INCEPTIO (Roma Nova)

by Alison Morton

  ‘What is it, Apollo – dorus?’ I added hastily.

  ‘Nobody has ever shortened my name.’

  I peeped up at him through my eyelashes. ‘Probably far too scared of you.’

  His lips were compressed into a grim line. Then they parted, his mouth opened and a laugh escaped. ‘You are the most abominable girl.’

  I joined in, mostly from nervous relief, like a reprieved court jester.

  ‘Never in front of anybody else, please.’

  Thus chastised, I excused myself, gathered up my papers and fled, although in a dignified way, to the dining room.

  XLVIII

  After lunch, I only had two visitors. The first was Hermina who opened her heart to me. She’d shrugged off a comfortable and happy childhood and married a complete waster. Nevertheless, she’d moved worlds to try and save the marriage. She’d given and he’d taken everything, including her confidence and self-respect. When Apollodorus turned up at her door to collect a large debt run up by her ex-husband, she’d had nothing. The house was rented; she was destitute and terrified.

  ‘I’d been so contemptuous of my parents’ warnings. Luckily, they died before it fell apart. After the divorce, I toughened up. It was brutal but effective.’ Her hazel eyes were serious, but escaped being dour. ‘I love this job with Apollodorus. I know he’s not exactly legal, but he’s very kind.’ She looked at me as if expecting me to disagree.

  ‘I think he’s tough and demanding but will protect you to the extremes of his ability. That’s quite an asset in an employer, Hermina.’

  I would try and save her when it was finished.

  Flavius surprised me. I would have put my money on Philippus.

  ‘I’m trying to work you out, Pulcheria. You’re as tough as Hades.’ He looked at me, his eyes full of speculation. ‘But perhaps that’s only on the surface. I’m sure there’s something else going on. And don’t give me all that stuff about investments – that’s not the reason.’

  ‘Finished?’

  ’I suppose so.’

  ‘You made some good arguments at the meeting, Flavius, and I appreciate your support.’ I laid my hand on his tanned forearm. ‘Do you think you can trust me?’ I liked Flavius; he was balanced and steady.

  ‘I’m probably certifiable, but yes.’

  As we worked on the fine planning, Apollodorus seemed as driven as I was, but I worried that I couldn’t catch a glimpse of his true motivation. Maybe profit and control were enough for him. Somehow I doubted it.

  I met with Dolcius to discuss equipment. Although he had a workshop full of electronic gizmos, it was makeshift. He hinted there was little funding to spend on things. As an immediate step, I ordered IT equipment to do away with the paper mountain. Flavius and Philippus struggled for a few days with it. Justus and Hermina took to it like cats to milk. Apollodorus just did it.

  Goldlights continued to be profitable – this was crucial – not least thanks to our viral marketing. I was going through figures with Martina, who had slipped efficiently into the club manager role, when a compact, baby-faced man carrying a solid-looking business case bustled into the club. He looked like a parody of a 1950s salesman, even to the trilby on his head. Philippus was right behind him, so I knew he’d been checked out. Martina went over to deal with him. I carried on with the spreadsheets but watched from under my eyelashes. Martina returned with a little card on which were printed two words: Uncle Frank

  ‘It’s fine, Martina, I’ll deal with this.’

  She gave me a curious look, shrugged and turned back to her netbook. I gestured the little man to another table out of earshot. Philippus made to follow but I waved him back.

  ‘So how is Uncle Frank?’ I asked in English.

  ‘He sends his warmest and asks if you still have the snow goose?’

  I laughed. ‘Is that supposed to be a code word?’ It was a plush toy Uncle Frank had given me as a sixth birthday gift. I’d clutched it to me all the way from New Hampshire to Nebraska and for months afterward until it disintegrated.

  I dialled a special number Apollodorus had given me and was patched through to an encrypted channel. It could probably be broken by a specialist, he admitted, so best kept for one-time use only. This was exactly the reason why Mr Shorty was here in front of me.

  ‘Hi, Uncle Frank. Yes, he’s here. Could you describe him for me?’ I watched the messenger while listening.

