The Ionia Sanction Read Online Free Page A

dismissed me, it would prove my father’s contention—that there was no future to be made from investigation—and I would be bound by our agreement to return to his sculptor’s workshop.
    “Pericles, this is unfair. The investigation has barely begun.”
    “It should be over. Look at the mess you’ve made so far.”
    Shouting would be the fastest route to my dismissal. “All right, that’s a fair point,” I conceded. “Araxes proved to be more able than anyone could reasonably have expected.”
    It sounded weak even to my ears, but I had to try something. “Who’s going to catch him, if I don’t?”
    “I’ve been asking myself that same question, but with a slightly different emphasis.”
    I dredged my brain for some morsel of progress, to show I was not a complete failure. “At least we know his name is Araxes.”
    “We know nothing.” Pericles glared at me. “Araxes is the name of a river in Asia.”
    “Oh.”
    Pericles drummed his fingers on his desk while I contemplated life as a sculptor and rehearsed the words I would use to tell my father I had failed. Then Pericles spoke.
    “We have wars with four cities dragging on. Four at once, how many cities could manage that? Plus there’s talk of a major war with Corinth or Sparta. If it gets any worse, we’ll have to think about bringing old men and boys into the army.” Pericles glared at me. “The only reason I’m retaining you, Nicolaos—for now—is we’re stretched so thin. You’re the only man available. That’s the only reason. When this commission is over, you can consider our agreement terminated.”
    “Unless I succeed,” I said at once.
    Pericles paused, while my heart gyrated about my chest.
    “Unless you are spectacularly successful,” he said at last, and I breathed again. “Which, frankly, I doubt.”
    It was the best deal I could hope for, perhaps better than I deserved, because Pericles was right; I had comprehensively underestimated my opponent, and been comprehensively defeated. I wasn’t planning on anything less than total success before I finished.
    He said, “You’re going to Ephesus. I’ll arrange transport.”
    That made me sit up. “Can’t we send the navy after the Phoenician?”
    “Do you know how many ports there are in the Aegean Sea? No? Neither does anyone else, there are that many. We may have the largest navy in the world, but even we don’t have enough ships to cover every hiding place. Besides, we have two hundred triremes committed against Cyprus, and that’s the bulk of the fleet.”
    It was true. Cyprus was still pro-Persian and agitating against Athens on the seas. Worse, the news from the fleet was not encouraging.
    “Ephesus is the source of the letter. We can’t retrieve the letter, so find whoever sent it, and recover the information.” Pericles paused and studied me for a moment. “I’d have thought you’d be overjoyed to go to Ephesus. Isn’t that where your girlfriend is?”
    “Diotima’s not my girlfriend,” I said.
    “But she’s in Ephesus, is she not?”
    So she was. Diotima was in Ephesus because she’d left me three months before, and I still hadn’t got over it.
    Diotima was the result of a long-standing affair between one of our statesmen and a high-class prostitute. Not the most regular of pedigrees. Yet when her father had been murdered, Diotima had hunted down his killers with a relentless determination that would have done credit to a firstborn son, let alone a disregarded daughter. By the time the two of us had caught the killer, my heart was set. Diotima was the girl for me.
    In Athens, such things are arranged between the fathers. I’d been so sure my father would agree to a betrothal that I’d told Diotima my intention before I asked him.
    Then he’d said no. Father had thought only of the shame of his son married to the daughter of a noncitizen prostitute. When Diotima had eagerly pressed me next day, I’d had no choice but to tell her why she was not an