CARINA

by Alison Morton

  ‘This is the end of her career, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, plus a lengthy sentence for economic sabotage. It’s a shame we can’t pin accelerated greed on her.’

  ‘Corruption?’

  ‘That’s down to the lawyers.’

  My phone pinged. A message from Fausta. Call me urgentest!!

  ‘Would you mind if I made a quick call before we go upstairs? This may be a breakthrough.’

  He raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

  I punched in Fausta’s home number and she answered instantly.

  ‘Yes?’

  She almost gabbled the findings at me.

  ‘Good work. You sure?’ I winced as she swore at me.

  I glanced at Conrad. He was looking at a file on his desk trying not to appear interested.

  ‘Keep your tunic belted,’ I said down the phone. ‘Okay, now listen. You need to message this information to this number and ask her to pass it on to the person who needs to know.’

  Pause.

  ‘It’s my grandmother’s personal phone.’

  Pause.

  ‘Are you still there?’ I said.

  I could hardly hear her.

  ‘What do you mean, you daren’t? Just bloody do it. She won’t eat you!’

  I pressed the red button, cutting her off.

  ‘Care to share?’ Conrad’s voice interrupted my vision of the normally over-cocky Fausta cowering over her phone, nervous fingers composing a message to the second most powerful woman in Roma Nova.

  ‘My, er, assistant has identified the woman handling Vibiana’s deal in New York. She confirms she’s a lawyer for the Silver Guild and Vara’s niece on her brother’s side. If she, my assistant, can get her nerve back she should be messaging this and a copy of the voiceprint to Nonna for onward transmission to Monticola.’

  ‘Excellent! You can send my personal congratulations to your hacker, I mean assistant.’ He smiled. ‘This is all coming together. Monticola will prosecute the lawyer. Now we have to do the political bit – Vara – and find out about the justice minister.’

  16

  I tagged along with Conrad, file under my arm. He had the shitty job to do, arresting Vara. She hadn’t been the legate commanding the PGSF all that long. Her career path wasn’t outstanding; she’d served in the regulars, the palace guard and protection squad, but no special forces or intelligence experience. Although technically he had a selection panel to assist him, the defence minister had the job in his gift and he’d given it to his lover. Conrad seemed to take it in his stride, but my blood boiled every time I thought about it. He was a disciplined Roma Novan from birth; I was more open with my feelings. I took a deep breath as we approached the legate’s office.

  In the outer office Vara’s executive assistant and her two clerks were tapping away at computers. She buzzed through Conrad’s request for an urgent meeting and after a few seconds we were waved through.

  ‘Good afternoon, ma’am,’ Conrad began. ‘Thank you for seeing me at such short notice.’

  ‘I am in the middle of a personal crisis, but you can have five minutes.’

  I bet she was, with a cousin and niece up to their ears in trouble. She frowned, which made her sharp features even more pronounced. Her brown hair, highlighted but with grey roots poking through here and there, was drawn back in a chignon. She wasn’t in uniform, but I’d heard on the rumour mill that she thought herself above wearing one except when absolutely necessary. She looked a tad impatient now, but had presence, I admitted.

  ‘It may take a little longer, but I’ll keep it as brief as I can.’

  She didn’t invite us to sit.

  ‘You may remember that you asked us to go to North America,’ Conrad started. ‘Our task was to bring back Marcia Vibiana, an academic scientist working for the Silver Guild.’

  ‘I understand the mission failed,’ she replied to Conrad, but threw me a sharp look.

  ‘Yes and no,’ he said. ‘It opened up a far greater conspiracy which we have now uncovered and documented in full. The evidence is strong – unassailable, I’d say.’ He stretched his hand out toward me and I handed him my file.

  ‘Oh, really?’ Vara sounded bored and started fiddling with a paperclip.

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I think you must know what I’m referring to.’ His eyes were hard as stone. I’d only seen that look once before when I’d been undercover and he’d thought I was a drugs dealer. I shivered.

  ‘I am going to submit our dossier to the imperial accusatrix to open a prosecution against you.’

  She stood and came round to stand right in front of him.

