‘And what then?’ Vespasian asked. ‘You could hardly produce such a large fortune all at once.’

‘Of course not. I don’t need it right now. I’m just planning for my future. Claudius won’t last for ever and someone has to be Emperor — why not me one day?’

‘You?’ It was Vespasian’s turn to laugh.

‘Why not? Come to that, why not you?’

‘You can’t be serious?’

‘I’m serious. Deadly serious.’

‘But Claudius has heirs, a family to ensure someone succeeds him.’

‘That’s very true,’ agreed Vitellius. ‘But you must have noticed how easily members of the imperial family succumb to all manner of peculiar deaths. They’re quite a tragic lot. And if something is to happen to them, I intend to be there when the vacancy is announced. But I’m in no hurry just now. I can bide my time and make sure that I move only when I have the resources to buy the necessary support. Thanks to those two outside I’ll just have to wait a little longer.’

Vespasian was shocked by the tribune’s naked ambition. Was there no limit to what the man would do in his desire for power? Yet there was a more immediate question that demanded an answer.

‘If you aren’t the spy acting for the traitors, then who is?’

‘I was wondering when you would ask that.’ Vitellius leaned back. ‘The truth is, it took me a long time to find out. I should have known much earlier, certainly before my man Pulcher beat it out of the ring-leader of the mutiny.’

Vespasian suddenly recalled the way in which Plinius had looked at the scroll he had retrieved from Titus that evening back in the command tent, and the convenient way Plinius had distracted the guards at just the moment when the thief had been searching through his document chest. ‘Plinius?’

‘Plinius!’ Vitellius laughed. ‘Him? Oh, do be serious, sir.’

‘If not Plinius, then who?’

‘I would be wary about someone much closer to home if I were you.’

‘What do you mean?’ Vespasian felt a cold, sick feeling rise in his throat.

‘If what Narcissus tells me is true then it seems that someone was trying to frame me over that business in the tent.’

‘You deny that you tried to steal the scroll?’

‘No,’ admitted Vitellius. ‘But the scroll I had Pulcher steal from you was blank. Someone had made the switch before I could get to it.’

‘It couldn’t have been blank,’ Vespasian countered with a smile. ‘Because it couldn’t have been switched in the first place. It was already out of the safe-box, Flavia found it, she said Titus had…’ Vespasian felt his blood turn icy cold.

‘Flavia found it. How convenient.’ Vitellius smiled at the legate.

‘It’s not possible,’ muttered Vespasian.

‘That’s what I thought at first. You have to hand it to her, Flavia is a slick operator.’

‘But… but why?’

‘Why? I can’t pretend to fully understand her motives. I don’t suppose for a moment that she’s half the Republican she pretends to be. I’d say it was more likely that she was easing the way for you, to advance your career.’