The Marcquesa’s resemblance to Elli was uncanny. She seemed to be the spitting image of Elli, the only difference being her darker colouring. Elli wondered whether the disguise was deliberate. Was it to confuse her, to scare her or to show her that she could be disposed of and easily replaced?
The Marcquesa smiled an ironic smile. ‘You don’t remember do you?’ She paused. ‘Think back, a long way back, to when you were a child. Do you remember your parents? Shall I answer it for you? Of course not. You were too young when they perished. You remember what happened, don’t you? And do you remember whether you had a sister? You do. Good.
‘Do you remember her? She was innocent back then, wasn’t she? None of you knew what hit you, what dark forces shattered your charmed existence. You thought that girl was dead, didn’t you?’
She paused for effect, her eyes looking directly at Elli, searching Elli’s face for any sign of recognition. And she waited. And waited. And waited. To her disappointment no such sign came.
‘I am that girl, Elli.’ She declared slowly, emphasising every word. She paused to let it sink in. There was almost a hint of regret in her words, easily missed. ‘You were lucky. You were left behind and raised by a good family. Demetrius and his wife loved you like a daughter. But I was not so lucky. I ended up here. Do you want to know why they only took me while they spared you?
‘They could have killed you of course, but they didn’t, probably because at the last minute they decided they wanted the challenge that you would give them in the future. They kept me, Elli, because I had a defect, a stigma. Do you remember that tattoo-like mark near my navel? That was the mark of the Ruinands.
‘As I found out much later, their oracle told them that I could not be brought up to be good, but was rotten to the core. Do you see? I was doomed from birth. My future was written at my birth and there was nothing our parents or I could do to change it. They were told I was one of them, one of the Ruinands. It’s too late to change now, to go back to those lovely carefree days, to what might have been. But who says I want to do that?’
Elli was not yet ready to accept what she had just heard. It all sounded too preposterous to be true. Even though the facts were staring her in the eye, surely those were facts that the Marcquesa could very easily have found out from various sources.
There was nothing unique in that story that only those present, the exclusive group of the Marcquesa and Elli, would have known. ‘I see you have left any hint of decency, principle or humanity at the door, or in your own personal prison that you inhabit. I don’t know what you are playing at.’
‘You don’t believe me, I see. Well a DNA analysis would resolve your dilemma and dispel your doubts and in fact we can have it done right here in this city. You can observe in case you may think I will interfere with the result. We’ll take a recess until this is done. Elli, you are coming with me. The others will stay here. Enjoy yourselves. We will not be long.’
A roar of voices filled the chamber in defiance to the Marcquesa, but taking advantage of her absence. The gossip and speculation flowed freely.
Those present could not believe their luck at the prime entertainment enacted for their benefit, a rare sight indeed, made all the more exciting because of the dreariness of this little place that was governed by fear, a depressing life that was in stark contrast to the impressive visual accomplishment surrounding them, the living and extraordinary testament to the talent and vision of the creators of this city, of this marvel that was Le Mirabel.
The audience marvelled to at the tingling-to-the-ear sensation of the contrasting female voices of the two protagonists in the drama that had unfolded in the chamber, one deep (Elli), the other high-pitched and painful to the brain (the Marcquesa).
Huge enjoyment was derived from the high-octane verbal battle of wills, the exchange of civilised insults back and forth like a tennis match. The audience was anxiously looking forward to the next act. How delicious. They wouldn’t miss it for the world.
* * *
Within twenty minutes they were back. From Elli’s face they all knew that what the Marcquesa said was true. They were indeed sisters.
‘Now, my dear Elli, there is someone here I want you to meet.’ She turned to one of her servants. ‘Bring him in.’ Andrew Le Charos was brought in none the worse for wear, looking as fresh as if he had come out of a mountain spring moments before. ‘Andrew and I have found some common ground, haven’t we, darling?’ The Marcquesa gently squeezed and pulled at his chin as she said that.
Elli was confused. This was an unexpected development. ‘What is the meaning of this, Marcquesa?’ Then she turned to Andrew. ‘Do you know what you are doing allying yourself with her?’ Even as she said it she knew it was pointless when she saw his blank face looking at his mistress with complete adoration, enraptured by her.
What had they done to him? It was obvious to Elli that Andrew had been brainwashed. But how? The “why” was easier to guess, considering Andrew’s connection to Elli’s and Andros Markantaskis’ families. Was there anything of him left in there at all, she wondered. Elli addressed the Marcquesa. ‘What are you planning to do with us?’
‘Well, I do want the mines and the information from you and from Giorgos, and until you give it to me, you are not going anywhere. You will be wondering why John Halland is here. I thought about that long and hard and almost left him behind, but he has been close to this matter and I’m sure that he has certain knowledge he would be very kind to share with us, though he keeps protesting to the contrary.’
The Marcquesa paused and turned to look at Giorgos.
‘Giorgos, you may be interested to know that your dear old friend, James Calvell, has joined his maker in the sky and will no longer be helping you or anyone else for that matter. Nor will he be bothering us either.’