  ‘Don’t be more stupid than you appear, Mitelus. You have no chance of succeeding.’ She grasped my file, but he held on to it. ‘Give me that file and I’ll try to forget what you’ve just said.’ Dark pink patches bloomed either side of her nose and her mouth hardened into a tight line.

  ‘With respect, ma’am, no.’

  She crossed her arms for a few moments, then retreated to her chair.

  ‘I see,’ she said. She shot me a hostile look. ‘Send your junior out and we’ll talk about it like people of the world.’

  ‘Again, no. She was instrumental in completing the case. She is also my witness.’

  ‘That’s not valid. Testis una, testis nulla.’ She smirked at him.

  ‘Of course, I can easily call in another officer as a second witness. Do you have any preference?’ He raised an eyebrow as if he were addressing a junior recruit. I nearly laughed, but held it in.

  ‘What do you want?’

  ‘I want justice done.’ Conrad’s tone was implacable.

  ‘How old-fashioned!’

  ‘No, Vara,’ I couldn’t help jumping in. ‘It’s a Roma Novan core value that you seem to have forgotten.’

  ‘How dare you speak to me like that. I’ll see you reduced to the ranks for such impertinence.’

  Conrad frowned at me, but I took a step forward.

  ‘I’m speaking to you as the Mitela heir now, so on the larger scale I outrank you by several steps. Unless you surrender, my grandmother, as head of the Twelve Families, will take it straight to Imperatrix Silvia. Would you like that?’

  ‘Quite the little politician, aren’t you, Mitela?’

  ‘Your choice, Vara.’

  ‘I will not be hounded out by some trumped-up charge.’ She was boiling now. She slammed the flat of her hand on her desk which made everything jingle and jump.

  Conrad cleared his throat.

  ‘It’s not trumped up, and you know it. I’ve only come here now as a matter of courtesy, but I see it was a waste of my time.’ He handed me back my file, then turned towards the door. I followed him and we were nearly out when she called, ‘Wait!’

  We turned.

  ‘Yes?’ Conrad said.

  ‘Suppose I could offer you a bigger prize?’

  We returned to her desk.

  ‘What bigger prize is there than the conviction of a corrupt Praetorian legate?’ His voice was bitter. I wanted to comfort him in some way. He’d fought so hard to overcome the legacy of his traitorous stepfather Caius Tellus that he was almost supersensitive to any sniff of disloyalty by anybody with power.

  ‘What about the justice minister herself?’ Vara’s voice came as if from a distance. Juno, was she prepared to shaft an imperial minister to save herself?

  Conrad looked down at her, then pulled up a chair, gesturing me to do the same. I fished out my phone, out of her view, and tapped ‘Record’.

  ‘What are you proposing?’

  ‘Complete and legally robust evidence of her involvement in silver dealing – mainly futures – as well as “accommodations” with traders on unregistered sales.’

  Gods, so that’s what the Latin-speaker, Vara’s niece, had referred to in New York. What would Conrad do? This wasn’t in the game plan we’d discussed earlier. Nobody spoke for a few moments.

  ‘And you want immunity for that? As Lieutenant Mitela hinted, we h
ave back channels to removing a minister.’

  ‘What else do you want?’ Her voice sounded as if she were eating gravel.

  ‘You will withdraw any protection or support immediately for your cousin Dubnus and your niece, who will shortly be thrown out of her position at the Silver Guild. They will both face the rigour of the law.’

  ‘Gods, you’re like some huckster, Mitelus. Do you seriously expect me as patron to abandon my clients?’

  ‘Your choice.’

  ‘You will hand over your file now and you will shred and burn all evidence incriminating me and destroy all recordings. Both of you will swear on the Twelve Tables everything is deleted.’

  ‘If we accept this arrangement we erase the parts that include your name and any reference to you. But nothing will happen until you provide the evidence against the justice minister and it is proven.’

  ‘You’re not taking that file out of this room,’ she said.

  ‘You are destined to be disappointed, Valeria Vara. I will need to be completely sure before I arrest an imperial minister. I can’t take the word of a corrupt economic saboteur.’

