Free The Emperor's Knives by Anthony Riches

Dubnus to him with a glance as he left the transit barracks’ cold and slightly dingy headquarters building. The tribune greeted them cheerfully, inviting them to join him at his breakfast table where, Marcus was unsurprised to discover, Cotta was already busy ploughing his way through a plate of bread and honey. Scaurus gestured to the empty seats around the scarred and stained table.
    ‘It isn’t often that a man gets to eat fresh bread of quite such good quality, and the honey’s excellent. Help yourselves, gentlemen.’
    He turned to the silent Arminius, who was doing his best to avoid attention in the room’s corner.
    ‘Don’t you have a young pupil to be teaching the martial arts?’
    The German gave him a hard stare before shrugging and making for the door.
    ‘I’ll find out what you’re planning soon enough, don’t worry.’
    Cotta raised an eyebrow at the door as it closed behind him.
    ‘You’re not beating that slave enough, Tribune.’
    Scaurus shrugged.
    ‘I tried it, in the early days of our relationship, but it seemed to make no difference to his attitude, and it all proved to be rather a lot of energy expended to little effect, so I stopped bothering. He means well enough …’ He took another piece of bread and popped it into his mouth, looking at Marcus with a quizzical expression, and when he spoke again his tone was deceptively soft. ‘So, are you determined to see this through then, Centurion?’
    Marcus heard the edge of formality that underlaid his tribune’s apparently disingenuous question, and straightened in his chair.
    ‘Yes Tribune.’
    Scaurus shook his head, his lips pursed in grim amusement.
    ‘Relax man, I’m not intending to try to stop you, far from it, I just want us all to be very clear on the likely consequences of taking action again these men. For a start, there’s our new friend Cleander to consider. I’d imagine that the imperial chamberlain will smell a rat pretty quickly if we start killing the men whom the emperor depends on to carry out the task of confiscating the assets of the wealthy, wouldn’t you? And that’s before we ponder what the reaction of the remaining members of the group might be when they realise that they’re being hunted. If so much as a hint of our involvement in the deaths of any of these men becomes known, then we can expect a violent reaction, to say the least, and even if there’s nothing to point to us, they’re all going to get paranoid very quickly when the first of them dies.’
    The young centurion nodded earnestly.
    ‘Exactly my thinking, sir, and I wasn’t planning on any sort of assistance from anyone within the cohort. This is my debt to pay, and I’ll—’
    ‘Really? ’ Julius shook his head in disbelief. ‘You were expecting that we’d happily sit here getting fat on too much wine and spicy food, while you blunder round this cesspit of a city in search of revenge? What were you going to do, rely on that arsehole Excingus to see you right? That bastard would sell you out in a heartbeat; this man Cleander’s thugs would snap you up and you’d never be seen again. Is that what you were planning?’
    Marcus shook his head.
    ‘No Julius. Credit me with a little intelligence. I know Rome as well as any man, and I have more friends in the city than you might imagine.’
    Scaurus pursed his lips, tilting his chair back.
    ‘All the same, the idea that you might dispose of four men with that sort of profile on your own is perhaps more than a little ambitious. I don’t doubt that your man Cotta here will be able to provide you with some assistance, but perhaps it might be worth reviewing what Excingus told us yesterday and apply a little thinking as to just how hard they’re going to be to kill, shall we?’
    He raised a single finger.
    ‘Let’s start with Senator Pilinius. The man lives in a veritable fortress, far better protected than Sigilis’s domus. Entrants to the place come through the front door in the main,