‘This looks like a setup,’ Costas grumbled.
‘I thought I’d spring this on you now after giving you a sense of purpose. It’s fantastically exciting, the chance to explore completely unknown sites in the heart of ancient Rome.’
‘Jack, don’t tell me we’re going diving in a sewer.’
A man came towards them from where he had been squatting beside the arch. He had a wiry physique and fine Italian features, though he seemed unusually pale for a Roman. ‘Massimo!’ Jack said. ‘ Va bene? ’
‘ Va bene.’ The voice sounded shaky, and close up the man looked slightly grey. ‘You remember Costas?’ Jack said. The two men nodded, and shook hands. ‘It seems only yesterday that we met at that conference in London.’
‘It was my greatest pleasure,’ Massimo said in perfect English, only slightly accented. ‘We work here under the auspices of the archaeological superintendency, but we’re all amateurs. It was a privilege to spend time with professionals.’
‘This time, the tables are turned,’ Jack said, smiling. ‘This will be my first venture into urban underwater archaeology.’
‘It’s the archaeology of the future, Jack,’ Massimo said with passion. ‘We come on ancient sites from below, leaving the surface intact. It’s perfect in a place like Rome. It beats hanging on the shirttails of developers, waiting for a fleeting chance to find something in a building site before the bulldozers destroy it.’
‘You’re beginning to talk like a professional, Massimo.’
‘It’s a pleasure to help. We’ve been desperate to explore where you’re planning to go. We’ve been waiting for the right diving equipment.’
‘What do you call yourselves?’ Costas said.
‘Urban speleologists.’
‘Tunnel rats,’ Jack grinned.
‘Be careful of that word, Jack,’ Massimo said. ‘Where you’re about to go, it might come back to haunt you.’
‘Ah. Point taken.’ Jack gave a wry grin. ‘You have a map?’
‘It’s inside the arch. Your people will bring over the equipment. Follow me.’ Jack and Costas waved at the two IMU technicians, and went towards a door in one of the stone piers. ‘This leads up to a complex of small chambers and corridors inside the arch, used when it was converted into a medieval fortress,’ Massimo said. ‘What nobody knew was that the stairway extends below as well, into the Cloaca Maxima. We assumed there must have been an access point somewhere under the arch, and came looking for it a few months ago. The superintendency allowed us to remove the stones.’ He pointed to a new-looking manhole cover about a metre and a half round on the floor just inside the door. ‘But first, some orientation. The map.’ He reached behind the door and pulled out a long cardboard tube, then extracted a rolled-up sheet and held it open against the side of the pier. ‘This is a plan of everything we know about what’s underground in this part of Rome, from the entrance into the Cloaca Maxima under the Colosseum to the river Tiber just beyond us here.’
‘This is what I’m really interested in,’ Jack said, using both hands to point to branches leading off the main line of the Cloaca Maxima, then drawing his hands together into the blank space in between.
‘Absolutely. That’s one of our most exciting finds,’ Massimo said. ‘We think those branches are either end of an artificial tunnel running right under the Palatine. We think it was built by the emperor Claudius.’
‘Claudius?’ Jack said, startled.
‘He’s our hero. A posthumous honorary tunnel rat. His biggest projects were underground, underwater. Digging the tunnel to drain the Fucine Lake. Building the great harbour at Ostia. His aqueduct into Rome, the Aqua Claudia. We think a drainage tunnel under the Palatine would have been right up his street. And he was an historian, would have been fascinated by anything they came across, any vestiges of the earliest Romans, his ancestors. He might even have gone down there himself. One of us.’
‘Small world,’ Costas murmured.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well,’ he began, then Jack shot him a warning look. ‘Well, Jack was just telling me about Claudius, the harbour, when we were flying into Fiumicino. Fascinating guy.’
‘I think we can leave Claudius aside until we actually find something that identifies his involvement,’ Jack said sternly. ‘Remember, what we’re after dates hundreds of years before Claudius’ time. What we talked about on the phone, Massimo. The Lupercale cave.’
‘The Lupercale,’ Massimo repeated reverently, then looked furtively around. ‘If you can find a way into that from underground, then we’ve made history.’
Costas peered enquiringly at Jack, who turned to him stony faced. ‘My apologies, Costas. I was waiting till now to fill you in on what we’re really after. I didn’t want anyone overhearing, any word leaking out,’ he said forcibly, looking at Massimo. ‘It’s an amazing find. Archaeologists drilling into the ground below the House of Augustus on the Palatine broke through into an underground chamber, a cavity at least fifteen metres deep. They sent in a probe, and saw walls encrusted with mosaics and seashells, like a grotto. It could be the Lupercale, the sacred cave of Rome’s ancestors, where the she-wolf nursed Romulus and Remus. A place revered in antiquity but lost to history. It could be one of the most sensational finds ever made in Roman archaeology. We’re here to see if we can find an underground entrance. Massimo’s even kept the superintendency in the dark. His team are worried about looters getting in, and want to explore the place fully before going public.’
‘The Palatine’s riddled with caves and fissures,’ Massimo enthused. ‘God only knows what else lies under there. The Lupercale cave could just be the tip.’
‘You’re sure this is the best entrance, here under the arch?’ Jack asked.
‘On the other side of the Palatine, the tunnel runs from the Cloaca Maxima somewhere near the Atrium Vestae, the House of the Vestal Virgins,’ Massimo replied. ‘We haven’t got any further than that. This side is definitely your best bet. The branch going from here into the Palatine is on the line of the Velabrum, an ancient stream that was once part of another marshy area, canalized and arched over about 200 BC. We’ve explored as far as the edge of the Palatine, but then the tunnel drops down and becomes completely submerged. We’re not cave divers, not yet. From our farthest point we think it’s only about two hundred metres to the site of the Lupercale, and about thirty metres up.’
‘What’s the geology?’ Costas said.
‘Tufa, volcanic stone. Easily worked but strong, a good load-bearer. And you sometimes see calcite formations as well, even stalactites and stalagmites, where calcium-rich groundwater has dripped into the Roman conduits.’
‘Can we take a peek down that hole?’ Jack said, jerking his head towards the open doorway in the arch. ‘I want some idea of what we’re dealing with.’
Massimo nodded, walked inside and stooped down, then swallowed hard, as if he were about to retch. He glanced back at them. ‘You might want to take a few deep breaths. It’s a little high down there.’ He lifted the manhole cover, and they glimpsed the dark beginnings of a spiral staircase. An indescribable smell wafted up. He closed the lid hurriedly, and dived back outside, clutching his mouth.
‘Okay. I see what you mean. We’ll kit up here, outside,’ Jack said.
Massimo swallowed hard, and his voice was hoarse. ‘You’ll see a fluorescent orange line running along the edge of the Cloaca Maxima, then into the Velabrum as far as we reached,’ he said. ‘Beyond that, you’re on your own.’
‘You’re not coming with us?’ Jack said.
‘I’d love to, but I’d be a liability. I had a bad experience yesterday, just below the Forum of Nerva. A conduit suddenly disgorged a gob of yellow liquid into the Cloaca, and it aerosolized into a mist. No idea what it was, don’t want to know. I didn’t have my respirator on. Stupid. I’ve been throwing up every half-hour or so ever since. It’s happened to me before, I just need a little time. Occupational hazard.’