?"
"No hope, Falco. He was dashing all over the mountain that night, trying to shake us off. It was dark and we lost ourselves- "What mountain? Vesuvius? Near his father"s estate?" Larius laughed suddenly - a quiet, confident chortle deep in his throat.
"Oh no! Oh Uncle Marcus, you really will not like this - it must be the one where that man chased you: the one with the pretty girl - and the big friendly dog!"
As soon as he said it, I guessed Larius was right.
Without more ado we drained our cups, dragged ourselves upright and started outside. I asked the bosun, "You with us, Ba.s.sus?" But, deeply depressed by the loss of the sir, Ba.s.sus said he would stay in Positanum with the drink.
He came with us to the door though. As we reeled in the sudden sunlight that glanced off the harbour, I heard him let out a chuckle ironically. "That"s fate for you!" Then he pointed southwards out to sea. "Here they come..."
Bearing slowly towards the Amalfi coast was the most amazing vessel I had ever seen. The Royal Barge of the Ptolemies was supposed to be larger, but I had never been privileged to gawk at the Egyptian fleet. This one was a monster. If her deck was less than two hundred feet in length, the shortfall could not be more than any lad on the Tiber waterfront could spit. When she docked she must tower above everything else like the multistorey apartments in Rome. Across the beam she was forty feet easily. And the depth of her hull, labouring so heavily, was probably even more than that.
To power this immense bulk she had not merely the normal square sail but a fabulous arrangement of red topsails as well. Far behind her I could just make other dark smudges, apparently motionless on the horizon, though they too would be heading towards us, low in the water beneath their huge cargoes, at an inexorable pace.
"Ba.s.sos! Whatever in Hades is that?"
He squinted at her thoughtfully as she loomed imperceptibly nearer the rocky coast. Parthenope, probably... but could be Venus of Paphos-"
I knew before he said it: the first of the corn ships had arrived.
LXXIII.
Now I was thinking fast.
"Ba.s.sin, I can appreciate your loyalty to Crispus. As a matter of fact I had a good opinion of him myself. But he"s gone. And unless we do something, Atius Pertinax - who is a different kind of leech on the Empire altogether - will be hijacking the grain ships and threatening Rome."
The bosun was listening in his normal, impervious way. Desperate not to sound overhasty I confessed to him, "I can"t do this alone. I need your help, Ba.s.sus, or the game"s over. You"ve lost the man you sailed for, and you"ve lost your ship. Now I"m offering you a chance to gain a heroic reputation and earn yourself an honorarium...
Through the drink he thought about it. Drink apparently made Ba.s.sus a mellow, amenable type. "All right. I can live with being a hero. So we need to think up a plan-"
I had no time to waste being diffident. I had been mulling over this problem since I first came to Campania. I already had a plan. Without making a fuss about my forethought and ingenuity, I explained to Ba.s.sus what I thought we ought to do.
I left him in Positanum to make contact with the grain ships as they arrived. Once most of the pack had gathered in the Bay of Saleroom, still out of sight of the feet at Miscoum, he would let me know.
When the magistrate took his borrowed trireme back again round the headland, I asked him to drop my small party at Oplontis - though I did not tell him why. Gordia.n.u.s knew. He had set himself the task of escorting the body of Aufidius Crispus to Neapolis, so now it was just Larius, Milo and me. Larius had done his bit for the Empire that day; I left him at the inn.
Milo and I went to the farm.
As we approached tentatively through the trellised arch we found the same smell and the same air of sour negleet. At first I was pleased to see that the dog was missing from his chain; then I realized it might mean he was roaming loose. When we got there it was dusk; after a long hot day the waft of ill-tended animals and old dung was stomach curling. Milo hung back.
"You"re useless," I told him cheerily. "Trust me to lumber myself with you. Milo, big dogs, are like bodybuilders - perfect cowards until they smell fear." There was heavy perspiration on the steward"s objectionable face, and I could smell his fear myself. "Anyway, he hasn"t found us yet..."
We tackled the pungent outbuildings before we broached the house. In the split-boarded midden that pa.s.sed for a stable we discovered a st.u.r.dy skewbald horse I recognized.
"Pertinax had this gypsy as his packhorse when he was following me down to Croton! I wonder if the b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s ridden off somewhere on the roan?"
I led the way, biffing at blue flies, and we were nearing the house when we both stopped dead: intercepted by the guard dog.
"Don"t worry, Milo; I like dogs-"
I did, but not this one. He was growling. He would be. I deduced this was not a mutt who would scamper off if someone looked him in the eye and shouted boo.
