CHAPTER 5
The night was hot and still, pregnant with anticipation, as it awaited the Viper’s next kill. Longinus felt the soup-like air part on either side of his face as he moved forward, as though the air was thick with invisible spider’s threads.
Summer storm won’t be long.
He pulled his silk handkerchief over his mouth and nose, the vial of poison topped with a small atomiser ready in his other hand. The target had been most uncooperative in sticking to the thoroughfares and busier roads, but at last he had turned into a narrow and deserted lane. Houses loomed up on either side, four or five storeys high, with narrow shuttered windows.
Tonight’s target was a man with a neck wider than his head. He walked with a swagger, overly confident in the power of his guard’s uniform. The swor
