The Emperor Awakes

by Alexis Konnaris

  Her face still a bit clouded, she looked at Katerina. ‘Katerina, sorry about that, but …’

  Katerina smiled amused. ‘Sorry for what? It’s alright. I hadn’t realised before now how much alike they were. I must have got used to them and don’t notice it anymore.’

  Dora nodded, still not trusting herself to speak. But she quickly recovered, becoming her usual consummate professional self. ‘Now, let me start all over again. Welcome back. It’s good to see you Mr Vasilis.’

  ‘Thanks, Dora.’ Katerina and Vasilis answered almost in unison, which caused all three of them to laugh.

  When they all recovered from their bout of laughter, Dora turned to Katerina. ‘How was your holiday?’

  ‘It was short but good, thanks. And the weather was glorious, if a little on the hot side. I had a good much-needed rest.’ Katerina put on a bright and untroubled face. However, inside her worry for Aristo was causing mayhem.

  ‘You work too hard, boss. This is the first break you’ve had in a year.’

  ‘Anything happened while I were away?’

  ‘No, nothing. It’s been quite uneventful around here. Unless you count a fire next door a report-worthy event. Oh, but don’t worry, it was snuffed out in no time and very little damage was caused. But honestly, you haven’t missed any excitement. Anyway I’ll leave you to catch up with your emails.’

  ‘Thanks, Dora. I’ll see you later.’

  Within seconds Dora was gone, closing the door softly behind her.

  Katerina was going through her post when she noticed a postcard. She turned it over and her face told Vasilis that it was important. She could not speak. It was from her brother, Giorgos. Vasilis got up and went to stand behind Katerina.

  They both stared at the postcard and its short message. Katerina spoke first.

  ‘It looks like a normal postcard you would send while on holiday.’

  ‘And yet something about it is not quite right, but I’m struggling to put my finger on it.’ Vasilis said.

  ‘He must be trying to tell us something. Judging by what we saw at his home he must be in some sort of danger and he must be sending us a message.’

  Vasilis was trying to drag a memory of something that seemed long ago now. Katerina turned the postcard over again to look at the front photograph. And then it struck her. It was the oddity of that photograph. She realised what was bothering her.

  ‘Don’t you find it odd that someone on holiday outside Cyprus would send a postcard with the photograph of Limassol Castle?’

  ‘You are right. Yes. Of course. Unless he had taken the postcard with him and posted it from there.’

  Katerina shook her head. ‘But that would not make any sense.’

  ‘Alternatively, he may have sent it from Cyprus before he left, in case he forgot when he got there. That’s assuming he has left Cyprus. But then you are right. It seems unlikely that his house was ransacked after he had left. If as we suspect the blood there is his, though not certain without analysis, then he must have been taken away, after putting up some resistance, judging by the signs of a furious fight there.’

  Katerina said nothing, but was shaking her head as if she was trying to work something out that didn’t fit. She looked at the postcard again. She focused on the postmark.

  She then had an idea and tapped on the postcard with her forefinger.

  ‘Look at the postmark, though. It’s a Turkish one. And the date on the postcard is yesterday’s. My mother said that he had left at around noon yesterday. He would have had to take a flight via Athens, as because of the political situation here there are no direct flights between Cyprus and Turkey. He would have landed at one of the big cities such as Istanbul or Izmir, old Smyrna, and he would then have had to take an internal flight. Would he have had time to post the postcard for it to arrive today?’

  ‘Could someone else have posted it for him on his instructions?’

  ‘I suppose it is possible but unlikely.’ Katerina paused and then became excited. ‘He must have discovered something. Elli had him working on the location of the tomb. He was researching it furiously. He had asked Katia, a member of the expedition in Cappadocia to come to Cyprus to help him.’ She paused. ‘By the way, what about her? I wonder whether she was involved in whatever happened at that house.

