‘Don’t, Flav.’
‘I feel a total idiot. I should have heard them.’
He closed his eyes and said nothing for a minute or two. He took a deep breath and winced. ‘Have you contacted that kid, the cypher clerk at the Montreal legation? The one who came with me to New York?’
‘Of course! He had clear sight of the two who bundled you into the trunk.’ Gods, some days my brain had called a strike. I glanced at my watch. ‘They’ll still be at their desks.’ I stood. ‘I’ll come back in the morning. Get some rest.’
I found the senior optio on my way out.
‘I know this might sound weird, but would you keep an eye on Flavius, and let me know if anybody, and I mean anybody, wants to visit him? The sole exceptions are members of my response team.’
‘Something I should know about, ma’am?’
‘He’s a witness in a case, but he’s in no fit state to defend himself.’
As I walked back to the admin area, I messaged Livius and Atria in my response team, both optiones, to check in on Flavius if they could. I didn’t think he was in any real danger, but you never knew.
I talked to Granius, the cypher clerk in Montreal, over the secure network from Conrad’s office. In the selection of twenty random photos I sent him he selected Dubnus’s buddy but not Dubnus. He looked stressed out enough at having to do this remote ID parade, so I didn’t push him.
‘I’m sorry, ma’am. I just can’t remember that well.’ His voice wavered. ‘It all went so fast and I was concentrating on getting Optio Flavius out of the car boot.’
‘Don’t worry, Granius. You did very well. Could you write that up as a statement and email it to me?’ I gave him one of my personal addresses in the cloud. As Granius’s face disappeared from the screen, Conrad sat back in his seat and rubbed his hairline with two fingers. The stress sign.
‘So basically, we still have nothing but circumstantial evidence,’ he said.
‘Yes, but it all adds up against Dubnus.’
‘But not enough to convict. And we need to explore the bigger picture.’
‘And think about what to do with Grumpy.’
* * *
Vibiana was sitting in the atrium with my grandmother, sipping a pre-dinner drink, nodding and smiling at her.
Aurelia looked up as we entered.
‘Carina, Conrad, come and sit with us. Marcia has been telling me about your adventures.’
Marcia? She was calling her by her first name in less than twenty-four hours’ acquaintance.
‘So how is it going?’ Aurelia said.
I glanced at Conrad who had fetched me a drink.
‘I can’t really say, Nonna. Ongoing investigation, you know.’
‘How long are you going to keep me here?’ Vibiana asked, back to charmless mode. I flicked through the pages on my el-pad and showed her the wanted poster. ‘Gods! I haven’t done any of that.’ She jumped up. ‘I insist on seeing my Guild. And my lawyer.’
‘Sit down, Vibiana,’ Conrad said. ‘You make a call, send a message or step out of this house and you’ll be in a custody wing and isolated before you can say Mercury. Carina and I are working like mine slaves to get to the bottom of this. We can do without complications from you.’
Vibiana looked round and saw three unsmiling faces, then to my complete surprise, burst into tears. My grandmother had Junia take her to her room and send up a supper tray.
Once they had gone, I sat opposite Aurelia and fixed her with a steady look.
‘Poor Marcia,’ she said. ‘I fear she’s overwrought.’
‘I agree it’s been something of a strain for her. But I want to talk about your part in this, Nonna.’
‘Whatever do you mean?’
‘Don’t go all professional on me, Nonna,’ I began. I looked down at my phone and selected the playback and Vibiana’s disembodied voice echoed round the atrium.
‘I didn’t want to get either the vigiles or your lot involved but I was overruled. The head of the Silver Guild, Prisca Monticola, knows a senator on the intelligence oversight committee and they fixed it up through some covert old girls’ network.’
‘Interesting words. I think she must mean you, Nonna. Tell me, what exactly was this cosy little arrangement?’
‘No need to use sarcasm, my girl.’
‘I think you need to come clean, Nonna.’
Aurelia sent me a stern look, but I refused to look away. She was my beloved Nonna, but now she was a potential witness or even accessory. I had to harden my heart and maintain Praetorian mode.
