and the freedwoman Thais of Cyrene. They too have gone missing, despite your demands they attend your interview today. We searched for them last night at their tents. They could not be found anywhere.
However, we did find the mutilated corpse of their senior steward, a Judaean freedman from Bithynia. He'd been decapitated in a similar manner to the fisherman from Besa. But we couldn't locate either the offenders or the two young people in the vicinity.'
It was Suetonius's turn to feel discomfort at these revelations.
'You didn't mention this incident earlier this morning when you delivered the head of the fisherman Ani to our breakfast table?' he enquired. 'Nor mention another decapitation. Had you forgotten such a grisly discovery?'
Urbicus shuffled momentarily with unease but did not lose his verbal stride.
'No, my lord, I had not forgotten. It was simply that the fisherman Ani's murder and return of his head to his family, as well as the search for the river craft, had a higher priority in your instruction. Were we being negligent, sir?' the officer offered with an air of impervious innocence.
Suetonius was now beginning to feel even greater discomfort. Looking to Clarus for confirmation, the biographer was coming to appreciate how the death of the Bithynian youth seemed to provoke increasingly violent, yet inexplicable, responses from unknown forces.
He recollected the lad's drowning had induced two beheadings, one death by over-zealous torture, three disappearances, plus a glut of conspiracy theories to complicate the basic search for a motive. As the hours towards the appointment with Hadrian raced by, the number of issues multiplied, not declined. A further query arose in his mind.
'Tell me Centurion, how did you manage to find us here at The Alexandros jetty?'
Urbicus expressed surprise at the question. He hesitated before responding.
'Why, my lord,' he uttered with obvious sincerity, 'we had been searching for your party in the vicinity of Senator Arrian's chambers to make our report, but then spied you and your colleagues at this river landing from a distance. It was accidental. But having reported, we request we receive your further instructions.'
The guardsman from Alexandria was collectedly cool in his response. Suetonius wondered if he was perhaps too cool, and his eyes turned to Surisca for a shared opinion. Clarus interrupted.
'Yes, Praetorian,' Clarus declaimed, 'this is our instruction. We must urgently locate the two friends of Antinous, Lysias and the girl Thais, before anyone else apprehends them and does them harm. Continue your search for the couple. Assign further troops to the search if necessary through Tribune Macedo. Do whatever is necessary to secure their safety! Certainly let there be no accidents with the couple, we don't wish to lose further sources of testimony.'
'It will be done, sir,' Urbicus confirmed. He snapped to attention as his troop swept their helmets to their heads in unison, saluted in military style, and marched off.
'Strabon, did you record the past few minute's conversation?' Suetonius enquired.
'Indeed I have, Special Inspector,' the scribe responded.
'Good. Keep those tablets close in a safe place. Something is amiss here, gentlemen,' Suetonius confided insecurely, 'and I'm not at all sure what it is. Any thoughts, anybody?'
He cast his eyes over his trio of companions. Surisca cautiously raised a finger.
'Speak, my dear,' the biographer prompted. Surisca spoke hesitantly.
'Master, forgive my impertinence, but when the centurion and his soldiers were approaching I had the definite feeling it was not My Masters they were coming to visit. To my eye, it was this jetty to the barque they were approaching,' she offered, 'not the enjoyment of your company.'
'To this jetty?' Clarus enquired with a hint of exasperation. 'Meaning what especially, woman?'
'I sensed, sir, they were at this wharf to travel to where you yourselves are travelling, not to report to your lordships, as they claim. They were on their way to that mighty vessel offshore.'
'I felt the same, my lords,' Strabon added to Surisca's comments. 'I sensed they were surprised to come across us at this place. The centurion had not really expected to meet us here.'
'You mean they were on their way to visit the Prefect Governor aboard The Alexandros, not talk with us as they claimed?' Clarus rationalized.