  ‘Do you think she may have been taken too, or could she be in hiding? Vasilis, I think we should try and see if we can find her. If she’s still around she may be able to give us a clue as to what they had found or what happened. Then again she may have gone into hiding, especially if she had seen something or what happened at the house or, just maybe, if she had not been able to contact Giorgos.’

  ‘You know it may be a long shot, but let’s put someone onto checking the hospitals just in case they come up with something.’ As he said that Vasilis was thinking the worse for both Giorgos and Katia. It was not just his practical mind talking.

  There was something else troubling him, something related to Katia and hospitals that he could not remember, but had no doubt prompted him to mention checking hospitals. He was struggling to dredge the thought when he heard Katerina speaking and came back to the present.

  ‘Yes. That’s a good idea. Giorgos must have found something. He must have known that he was being followed and wanted to make sure whatever information he had discovered was imparted to us and did not fall into the wrong hands, in case anything happened to him. Yet when I last spoke to him he didn’t show any sign of concern and did not mention anything. Something must have happened since I last spoke to him.’ She paused. ‘Or maybe something had happened already before I spoke to him or even since, and he didn’t want to worry me.’

  ‘Katerina, I saw him two days ago.’

  ‘You did? But how? Why didn’t you tell me this before?’

  ‘Katerina, it was only an hour ago that we were at Giorgos’ home and what we saw there got the ball rolling for all this speculation. It’s only now that I realised the significance of that night.’

  ‘Vasilis, please. Tell me what happened.’

  ‘He and Katia, through their research, found clues leading to Limassol Castle. They were investigating there when they found something, this small bust.’ As he spoke he took the bust out of his pocket. ‘Giorgos said that Katia took it when they decided to call it a day and walked back to her car. He followed her out a while later. He heard a scream and when he went to her car she was barely alive and the bust was gone.’

  Seeing Katerina’s shocked expression, he rushed to reassure her. ‘Yes, he said he had called for an ambulance to take her away. She’s probably still at the hospital. You can’t have gone through that and be out in two days.’

  ‘Vasilis, where did you see him?’

  ‘Yes, I’m coming to that. Giorgos realised he was being followed and went to his friend Maria’s house. It was there that I saw him. He had called me to ask me to go there and help him get rid of his pursuer.’

  He saw her face go white and rushed to explain. ‘Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. His pursuer had caught up with him at Maria’s house. By the time I got there he was no longer a threat. He had been neutralised with Maria’s help and I just arranged for him to be taken away. Giorgos had found the bust taken from Katia in his pursuer’s pocket.’

  ‘What happened afterwards? Where did Giorgos go?’ Katerina wanted answers and she wanted them now.

  ‘I left soon after my men had taken away the pursuer. I was in a hurry, because I had left a board meeting to go and help him and I had to get back, which I did of course only when I was certain that there was no further danger, at least there anyway. I would have thought he would probably have gone home or, now that I think about it, if he thought that home might not have been safe, I don’t know where he might have gone.

  ‘But then whose is the blood at his house if not his? He must have gone home and they must have been still watching him, and followed him and got him and the bust as well. Otherwise we would have seen it ther
e. That’s what they must have been looking for.’

  Katerina had her priorities right.

  ‘We need to check up on Katia. We need to make sure that she’s alright and that she’s receiving the best medical care. I may have to arrange to have her moved to a private clinic at our expense. And we need to talk to her about what she and Giorgos have found out. Let’s hope she’s in a fit state to talk, and doctor’s orders permitting of course.’ She paused.

  ‘All their research was most probably at Giorgos’ house. And if it was, then I’m sure it’s all gone. They must have taken it. That’s why the laptop and my brother’s hard drive are missing. But knowing my brother, he must have had an insurance policy. He must have taken precautions.

  ‘He must have had backed up the files in his laptop and hard drive. And not at his house or the office. It must be some place where they would not even think to look, a safe place.’ She was thinking furiously. She turned to Vasilis. ‘Vasilis? You look as if you are miles away. Have you heard anything of what I just said?’