  She leapt up. I caught my breath. She hovered for a moment, then brought her hands up as if to attack him. I went to block her but Conrad signalled me to stay put.

  After a moment, she went back to her chair and helped herself to a glass of water from a jug. After gulping it down, she went over to her safe. I brought my phone up and videoed her opening it. She was so upset, she didn’t block my view. She extracted a blue file and as soon as she closed the safe door, I switched my camera back on audio record. She almost threw the file at Conrad.

  ‘Here, read it through.’

  He handed each sheet to me after he’d read it. Dynamite, no question.

  ‘We will need to check this with a registered trader so that we understand some of the subtler ramifications, but I agree that this looks bad,’ Conrad said. ‘The worst part is using the custodes to do some of the dirty work, unless they were bribed too.’ He looked up at her.

  ‘I won’t forget this, Mitelus.’

  ‘I’m sure you won’t. In the meantime, please restrain yourself to administrative tasks until the situation is clarified.’

  17

  ‘I’m sorry to have insisted on you taking that oath, Monticola, but these documents are sub judice as well as a state secret.’

  She looked like an offended hen. She glanced at Nonna but found no sympathy there. I wasn’t sure whether Nonna was more angry than embarrassed. I gave it about eighty/twenty. She’d never liked this new justice minister who had succeeded her old friend Aemilia Fulvia when she’d retired.

  ‘You are as autocratic as your grandmother was when she served,’ Monticola griped. ‘We can keep a secret in the Guild, you know.’

  I knew from Nonna’s stories of the Great Rebellion just how secretive they could be, and with good reason, but I also knew I couldn’t take a chance.

  Monticola perched a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on her sharp little nose and leafed through the documents.

  After five minutes, she put the file down and stared out of the window.

  ‘Why do these people do this?’ she said. Her face looked tired; aged even. ‘This woman is on 160,000 solidi per annum as a minister, plus her 500 day-rate attendance in the Senate which probably racks up another twenty to thirty thousand, plus free travel and meals and her government pension. Most business people would kill for that. I expect she’s got legal investments as well. Yet she’s trying to fiddle a few thousand, a maximum of about fifty at a round count, at the risk of losing all that. Stupid woman.’

  ‘Is it all illegal?’ I asked.

  ‘Oh, yes. Each non-registration of a transfer counts as an offence. She’s made futures transactions through a non-registered and unregulated trader. The niece will be out the door tomorrow morning. Throw the book at them.’

  * * *

  ‘Is it legal, what we’re doing?’

  Conrad glanced at me, then over at the far wall of his office. He stood.

  ‘Technically no, but it’s a case of being pragmatic. The idea of Vara getting away with it sticks in my throat. On the other hand, we have Dubnus, the niece and the justice minister. Vara is astute to play that hand. And she knows that we know what she’s done. We’ll have to watch our backs for a while. Have you downloaded your recording?’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Oh, please! I saw you video Vara opening her safe, so I assume you recorded the whole interview.’

  ‘That would be an invasion of privacy.’ I grinned at him.

  He grabbed my arm, pulled me to him. His other arm circled the back of my waist and he kissed me gently, his lips teasing mine.

  ‘You are the most shocking woman I know, but one of my best operatives. Make sure your battery’s fully charged,’ he said, releasing me. ‘The atmosphere will be.’

  * * *

  ‘Satisfied, Mitelus?’

  ‘Perfectly, Vara.’

  It was late now, the snow falling outside the floor-to-ceiling windows in the dark of winter.

  Conrad nodded at me and I held out the file. All my work, Flavius’s injuries, Vibiana’s behaviour and the stress on her, that poor courier in Montreal, the expense of bringing Vibiana back, my argument with Lurio and several shattered careers. I hesitated. I had to tell myself we were doing the right thing if not the totally legal thing.

  ‘Well, Mitela, it’s late, or are you having second thoughts? Have we been through all this just to have you scared of giving me a little file?’ She sneered at me, but I could see her eyes were hungry for it. I gathered up my grit and plunked it down on her desk.

