She tapped on her keyboard, accessed the application and signed it off. ‘Drop the paperwork off with my clerk. She can start tomorrow.’
She looked down at her folder and slid the next sheet over. I closed the door quietly as I left. What was that about? Was she put out with me or was it something else?
The IS office was buzzing like a beehive that morning. I found my workstation, sipped my coffee and looked around. I was about to work on my report when Somna came up to me with a smile on her face like she was Fortuna with a sackful of gifts.
‘Ah, Carina, come with me.’
So we were on first name terms now?
We made our way downstairs and entered a control room with three sides covered with large screens. Pairs of IS were sitting at five of them, headphones on, scribbling on pads or tapping on keyboards. Fright Central. Well, maybe that was too harsh. I must have been watched on these screens for the two days I was down in one of those cells. I shivered. Somna gave me a rueful smile. It was scary how sympathetic she was. If I wasn’t too careful, she’d soon become my best buddy.
I stood silently while she listened to the supervisor’s report. Trosius was now wrapped up, and he thought Pisentius would be by the end of the day. The supervisor looked at me with a question in his eyes, but Somna didn’t introduce me.
‘Shall we listen in?’
Pisentius was on a chair, hands cuffed behind him. The interrogator was standing very near, one boot nudging Pisentius’s bare foot. He bent down and said softly, ‘Now you don’t want me to break the top of your other foot, do you?’ Pisentius flinched, his shoulders rolling inwards. He let his mouth drop open a few millmetres and I heard him catch his breath.
The other interrogator repeated her question in a bored voice. And again. Then the first one pulled up a chair right by Pisentius, crowding him, and repeated the question. And so it went on, unrelenting. Pisentius started sweating.
Two minutes later, he shouted, ‘Screw you! Of course we did!’ and he hung his head.
I almost found myself sympathising with Pisentius, the fundamentalist traitor who wanted to kill my cousin and destroy her country. I took the headphones off and walked away from the screens. I waited by the table. When Justus and I had questioned the conspirators, it was in anger and with urgency. I respected what the IS did, probably more than I had before, but I was too emotional to do their job in this depersonalised, methodical way.
Back upstairs, I grabbed another coffee and settled down to my report. I heard snatches of conversations around me, but kept my head down. Sober slogging calmed my nerves. By lunchtime, I was finished, but I didn’t share that piece of information. I had something to do first.
Longina was back at her desk.
‘What’s the situation with Superbus?’ I asked.
Her face fell. ‘Well, we’ve only done preliminaries with him, but even then he wanted his mummy, sorry, his lawyer. She’s a tough nut, so I think it’s going to drag out.’
‘Will you let me know if it reaches deadlock?’
She looked at me, puzzled but interested. I left it at that.
I knocked on Somna’s door and put my head around it to ask her to excuse me for my meeting scheduled later with Julia Sella. Although it was in the diary, I thought it polite to check in. Daniel was in with her and, as I tried to withdraw, Somna called me back.
‘Carina, Major Stern was wondering if he was needed any longer now you’re here. I rather thought not, unless you feel otherwise?’
Daniel looked incredulous and threw a load of questions at me with his eyes.
‘No, I don’t think so, ma’am,’ I replied with a smile.
‘Very well, you’re released, Major,’ said Somna. ‘Thank you for your help.’
Daniel and I walked back together to the general PGSF office. He’d completely forgotten our fight yesterday.
‘So now you’re best buddies with Somna? I thought you hated her.’
‘I think “hate” is a little overstated but, sure, I was nervous of her. But I have to say I’m finding it easy to work with her now, and her team are very nice.’
‘“Nice”!’ he exploded. ‘Are you listening to yourself?’
‘Yes, you should try it some time.’
‘So what more can you help her with? All the arrest reports are in.’
‘Oh, this and that.’
‘Hmm. Now you’ve crossed over to the dark side, I suppose you’re not going to tell me where you disappeared to before you showed up at the palace.’