  ‘Yes, I have.’ He looked up at her, but not really seeing her, actually seeing right through her.

  Katerina pressed him. ‘What is it?’

  Vasilis thought back to that strange night and then it struck him. ‘There was something else. I believe that Giorgos may have found something significant. He tried to tell me. I forgot about it until now, but he started to say something when the men I had sent for to come and get their pursuer arrived and distracted us. And then it all got forgotten. Otherwise I would have reminded him and asked him about it.

  ‘The intruder was a Ruinand and his chums must have been the ones at Giorgos’ house looking for the small bust and his research. I would bet that Giorgos is in the Ruinands’ protective custody. And I know you are thinking it, but I believe …’

  ‘Don’t say it.’ Katerina cut Vasilis off. She was afraid the worst for her brother, even though she didn’t want to accept it could happen.

  ‘… he’s still alive. He’s much too useful to them. They should be pumping him for information as we speak.’ Vasilis saw Katerina’s expression soften, but the relief did not last long as her expression tightened again. A worrying thought crossed her mind.

  ‘If he’s hiding and we were searching for him we could be putting him in further danger, especially if this is part of some plan of his to throw them off the scent.’

  ‘It is possible.’ As Vasilis looked at Katerina he saw determination overriding emotion. When she spoke it was her common sense coming to the fore.

  ‘Then again, how could he be in any worse danger than he already is, that we all are, considering what happened in Crete as well?’

  ‘You never did tell me the whole story of what happened to you there.’

  ‘I told your mum. I’ll tell you some other time. There has just been too much to cope with. Anyway, the ‘hiding’ option is beginning to look more unlikely with every passing minute.’ Katerina thumbed the postcard and looked at Vasilis.

  ‘This postcard was his back-up plan, his plan B. We have to figure it out. It should give us all the clues we need to pick up from where Giorgos left off. I know this is what he meant for us to do and not waste precious time looking for him. We’ll worry about him later.

  ‘Besides we don’t know where to start and we should not be diverted from the main issue of resolving this mystery and bringing it to a successful conclusion in our side’s favour. This should be our main objective. This is bigger than any one of us even though where loved ones are involved we may want to do otherwise. By solving the mystery we help him by honouring and continuing what he has done so far too.’

  Vasilis knew it was hard for Katerina to find the courage to say what she just said and he saw the sense in her words. He joined her in studying the postcard.

  They looked at the back of the postcard, but again nothing jumped out at them from the text. Suddenly Katerina seemed to have thought of something and she examined the front photograph again.

  ‘Vasilis, take a look at this.’

  With her finger she indicated some text in very small, almost illegible characters at the top right-hand corner, almost lost in the foliage in the photo. She opened a drawer and took out a magnifying glass. She could see characters that did not make any sense to her whatsoever.

  Yet, there was something at the back of her mind that made her feel as if she had seen those characters before. Then she remembered.

  ‘Vasilis, you won’t believe me, but I know how to read this.’

  ‘What do you mean you can read this? How?’

  ‘It’s a code, an alphabet we made up with Giorgos when we were kids. We have rarely used it in years.’

  ‘And you remember it?’

  ‘I do.’ She paused. ‘To tell you the truth I don’t remember it by heart, but that’s what a key to a code is for.’ She pushed a button under her desk and part of the floor next to her desk rose, revealing a safe. She opened it and, after a brief search, found what she was looking for.

  Vasilis was curious and leaned down to have a look at this code. It was one of the most complicated codes he had seen in his life. These kids should have been taken off the market and given jobs in cryptography departments of the secret services or the software industry.

  Katerina had already deciphered the message. She only needed a quick look at the key to the code and her near-photographic memory did the rest. Of course it was like learning to ride a bike. You never forgot. Seeing the key to the code it triggered that part of her brain that had it stored and could do it with her eyes closed, so to speak.

