‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ Narcissus replied flatly. ‘You must pass on my condolences, when you rejoin him. Before you take on your new task.’

Cato froze for a moment, feeling a sick sense of inevitability rise up as he realised the Imperial Secretary had further plans for him.

‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘I thought Macro and I were waiting to be reassigned to a legion.’

‘Ah, well, the situation has changed. Rather, a new situation has emerged.’

‘Really?’ Cato smiled mirthlessly. ‘And what would that be?’

‘Those scrolls you recovered, I’ve been studying them closely for some time now, and I appear to have stumbled on to something quite interesting.’ He paused. ‘No. Not interesting. Frightening . . . As you might imagine, I concentrated on the prophecies relating to the immediate future, and I came across something that rather jarred my mind. You see, the seeds of the eventual downfall of Rome are being sown even now.’

‘Let me guess - a plague of tax collectors?’

‘Don’t be glib, Cato. Leave that to Macro - he’s better at it.’

‘But he’s not here.’

‘What a pity. Now if I might continue?’

Cato shrugged. ‘Go on then.’

Narcissus leaned forwards, clasped his palms together and propped up his chin as he began.’There was a passage in the scrolls which predicted that in the eighth century after the founding of Rome a great power would stir in the east. A new kingdom would be born that would destroy Rome utterly, and build a new capital on her ruins.’

Cato sniffed with derision.’Every mad prophet on the streets of Rome is spouting that kind of prediction.’

‘Wait. It’s more specific than that. It said the new empire would rise out of Judaea.’

‘That’s nothing I haven’t heard scores of times before. Hardly a year goes by without the Judaeans discovering another great man to lead them to freedom from Rome. And if I’ve heard about these men, then you surely have.’

‘Granted. But there is a new sect amongst the Judaeans that has come to my attention. I’m having my agents investigate them even now. Seems they are followers of a man who claimed to be some kind of divinity. Or at least that’s what my agents say his followers are claiming now. I’m told that in reality he was the son of some rural craftsman. Jehoshua was the man’s name.’

‘Was? What happened to him?’