Coventina

by Jamie Antonia Symonanis

“It must have been pretty horrible.”

  “Well, I think Denise got it right a few minutes ago. It’s like nothing you’ve seen in a movie.”

  “I don’t need the gory details.”

  “How are you getting on?”

  “Okay,” Lucilla smiled quietly.

  “Are you any closer to that big decision yet?”

  “Yes and no, but leaning towards yes.”

  “I won’t ask you what the yes is. I have enough to think about,” Layla laughed.

  “So what’s left?”

  “One person, if we find her in time.”

  “And if we don’t?” Lucilla asked.

  “Denise and I could take care of it.”

  “Chicken is looking very done, so come and get it,” Anna shouted.

  Quintus and Coventina sat away from the others sipping on their wine.

  Layla dragged her chair over by them. “May I sit with you?”

  “Of course. I didn’t get a chance to thank you for everything you did for us today,” Coventina said.

  Quintus raised his glass in the form of a salute and also thanked her. “How is Denise faring?”

  “She’s good. Killing has a tendency to numb her brain for a short period, but she’s good.”

  “A perfect way of putting it Layla. Unfortunately, the more you kill the more numb you become to it,” Quintus said.

  “Even if you felt someone deserved it?”

  “Yes, even then.”

  Coventina sat in her chair like a cat waiting to spring at a moment’s notice, her very own Gladius resting beside her against a tree.

  “Your property in England is quite the beautiful place,” Layla smiled. “One could make a good life there.”

  Coventina simply offered a wide smile and thanked her.

  “How about something to eat?” Denise shouted from the door waving at Layla, the late afternoon glowing in a glorious golden light as the sun started its descent in the western sky.

  Layla smiled and nodded in agreement, “Well, if you will excuse me, before my stomach drowns out the conversation.”

  “I didn’t feel like eating anything with a face. I hope you don’t mind,” Denise said.

  “Good choice,” Layla said, looking at a plate full of vegetarian croissants.

  Lucius joined Aja at the table. “No, thank you, I’ve eaten,” he replied to her offer of a plate.

  “When I was a little girl in Chicago, one of our neighbors came home from the Army with a French wife. That was the first time I had a croissant. Can’t imagine why I did not keep eating them,” Denise smiled.

  “That’s easy. I don’t think there is a French neighborhood in Chicago, and if there is we sure weren’t near it,” Aja giggled, reaching for a light at the end of the table.

  Lucius watched her lightly perfumed bare arm move past him and smiled, breathing in her scent.

  “Well I’m just from little old bake your own country style bread Danville,” Layla laughed.

  “I love your bread when you bake it,” Denise said.

  The sound of Aja’s beeping computer pierced the brief festive moment. A dead calm came over the room as she quickly walked over to it. Denise and Layla looked at each other and over to Aja.

  “I knew it. I knew it was just a matter of time before she used her phone.”

  Lucius walked over and stood next to her.

  “And the call came from Aaron,” Aja said, turning to face Denise and Layla. “We will have to assume he is telling her everything.”

  Denise held the half eaten spinach and cheese croissant in her hand waiting to hear more.

  “She is in Pompeii,” Aja said.

  Lucius ran out the door to notify Quintus and Coventina.

  “Is there time for another croissant?” Denise asked.

  “There’s always time for one more,” Layla said.

  “Feel up to flying us there?” Denise said.

  “I always feel like flying.”

  75

  Lost And Found

  Aaron was lucky enough to find one vehicle with the keys in it at Mario’s when he was released. He drove south, continuing to try and reach Rosina on the phone she had given him. “You’d think she would have left it on, fucking Rosina.”

  He stopped for gas and a late lunch in Cosenza, trying to imagine where she would have gone, and what to do with himself now. His fingerprints would undoubtedly be found at the site of the carnage. I have to piece a story together. Rosina, where the fuck are you?

  Upon leaving Cosenza, he headed towards the coast, where he would stop occasionally to try reaching Rosina on the cheap phone she gave him.

  “She must have put the wrong fucking number in or something,” he shouted. The phone fell out of his hands landing hard on the pavement. When he picked it up he noticed a blank screen. “Fuck.”

  After driving a little further north along the coast mulling over what to do, he decided to try reaching her on their regular phones. “She has got to know.”

  Back in Pompeii, Rosina had been trying to reach him on the cheap phone. When she could not do so, the phone did not survive her temper. She threw it at the wall of a Roman ruin where it lay in pieces on the ground. She was heading back to her car, having been waiting for nightfall to travel, when her smartphone rang.

  “What an idiot. I told him not to use these phones,” she mumbled before answering it. “This had better be important.”

  “Rosina. That other fucking phone did not work even before I dropped it and it broke.”

  “Yeah, well that might explain why mine is now in a few pieces. What is it?”

  “We are all that’s left.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t want to talk on the phone, but trust me when I say we are all that is left.”

  There was silence on Rosina’s end as she took in what she had just heard and mulled over whether or not to let Aaron know where she was.

  “I am along the coast somewhere, where are you?” she said.

  “I’m in Salerno.”

  “I will text you instructions. I’m not that far away from you.”