  ‘The message on the card says “mother’s laptop -put things in the right order.” That must be the clue to the folder name or password.’

  ‘Katerina, maybe the document on the laptop is password-protected.’

  ‘Let’s get to my parents house and check mum’s laptop.’

  On their way out, Dora started to say something, but Katerina gestured gently for her to stop.

  ‘I’m sorry, but whatever it is it will have to wait, please, Dora. I need to go out urgently.’

  ‘Of course, it can wait.’

  ‘I’ll be back later. We’ll talk then.’

  * * *

  At her parents’ home, her mother was baffled.

  ‘Katerina, darling, and Vasilis, it’s so good to see you both. Katerina, I wasn’t expecting you until later this evening. Have you come to help me with the cooking? Has my perennially workaholic daughter suddenly developed a hole in the head?’

  Katerina shivered inside at the analogy with the danger they were in. Her mother was still talking. ‘You can’t have already managed to catch up with work. I even half expected you to change your mind about dinner and spend the night at the office. Has the building got tired of you and spat you out?’

  Katerina always enjoyed her mother’s turn of phrase. ‘Hi, mum. Nice to see you too.’

  She hugged and kissed her mother. But Katerina’s calm exterior did not work its magic on Anna. She knew her daughter too well to be fooled. She could see the signs and could sense that something was bothering her. There was an underlying impatience in her daughter’s demeanour.

  ‘Darling, what’s wrong?’

  ‘Mum, you are as bad as dad. I think you both worry too much about Giorgos and me and refuse to believe that we’ve grown up and have our problems, which we have to deal by ourselves. We won’t always have you watching our backs.’

  ‘You will understand when you have children of your own. It is the one job in the world you never retire from, well, obviously, until you die that is. The other side of the coin is that your children are also, hopefully, your pension. When it’s payback time, you’ll know, love.’

  Katerina’s face showed her shock and Anna noticed. ‘I was joking, of course. Now you have confirmed my fears. If you have forgotten your sense of humour, something’s very wrong. Is it you or is it Giorgos?’

  Vasilis smiled to himself at an exchange betwee
n parent and child taking place in every house in the country.

  ‘Vasilis and I are dealing with it. Mum, was Giorgos here using your laptop recently?’

  ‘Yes, he said he wanted to install some software, make some updates. Why?’

  ‘Can I have a look?’

  ‘Katerina, what’s all this about?’

  ‘I’ll tell you later.’

  Anna knew better than to argue with her daughter. It was a match she could not win. She would bet against herself if she could, if a betting shop would accept her bet.

  ‘This way darling.’

  Katerina sat at her mother’s desk and turned on the laptop. She didn’t want to go through all the files and she thought of her brother’s message. “Put the right things in order.”

  The word “order” jumped out at her. Of course. It must be the Order of Vlachernae. Brilliant. Too obvious to be true. She searched for files under that name and she found the folder. She clicked to open it.

  A window popped up asking for a password. She hesitated only briefly. She picked up the postcard and the magnifying glass that she had brought with her.

  She saw the characters under the message, which were also in their childhood made-up alphabet that included numbers as well. There were twelve lines of code. Each one must be a password. She typed the first one and it worked. She completed all twelve lines. She was in.

  She saw various sub-folders. Their names were not clear, but seemed to be in the same code as well. So if anyone came to this point would still not be any the wiser as to their content.

  She deciphered the names of the sub-folders. Then she began clicking on them. Each sub-folder required a password to open. She referred back to the postcard to enter the passwords and access the folders.

  There were plans, geological scans, word documents with historical research, scanned pages from books, photographs and conclusions, undoubtedly written by Giorgos and Katia.

  As they were going through the material, Katerina turned to Vasilis. ‘That’s great. If he has made it so difficult to get in this means that his captors would not be able to crack the passwords so the research they’ve taken would be useless to them. Good. That should give us a head start.’