  I turned to the man. ‘Please take off your coat and shirt and turn round.’ I ran my scanner over the skin on his back, seeking the chip under the teres major muscle. The display showed mark and number as Frank described. And everything else about the messenger. I stopped scrolling after line twenty. I swallowed hard. I would never look at roast pork again in the same way. How in Hades did Uncle Frank know such a creature? I nodded at the messenger to dress. He was totally deadpan throughout the whole process.

  I handed him the cell and he spoke to Frank. I took my right boot off and gritted my teeth, determined not to react to his touch as he examined the birthmark on my foot. I put my boot back on; he deposited the bag on the table in front of me, nodded, and then waddled off. I released my breath.

  I handed the supermobiles out before dinner.

  ‘These are prototypes; they’re super-encrypted and not known to the security services here, or anywhere for that matter. They’ll run on our normal network, but appear as ordinary phones. If anybody tries to intercept, an engaged note will sound. This doesn’t mean we can ignore our standard protocols, but it gives us a higher level of protection and security.’

  They all looked intrigued and pleased, even Justus.

  ‘They’re governed by a key which I hold. If a unit gets lost or goes missing, for whatever reason, you must tell me. I will then bar it. If I think our group is compromised, I will pull the key and all the phones will be useless. However, I can reactivate with a new key.’

  I was starting to know my colleagues, but had not reached the stage where I trusted them completely. ‘A word of warning. If anybody is overwhelmed by the desire to open their unit, or otherwise tamper with it, it’ll stop working. The person holding the phone at the time will get a deep burn, liable to heal slowly and with lasting damage.’

  Justus pursed his lips in disappointment. Flavius half-smiled.

  I looked at Apollodorus. ‘I have one or two spares. Is there anybody else you think should have one?’

  ‘Perhaps the doctor. The authorities tend to be sensitive about gunshot wounds; we need to ensure calls about such matters are kept confidential. Not, of course, that we’ll need him, if all goes well.’

  XLIX

  A week after Justus started sending rumours down his informant networks, we had the first undercover cops in. I was sitting in my office with Flavius when Martina put her head around the door.

  ‘Zone 4. Table 15. DJ, I think.’

  I nodded and she disappeared. I zoomed in: a man and woman, looking like two people on a date, studying the menu.

  Flavius looked intently at the images for a few minutes. ‘They’re not right. No rapport. No eye signals. Not even trying to touch each other.’

  Flav took stills from the cameras and ran them through a database.

  The Department of Justice database? I hoped not.

  ‘Yeah, here they are – DJ. Not very good, are they.’ He smiled at me. ‘I’ll go and say hello.’

  He grabbed an earpiece, synched it with the comms kit under his tuxedo and disappeared through the door. I saw him a minute later, on camera, drifting through the floor area, greeting guests, having a word with Martina, and ending up at the couple’s table.

  ‘Good evening,’ his disembodied voice said. ‘Enjoying the atmosphere?’

  They smiled and nodded back.

  He bent closer to them. ‘Always a pleasure to see our taxes are being well spent by the custodes taking a personal interest in supporting local business.’

  The woman looked chagrined; she spoke too low for me to hear. Flavius kep
t a bland smile pinned on his face.

  ‘I think it’s time for you to leave.’ He beckoned over one of the security staff. Within minutes, the two of them had escorted the cops out onto the rainy street. I sympathised with them; they were only doing their job.

  Back in my office, I asked Flavius what we should expect next.

  ‘Probably a more able team tomorrow or later in the week. I’m surprised they were so bad. Even DJ are usually better than that.’

  ‘Unless, of course, it was a dry run or it was for somebody else’s benefit,’ I said. Had Lurio sent them in?

  Flavius went back to the screens. I stood behind his chair while he scanned through. He panned around and zoomed in on a table of three men and a woman.

  ‘What do you think of them?’ he asked.

  ‘They look pretty normal. Oh, that middle one’s watching everything. Look at how he’s following Martina. No, it’s not just her, he’s searching for something. Ah, he just checked out the service door. Yeah, he’s in the frame, all right. Apart from the trophy babe, I figure the others with him are probably—’

  I stopped breathing. I grasped the back of the chair. No.