  ‘Good. Now you will both give me your oath that these are the totality of the papers, that files on your systems have been destroyed, as have all recordings or videos. Show me your phones.’ Conrad pulled his out and showed her the blank folder. I hurriedly killed the transmission on mine while she was concentrating on his phone. He shot a glance at me and I gave him a tiny nod. I stretched my hand out with mine, but I didn’t venture any kind of smile.

  We took the oath on her copy of the Twelve Tables then left. Conrad looked grim; I had such a sour taste in my gullet, I wanted to throw up.

  Back in his office, he issued the arrest warrant for Vara’s niece. The detail would pick her up within the hour. Monticola could send her dismissal letter to the cell block in PGSF headquarters.

  ‘I’ll see the minister in the morning, but I think we’d better warn Silvia.’

  ‘I expect Nonna will go and see her first thing. Perhaps it would be better to coordinate with her?’

  He rubbed his hairline with two fingers and nodded.

  ‘Home. Now,’ he said in a voice stripped of any feeling.

  I poured a double brandy from the drinks tray in the atrium, he a whisky. But I felt so sick of the whole business, I found I only wanted a sip. I scrubbed myself clean in the shower afterwards and fell into bed with Conrad, exhausted physically and emotionally.

  * * *

  ‘What do you mean, he’s gone?’

  Like we hadn’t anything else to do today. Conrad had gone to the palace with Nonna to warn Silvia about the arrest of her delinquent minister and had a frosty reception apparently. But the arrest order was to be executed within the hour. Now the custody sergeant was telling me Dubnus had been sprung.

  ‘Exact details, please.’

  ‘I know you said nobody, ma’am, but it was the legate.’

  ‘What!’ The anger rolled up through me and I couldn’t speak for a few moments. So much for Vara’s agreement.

  ‘When was this?’

  He flipped through his log onscreen. ‘Yesterday lunchtime. He came back from interrogation, Lieutenant Murria signed him back to us. Half an hour later, Legate Vara signed him out on her personal recognisance.’

  Just before Conrad and I went to see her. Pluto in Tartarus! That bloody woman. She’d sat there all that time we were dealing and she’d already
had him safely away. I messaged Conrad. Seconds later, his reply was unprintable. He ordered an immediate search of Vara’s home, Dubnus’s room here in the other ranks barracks, his buddy Calenthus’s room. My earpiece pinged.

  ‘I’m on my way to see Vara.’ I could hear the anger rocketing through his voice. ‘Get Dubnus’s apprehension entered on the Joint Watch List stat and message Lurio to take personal charge for the custodes, then get out there and join the search.’

  Lurio grunted when I called him.

  ‘I suppose you want an apology,’ he said.

  ‘Yes, later. You can go down on your knees and grovel, but at the moment I want everything locked down – trains, airport, all border posts. Immediately.’

  ‘I’ve just seen the Joint Watch List. Wait one.’

  I heard tapping on a keyboard.

  ‘Done.’

  ‘Will you be sending us a new minister soon?’ Lurio said.

  ‘Fuck off, Lurio.’

  ‘You too, Bruna.’

  * * *

  Reports rolled in within the hour. No sign of Dubnus at the three locations; search groups were taking his and Celanthus’s rooms apart, Celanthus was in an interrogation room with Murria and forensic staff searching his and Dubnus’s computers and Celanthus’s phone. Vara’s house steward had been troublesome, but they had ‘quarantined’ him, then made the search.

  I was buckling on my light webbing set and vest when Conrad strode into the watch room. I didn’t want to ask him in front of the command staff, so I just raised one eyebrow. He shook his head and clenched his fist. He pulled me to one side.

  ‘One day, I’ll be kneeling in the sand waiting for the blade for that woman,’ he whispered. His face was hard, his eyes like stone. ‘I’ll tell you the details later, but basically, she shrugged it off.’ He nodded towards the screens. ‘Anything?’

  ‘Zilch.’

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘I’m meeting Daniel and a detail at Dubnus’s mother’s place out on the Aquae Caesaris road. It’s on the obvious list, so we can’t not search it.’