Ovid

37

The gym wasn't open when I got there early next morning, but I hadn't been waiting long when I saw the big Spaniard who'd brought me Scylax's message a few days before coming up the street chewing on a hunk of barley bread. Seeing me standing there didn't seem to hurry the bastard any. He ambled over, glanced at me from beneath brows that could've doubled as an outcrop of the Capitol, then produced a key from inside his greasy tunic and unbarred the gate. All this without a word or even a spark of recognition. Conversation obviously wasn't his strong point. Or maybe his vocabulary just didn't extend to good morning.

'Hey, Adonis.' I said.

'Daphnis.'

I'd been close, anyway. At least it wasn't Hyacinth.

'Whatever. Scylax due in?'

'Yeah.'

That was all I was getting, seemingly. He stood aside to let me pass, then took a rake from behind the gate and began moving sand around the training ground grain by grain. I left the guy to his executive duties and wandered over to sit down on the bench beneath the portico.

I was feeling pretty light-headed, not to mention depressed. I hadn't slept much the night before, and I'd come to a decision. Bathyllus was already busy packing. Given the choice between carrying the thing through and getting Perilla back, I had to choose Perilla, even though the very thought of doing a runner set my teeth on edge. Staying in the city was just too risky. A few months in Athens with Uncle Cotta wouldn't be so bad. If…when…Perilla got free she might join me. We might even settle there, because Jupiter knew there'd be nothing more for me in Rome. Nothing I'd have the stomach for, anyway. But first I had to tell Scylax to call off his dogs. He wouldn't like it, I knew — that was putting it mildly — but it had to be done.

This whole business had turned sour as hell. If I was right and Asprenas had set his uncle up then unless I had hard and fast proof there wasn't a thing I could do about it. The guy was a war hero, a highly respected politician and a personal friend of the emperor. If I were stupid enough to confront him he'd laugh in my face; and if I decided to do something really stupid like go direct to Tiberius I wouldn't have a face left to laugh in.

That was the clincher. Tiberius. With the Wart in on this I was way out of my league. Try to take the lid off this thing, accuse the emperor and Livia of multiple dynastic murder and high treason and I'd be floating down the Tiber with a knife in my back before you could say ‘liquidation’; and Perilla would be floating along beside me.

Slice it whichever way you liked I was beaten, and I knew it. No proof, no clout, no nothing. All I could do now was wave the white flag and hope it wasn't too late.

Shit. And I'd been so close! I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes…

I must've nodded off, because the next thing I remember was being shaken awake and Scylax's ugly mug grinning down at me.

'Hard night?' he said. 'She must've been good.'

I was still dopey. 'Yeah, she was. Who're we talking about?'

'Never mind. You look like you've been rolled the length of the Sacred Way and pegged out for the crows.'

I rubbed my eyes to squeeze out the sleep. 'They made contact. We have to talk.'

He was still grinning.

'I know that, Corvinus. Don't worry, we've got the bastard cold.'

The words took a moment to get through to me. When they did it was as if someone had dunked me in the public cistern.

'You've what? What did you say?'

'I said we've got the guy cold. Daphnis saw him heave a brick over your wall last night and followed him home.'

'Daphnis saw him? Daphnis?'

'Sure. I told you, you were staked. Daphnis was stretched out under a builder's cart in the alleyway behind your house and I'd two more lads round the front.'

I was wide awake now. 'Then why the hell didn't the bastard tell me as soon as I got here?'

'Maybe he's shy.'

'Maybe he's a sadistic sod.'

'Yeah, that too. Anyway, he saw the whole thing. Tailed the guy all the way home, like I told you.'

'You mean you know where Perilla is?' Gods!

'Could be. We won't know until we've looked. But at least we've got an address. It's a start.'

I was on my feet by this time. My depression was gone. If we'd found Perilla then I might be back in the game again. Once, that is, we got her back safely. That was the priority. The only priority.

'So what're we waiting for?'

'Hold on a minute.' Scylax's hand against my chest was like a brick wall. 'We've got to work out how to play this.'

'Screw that. It's simple. I get the Sunshine Boys, you whistle up a few sympathetic greasers and we tear the bastard into inch-square pieces.'

Scylax was shaking his head. 'Uh-uh. Daphnis only found the messenger, remember. We don't know that he's got the girl himself.'

