Birds of Prey by David Drake Read Free Book Online Page B

the agent admitted. “Must just have been his name.” But the cognomen Calvus, Baldie, could have come from generations before. There was something in his easy identification that bothered Perennius in a way that hunches generally did not.
    â€œUmm,” said his superior. “He told me nothing at all, Marcus, except that he needed my best agent for a dangerous mission. And then he named you.” Navigatus smiled. “Not that there was any question in my mind, of course, but I’m not sure I would have withdrawn you from Palmyra if he hadn’t been so specific. And while the fellow was polite enough, well … he knew what the rescript he brought said, didn’t he?”
    Perennius turned his head so that the other man would not see his expression and grimaced ruefully. Another startled lizard ran spraddle-legged a dozen feet along the vertical surface of the wall. “I’ve been doing you an injustice, Marcus,” the agent said. “I thought you’d jerked me because you were getting nervous again.”
    â€œI didn’t want the Palmyra mission assigned to you, that’s correct,” the older man said carefully. “You’ve paid your dues, and I think it’s time you left some of the risk to others. But I’ve never scrubbed you from a mission which you wanted and for which you were qualified. Which is anything short of a bed-chamber attendant for the Empress, as I well know.”
    Perennius laughed. He slapped his would-be protector on the shoulder and said, “Hell, what good did my balls ever do me, Marcus? But if the well-connected gentleman has been roosting in your chamber since Gaius was sent for me, you’ll probably be glad to be shut of him. Let’s bring him out here, learn what he needs and then the two of us’ll get out of your hair.” He stood up.
    Navigatus rose also. “That’s an odd thing, Aulus,” the Director said. “He brought the rescript eighteen days ago today. I said I’d send for him as soon as you arrived—he has an apartment in the palace, but nobody there seems to know him. Except his Majesty, I suppose.… But he returned today without being summoned. I was rather concerned because we didn’t expect you, you know, not for a week at least.”
    The two men looked back toward the building proper. To their mutual surprise, the door was open and the chief usher was ceremoniously bowing out the tall, marble-bald subject of their conversation.
    â€œBlazing Noon,” muttered Navigatus in the Dalmatian dialect of his childhood. “If he can get around Delius that way…” And then both of them put on false smiles to greet the man whom Gallienus had sent to them.

CHAPTER FIVE
    On closer examination, Lucius Cloelius Calvus was a stage more unusual than Perennius’ initial glance had suggested. Calvus’ skin had the yellowish pallor of old ivory, but it was as smooth as a young child’s. The skin’s gloss suggested someone much younger than the black eyes did. Perennius had heard that the Chinese, on the far end of the route by which silk arrived at government warehouses in Alexandria, had honey-gold complexions. He wondered if the stranger could have come from that far away. Like his skin, Calvus’ features were flawlessly regular; but their proportions, their symmetrical angularity, were not those of anyone Perennius had met before. Also, there was something in the slim neck that nagged him.…
    â€œInteresting that your usher reads lips,” said Calvus in accentless Latin as he approached, “but I suppose it’s a valuable ability for someone in his position.” He shifted his eyes to Perennius. “Or yours, sir.”
    â€œDelius reads lips? ” sputtered Navigatus.
    Only a facet of Perennius’ conscious mind listened for content. Calvus blandly expressed surprise that Navigatus had not known that his attendant could