‘No.’
Eating lunch, we speculated about the general fallout; who would head the security unit; whether Sepunia would be confirmed as Intelligence. Daniel wasn’t fooled and, between poking at his food, he continued to needle me about my down time.
After a while, we ran out of words.
Daniel was one of my staunchest friends. We were both risk-takers, strong-headed, ready to act. We’d done some insane things together in the past. After hand-climbing the inner courtyard wall – five storeys high – for a bet, even though it was strictly against orders, we were thrown in the cells for a week. But we both thought it had been a good laugh. It sealed our friendship and we got totally smashed the day we were released. We’d penetrated and destroyed a dangerous network together; trained allied personnel; been lent to other governments; broken active service units; trained hard, lived hard.
Our bond was strong, but would it survive the next forty-eight hours? I’d deceived him about Pulcheria. Sure, it had been for operational reasons, but Daniel had been humiliated and defeated by Pulcheria and her people several times. He’d taken it really personally. The one time he’d had complete advantage over her, at the end of the tunnel, and could have terminated her, Conrad had stopped him.
I dodged it – I couldn’t bring myself to tell him.
So I tried a different tactic. ‘Daniel, suppose, hypothetically, somebody had maintained a long-term legend very successfully but for various reasons had to kill it off.’
‘With you so far.’
‘No, listen! I’m serious. Some of his colleagues would need to know now for recording, intelligence and training reasons. They’d be surprised. Some would be outraged as they’d come up against this person in the line of duty. How would you react?’
He looked at me, his brown eyes curious now. ‘Why are alarm bells going off in my head? Who is it?’
‘No, really, just tossing the idea around,’ I said. ‘Spending too much time with Somna, I think.’ I laughed.
‘Sooner you’re out of there, the better.’
But I could see from his face, I’d set something off.
XXX
Colonel Julia Sella’s office was like all other senior staff lairs: cream walls, bookcases, desk, workstation, a couch and easy chairs, but much tidier. It was feminine without being pink: her pictures were landscapes; she had a cluster of personal photographs at the side; and a tray of clean crockery and silverware by her kettle. It was serene and civilised – pretty much like I thought its occupant was.
‘Come in.’ She glanced briefly at me as I appeared at her door; then looked back at her screen. I saw her eyes flicker over to the printed sheets I had in my hand and her face tighten as if she knew what was written there. She pointed a remote at the window to the general office and the smartglass clouded instantly. We were entirely private from the outside world.
‘So, what do you have for me?’
I gave her the stapled sheets. ‘I’d like you to read these first, please, Julia Sella. Then I need your advice.’
She looked surprised at my use of her civil style, but didn’t say anything. She sat and read the six typed sheets that could change my life.
I fidgeted. I stood up and wandered over to the outside window. I looked down and saw a centurion drilling troops on the parade ground. In the far corner by the garages, mechanics in black coveralls were climbing all over a couple of long wheelbases. People walked across the courtyard, stopping to talk briefly to colleagues
or just waving to them in their haste. I sighed at the normality of it all.
Sella took her reading glasses off, sat back and looked at me. ‘You’re never boring, are you?’
I didn’t know how to answer that, so I said nothing.
‘The legate gave me a summary yesterday of your activities, but this is worse than I expected.’
Damn. But it explained her frosty attitude this morning.
‘As a friend,’ she continued, ‘my first reaction was to hope you’d consulted a lawyer. Then I saw you’d had an advance indemnity for the legend. As a soldier, I’m lost in admiration. As your colleague, I’m not at all sure how I regard you now.’
She let the stapled sheets slide from her hands onto her desk.
‘For a mere mortal like me you seem to be an exotic creature. You’re undoubtedly a successful, no, a brilliant field officer, but I sense a lack of stability. Perhaps a calmer period with the regular Praetorians might not be a bad idea.’
I felt the bottom drop out of my world.
‘Is it really that bad?’ I said.
