CTRAT

What are these doubts and suspicions you have about the Navy? asked Pliny the Elder. These dark hints require an explanation.

They were trying to promote the Navy, I replied. I didn't think that their carefree musical presentation was an accurate representation of what the Navy is about. I couldn't quite rid my mind of newspaper and television reports of sexual harassment.

Good gracious, said Pliny. I was an Admiral in the Roman Navy, you know. We certainly didn't have any sexual harassment issues in my day. No women, that's why. Nor did we need to go out and play music to the general public in order to make them like us. They liked us when we won naval battles, and they didn't like us when we lost, it was as simple as that.

Oh yes, I'd forgotten you were in the navy, I said. That must have been very exciting.

Mmm, said Pliny, dreamily looking into his teacup. Then he looked a bit harder. My goodness, he said. Take a look at this!

I looked, but couldn't see anything apart from the transparent yellow green tea.

Look at the surface of the tea, he said. What's that floating on the top?

I looked again, and it was true that in the right light you could see flat patches of something floating on the surface of the tea. They looked like maps of islands, with rivers, deltas, archipelagoes and fiords, reflecting the light somewhat differently from the tea.

Is it grease? I asked?

No, he answered it doesn't look like any island that I know of.

Oh very funny I said, except that Greece isn't an island.

Yes, he said absently. I'm just trying to see what this tiny floating speck here is. It looks like squiggly writing. I'm sure if I can just get a bit nearer I'll be able to read what it says. It starts with C. And it seems to end in T.

How many letters does it have? I asked.

Five, he said. I think...........I think it might be........... CTRAT !

Thank goodness for that, I said. For a moment I thought it might be a DNA sequence.