She put her glass down on the little table beside her chair.
‘Monticola confided in me that she needed to recover this silver processing element, but couldn’t be seen to be negotiating directly. Vibiana was tasked to investigate it undercover, posing as a thief, and effect an exchange. To make it more realistic, she was posted as a fugitive, and going through the correct channels, I asked Legate Vara to send a couple of Praetorians after her, but only to look as if they were chasing her. They, you, weren’t supposed to catch her.’
‘Those weren’t my orders, Aurelia,’ Conrad said in a grave voice. ‘We were told to be discreet, but to use all possible means to stop her and bring her back.’
Nonna looked towards the tall windows. A faint flush crept into her face as she frowned. ‘It looks as if we’ve all been deceived.’
* * *
After supper, Conrad and I retired to our apartment where he put together a detention order for Dubnus and his buddy for when they returned from their ‘study leave’ in two days’ time. I typed up my handwritten testimony and attached it along with Granius’s statement. I would get Flavius’s statement tomorrow morning.
‘Vibiana may need that lawyer once this goes live.’
‘Nonna said she’s invited her Silver Guild friend, Prisca Monticola, over tomorrow, supposedly for lunch. I’m joining them to see what Monticola has to say for herself. She can see Vibiana afterwards.’
‘I’ve very rarely seen Aurelia that embarrassed.’
‘Well, we’ve all been played. The question is – by whom?’
15
Next morning, Vibiana was subdued, mechanically helping herself to breakfast, but leaving half of it. She made up for it in cups of coffee. Nonna told her to rest in her room or read in the library. Junia would arrange for her to have lunch in the latter.
Prisca Monticola arrived at half eleven. She was birdlike in her figure and movements. A cap of white hair over a face with prominent cheekbones and dark eyes darting everywhere. At the moment, they were on Nonna as the two of them went through kissing and hugging and the requisite greetings of old and close friends.
‘You remember my granddaughter, Carina?’ Nonna said. ‘She’s joining us.’
Monticola raised an eyebrow as her eyes ran over my uniform, but she shook hands and murmured pleasant enough greetings. We’d met at Nonna’s last birthday party, but I’d been in an evening gown with elaborate hair and shiny shoes then, not beige service dress and Praetorian boots. We settled in the easy chairs in the atrium with winter sunlight shining through the tall windows.
‘Now, Prisca, it’s a pleasure to see you, of course,’ Nonna said. ‘But you must be aware I wanted to talk to you about business.’
‘I’m pleased you asked me because I want to discuss this.’ Monticola laid a printout of Vibiana’s wanted poster on the coffee table and pushed it over towards Aurelia. ‘What the hell happened? These people,’ she flicked her fingers at me, ‘were supposed to pretend to chase Vibiana, not blunder about and lose her. Poor girl. The gods know what’s happened to her.’
‘It’s more complicated than that, Prisca Monticola,’ I said and gave her the short version.
‘Are you implying there’s a leak in the Silver Guild?’ Her eyebrows reached new heights and she was millimetres off snorting.
‘Somebody somewhere has a motive we haven’t uncovered yet, but the trail comes right back to you.’
‘Not yet.’
She jumped up. ‘I didn’t come here to be harassed.’ She gave Nonna a haughty stare. ‘Please ask my driver to come round. I have better things to do.’ Her voice could have frozen icicles.
‘Sit down, Monticola,’ I rapped out. ‘Or do you want to continue this interview at PGSF headquarters? Your choice.’
‘How dare you talk to me like this!’
‘I’m being restrained as you’re my grandmother’s friend, but if I don’t learn now what this is about, you’ll find out exactly how, er, determined I can be.’
I looked at her steadily, willing her to calm down. She was one of these brilliant types who, mostly dealing with less intelligent people, were fuelled most of the time by frustration. And they usually had hairspring tempers, just like Monticola. I was too tired to deal with prima donnas this morning.
‘Prisca, do as Carina asks. This is no time for flouncing around. She wouldn’t be asking if there wasn’t a good reason.’