‘Let’s look at it piece by piece. Very few people know the full story, so we have to consider who needs this update. But the update without the reason for the original use of the legend will look quite strange. Who knows what about what?’
‘I haven’t submitted it to the legate. He knows the first part and a lot of the second, but not the intelligence that came out of it. Somna knows the first part and all about the intelligence, but not the rest. Major Stern knows nothing.’
‘I see,’ she said.
‘Flavius knows everything, from the beginning of the first operation to now.’
‘Sergeant Flavius? In your ART?’
‘Yes, he came with me from the Foundation into the PGSF.’
‘Gods!’ Her eyes reflected deep shock and her jaw slackened. She recovered and looked furious. ‘Would you care to enlighten me how many other criminals we are harbouring?’
I flushed and felt my own anger rising. ‘Flavius is not a criminal. He’s served the PGSF loyally all these years. As it says in my report, he severed all links when I did. In this recent crisis, he acted resolutely under dangerous circumstances. Both the legate and Hallienia Apulia were saved as a direct consequence. He was material in preventing a rebellion and death of the imperatrix.’ I paused for breath. ‘At least he got off his ass and did something, unlike others who just kept their heads down and were rolled over by Petronax.’
She flinched. Her soft features tensed, pulling her face into angles. Not looking at me, she picked up her pen and pecked at her desk with it.
‘I think you’d better consider your future options, Captain,’ she said.
Was this reaction a precursor for the rest? If Julia Sella, normally a gentle person, was resentful and offended, what were the rest of them going to be like? She instructed me to submit my report under secret cover as soon as possible to the legate, adjutant, Colonel Somna, Captain Sepunia and Major Stern. She locked my report in her safe; didn’t say another word to me apart from ‘Dismissed’.
I messaged Flavius to start building back protection.
The next one was Conrad. At least he knew most things; he’d been involved in a good deal of it. The problem was the intelligence. Too bad. By now, Somna had integrated it and was on a good way to wrapping everything up, no small thanks to it. No doubt she’d advised Conrad at some stage, so I felt a glimmer of hope that she’d paved the way for me. Consulting Sella had been a big mistake. Somna, on the other hand, was a long way inside the loop. Maybe I could use her as my Trojan horse.
Back in the IS office, Porteus gave me an update. ‘I’ve talked to our legal staffer, and we consider that your and Sergeant Flavius’s personal contributions will make an unassailable case against all the conspirators. And, of course, there’s all that additional intelligence that was sent to you.’ He smiled.
Well, somebody appreciated me. Perhaps I’d better transfer here. Or not, on second thought.
‘When do you think the hearings will start?’
‘We’re pushing for them within the next week or so,’ Porteus said, ‘unless the Public Defender’s Office or any of the lawyers are hanging out for the statutory twenty-eight days. Unlikely, I think.’
‘So what happens then?’
‘We’ll request Flavius to be assigned to IS, and both of you will be given additional personal security. All the hearings will be in camera and your identities will be concealed from everybody except the accused and the judges.’
I thanked him and made my way to his chief’s office. Luckily, Somna was in her office and alone. She read through my report without making a comment. I told her about my interview with Colonel Sella.
‘Hmm, unfortunate. Your remarks were perhaps intemperate, but quite true. Of course, I have enormous respect for Julia Sella and her team, but I wonder if they are a little divorced from the harsher realities of our world.’ She regarded me gravely. ‘Galla’s murder impacted on our desk-based support colleagues more than the front-line operators. Petronax was able to terrorise them with less effort than, say, my team.’
Somna hadn’t mentioned one word of her imprisonment by Petronax, but the Interrogation Service was right at the opposite end of the toughness scale from HR and training.
‘Let’s take this to the legate together before you distribute it formally.’
I was never going to let anybody say anything against Somna ever again.
Conrad didn’t see me at first as we entered his office.
‘Ah! Decima,’ he looked up from his screen, obviously pleased to see Somna.
I stepped out from the shelter of Somna’s back.
‘Carina?’