'Except, my good Clarus,' Suetonius intruded, 'the centurion pointedly told us it was our company he was seeking, not the governor's. We have another contradiction to contend with. Yet instead of such mere speculation, my friends, let's pay the good governor a visit ourselves to find out.'
The main deck of The Alexandros was an open area shaded under a filmy canopy emblazoned with the Alexandrine starburst. It provided space for entertainments, feasts, ceremonies, or juridical occasions.
The barque's decoration was an elaborate fantasy of carved timbers inset with honey-hued porthole windows of thin alabaster. A riot of sculpted figures depicting the victories of Alexander over his enemies graced its exterior. Similar to its larger companion The Dionysus, the governor's barque was a visible demonstration of the opulence and power of Rome to her provincial Egyptian subjects.
The Prefect Governor was seated upon his chair-of-state on a rostrum under the midday glare diffused by the canopy. Flavius Titianus was attended by several staff, guards, a scribe at a lectern desk, and young pages. They were engaged in business when Titianus spied his visitors awaiting his attention. He rose from his seat and dismissed all his attendants except one.
'Come forward, gentlemen!' he called aloud to his visitors. 'Make yourself known!'
Suetonius, Clarus, Strabon, and a hesitant Surisca approached the throne. Suetonius coaxed the Syri to follow close behind him despite her non-status as a non-person.
'Greetings, Prefect Governor,' Clarus responded. 'We salute you. Hail Caesar!'
'Senator Clarus and Suetonius Tranquillus, all hail!' was the reply.
Titianus was in his early forties, short of stature, thickset, and of sturdy farmer stock in the classic Roman soldierly way. He exuded the prim but efficient air of a practical man who gets things done. Titianus had the emperor's complete confidence in his management of the Empire's most important province, Egypt. The African colonies are Rome's bread basket.
Titianus has the obligation of ensuring an inexhaustible supply of grain to Rome. He must also secure from pirates the Red Sea trade with Nabataea, Arabia Felix, India and the farther mysterious Orient. A further priority is to encourage the capture of wild animals from beyond the distant lands of Kush and Punt in the African hinterland for the Empire's blood-sports arenas. Overall, Hadrian's governor had forbidding responsibilities. Not least among these were the strict control of the various ethnic, class, and religious rivalries which repeatedly threatened to explode across his jurisdiction and jeopardize these chores.
'What brings you to my office, gentlemen? And without an appointment,' Titianus asked in the abrupt manner of a military man. He gathered his toga's folds and re-seated himself upon his throne of office, waving to his visitors to take their seat in the elegant chairs arranged before him.
Clarus rose to address the governor.
'Prefect Governor, we come on Caesar's instruction. We have been commissioned by Caesar to investigate the recent death of the Companion of the Hunt, Antinous of Bithynia,' Clarus announced grandly while holding the slender ivory-spined scroll high as his authority. 'We are charged to complete our investigation by dawn tomorrow and report our findings to Caesar. We are here to enquire your views of the boy's death and seek any relevant information you or your officers may possess about the manner of his death.'
Titianus sat immobile for a few moments contemplating this presentation. He stared at Clarus with an unwaveringly searching eye.
'Well, you'd better get underway, hadn't you? Tomorrow's dawn is about eighteen hours away. Ask of me what you will, gentlemen. I will respond appropriately,' he stated flatly.
'We're to take notation of your views and testimony, my lord. Our scribe is to record our interviews for Caesar's information, and so requires a preceding statement of your titles and honors, Prefect Governor.'
Titianus rested back in his high chair as a tired, impatient expression cast across his features. It was evident the governor was not especially interested in this intrusion upon his day's chores, and the sooner it was over the better. He began sharply.
'I do not announce my titles to my inferiors, Senator Septicius Clarus, I have a secretary for that purpose. He'll give you the details. Let's get on with it.'
Titianus waved to the secretary to perform. The Greek took the hint and proclaimed loudly to Strabon..
'Scribe, take note. This is the testimony of His Excellency Titus Flavius Titianus, Caesar's appointed Prefect