Giorgos went ashen. He felt a chill travel down his spine and through his veins and arteries reach every part of his body. He was in a state of shock and disbelief. She must be lying, he thought. But would she be bluffing to scare us into submission? He answered his own question. Yes, of course she would.
She couldn’t exactly be trusted, now, could she? She would have no compunction whatsoever in toying with them, just to see her captives squirm and to amuse herself with watching her captives’ reaction to her tricks and surprises and her inflammatory verbal bombs that had been premeditated and were carefully targeted.
The Marcquesa cut through Giorgos’ thoughts.
‘Maybe we should have done the same with John here. He is disposable, just like his boss. But maybe, Giorgos here will be persuaded with the death sentence hanging over John as well as his parents to cooperate. One by one you will be tortured slowly with the others watching. So, Giorgos, I would suggest that you reconsider.’
The Marcquesa addressed her minions.
‘Put them in the isolation cell where they shall remain until they come to their senses.’
Before she was led out, Elli had a last word. She turned and looked at her nemesis and sister. Her captors holding her by the arms and pulling her away sensed the strength emanating from her and washing over them and automatically released her as if hypnotised by her defiance into doing so. Then Elli spoke.
‘My dear Marcquesa, that power of the last Emperor you seek is not real. It’s just a myth. Stop this ridiculous charade and let us do the good deed we have to do.’
‘Elli … defiant to your last breath. Why am I not surprised? You can’t fool me with this desperate act. You are as ruthless and power-hungry as I am. We share the same blood, the same genes after all.’
Elli spat irony. ‘I wouldn’t want to see you disappointed, that’s all. Because I know your fury will consume you and those working for you, and anyone unlucky enough to inadvertently cross your path will dearly pay for your loss. You don’t know how to lose graciously, dear sister. I haven’t forgotten how you would react as the precocious child that you were, if you did not get your own way.
‘And you w
ould take revenge. A child’s revenge can be cruel, but yours was in a league of its own, crueller than most. Yes, you were right and they were right to tell you that you were rotten from birth. It was in your genes. You were spiteful with a sting that stung more savagely than anything anyone had experienced, than I have experienced since then. I still bear the marks and scars of your endeavours and taste its bitter taste all the way to my heart. Yours is a mean streak like no other, such an integral part of you, that it doesn’t go away.’
Elli said her piece in one fast torrent. She was almost out of breath. Then she relaxed, but was still shaking and panting from the effort. She was desperately taking in mouthfuls of air as if she had just been drowning and was saved from the teeth of certain death.
The Marcquesa, though secretly boiling with anger at the truth of Elli’s words, did not make any attempt to interrupt her and furthermore indicated to her underlings to do the same.
When Elli had finished the Marcquesa did not reply, but just laughed, a loud, ugly laugh that made the hairs of everybody present stand on end, in salute, as if ordered to attention by her power.
After that surreal exchange the prisoners were led away back to the minimalist comfort of their cells.
CHAPTER 54
Le Mirabel (Ruinand underwater city)
Marathon Bay, Greece
Present day
Vasilis and Katerina were flying into Le Mirabel in a converted cargo plane that carried, amongst other things, a small submarine that would take them to the underwater city. With them was a crew of ten, former members of the Special Forces, including the pilot and the controller of the submarine.
Vasilis had selected a small team. He wanted to get in and out quickly and reduce the risk of detection and alerting the city’s authorities. The plane had special equipment for avoiding detection and for jamming the target city’s radar systems.
On approaching the city the anti-detection measures went into effect. But Vasilis had also arranged for help on the inside. He had enough insiders in important positions to paralyse the city’s defences and security measures with one message. He had already communicated with his spies and had agreed estimated arrival times. They were expecting them.
The journey from Cyprus took an hour and a half. Once the plane reached the Bay of Marathon in Greece, it flew low, the back hatch was opened in mid-air and the submarine with Vasilis and Katerina and eight of the crew, in addition to the controller of the submarine, was dropped into the sea and quickly submerged.
Just outside the city limits everyone aboard, apart from the controller, put on diving suits and equipment and left the submarine for the final leg into the city. They expected the doors at a particular spot to be opened by Vasilis’ insiders.
Somehow, whether betrayed by a double spy or by accident, they tripped the alert systems upon entering the city. Intruder alert sirens broke the city’s routine and every citizen scuppered from their daily activities to go to their allocated posts and duties.
Vasilis cursed. This meant they would need to move faster than planned. They at least still had the element of surprise on their side. The city’s occupiers wouldn’t know what hit them.
By the time the Ruinands realised what was going on and got organised into a real threat capable of scuppering Vasilis’ plans, Vasilis and his team would have what they came for and would be out of the city at a safe distance and out of their firing range. That was the plan anyway.
Vasilis knew the city’s weaknesses and had arranged for the defence and tracking systems to be neutralised, or so he believed. As he discovered with the alarm they triggered, there were secret back-up systems he was not aware of. Before launching themselves into mingling with the locals, they donned disguises that would allow them to blend in.