  Flav was concentrating on the screens, but swung around as I stopped my running commentary.

  ‘What?’

  My eyes were glued to the screen. It was him – the wavy brown hair and the frameless glasses. It was definitely him.

  I pulled my smile back together for Flavius. ‘I’m fine, Flav. Sorry about that.’

  Of course, he didn’t believe me.

  ‘Okay, okay. We may have a problem. If I’m right, and I really hope I’m not, that’s a very bad guy out there.’

  ‘Isn’t that what we want?’

  ‘No, I don’t mean the middle one who’s watching everything; it’s the one on his right.’

  Flavius zoomed in and Renschman stared back at me.

  ‘Flav,’ I heard my voice say, ‘why don’t you take another wander and I’ll watch them.’

  ‘You okay?’

  ‘I’m fine, but be extremely careful. Please.’

  He rolled his eyes at me.

  The memory of the pitiless cold of the concrete shed floor penetrated the warm room. And my helplessness, my fear of freezing to death, alone. I wanted to go out there and tear him apart. Maybe I would hand over what was left to the custodes for a very public trial for attempted murder. The rational part of my mind, struggling to get a toehold, told me it wasn’t possible. It would blow my whole operation apart. How in Hades was I going to deal with this? I knew I had to exert iron control until we were finished. Even now, I was trembling with the effort. Afterward…afterward would be different.

  Flavius was back ten minutes later.

  ‘Anything?’ he said.

  ‘Yes, that one in the middle tracked your every move. So did the one with glasses, but much more subtly.’

  Flavius did the screenshots and ran the faces.

  ‘Nothing’s come up for us, but the immigration database identified the staring one as Lev Palicek, fifty-six, born in Minnesota, EUSA, occupation – businessman.’

  Apollodorus also had access to the immigration database – how worrying was that?

  ‘And the other one?’

  ‘Jeffrey Williams, forty-two, Baltimore, EUSA, consultant.’

  He even kept his first name – the balls of the man.

  ‘Right, Flav, send all that back to Apollodorus.’

  I wasn’t surprised to see Apollodorus an hour later. He came in through the service entrance, shaking rain from his umbrella.

  ‘Show me.’

  Only his eyes moved as he absorbed the footage first-hand.

  ‘My instinct is that you go out on the floor and let yourself be seen,’ I said.

  ‘I agree. Your delightful Mr Palicek is a player of some reputation. Justus found that several agencies, including the American DEA, are interested in him, but there have been no indictments or convictions. The other man is a mystery. “Consultant” covers a great deal, of course.’

  He shrugged off his coat, which Flavius instinctively came forward to take. Underneath, Apollodorus was immaculate in classic tuxedo, with a European touch of velvet lapels. Nobody could doubt his presence; Palicek would know instantly he was the boss.

  On the screens, we watched Apollodorus glide over to Martina’s station, study the reservations book with her, and then set off on a circuit around the floor. She introduced him to selected clients. He spoke with those at the table next to Palicek’s and moved smoothly by Palicek’s table, smiling vaguely down at the group for a second, stopped, said something to Martina, left her and made his way back through the service door up to the office.

  ‘Either he has the hots for you, Apollodorus, or he’s our guy,’ I said. I heard Flavius choke in the background. ‘His eyes were glued to your every move.’

  ‘Inelegant, my dear, but correct on the second count. I’m convinced we’ll receive an overture shortly.’

  Flav produced glasses and a bottle of Brancadorum champagne. Once poured, he left the bottle with us and returned to watching the screens. I considered telling Apollodorus about Renschman, but decided I would see how things worked out first with our sting.

  To pass the time, I tackled him about an idea I’d been developing.

  ‘Apollodorus, I have something I’d like to run past you. I hope you’ll consider all its merits before you decide one way or another. I’m conscious I may be stepping into a sensitive area.’

  ‘I am unnerved with terror by your caveat, Pulcheria. You are normally so direct.’

  I ignored that.

  ‘When we first met, you were attempting to persuade Dania to pay protection money. I assume you have a number of businesses who pay you in this way.’

  He nodded.