  “Rosina. I am frightened.”

  “One question. How is it YOU are alive?”

  “I was let go.”

  “Let go?”

  “Yes, by the Water Goddess.”

  Rosina hung up hearing those two words again and slipped her phone into her handbag until she cooled down so it would survive.

  “Water Goddess hey? Well, come and get me if you dare, you bitch,” she shouted, before changing directions and heading back to her hotel.

  76

  Scomparire

  Rosina returned to her hotel room with the heavy suitcase that Aaron had left in the car. She opened it to find two Mini Uzi assault weapons. The rest of the suitcase was filled with magazines already loaded with ammunition and six hand grenades.

  “Thank you Aaron,” she said, picking one up and loading it. “Grenades, how sweet.”

  Aaron reached the city limits of Pompeii and carefully made his way to the hotel, parking more than a block away.

  He dialed Rosina’s number and pushed the call button. She answered without saying a thing. “I am here.”

  “Go to the desk and tell them you are here to see me. They are expecting you.”

  The clerk directed him to room 214. He knocked on the door.

  Rosina answered it with one of the Uzi’s in her hand. After closing the door she kissed him on the cheek. “You’ve nothing to fear from me,” she said.

  “You can have all that stuff. I am through with this business,” Aaron said.

  “Would you like my opinion?”

  “Sure.”

  “I don’t think you were ever cut out for the business we chose. You’re too nice.”

  “Rosina, what are you going to do? You’ve been using your phone. You must assume they know where you are. Hell, they are probably on their way here right now.”

  Her eyes squinted when sh
e turned her head from the window to look at him. “I am counting on it.”

  She went about packing what she needed to take with her as Aaron told him all he knew about the massacre, wiping away her prints from whatever she was sure she would not touch before leaving.

  “They did not use firearms. No, they must have been using machetes, or swords. They moved so fast, so calculated. They killed with no mercy, like professionals, like they had killed many times before.”

  “Swords?”

  “Yes, but that may not be the worst part. They could disappear.”

  “Disappear?”

  “Yes. Scomparire.”

  Rosina slipped a magazine into the other Uzi. “Do you want your suitcase? I won’t be needing it.”

  “Rosina. Why wait? Why not get away? Why not disappear?

  “It is not in my nature, no more than it is in the Water Goddess’ nature. If I defeat her, and get away, I can start all over again. I can be in charge. It’s all I know Aaron. I cannot change.”

  “Rosina. Scomparire, at least for a while.”

  “No. Sweet of you to care, but no. I must leave. Take your suitcase.”

  The weather was a little warm for the long black raincoat she wore. She turned in the key at the front desk and followed Aaron out the door into the street.

  They walked to her car where she tossed everything but the contents of Aaron’s suitcase in the trunk.

  “I cannot stay Rosina. Please reconsider.”

  “Get out of here. If I’m lucky I just might be calling on you to come work for me.”

  Aaron looked up at the moon that seemed to be poking its head around the corner of a building. “Beautiful moon.”

  Rosina looked up then back at Aaron. “Decrescente Nonas.”

  “Goodbye Rosina, and good luck,” he said, before turning to walk down the block back to his car. “I hope you live to see another Decrescente Nonas Rosina,” he said quietly to himself. After witnessing what he saw at Mario’s he did not think she ever would.

  Rosina turned the corner at the other end of the block and headed for the Ruins of Pompeii.

  77

  Tua Vita Mea

  The Mustang came to a complete stop in stealth next to Aaron. Inside, Denise, Layla, Coventina and Quintus looked at him sitting behind the wheel of the Mercedes. They could see the anguish on his face. When he reached to start it up, Layla pulled past him so he would have enough room to pull out and leave. After looking back one more time to see if he could catch a last glimpse of Rosina, he pulled out of the parking spot and drove off.

  “She just turned the corner a block up,” Denise said.

  “We can follow her from above,” Layla said.

  “That won’t be necessary. I know where she is heading. I’ve seen it.”

  “Someone’s coming up behind us,” Layla said. She raised the Mustang to rooftop level and hovered.

  “Does she have help?” Coventina asked.

  “No. She is alone, but very dangerous,” Denise said. She felt uneasy because her vision was not clear. One thing was certain though. It might not be as easy as the dawn raid at Mario’s.

  “Which way captain?”

  “There,” Denise said, pointing out the right lower corner of the front windshield. “Let’s locate her first to see if I’m right.”

  Layla steered them over an area that was bathed in darkness compared to the street they were just on, although spotlights lighted some of the more important ruins.

  “There. Coming out of the cover of those trees,” Coventina said.

  “Good eyes. That’s her. Yes, just what I saw. Wait until she gets past that spot right there and touch down.”

  “There are no lights where she is heading,” Layla said.

  “No, and very clever actually. Aaron must have told her we are not armed with firearms.”

  “She’s inviting us in, for close combat,” Layla said.

  “We must assume she is armed to the teeth.”

  “How will we know where she is once inside?”

  “She is going to head to the very center of the arena where we must also assume she will be able to hear or see us coming.”

  Why not just get her to throw her weapons away? Layla asked.

