I gave the agent a sickly smile.. I met Nero's barber. He does a superb shave. Xanthus. What a character. Now he's working for a retired rebel chieftain in Germany… He was heartbroken that Nero committed suicide using one of his best razors.'

Polystratus did not know how to take that. He thought I was

poking fun.. Nobody who goes with us ever has any trouble, I can promise you.'

The Nero line was his official joke. Unluckily for Polystratus, we already knew that his promise of freedom from trouble was a lie.

V

We put off Polystratus by saying we would think about his Acropolis Adventure, definitely, really soon. I even managed to persuade him to sneak me a copy of the route of Tracks and Temples, implying I would hide it under my mattress then book myself a boy"s sporting escapade next year.

That would have been one way to investigate Olympia. Seven Sights Travel were the link between the two young women"s deaths. Caesia and Valeria had both travelled with this pushy team. So we could have sat back until the next Olympics, travelled with Seven Sights ourselves, and just waited to see which female tourist had an adventure too many.

Falco and Associates were not so irresponsible. Anyway, I was being sent to Greece – assuming I went – this year, to nudge Aulus on his way to Athens The noble Julia Justa wanted her baby signed up with a rhetorician now\ If I failed to arrange it, in a year"s time I was likely to find myself divorced.

Why stick with one sponsor, when you can fix up two7 I took myself to the Palatine. I was fobbed off with an excuse I knew of old that the Emperor was visiting his Sabine estate. In any case, Vespasian would quite likely pooh-pooh the Olympus trip but afflict me with some ghastly political mission in the foggy north (like the one where he lumbered me with the imperial barber, Xanthus)