‘Sir.’ He looked surprised to see us together.
‘Well, sit down, both of you. How’re the interrogations going? Are you getting anywhere?’
‘I am delighted to report, Legate, that, apart from Caeco and Superbus, we have them all wrapped up. And I don’t think we’ll be long with them either, although Superbus is proving a little awkward.’
Conrad looked stunned. ‘That’s excellent news, the very best! How did it happen? You were nowhere near this point yesterday morning.’
‘No,’ replied Somna smoothly and smiled at me. ‘But we had an unexpected and rich gift of first-class intelligence fall into our laps. It unlocked virtually all the doors.’
‘And the source…?’
My muscles tensed.
‘One of Carina Mitela’s contacts sent recordings, photographs, reams of financial records, and a great deal besides. Ninety-six per cent of it is admissible. Even the group of senators supporting Caeco is all on video and stills. We’re drawing up a list for submission to the Senate president,’ she added drily.
Conrad looked at me, stone-faced.
Somna came to the rescue. ‘I think you would find it very helpful to read Captain Mitela’s report which will provide context for this information.’ She placed it on Conrad’s desk, and sat back completely unruffled. That made one of us.
Tick-tock, tick-tock. Why weren’t there any quiet clocks in this building? What was wrong with a silent digital clock? I practised deep breathing, concentrating on relaxing my muscles while trying to sit upright on a chair with a slippery leather seat. Conrad had picked up my six sheets almost reluctantly. Why? He’d been chasing me for the damned report almost non-stop. He made no remark, nor did his face show any reaction as he read down the pages.
‘I see,’ he said and laid the sheets back on his desk.
Somna tilted her head towards me. ‘Perhaps you would excuse us for a few minutes, Carina?’
I was out almost as she’d finished speaking.
I sat on the bench outside and looked at the little garden. Late afternoon sun lit up the bark of the two birch trees. The lavenders and rosemary waved in a breeze that made it in there somehow. How easy to be a plant.
‘Hey, Bruna!’ It was Paula.
I was so pleased t
o see a friendly face.
‘Not on the carpet again?’
‘Smart-ass.’
‘Sorry, ma’am, I’m sure.’
But I smiled back at my friend.
She nodded towards the sling. ‘How are you, really? How’s the arm?’
‘Progressing. I have to go see the medics tomorrow about it and to have my tracker refitted. Fabulous!’
‘Well, if you will run away…’ she said, grinning.
‘Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.’
‘What? How did you get there?’ She sat down beside me. ‘You’ve become more of a legend than you were before. Where’s the problem?’ She searched my face.
‘I’ve ruffled a few feathers, and I’m going to cause more mayhem soon.’ I bowed my head so she couldn’t see my face.
‘You mean with being Pulcheria?’
Astounded didn’t begin to describe my feeling. How in Hades had she figured that out? Had I screwed up somewhere with my security?
I attempted a blank look.
‘I worked it out,’ she said.
‘Not sure what you mean…’
She rolled her eyes at me. ‘Back when I was your minder, you know, when you were seconded from the DJ after the first operation, I overhead a snatch of conversation you had with Commander Lurio. It was an extremely covert operation so I held my tongue.’
Ever the pragmatist, I thought.
‘When Pulcheria came through the tunnel with the legate a few days ago, I was one of the three PSGF with Daniel.’
I hadn’t recognised her.
She read my mind, as usual. ‘Not surprising you didn’t see me – the light was very bad down there. When the legate stumbled, and you caught him, I recognised your body signature.’
‘Crap, was I that careless?’
‘C’mon, Bruna, I’ve known you for seven years. I know every move you make. You were very good. If I hadn’t got that memory in the back of my head, I probably wouldn’t have made the connection.’ She laid her hand on my arm. ‘He must be desperately proud of you.’
‘There are a few complications,’ I ventured.
‘Oh?’ Then she leapt to a conclusion. ‘You weren’t screwing somebody there, were you?’
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