Bathed in brilliant moonlight were the white-washed walls and dark tiled roof of the hulking form of a large warehouse. A large warehouse setting on the banks of the Tiber about a mile inward from river"s mouth and about two hundred yards away from the city"s eastern gates. The warehouse sat alone on a sliver of firm land paralleling the river. Surrounding the warehouse was the river on the south, while the salt marshes so familiar to the tribune and centurion, surrounded the building"s other three sides.
The only way to approach the building was to either traverse the narrow, twisting road which led from the city to the warehouse. Or to use the river and dock alongside the short but stoutly built wooden wharf jutting fifteen feet out into the river"s dark waters. There was no other way t