‘Gods, you Mitela women are so like each other – hard as diamonds.’
‘And just as sharp,’ I couldn’t help retorting.
‘I suppose you won’t be satisfied until I tell you our every last secret, will you?’
Neither Nonna nor I said a word.
Monticola plunked herself back on the couch. ‘Somebody stole the central element of a prototype processor. The Guild received a message saying the thieves were willing to sell it back. Vibiana was supposed to do the deal. But that was just a cover. The priority is finding out who stole it, then fixing that particular leak.’
‘Forgive me for being paranoid, but is this element really that important? Or is it some decoy you’re using as bait?’
She tried to control it, but her shoulders rolled in defensively and she sucked her lips in. She glanced at Aurelia who gave her an incinerating look.
‘So that’s a yes,’ I said. ‘You didn’t think to tell the truth to your old friend, Aurelia? Even though she’s a senior minister and former operative. Gods in Olympus! And you think we’re a load of dumb blunderers.’
‘We’ve looked after our own affairs since the foundation,’ she said in a sulky tone. ‘And we didn’t know how high this went up.’
Nonna looked as cross as Hades, but I couldn’t stop now.
‘Tell me what your suspicions are and please don’t be tempted to leave anything out.’
* * *
‘Is Monticola still alive?’ Conrad chuckled as he listened to my recording.
‘Just about. I took her into the library to see Vibiana and after all the tears and hugs, let them talk to each other quite freely. I stayed by the door and after a while I think they forgot about me. Vibiana stays with us and I told Monticola to zip her lips. I’ve written up my statement with a summary. It’s all circumstantial, but all pointing back to Vara. The person the Silver Guild suspects is her brother’s daughter.’
‘Gods. But nothing direct?’
I shook my head.
He slammed his desk. ‘Blast the woman.’ He glanced at me. ‘Don’t take this out of this room, but rumour has it she’s sleeping with the defence minister so I can’t take our suspicions to him. Not without a bulletproof case.’
‘Well, Nonna knows now, so she might be able to influence things politically. Our best bet is to sweat something out of Dubnus.’
* * *
I took a long wheelbase out onto the tarmac at Portus Airport, along with a double security detail headed by Atria from my response team. The cold breeze pushed the usual smell of aviation fuel away. Dubnus and his tagalong trotted down the first few steps, not looking too slaughtered by the overnight flight from the EUS. Then he saw I was waiting for him. He stopped halfway down, his buddy almost falling over him. Passengers behind them started grumbling and urging them on so they were forced to continue.
On the ground, he half turned as if to ignore me, but I shot my arm out to stop him. He glared at me.
‘Aulus Dubnus, I am arresting you under the Military Code, Section 49A. You will be detained immediately until a military court hearing. Do you submit to the court?’
‘The Hades I do!’
I beckoned one security detail forward. They pulled him away from the steps and cuffed him. His buddy dropped his bag on the tarmac and ran for it, but Atria and the other guard gave chase. She caught him with a flying tackle, landing squarely on him. The other passengers filing off the plane stared at us, rubbernecking like at a car crash. I guess it was, in a way. As the security detail prepared to push Dubnus up into the vehicle, he pulled away from them and spat on my boots. I should have been glad it wasn’t in my face.
‘Fuck you, Mitela. You’re finished this time.’
‘I doubt it, Dubnus. Not with what we’ve got on you. And that’s “Fuck you, Lieutenant Mitela” to you.’
* * *
‘Full detention, both of them. No visitors, none. I don’t care if it’s the minister of defence himself. No exceptions.’
‘Okay, ma’am, I’ve got the message.’ The custody sergeant frowned at me. I beckoned Atria over to the side wall.
‘Did you get his luggage off the plane?’
‘I tasked one of the detail to bring it straight here. But we can go through his cabin bag now.’
‘Do it, but somewhere private, like your room, and don’t do any paperwork around it. We’ll let his suitcase go through the normal process, though.’ I checked nobody was in earshot. ‘If he’s hiding anything, he’ll keep it near him, so it’ll be in his cabin bag. Take the whole bloody thing apart down to stitch level.’