  Because Coventina and Quintus asked that I don’t. If it looks like they are going to lose however.

  They quietly exited the Mustang in stealth and made their way to the Arena. The breeze was filled with the scent of grass, the moon above just bright enough to add a pale glow to all that was not lit around them.

  Layla led the way through the same doorway into the Arena that Rosina slipped through. She thought it best to lead them in, even though the shields on their medallions were activated. She stopped a few steps into the long walkway that led to the floor of the amphitheater. She is going to hear us, if she hasn’t already.

  There are other ways in, if you want to do some climbing. Quintus said.

  She has been her before. She knows the layout and the sounds so there is no doubt in my mind she knows we are already here. Let’s get this over with, Denise said.

  Slowly, and as quietly as possible, Layla said.

  No matter how slowly they moved down the concrete and brick tunnel, the grit that had collected on the stones they walked upon reverberated every little sound they made. It reminded Denise of being in a few of the caves they had visited in Southern Illinois and Missouri.

  They could feel the breeze wafting down the tunnel as they moved closer to the entrance that required a turn to the left. Stop before you go through that entrance, Denise said.

  Layla peeked around the corner. There is at least another twenty to thirty feet before we get out there.

  Okay. Move slowly and along the walls. Denise sighed.

  The ground they moved over still made it all but impossible for them to mask their approach, even though the closer they got to the open air it no longer seemed to reverberate.

  I see her, smack dab in the middle of the arena, Layla said.

  From here let’s move quickly. Once through the doorway we will break left. Quintus and Coventina, you break right. Let’s give her more than one target to think about.

  Okay. On the count of three. One, two, three. Layla said.

  They moved quickly past the entrance and out into the open arena making what Denise thought sounded like earth shattering noise as the gravel under their feet announced their arrival and every move.

  Layla heard the louder dull thud hit the ground. “Grenade,” she screamed just before it went off. It knocked her and Denise to the ground even with their shields activated.

  “Are you okay?” Denise said.

  “Fuck that was loud. Yes. I think so.”

  We are in one piece, Quintus said.

  Just as he finished talking, Rosina opened up with one of her Uzis. From where she stood, once the grenade went off, she could see its effect bouncing off their shields. She sprayed across the area she thought they would be in a sweeping motion. “Tracer rounds,” she laughed as she saw the rounds more clearly careening off in all directions once they hit the shields.

  Quintus, be wary of anything she might throw. It is much more powerful. Denise said.

  The dirt surface they were on was just as noisy as the walk in. When Denise and Layla ran further to the left to get her looking in two directions, Rosina saw the little puffs of dirt rise that their feet kicked up. She pulled the clip on another grenade, but rather than throw it in the direction of them running, she tossed it in the direction of where she thought Quintus and Coventina might be. When it exploded, once again she could see bits of shrapnel being repelled by their shields. With the other Uzi she sprayed the two cloaked figures, the tracer rounds coming so fast she could see a silhouette of each of them. “Which one of you is my Water Goddess bitch?” she said quietly, as she quickly reloaded each Uzi. Once finished she sprayed the area where Denise and Layla stood. “So there are four of you I see.”

  Quintus, get rea
dy to rush her, Denise said. Baby can you make it sound like someone is coming up behind her in this gravely dirt?

  I think so.

  Quintus. Get ready to rush her as soon as she turns around. Layla, make it so.

  Layla waited for her to finish emptying her weapon again. From a kneeling position she made the gravel shift from the doorway on the opposite end of the arena. Rosina turned and sprayed rounds from the other Uzi in that direction. When she did, Quintus and Coventina rushed across the field towards her. She swirled back in the direction she heard footsteps coming from. As she did, she quickly pulled the clips of two more grenades and hurled each one in the direction her four opponents had been. They had already moved however, and the grenades exploded far enough away for her to see any shrapnel effect on their shields. In the middle of reloading her weapons, Quintus slammed into her with the force of a linebacker, throwing her to the ground. The Uzis flew out of her hands when she landed. Her four opponents now stood above her as she moaned.

  Watch her hands, Layla said.

  The sound of police sirens could be heard in the distance.

  “Rosina Stucco,” Coventina said, keeping her shield up but coming out of stealth.

  Rosina looked up to see the tall figure standing before her in the pale moonlight, Gladius in hand. She said nothing. Seeing Coventina standing before her filled her with rage.

  “Stand up.”

  She struggled to her feet, still silent.

  “You are hereby charged with the murder of my family. You’ve been found guilty of this crime. Your sentence is death,” Coventina said coldly.

  In that instant, knowing they did not have firearms, Rosina reached quickly for the two remaining grenades. She quickly pulled the pins and tossed the one in her left hand towards Layla and Denise. It exploded harmlessly off the added shield Layla had silently erected around the four of them. With a sweeping motion, Coventina’s Gladius separated her right arm holding the second grenade from her body. It landed on the ground, the hand still squeezing the grenade that did not go off. Layla quickly sent her arm flying towards a back wall where it exploded. Rosina screamed in pain and horror as the sound of the police sirens stopped. Denise could see lights flashing outside the Amphitheater.