The first spear shook his head hurriedly.
‘No, we fucking well won’t call it ten sestertii. If you’re that sure you can get my lads grafting that hard then you must have some secret weapon up your sleeve. On you go then, I’ve got military matters to be discussing, and no time to bandy words with a man who clearly missed his way in life. A shopkeeper is what you should have been …’
Cotta grinned, calling out into the street for his volunteers. The soldiers filed into the shop with a barrel-chested soldier at their head, the veteran looking about him with eyes that were as alert to the possibilities of the situation as always, and his first spear raised a knowing eyebrow.
‘Morban. I should have known you’d manage to find a way to get out of having to work up a sweat with the rest of your century, rather than just strutting about and pretending to be a soldier. Let’s hope our new colleague here knows what he’s getting into if he’s going to trust this new enterprise of his to your tender care!’
The standard bearer saluted and snapped to attention with a precision that widened the eyes of the men at his back before they caught the look on Julius’s face and hastily followed his example as he stalked past them and out into the street, calling to Avidus who was staring intently at the local architecture with a look of bemusement.
‘Well then, Centurion, that’s not a look I wanted to see on your face.’
The engineer scratched his head, waving a hand at the apartment block at whose base the shop stood.
‘I’m just trying to work out whether what you want is possible. The good news is that this block looks reasonably sturdy, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for us to do the work without bringing it down on top of us.’ He looked up at the building with a professional’s disdain. ‘Although it wouldn’t take much to have the whole block fall in on itself, since it’s not exactly built to last. The bad news however …’ He looked about him again, shaking his head. ‘Is that I have absolutely no idea what we’ll find once we get the floor up, and if it’s rock we’re going to make a right bloody racket.’
Julius pointed at the main road up the hill, less than fifty paces distant from Felicia’s house on the far side.
‘See that street? It’s quiet enough now, but once it’s dark it’s a non-stop procession of carts, with all of the banging and crashing you could ever want to cover up any noise you’ll be making, not to mention the cursing and shouting when a horse or a mule isn’t pulling its weight or just drops dead from overwork. You could probably quarry out enough rock to build a bath house without anyone being any the wiser. Are your boys ready?’
Avidus grinned and then whistled sharply, and a dozen men lounging against the shop front got to their feet, their tools held ready to work.
‘They’re as eager as shithouse dogs with the smell of a sausage. A night in the brothel of their choice after a month of nothing better than changing hands at ninety-nine, that’s enough to get my lads working up a sweat any time you like!’
Julius nodded, raising his eyebrows in silent comment.
‘And it’s a promise I’ll keep once I’ve got a nice big storeroom underneath the shop, ready to fill with shields and weapons.’
‘You’re sure that’s wise? If the Watch find out …’
The engineer left his statement unfinished, but both men knew the risk involved in what Scaurus and Julius were planning.
‘You can leave me to worry about that. Just concentrate on getting my hole dug, eh?’
Avidus saluted ironically.
‘Same old fuckin’ army. Only difference is I won’t have to fill this hole in once it’s dug.’
The first spear turned away, his face creased by an evil smile.
‘Who says you won’t be filling it in again?’
Excingus met his spies at the Ostian gate, looking about him with his customary caution before squatting down to join the ragged group of children. A grizzled and filthy man wearing the remnants of a military tunic was dozing in the morning sun twenty paces away, but otherwise the scene around the gate was one of busy normality. The children’s leader, a boy so worldly wise before his time that the informant was still uncertain whether to be repelled or fascinated by the urchin, looked up at him with apparent disinterest.
‘We was wondering when you was going to turn up. Or if you was going to turn up, given what you told us to do yesterday got us caught by them bastards in the fort.’
Excingus raised an eyebrow.
‘Somebody’s brighter than I gave them credit for. What did they do to you?’
The child shook his head disparagingly.
‘Nothing. The officer in charge offered us money to work for him.’
The informant clapped his hands together.
‘Excellent! And I presume that you accepted?’
The urchin looked up at him with an expression of disbelief.
‘’Course I did!’
Excingus smiled at him with apparent fondness.
‘You’re a little brighter than your father, aren’t you, Gaius? Silus must have married above himself when it came to intelligence. Very well, what was it that Julius wanted from you?’
Gaius picked at a fingernail.
‘You ain’t getting it that easy. Remember what you said to me when you took us on to be your eyes and ears?’
The informant smiled knowingly.
‘There’s a price for everything …’
‘And everything has its price. So there you go.’
The child raised an expectant eyebrow at Excingus, who sighed and dipped a hand into his pocket.
‘Here.’ He placed a coin on the outstretched palm, shaking his head as the child examined it with pursed lips. ‘Don’t push your luck, brat. Either take the coin or consider the consequences. After all, you have just sold me out.’
Gaius nodded equably.
‘He told me that they don’t trust you.’
Excingus’s face took on a pained expression.
‘I’d managed to deduce that already. What else?’
‘They want us to report back on where you go and what you do. Everything.’
Excingus nodded.
‘Excellent. I do so enjoy the realisation of a scheme.’
The child frowned, tilting his head to one side.
‘You wanted us to get caught?’
‘Oh, well done …’
Gaius shook his head as the man clapped his hands together in ironic applause.
‘You fuckin-’
Excingus reached out and took a handful of the boy’s tunic, pulling him close and showing him the blade of a small dagger.
‘Let’s never forget who the real brains is here, shall we, Gaius? You think in terms of where tonight’s dinner is coming from, whereas I consider how best to set myself up for the rest of my life. This is going to be the last job I ever do, if I get it right, because there’s enough gold washing around for a small but nicely significant fraction of it to stick to my fingers. I dangled you outside that barracks until Julius couldn’t resist taking the bait, and now I have a means of making him believe anything I want. Those idiots are going to dance to my music from now on, and you’re going to make sure that they hear exactly what I want them to hear. Aren’t you?’
By lunchtime the engineers were well into their task, having ripped out the shop’s dingy floorboards and enthusiastically dug down into the spongy tufa beneath them at a pace, which had made the Tungrians wide-eyed with amazement.
‘They’re going at it like madmen!’