The Racing Factions Read Online Free PDF

their masters, unsure what to do. Tigran still clutched his wound, trying to stem the bleeding, his face contorted in agony and sorrow as he stared down at the glazed eyes of his cousin, Vahram.
    ‘What the fuck happened there?’ Magnus exploded. ‘It’s meant to be a generous offer to provide protection, for a small fee, through our territory; not a fucking declaration of war!’
    Tigran tore his eyes from his cousin’s immobile face and stared up at Magnus. ‘It was all agreed: a denarius for each traveller and two for the slaves.’ He pointed to an easterner lying next to Vahram, moaning softly in a pool of blood that oozed from his abdomen. ‘He said he would pay the eight denarii and put his hand under his cloak; we thought he was getting out his purse, but instead out comes a sword and he plunges it into Vahram.’
    From along the street came the staccato clatter of hobnailed sandals.
    ‘Fucking great!’ Magnus spat. ‘Now the Urban Cohorts are getting involved.’
    *
    ‘The Urban Prefect will have to hear of this,’ the Urban Cohort centurion informed Magnus, staring down at the dead and wounded. ‘He’s issued orders for us to crack down on street violence, especially involving the brotherhoods.’
    Magnus nodded, feigning a look of sympathetic understanding. ‘Rightly so, centurion, some of them are vicious; it’s getting to the stage that decent folk can’t walk about the city in safety. We, however, try and enforce the law in our area.’ With his foot he flicked back the cloak of one of the wounded easterners to reveal a scabbard. ‘See? Carrying swords in the city; only you lads and the Praetorians are allowed to do that. We were just trying to explain that to them, as they were obviously new to Rome and must have been unacquainted with that particular law. It cost one of my men his life.’
    The centurion looked down at the evidence whilst his men continued to surround the area with their weapons drawn. ‘I’ll still need to make a report.’
    ‘Of course. I would have done the same when I was in the Cohorts.’
    ‘You were in one of the Urban Cohorts?’
    ‘I finished my time ten years ago. I believe my mate, Aelianus, is still the quartermaster down at the depot?’
    The centurion grinned. ‘That old crook, yeah; he should have been discharged years ago but he seems to cling on.’
    ‘It’s a very lucrative business being in charge of all that gear.’
    ‘I’m sure it is; I’ve been trying to get new boots for my century for the last two months.’
    ‘What’s your name, centurion?’
    ‘Nonus Manilus Rufinus.’
    ‘Well, Rufinus, today is your lucky day; I’ll have a word with Aelianus and the next time you put in a request for boots mention my name, Marcus Salvius Magnus. I think you’ll find Aelianus very accommodating and I’d be surprised if your lads get their pay deducted for the new gear.’
    ‘That’s very good of you, Magnus.’
    ‘Not a problem, my friend. Now what are we going to do about these fucking easterners that killed one of my men with their illegal swords?’
    Rufinus scratched the back of his head. ‘I’ll take them down to the cohort depot and lock them up until the Urban Prefect decides what to do with them.’ He looked closely at the belly-wound of Vahram’s killer. ‘If they survive, that is. Obviously I’ll have to make a report; we can’t allow people to flout the law like that. Naturally I’ll emphasise that it was self-defence on your part.’
    ‘Naturally. And there won’t be any mention of the South Quirinal Crossroads Brotherhood?’
    ‘Of course not; that will just get the Urban Prefect upset and we wouldn’t want to do that; he’s getting on.’
    ‘A wise precaution, Rufinus; I believe he’s going to be eighty this year.’ Magnus indicated the easterners’ slaves, who had been rounded up into a tight group. ‘Shall we just take the blood-money now, out of whatever they’ve got in their baggage?’
    Rufinus shrugged.