‘Looking for anything in particular?’
‘No. Well, yes. Anything we can nail that bastard Dubnus with.’
I’d contacted the Interrogation Service yesterday and a senior lieutenant called Murria who I’d worked with before was standing by. I’d sent her the full file last night. She appeared within fifteen minutes and we went down to Interview 2, a grey concrete walled room with only a plastic topped table fixed to the floor and three orange bucket chairs. Two cameras watched over us, recording equipment on.
Murria leaned back and examined her nails. I stared at Dubnus for a full five minutes. He stared back for a minute, then away and finally down at his hands in his lap. Most people couldn’t hold out for the minute, so I gave him a few points for that. He had been trained as a Praetorian after all. Eventually Murria sat up and flicked a sheet of paper.
‘When did you start freelancing, Dubnus? We’ve seized your bank account details, so please don’t go to the bother of lying.’
‘You can’t prove a thing, so no comment.’
‘We have twenty-seven more days to question you and I think you’ll be squawking like one of Juno’s geese before then.’
She went through every bank statement and every payment in it for the past seven years. I nearly fell asleep. But there were significant unexplained deposits about which Dubnus said ‘no comment’. I said nothing during this phase – Murria was the forensic expert. I went and stood behind Dubnus’s chair from time to time or next to him and stared down at him with my arms crossed – classic intimidation technique, so Murria said.
Two hours after we started, Atria poked her head round the door behind Dubnus and beckoned me. Her facial expression was neutral but her eyes were gleaming. Outside in the corridor she thrust an earpiece into my left ear, the one without my comms earpiece. At the other end of the wire, the jack was sticking out of a tiny phone in her hand, a half-size version of a standard smartphone. She grinned then pressed the screen. As I listened, I grinned back. I hugged her, then went back in.
Shortly afterward a guard brought coffee for me and Murria and a cup of water for Dubnus. I took a sip of my steaming drink and breathed out in Dubnus’s direction. After a few more sips, I stood up and walked over to him. I leant over him.
‘Okay, Dubnus, let’s continue talking about money from unknown sources,’ I said. ‘Who was the woman who
had the element, the one Vibiana handed the money over for in New York?’
‘Dunno. Never seen her before in my life. I was just there to facilitate the deal.’
‘Uh huh.’ I perched on the edge of the table. And fished the tiny phone from out of my pocket. He went to grab it, but couldn’t with his hands shackled to the staple in the middle of the table.
‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Did you want to make a phone call?’ I smiled sweetly. ‘Well, when we searched your cabin bag, guess what we found? Aren’t you the careful one? Let’s listen to some of the conversation you recorded after Vibiana left.’
Murria glanced at me then fixed her gaze on Dubnus, her chin forward and a pen in her hand.
‘You think she swallowed it?’ The New York man’s voice I’d heard through Vibiana’s bug at the very start of the meeting.
‘Assuredly.’ The Latin-speaking woman.
‘And we’ll be able to pressure her for more?’
‘Be in no doubt, Scott Harlesen, Vibiana will be arrested the instant she steps onto Roma Novan soil on charges that will ensure her detention for a good twenty-five years. I’ll get called in as the Guild’s lawyer and shall make it perfectly clear to her that only my contacts will be able to stop that happening.’
‘Well, my cousin Vara can keep the Praetorians off, no problem.’ Dubnus’s voice. He laughed. ‘Providing I get my usual cut.’
‘And the custodes will be reined in by the minister,’ the woman said. ‘Now, have we concluded our business?’
Then a crackle and no more.
The skin on Dubnus’s face had lost almost all colour. His hands clenched. We waited.
* * *
‘He refused to make a full confession and insisted on having a lawyer present. I told him I might think about calling one for him in the morning. He still thinks Vara will rescue him.’
‘Humph.’ Conrad looked over at me. ‘As soon as you finish your sandwich, we’ll see if Legate Vara is free for a little chat.’
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