The Phantom of the Colosseum by Sophie de Mullenheim

Author:Sophie de Mullenheim
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2021-06-16T00:00:00+00:00

XXIII

Hesitation

Aghiles looked at his friend out of the corner of his eye. He had seemed strange ever since they left the house. He was tense. Jumpy. He kept looking behind him at the passersby. Gave a start when anyone bumped into him. And at this time of day, that was inevitable. He was nervously scanning everything around him.

“Maximus, are you all right?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah. I didn’t sleep well.”

It was a half-truth, because during the second half of the night, he hadn’t closed an eyelid.

“Are you worried about something?”

Maximus hadn’t told Aghiles anything about the intruder. He was afraid of how his friend would react. Aghiles was hotheaded, capable of lashing out at the first comer. But that was just the problem: Maximus didn’t know who had threatened him. On reflection, he no longer thought it was a Christian who had attacked him. That just didn’t make sense. These days, who would dare boast about having saved a Christian? No one. And above all, not Maximus. And then, if the Christians knew that Paulus had been left behind in the Colosseum, they surely would have gotten to him first. Perhaps the thief of Titus’ bulla? Or one of his accomplices? If that were the case, it was proof they had gotten involved in something important—and dangerous.

Maximus shivered and then looked up at his friend and smiled. No, he wouldn’t say anything just yet. He needed to think about it all a bit longer. In any case, this was no time to get distracted. There was Paulus to deal with; they had to find a way to get him off their hands. That was the most urgent problem. “I’m worried about our involvement with Paulus,” he said. “I can’t wait till we have nothing more to do with him. It’s all too risky.”

While he was speaking, he noticed a boy standing to one side, his back against a wall, staring at him. He didn’t try to hide it. On the contrary, he even seemed to flaunt his cocky attitude, with a little smirk on his lips. Maximus looked away. And when he looked back over his shoulder, the boy had disappeared. Maximus must have imagined him.

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