"Thank you for your kind thoughts Lucius Macedo," Suetonius opined as sweetly as he could muster, "but not only would the sight of instruments of torture put the fear of Hades into our subjects and freeze their tongues with fright, but almost all will be citizens of Rome and so legally beyond such persuasion. Besides, as we well know, if you break a few bones and knock out a few teeth you can easily persuade people to confess to being Jupiter Himself."
Tribune Macedo was responsible for policing and security issues for the Egypt tour. He linked into the Empire-wide network of spies and informers maintained by his superior, Prefect Marcius Turbo at Rome. Turbo has proven to be a master of the espionage and political manipulation arts, Suetonius recalled, and his informers reached far across the Empire on behalf of his ruler, Hadrian.
A very useful thought popped into Suetonius's mind.
"Vestinus and Macedo, we should have a personal attendant for our more human enquiries as well. Someone who knows something of the local culture and languages, because we don't do we?
There is a young lass called Surisca who is on the staff at the House of the Blue Lotuses across the river at Hermopolis. She's no slave; she's a Syri from Antioch who has fluent Greek, Aramaic, some Latin, and the local Egyptian dialect too. She is very familiar with Egyptian customs and ways, very familiar indeed, which might be a useful skill for us.
Have someone hire her fulltime for several days. Pay any price, don't bargain. Deliver her to the quarters you will be providing. And soon! Tell her to dress for public wear, not her professional duties. And you might arrange it tonight, as a priority, if the moon is bright enough to permit travel on the river."
Vestinus and the others looked askance at the biographer in that querulous way people do, ever so politely, when they have a query they're reluctant to articulate to a person's face. But the Chief Secretary realized how Caesar's instruction was immutable, and Suetonius was to receive whatever he requested. Clarus simply smiled wanly at his client's audacity.
The Special Inspector turned to Geta who had followed the other four from the chamber.
"Geta of Dacia, you will already know much more about this affair than we ourselves will have the opportunity to explore. You are close to the Imperial Household. You are cognizant of the details of Lord Caesar's relationship with Antinous of Bithynia. You observe the daily interactions of the Household, and must be aware of the political ebb and flow of things?"
"Yes, yes, Special Inspector," he replied in gravel-accented Latin.
Suetonius recalled how Geta's abduction from Dacia as a child after Trajan's victory almost twenty-five years earlier remained evident in his pronunciation. The Dacian spoke in the short, terse statements of his native tongue, a primitive barbarian language of the Getae peoples, which gave his spoken words a fierce strength and surprising power. Suetonius continued.
"Geta, my good fellow, perhaps Clarus, Vestinus, and I should sit with you to explore your views of Antinous's place in the Household, once the basic arrangements are in order with our colleagues? Is that possible?"
The biographer-cum-investigator tried to be as unthreatening as possible. He used his most persuasive bargainer's smile which risked displaying his three missing lower teeth.
Hadrian conceded Geta would be a storehouse of gossip from inside the Imperial Household who would already know things which could take months of enquiry to discern. He will know who is friend to whom, who is doing what with who, and who seeks benefit, lust, influence, or sheer revenge.
He might also know something of Antinous's own activities or ambitions in the hothouse of Court intrigue and ever-shifting amorous dalliances.
"I am at your disposal," Geta offered with a faintly sly glance. Something about the gesture communicated uncertainty within Suetonius.
"I suppose our first chore, gentlemen, will be to construct a consistent pattern of enquiry with our subjects?" Suetonius offered. "You know, an interrogative grid we apply to each interview for a parallel comparison of actions, timescales, and opinions of this matter."
Clarus, ever the pragmatist, interjected. "But what particular matter, Suetonius? A river accident? A suicide? A murder? Or some other phenomenon?"
Vestinus, Macedo, and Geta looked to the biographer.
"All four, my good Clarus," he responded. "At heart Caesar wants us to identify why his companion died, not simply merely how or by what method. Why is more demanding than how, is it not? Of course the who will be an important facet of the why, agreed?"
The five nodded affirmatively at Suetonius, but with expressions of uncertainty.
"And Macedo might do us the favor of delivering to us the fishermen who discovered the body of the Bithynian. Preferably undamaged, all in one piece, please Lucius. Their testimony might be of greater use that way."
Tribune Macedo grimaced weakly, saluted the group in his brisk military fashion, and they entered the reception chamber where the other members of the Court patiently awaited Hadrian's pleasure.
But Suetonius still had Geta the Dacian on his mind. Geta was something of a mystery to him, despite his role at Hadrian's side over many years.
The Special Inspector recalled how ten years earlier he had reason to take testimony from a commander of cavalry in the Balkans — the Roman officer Tiberius Claudius Maximus — who knew a great deal about Geta's early years.
This officer who, in Trajan's campaign against the murderous Decebelus, king of Dacia, fifteen years even earlier, had been an explorator of cavalry auxiliaries, was obliged to provide an archive record of how Geta had been captured. During that Dacian campaign, Maximus had witnessed the Decebelus's death. He then delivered the king's son as a war hostage into Rome's protection under Hadrian's personal aegis.
Tiberius Claudius Maximus's recollections were a dark tale which conveyed a great deal about the character of the young Dacian. It was a chilling story which had remained in Suetonius's memory ever since.
Those events of twenty-five years ago now returned to haunt him.
CHAPTER 3
"By the great god Zalmoxis, may blessing be upon you! Wait for me in the god's Underworld, woman. I am soon to join you,' the warrior king whispered into her ear."
Maximus was detailing the events which occurred during the campaign at Dacia.
"Diurapneus, the proud Daci Wolf, held his wife close to his chest to embrace her as tears welled to his eyes. He leaned her head back gently with one hand and drew the thin blade across her throat with the other. He turned her to one side as she emitted a rasped rattle when the crimson flood rushed.
Diurapneus gripped her firmly as her body shuddered, her furs splashed in scarlet, her life racing to Zalmoxis. He lowered her gently, tenderly, to the earth as she quivered into her final stillness. His wife's autumnal furs were sprinkled with the king's tears amid splashes of blood.
The Daci Wolf King had not shed tears for a long time. Today was a day for tears. The mother of his two children, who once he had killed three men in fierce combat to possess, had journeyed to the Underworld of Zalmoxis. Zalmoxis was the Great God of her ancestors of Getae blood. She would patiently await Diurapneus there, he knew.
Dacia's warrior king, honored by all as Decebelus, 'The Heroic One', felt less valiant as he looked towards the two small children sitting on the edge of the wagon cart. Their eyes were on their prostrate mother engulfed behind ample autumn furs and crumpled embroideries, twitching sporadically in a widening pool of gore amid mottled leaves. Their eyes, too, were on their father's hooked hip dagger. Neither uttered a sound.