Vasilis, through his surveillance systems, had been monitoring everything that had been taking place inside the city. Combined with intelligence from his spies he knew the exact location of the cells and of the Marcquesa herself.
Vasilis and Katerina would head straight to the Marcquesa’s strong room to get the items she had stolen and that they needed for their ultimate act in the last Emperor’s tomb.
The rest of the team would go straight for the cells and they would meet up later at one of the escape pods. They would use the escape pod to send the rescued out while Vasilis, Katerina and the team would go back out the way they came. The pod would be lifted into the plane once it reached the surface.
When the eight men reached the cells they split into two. They knew already that the captives were located in two cells close to each other. Vasilis hoped that his information was accurate and that nothing had changed.
As the alarms were triggered, panic and furious activity spread throughout the city. Nobody had heard this sound before. At the beginning they didn’t know what to make of it. But the realisation slowly dawned on them that it was not a drill. There were intruders actually inside the city. It had never happened before. The only ones who were not allowed to move were the guards in the cells.
Elli and the others had only two hours earlier been deposited in their cells. At least they were thankful that their captors were, in their arrogance and complacency, not concerned enough or had simply not thought of them as a threat to put them in isolation, into separate cells, to prevent them from planning anything.
Elli, Aristo, Giorgos and John were furiously weighing their options and different plans for an escape when they heard the deafening sound of the alarms that caused the whole place to vibrate violently. They could feel their bodies vibrate like a piano chord. But they knew what it meant. Elli put it into words. ‘It’s a rescue. And I bet you it’s Vasilis.’
Aristo turned surprised. ‘Vasilis? But how?’
‘That was a pet project of mine. Haven’t you wondered why you had not seen him for a while? You didn’t seriously believe those stories about trips to farflung mines and operations with tricky communications, did you? Those stories were deliberately spread. I had him installed as a spy within the Ruinands.
‘We managed to have them believe that he was the victim of serious displeasure at my hands and had been banished and blacklisted and forbidden from having any contact with the family. For a while he became one of them, lived, breathed, ate as one of them and had the run of this city that he got to know very well.
‘They were happy to have one of my sons at their beck and call and to boss around. Little did they know that he had been subverting them from the inside. He did the groundwork and put down the foundations for a rescue, if necessary, and more. The whole place is bugged. We’ve known everything that has been going on. It’s all been monitored from my house in Limassol.’
‘But why didn’t you … ?’
‘… didn’t I tell you, you mean? Because I couldn’t risk the slightest leak. I could not risk the Ruinands getting wind of it.’
Aristo played out the following scenario in his mind of a hypothetical conversation with his mother about this matter, a scenario he very well knew he could not enact in that place, at that time, as they were not alone.
As the moment was not appropriate then, that would be the end of any discussion on it. Aristo’s thoughts on the matter would not be raised at a later time as such an act would be childish then as it would in essence be childish, if raised, now.
His hypothetical scenario went something like this:
“Aristo knew the right thing to say would be ‘you must have had your reasons’ and leave it at that. But that’s not what came out before he could stop himself. ‘Didn’t you trust me?’
‘Of course I did. And I do. How could you doubt that? But the Ruinands have eyes and ears everywhere and they would have picked up on the slightest nuance of any difference in your behaviour. It did not matter whether you knew or not, because you would not have been expected to be hostile to your brother irrespective of his falling out of favour with me. You behaved as I expected you to. But if you had known, it might have been a bit difficult to
carry out the perfect pretence.
‘The risk was simply too great. In addition, it was possible that you may have been captured and tortured to reveal our secrets. And you were. You are here a prisoner after all. That you have not been tortured and may now be rescued is lucky.’
Aristo was not entirely convinced with his mother’s explanation. And even though their rescue was probably imminent, he wanted to further question his mother on why she had kept this project a secret from him.
He waited for her, as she alluded to the possibility of his capture, to concede that the same could happen to her, which it did, but as she did not admit her own vulnerable position in the same situation, he would throw the same argument that his mother used back at her.
‘What about if you were captured and tortured? And you were. And here we are together, unless I’m mistaken and you are an honoured and pampered guest here and free to walk out of here at any time or you are just a hologram and the real Elli Symitzis is at this very moment sitting at home.’
Aristo could see he was taking this too far and that his behaviour was bordering on rude and in front of other people. This was getting out of control. He had to soften his stance and release the tense tones of his argument with his mother.
But he had to ask one final thing that bothered him even though he half-knew the answer to his question before he let it free. ‘Wasn’t the risk higher by not telling me?’
Elli ignored Aristo’s challenge, though his arguments were valid, and decided to end this conversation.
‘Well, you knew Vasilis had been on the lookout for Ruinands wherever they hid around us. That mission was an extension of those duties. Vasilis was assigned with infiltrating the Ruinands’ lair. You had other important things to do. You couldn’t be distracted. If you had known, you might have faced a conflict of loyalties that might have become apparent.
‘Although it would be expected that in the end you would defy me and would not ostracise your brother, but would keep in contact with him, as apart from familial loyalties, you would regard my break with your brother as a personal difference of opinion between him and me.
The Emperor Awakes Page 39