'Okay. So we walk on his balls until he tells us all he does know and then we tear him up.'

The hand against my chest increased its pressure. I felt myself pushed backwards and down onto the bench.

'Listen, Corvinus. I know how you feel, believe me. But if you think about it you'll realise that taking this guy out isn't going to solve anything.'

I was beginning to calm down now. Scylax was right. Of course he was. We wanted the boss, not the errand boy. Charging in with hob-nail boots on would do more harm than good.

'So who is he?'

'Use your head, boy! We know where he is and what he looks like, that's enough. Daphnis didn't stop to ask questions, especially at that time of night. If the guy found out we were on to him he'd be off like a scalded cat.'

I was beginning to suspect that Scylax's executive assistant wasn't the chicken-brain I'd thought he was. The guy obviously had hidden talents.

'So what part of town are we talking about? You can tell me that, anyway.'

'Sure. Launderers' Street. Third tenement along, second floor up.'

Definitely no chicken-brain. As an investigator Daphnis must be red-hot. I wouldn't have fancied my chances following anyone up the stairs of a city tenement, especially at night. There's plenty of cover in the open street, but once you're inside one of these places you'd need to be a cockroach to pass notice. A resident cockroach, at that.

'Good address.' The Subura again. And not one of its best parts, either.

'It's not the Palatine. But then our friend is no purple-striper.'

'So what's the plan?'

'Another stake-out. We watch him, follow him when he leaves, mark where he goes, check up on any visitors. I doubt if we'll see the actual boss at the tenement — any purple-striper'd stand out like a sore thumb in that district — but our friend will lead us to him. If we're lucky, that is.'

The boss could be Asprenas. I was pretty sure he was, but not sure enough to put Perilla's life on the line by going for him direct. I wanted hard proof first. 'What if we aren't lucky?' I said.

'Then we walk on his balls and listen to him squeal. But we try this way first, right?

'Okay.' I got to my feet. 'So let's go.'

Scylax pushed me back. 'Hold on. When I said "we" I didn't mean we.'

'Run that one past me again. Maybe I missed something.'

'You're not invited, Corvinus. Daphnis and I can handle this on our own.'

'The hell you can!'

'You want this to work or not?'

His hand was gripping my tunic. I shook it off. 'Scylax, this is non- negotiable. Include me in. I mean it.'

'I said any purple-striper would stand out. Have you looked at the edge of your tunic recently, boy?'

'Come on! I can borrow another one if that's all that's worrying you.'

'Screw the tunic. You've got patrician written all over you, friend. Or do you think you've time for a nose job?'

'Oh, let him come, boss.' I turned round. Unbelievably, it was Daphnis. Slapped all over his face was the evillest grin I'd seen in a long time. 'The guy's a born piss-merchant.'

Humour, now. Puns, even. Launderers' Street meant laundries; and city laundries send their slaves round the public privies to collect the stale urine. Not the most salubrious job in the world, but one appropriate for where we were going. Daphnis was definitely rounding out into someone I might grow to dislike. All the same I kept my mouth shut. I wasn't about to pass up an ally just for the sake of a cheap retort. And after all I owed the guy.

Scylax shrugged. 'Okay. Fair enough. If Daphnis says you're in then you're in. Just don't blow it, right?'

'Why should I blow it?' I hoped I sounded more confident than I felt. 'There's one more thing. I want someone else along.'

'Jupiter, boy!' Scylax growled. 'Why don't we just take a fucking army and be done with it?'

'This guy might qualify. Anyway we can split up two and two in case we have to cover another entrance.'

'What other entrance? This is a tenement. Unless you think the guy can fly.

'Stranger things have happened.'

'Not in my book.' It was a token protest. I was right and Scylax knew it. Two pairs were better than a group of three. One man from each to stay put, the other to cut loose if necessary.

'You won't regret it,' I said. 'Agron's good.'

Scylax stared at me like I'd grown an extra head. 'We're talking about the Illyrian? The guy who beat you up?'

'That's him.'

'And you say I won't regret taking him along?'

'Yeah.'

He shook his head slowly. 'Shit, Corvinus, you've got even less between the ears than I thought you had.'

'It's my responsibility.'

'It could also be your funeral. And your girlfriend's.'

'Let me worry about that.'

He agreed. It was touch and go, but finally he agreed. I just hoped that neither of us was making a mistake.