He was as tall as a man if he stood on his hind legs, one of those browny-black creatures they breed for aggression, with a neck like an ox and small, mean eats. Milo gave him a few pounds but both the dog and I were aware Fido weighed as much as me. I was the kind of bite-sixed t.i.tbit this bully liked for a target; the bound was staring cold-bloodedly straight at me.
"Good boy, Cerberus!" I encouraged him steadily. Behind me I heard Milo gurgle. What I needed was a poisoned chicken; but since Milo had watched Petronius have his skull split I was perfectly willing to let him be the bait instead.
I murmured to Milo, "If you"ve got a bit of rope on you, I"ll put him on a lead." The dog had other plans. The rumble in the canine"s throat a.s.sumed a more ominous note. I applied myself to calming him.
I was still talking when he sprang.
I rammed one elbow in his chest and braced both feet while I tried to hold his head and fend him off. I could smell dead meat on his breath, and his dentistry was unbelievable. I should have shouted at him fiercely; you have to dominate a mobster like that. I never had the chance.
"Stand back, Milo-"
Same old Milo: give him an order and he did the opposite. Luckily for both of us, Milo"s idea of taming a dog was to grab him from behind, then jerk up his snout, twist it sharply, and break his neck.
We stood in the yard, frankly quaking. I admitted to Milo that I reckoned we were quits.
We found Laesus hiding. We dragged him outside, backwards.
Milo pushed him on the ground. The sad side of his face splashed down in a cowpat; the happy half could see what Milo had done to the mountainous dog.
"Falco!" he gasped, trying to grin in his old friendly manner. At first I went along with it.
"I"ve been hoping to meet up with you again, old friend. I wanted to warn you, next time you drink saffron pottage at your favourite eating house, watch out for the belladonna they add to the broth!"
Grinning at the thought of someone poisoning my pottage, Milo pushed the sea captain"s face deeper into the dung.
"I lost my ship!" Laesus complained. As a sailor he could cope with fishiness, but close contact with the joys of agriculture was making poor old Laesus lose his nerve.
"That"s a tragedy. You can either blame my nephew - or put it down to having gobbled up my sacred goat!" He groaned and tried to speak again but Milo was enjoying himself the way he liked best: showing off how powerful he was, punishing someone unpleasantly. "Where"s Pertinax, Laesus?" I demanded.
"I don"t know -" Milo demonstrated to Laesus the points on his body where pressure is unbearable. I winced, and looked away.
I told Laesus what I had worked out about Tarentum loyalties. "I should have remembered Calabrians stick together like this farmyard muck! I suppose you rescued me in Croton market because even in Bruttium an Imperial agent dead in the Forum might attract attention. You preferred to polish me off privately - and it"s lucky for me you failed! I wondered why you pressed me so hard to sail with you to Rhegium afterwards; no doubt I would have jumped overboard with fishing weights in my boots. Gordia.n.u.s was lucky he had Milo in attendance while he was on your ship. Now where"s Pertinax? Tell me, or you"ll do worse than eat manure; Milo will be spreading the fields with what"s left of you!"
Milo lifted the sea captain by his neck and his heels, far enough for him to gasp the words: "He found a message here that his father has been taken ill. But-"
"But what?" I snarled.
"He said he might be visiting his ex-wife on the way!"
LXXIV.
We had a quick scout round the farm, but the occupants must have scarpered. All we found were more evil odours, ants in the cheese press, and busy flies. Then, as we picked our way out along the rutted track, we ran into the black-chinned villain who had chased me that first day.
Milo was enc.u.mbered with Laesus, who saw this as his chance to escape and began struggling furiously. I took on the farmer. He was fresh, and I had made the mistake of letting myself relax. We circled ominously. He was missing the cudgel this time but I could tell from his stance that violent country wrestling was his speciality; I preferred games of skill. We grappled briefly, and the next moment I was lying on my back with all the breath knocked out of me. But I was fit after my holiday; so I scrambled up for the next throw, more wary this time.
It never came. There was a flash of white, an unexpected scurry, and before I could tackle him the farmer had collapsed headlong. A goat had knocked him flying - a goat whose wild eye and eager expression looked somehow familiar. I said, "Your stock"s well trained!" Then I gave the floored yokel a tap on the forehead that left him cold. He would wake up with a furious headache to find us long gone.
The animal that flattened him let out an impa.s.sioned bleat, then launched at me. I struggled to stay upright, fending off the attentions of yet another old friend from Croton I had never expected to encounter again.