`I'm a sterling debater, Caesar.'
`And modest!'
I produced a gracious shrug. `And the only kind of fool who'll risk offending you.' He accepted it, and laughed.
`And have you been paid for your work?' Titus then asked narrowly. Whatever Vespasian and he wanted from me next must be spectacularly unpleasant.
`Please don't trouble yourself. When the omens are right for the accounts clerks I shall draw my standard fee, Caesar.' `There will be an addition,' Titus remarked.
`That's most kind.' I was convinced something big was coming.
The pleasantries had been cleared away. Titus admitted that there was a reason why I had been summoned at night, without any record-takers present. He said the matter was confidential and sensitive; I could have guessed both. However, I had not guessed what I was being asked to undertake. And when I knew, I hated it.
`What I am going to say to you must remain a complete secret. Nobody – nobody, Falco, however close to you – is to be told what we discuss.'
I nodded. You commit yourself to this kind of nonsense like a lamb. That's the trouble with secrets. Until you know what they are, how can you tell whether your ethical element approves of them?
`Marcus Rubella,' Titus began crisply, `is a recent appointment to the tribunate of the vigiles.' Quite so. Vespasian's man. The city cohorts must be reckoned to be fairly loyal, since even while his predecessor and rival, Vitellius, had ruled Rome, Vespasian's brother Sabinus had been Prefect of the City. Sabinus, a popular man trying to keep the peace in impossible times, inspired lasting respect. To reinforce that, officers throughout the civil institution, in Rome were now, like those in the legions, being changed as the new Emperor handed out rewards and replacement where applicable.
`I met Rubella,' I said conversationally.
`I know that,' Titus said. A bad feeling was already creeping over me.
`Seemed an interesting character.'
Titus smiled. `That must be some kind of cautious shorthand – Rubella said much the same about you.' So, since interviewing me only that morning, Marcus Rubella, the tribune of Petro's cohort, had been talking to Titus. Another evil sensation hit me somewhere in the lower gut.
`This is rather unpleasant,' Titus explained inexorably. `Rubella is disturbed about the low level of ethics amongst his men.'
Of course I had seen it coming, but I drew a harsh breath. `Rubella thinks the Fourth accept bribery?'
`Does that surprise you, Falco?'
`I know one of them,' I confessed.
`I am aware of that.'
`I know him well.'
`And?'
And I could not stomach the suggestion that Petro might even be under suspicion. `It's impossible.' Titus was waiting for me to elaborate. `The man I know, my friend Lucius Petronius, is an impeccable character. You saw him at the meeting yesterday; you must have judged his quality. He is the man who has just expelled from Rome a major criminal. Balbinus Pius would never have been brought to justice without him.'
`True. Were it not for that,' Titus said, `he would be under a cloud with the rest, and there would be no question of asking you to assist us. We are assuming that Petronius Longus need not feature in Rubella's concern. However, Petronius must not be made aware of our enquiries until he is formally ruled out, and perhaps not even then.'
`This stinks,' I said. `You want me to spy on the Fourth-'
'Not only them,' Titus broke in. `Your special assignment is to involve any relevant regions of the city. What Rubella has reported about his own cohort may apply elsewhere – his may not even be the worst problem. I want you to take a close look at any cohort you come into contact with.'
That was better. I had already gathered from Petro a feeling that some of the rest were much less choosy in their habits than his own team. But if I was not allowed to tell him what I was doing, it would be difficult to pry this kind of information from him. If I was underhand and he found out later, he would be outraged. Rightly so.
`Sir, this could damage my most valued friendship.'
`I apologise if so. But I believe you are capable of handling it.' Oh thanks! `You were selected as particularly suitable. In fact, we have been awaiting your return from the East.'
I managed a grin. `So that was how you found out where I was!' Nice thought: the great ones wanting me for something else – and Anacrites having to own up that he had probably disposed of me. How happy they must all have been when my boots touched Italy again. `The Fourth Cohort trust me, sir. Because of my friendship with their enquiry captain.'
`Exactly,' Titus insisted. `This is a far better disguise than if Rubella put in a special agent, someone who would inevitably be identified as Rubella's man.'
`Very convenient!' l saw his point; that only made it worse. `And is the graft Rubella suspects a general problem, or does it relate somehow to the Emporium heist?'
`Rubella thinks it may be relevant. The robbery occurred so swiftly after the criminal Balbinus left Rome.'
`Jupiter! It's a mess if he's right.'
`Rubella's a good officer. You will need to take extreme care, Falco.'
`Do you trust Marcus Rubella?' I shot at Titus unexpectedly.
`Rubella is a known commodity.' He accepted my suspicion indulgently. `We trust him as much as we trust you, Falco.'
If that was a joke, it was in bad taste.
`If you will do this -' Titus began to say, but I was so angry with the mission that I cut him short.
`Don't make promises,' I snarled, remembering how his brother Domitian had done me down when I asked for a just reward. `I've had them before. I'll do the job. I'll do it well if I can.' Better me than some idiot from the spy network. `Whatever you think of informers, rewarding me would be a sign of respect for my reliability, which you say you value. Maybe one day you will think about that, but in any case, I have to ask you this, Caesar: if as a result of this distasteful assignment I end up in a back alley with a knife in my ribs, I hope at least you will remember my family.'
Titus Caesar inclined his head in agreement. He was known as a romantic. He must have understood which member of my family I meant. Maybe, since he really was a romantic, he even had some idea of her distress if she ever lost me.
He was famous for his courtesy, so we had to end with further pleasantries. I slid mine in first: `Please convey my regards to your father, sir.'
`Thank you. It must be Helena Justina's birthday soon,' Titus offered in return. He liked to remind me that he knew when Helena's birthday was. One year he had even tried to inveigle himself into the family festivities.
`The day after tomorrow,' I said firmly, as if it was in my every thought.
`Do congratulate her from me.'
I forced my teeth into a show of gratitude.
I had not forgotten her birthday. Nowadays I even knew the date myself. For once I had managed to buy her a rather fine present. I had been trying not to think about that. Added to the various complex tasks that had been laid on me since I returned to Rome, it was one problem too many.
Helena's present had been hidden amongst the Syrian glass that was stolen from my father in the Emporium heist.
XXVII
THE STREETS WERE quieter, and dark. There was a chill in the air at night as autumn made its presence felt. I would have welcomed a cloak, though mainly it was what Titus had said that caused my shivering.
