Suddenly it looked as if my personal safety might depend on just how much the royal homeowner wanted his new house.

XXXII

the british involvement was confirmed by a quick trip to my office. Alia and Iggidunus had handed in their list of named workers there last night. The clerk Gaius had already worked through it. The non-existent men to whom Vespasian was paying wages all belonged to the local group who were managed by Mandurnerus.

"You may like to know," Gaius said heavily, "Iggy refuses to have any more to do with you; he won't even bring us mulsutn. And Alia has been kept at home by her father. She won't be helping you again either." Fair enough. I had no intention of placing the young people in danger.

"How about you?" I scoffed dryly. "Want to bunk off school as well?"

"Yes, I tried to get a sick note from my mother. Trouble is she lives in Salonae."

"And where is that?"

"Illyricum – Dalmatia."

"She won't get you off, then."

Gaius stopped bantering. He spoke lightly, but underneath it he was tense. "I've never exposed a fraud before, Falco. I take it those involved won't like us now?"

"Us? Thanks for aligning yourself with me," I said. "But you'd better say in public, "I know nothing about it; I'm just the clerk." Let me be the one who exposes the fraud."

"Well, you are paid more than me…" He was angling to find out how much. Any clerk would want to know. I did not frighten him by saying that if I died here I would not be paid at all.

I took a chance. There was no real alternative. I found Verovolcus and without giving reasons I told him that my position had become hazardous: in the name of the Emperor, I wanted the King's protection for me and my party. Verovolcus was not taking me seriously so with reluctance I mentioned the labour scam. He said at once that he would tell the King and fix bodyguards. I then confessed that the culprits were the British group. Verovolcus' face fell.

I might be surrounding myself with more trouble. But if the King was serious about Rornanisation, he would have to abandon his local loyalties. If Togidubnus could not do that, I would be in deep trouble.

I was now overdue at the site meeting- the one I had called. As I walked briskly to the ramshackle military suite where Pomponius had his work area, I was aware of a sinister new mood on site. It confirmed the message from Justinus. The workmen had previously ignored me as some fancy management irrelevance. Now they took note. Their method was to stop work and stare at me in silence as I passed them. They were leaning on shovels in a way that had nothing to do with needing a breather and all to do with suggesting they would like to beat those shovels over my head.

Remembering the battered corpse Pa and I had discovered back in Rome, I felt chilled.

Pomponius was waiting for me. He was too much on edge even to complain that I had kept him waiting. Flanked by his twin caryatids, the younger architects Plancus and Strephon, he sat chewing his thumb. Cyprianus was there too. Verovolcus turned up unexpectedly just as I arrived; I guessed the King had sent him speeding here to see what happened. Magnus followed a minute later.

"We don't need either of you," said Pomponius. Verovolcus feigned not to understand. Magnus, strictly speaking, had no direct management role. Of course he did not accept that definition. He was seething.

"I would like Magnus to be present," I put in. I was hoping we would find time today to discuss the delivery-cart problem, whatever that was. "And Verovolcus already knows what I have to say about our labour problems."

So Pomponius and I were daggers drawn right from the start.

Pomponius took a deep breath, intending to chair the meeting.

Falco." I held back. He was expecting me to want to lead, so that

floored him. "We have all heard what you have discovered. Clearly we

should review the situation, then you will send a report to the

Emperor." "We need a review," I agreed tersely. "Reporting to Rome would take over a month. That's time we don't have- not with so much slippage already in the programme. I was sent to sort things. I'll do that, here on the ground. With your co-operation," I added, to smooth his pride.

So long as I took any blame for problems, Pomponius had enough arrogance to seize this chance to act independently of Rome. Plancus and Strephon looked excited by their leader being decisive. I felt it could work out badly.

I outlined the situation. "We have a phantom labour force being charged to imperial funds." I was aware of Verovolcus listening hard. "My research, I'm afraid, indicates that the problem is with the British group, the one Mandumerus runs."

Pomponius leapt in: "Then I want all the Britons off the site. Now!"

"Not possible!" Cyprianus had spoken up quickly while Verovolcus was still swelling with outrage.

"He's right. We need them," I agreed. "Besides, to run a prestigious construction site in the provinces without any local labour would be most insensitive. The Emperor would never allow it." Verovolcus kept quiet, but he was still simmering.

I had no idea how Vespasian would really react to wide scale fiddling by a bunch of tribal trench-diggers. Still, it sounded as if he and I had shared hours of discussion on the fine points of policy.

"Right." Pomponius came up with a new idea. "Mandumerus is to be replaced."

Well, that was sensible. None of us argued.

"Now this dodge has come to light," I said, 'we have to stop it. I suggest we stop paying the supervisors in the current way. Instead of group rates based on their reported manpower figures, we'll make them each submit a complete named roll. If either can't write Latin or Greek, we can provide him with a clerk from the central pool." I was thinking ahead to how other scams might develop: "Rotating the clerks."

"On a random basis." Cyprianus at least was working on the same lines as me.

"Cyprianus, you will have to become more involved. You know how many men are on site. From now on, you should always countersign the labour chits."

That meant if the problem persisted, the clerk of works would be personally liable.

I wondered why he had not spotted anomalies previously. Perhaps he had. Possibly he was crooked, though it seemed unlikely. I bet he just felt nobody would back him up. Judging him to be sound at base, I left that un pursued "I would like to know why you keep the two gangs separate," I said.

"Historical," Cyprianus replied. "When I came out here to set up the new project, the British group were already on site as the palace maintenance crew. Many have worked here for years. Some of the old 'uns actually built the last house under Marcellinus; the rest are their sons, cousins and brothers. They had formed established, tight-knit teams. You don't break those up without losing something, Falco."

"I accept that, but I think we have to. Amalgamate the groups. Let the British workers see that we are angry; let them know we have formally discussed whether to dismiss them. Then split them up and re-allocate them among the foreign sector."

"No, I won't have that," Pomponius interrupted haughtily, with no logic. He just hated to agree anything that had come from me. "Leave this to the specialists, Falco. Established teams are a priority."

"Normally yes. But Falco has a point-' Cyprianus began.

Pomponius brushed him aside rudely. "We shall stick with the present system."

"I believe you will regret it," I said in a cool tone, but I let it rest. He was the project manager. If he ignored good advice, he would be judged on results. I would report to Rome- both my findings and my recommendations. If the labour bill then stayed too high, Pomponius was for it.