  ‘Have you ever considered working the opposite way around?’

  His eyebrows rose and he looked down his nose at me. ‘Do explain.’

  Despite his tight smile and neutral eyes, I continued. ‘Services like insurance, facilities management, accountancy, recruitment and so on can be very profitable. Security advice and installation are always in demand. With your team, you could make a killing and be a hundred per cent legal. You, in particular, would be able to demand extortionate fees – no pun intended – as a management consultant. They would do exactly as you said – they’d be too frightened not to.’

  I glanced at him. No reaction so far.

  ‘With the infrastructure now in place from my investment, you could easily add in market intelligence, specialist security courier services and so on.’

  His face showed nothing but smooth neutrality. Had I pushed too far? I wanted to protect these people that I’d come to like and respect, despite that they were criminals.

  ‘What an interesting girl you are, with so many ideas bubbling away in your head. I’m surprised you have the time for your everyday life.’

  ‘It was only a suggestion,’ I grumped.

  ‘I congratulate you on your originality.’ He laughed. ‘I’m actually annoyed with myself that I’ve never given much consideration to developing in that way.’

  He said nothing more, but swivelled around to watch the screens. I saw that was as far as I was going to get. But I had the impression my idea had found a warm nest.

  L

  Around two thirty, guests began drifting off. Martina came in with a folded note which she handed to Apollodorus without a word. She gave me a meaningful look. We were on.

  Apollodorus sat in my leather chair as if he were a king receiving tribute. Palicek was ushered in by Flavius. The screens had been hidden behind a retractable partition. I stood against the back wall by the door, hidden in a sea of black. I closed my eyes to gauge the atmosphere around Palicek. Greed – that was expected – blood, fear, craving for power.

  ‘Mr Palicek. Please, sit down.’ Apollodorus addressed him in English and smiled like a university professor receiving a dull student: patronising, but intere
sted because he had to be.

  ‘Thank you, Mr Apollodorus.’

  ‘Now, how can I help you?’

  Palicek had piggy flint eyes in a fleshy face set on top of a medium-height figure. He looked around, a hint of anxiety on his face. He was obviously uncomfortable under the targeted glare. Perhaps the outrageous fee for the lighting design was going to prove worth it.

  He sat back and explained his proposition in lightly accented English. Bronck’s Quarter. New York, second generation immigrant, I reckoned, despite his record showing Minnesota.

  ‘We have a business model that we feel would work well with local partners. We’re looking to connect with interested and effective players. I made a few enquiries about you, Mr Apollodorus. I think we may share a number of common interests.’

  He sounded like something out of corporate America. In a twisted way, I guessed he was. I stopped listening to the words and concentrated on the tone, his body language, his reactions. After fifteen minutes back and forward negotiating niceties, Palicek invited Apollodorus to his hotel in two days ‘to meet associates’. Palicek stood up, shook hands with Apollodorus and let himself be escorted back to his group. We saw from the screens they were already in coats, the girl sitting, Renschman and the other man standing in the deserted club floor. We watched Flavius and one of the security team see them off the premises.

  Apollo disappeared into the bathroom behind my office. He came back in, drying his hands on a linen towel.

  ‘That is a most unpleasant man,’ he commented. ‘Not only unrefined, but with absolutely no sense of right and wrong.’

  I gasped.

  ‘Don’t look as if you’ve swallowed your grandmother’s pin cushion. I may break the law, but I’m perfectly aware I’m doing it. He sees absolutely nothing wrong in what he is doing – therein lies the difference.’

  Justus, Philippus, the doctor and I went with Apollodorus to meet Palicek and his associates. Apollodorus and Justus led the negotiations; our doctor tested the ‘merchandise’. Delivery of the first batch was scheduled in six days. I didn’t participate, but went along to ‘hold coats’. Disguised in a mousey-brown wig and bulked up with extra layers, I could observe through my tinted spectacles without being distracted. I stood behind Apollo most of the time, out of Renschman’s direct view. It was nerve-racking, but I wasn’t frightened. Renschman had swept his eyes over me, but passed on. As the only woman, the Americans assumed I was Apollo’s assistant and ignored me.