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But...' He paused and looked directly at Ian. 'By what right do you presume to tell the general and I how to conduct the emperor's business?'

`Good question,' chorused Calaphilus.

Ian threw up his hands in exasperation. 'Stop talking like men divorced from reality,' he demanded. 'You are not ostriches, either of you, but unless you get your head out of the sand, you're going to die, and Byzantium will belong to those who would see it drown in an ocean of blood. Is that what you want? Because that's what will happen.'

'Do you take me for a squint-eyed dunderhead? For that would be folly in the extreme, young Briton, and our friendship would be at an end,' said Calaphilus, harshly.

`You are nobody's fool, Gains,' Ian assured him 'And this is the only way, believe me.'

An uneasy silence settled over the group.

'Come on,' Ian bellowed, breaking the hush. 'Talk to each other before we all croak.'

`We could, I suppose, discuss areas of mutual interest,'

Thalius said at last.

`Such as?' bullied Calaphilus.

‘Not dying a horrible and needless death, for one,' Ian interrupted:That would seem to be mutually beneficial, wouldn't you say?'

The praefectus nodded, slowly, while the general said nothing. `Wake up, gentlemen. The assassins are at the palace gates; both of your lives are in dire peril. We have to do something.'

'I am doing something,' Calaphilus countered. 'Already I have, under close arrest, one of the men I suspect to be involved in the outrages.' he looked closely at Maximus. 'Edius Flavia , praefectus, a tribune of most high rank whom you, yourself, were instrumental in helping to obtain his posting.'

Thalius ignored the general's accusing stare and shook his head, sadly. 'I knew his father. A great man. Be you certain of Flavia's involvement in these hideous crimes?'

Ìntelligence informs me thus,' replied Calaphilus. ‘And I believe that I know the identities of several others who also conspire against me. As yet, however, Flavia has not been forthcoming with confirmation of these names and, thus, I am obliged not to act upon my numerous suspicions.'

The praefectus seemed to find this amusing. 'We all know Marcus Lanilla and Fabius Actium seek both of our deaths with relish, Gaius; one does not have to be the wisest man in the Pantheon to see such a blindingly obvious conceit. I shall go further and suggest that such plots also involve Lanilla's wife, the viperous Agrinella. Add in a plethora of local officials, bruised by perceived blockages to their political prospects, a few middle-ranking army officers, ambitious to crawl up the greasy pole of field promotion, one or two slaves promised their freedom, and yes, Gaius, perhaps even the former wife of a weak and tired praefectus, and you have a ripe and merry band of conspirators, poised for their moment in the sun.'

`Proof, however, is another matter, praefectus,’ the general replied sarcastically. 'For some of us still believe in the tenets of Roman law.'

'A law including impunity from crucianienturn which you have, presumably, broken in the attempt to extract a damning confession and a conspirator's list from Flavia,' Thalius argued.

`Have you whipped him near unto death, or is there still something left that I may question as the prosecutor of this city?'

`Stop bickering like children,' Ian said, rolling his eyes.

`Gemellus, what have we done?' he asked.

'Begun a process. A dialogue,' the adviser replied.

'Gentlemen, we have begun to discuss mutual interests; surely maintaining order amid the anarchy of this part of the empire would fall into such a category?'

'Of course; snapped Calaphilus. 'Every good Roman wishes to see the empire strong and well managed.' He gave Thalius a positively lethal glance. 'Is that not so, praefectus?'

'I want nothing more than to serve the empire and maintain its position.'

`You are two proud men,' Ian said. 'And perhaps we can make you realise that you have a lot more in common than may,