I signalled the other two back against the wall. We scurried into a shop porch and froze. We killed the radio – they would detect the signal. Hardly breathing, we waited for them to pass. I could hear Callixtus’s heart thumping as my head was squashed up against his chest. The infantry sister’s hair tickled the back of my neck and her breathing, although shallow, brushed my cheek.
We were a good twenty metres away. Perhaps we’d made it to our hiding place before they had seen us. Fifty per cent chance either way. The regular Praetorians were not as specialised as the PGSF, but their purposefulness was just as strong. Four armoured vehicles and at least eighty personnel were coming in our direction. We daren’t continue searching until they had gone past.
At the edge of the forum, one vehicle and around twenty soldiers turned down our street. Five metres away. They paused, scanning for rioters. Several figures scurried past us, some with looted goods, some just running. A shot cracked out. One dropped. The others picked up speed, terror on their faces. I closed my eyes for a second. Juno, grant the Praetorians pass us by. We were on the street, in a riot and armed, so prime suspects.
In the next second, a slender figure, hair loose, torn tunic, stumbled across my line of sight right in front of the advancing line.
Marina.
Pluto in Tartarus.
I started forward, but an iron grip held me.
‘No, they’ll pick her up.’
‘Let go of me. That’s an order,’ I hissed at Callixtus and pulled against him.
‘No, domina, it’s insane.’
I looked up – his face was implacable. Asking Mars to forgive me, I thrust my knee into Callixtus’s groin, stamped on his foot and stepped out into the street.
Immediately, several weapons were trained on me. I crouched down and laid my pistol on the tarmac. And nudged it away with my foot. I held both hands up.
‘Hold your fire – PGSF,’ I shouted.
A ripple of relaxation, but the weapons stayed focused on me.
‘I am here to find this civilian,’ I said, pointing at Marina. Counting slowly to calm myself, praying they wouldn’t shoot, I closed the few metres between us very slowly. I grabbed Marina and pulled her into my arms the same moment two soldiers seized me.
Somebody put a blanket around Marina as she sobbed hysterically. Callixtus, still half bent in agony, the infantry sister and I were thrust against the wall and searched by brisk, ungentle hands. The one searching me stripped my ballistic vest off and paused when she found my gold eagle badge. When I started to explain, another thrust a weapon at my head and told me to shut my mouth. Hands cuffed, the three of us were thrust into the back of a short wheelbase support vehicle. Our weapons had disappeared. Marina was treated more gently, but she huddled into her blanket and stared out like a terrified rabbit on the short journey.
In the barracks courtyard, we were made to jump out. A white-coated medic helped Marina out.
‘Where are you taking her?’ I struggled against the guard who had grabbed my arm.
‘To the sick bay, if it’s any of your business,’ the medic answered.
‘Yes, it is – she’s my daughter. She was attacked and her escorts murdered.’
His hard gaze softened. ‘You can visit her later, if you’re free.’
I couldn’t reply as we were dragged away. In the custody suite, I gave the grim-faced sergeant my name, status and confirmed the other two as members of my household. He stared at me, his fingers frozen in the air above his log pad. He looked as if he’d touched a poisoned fish. He jerked his hand at one of the guards and they removed the handcuffs.
‘Consiliaria, my apologies for the robust treatment. Difficult days.’
‘I understand, no hard feelings,’ I replied, ‘but I presume we can go now.’
‘Not quite yet, consiliaria,’ a voice came from behind me. I whirled round.
Older, one or two kilos heavier, in combat suit, but minus webbing, and sporting a major’s badges, was my comrade from the Berlin legation detail.
‘Pluto’s teeth! Fabia. How are you?’
‘Very well, consiliaria, but I want to know why the foreign minister was out on the street during a riot, armed and leading some kind of mission.’
IX
I glanced around at the faces full of curiosity. ‘I’d rather continue this conversation in your office.’
I followed her up the stairs into the admin area. It was very like the old PGSF one I’d known, but a far newer building with clean, sterile lines. When I’d given Fabia the whole story, she picked up her phone and ordered the Praetorian team in the area to guard the Mercedes and wait for a vigiles support team to recover the vehicle and the two corpses. She frowned as she listened to their reply.
‘Bring it back here, then,’ she said into the handset. ‘We can’t leave two people killed in suspicious circumstances out there until they find a convenient gap in their schedule.’ She slammed the handset down. ‘Bloody vigiles. Couldn’t even put a fire out these days,’ she said, derision coating her voice.
‘Fabia, I want to see my daughter now.’
‘Of course, but first of all, you’ll need this back to get through security.’
She reached into her pocket and laid my badge on her desk. They’d taken it when they’d arrested us in the street. Now it glinted in the artificial light, the crowned eagle seemed fiercer than ever. I hesitated for a few seconds, then reached out and took it.
Fabia smiled to herself as she looked down, signed a document on her desk and threw it in her out tray. She stood up and led me upstairs to the sick bay. The duty medic checked our security and pointed us to the third room along the corridor. I opened the door gently, slipping in with Fabia behind me.
‘Pretty girl,’ she whispered.
I went over to the bed. Marina was asleep, thank the gods. I turned to Fabia. ‘I’ll stay here if you don’t mind. Would you tell my people and give them transport back to Domus Mitelarum?’
‘Very well, but I’ll come back later.’ She nodded and left.
I pulled a chair up to the bed and waited. Nothing moved in the room. The monitor panel lights glowed softly. Thick curtains kept the street lighting out. It was warm to the point of being soporific. We were in a safe cocoon. Marina’s face reminded me of when she was a baby; plump, soft, relaxed. But the bruises and cut on her forehead were entirely an adult experience. The ovals of her eyelids were calm, showing no sign of any disturbance behind them. The drip line into the back of her far hand ensured that. I took her near hand and kissed it. Then I saw dark red weals forming a ring around her wrist. I looked at the other one. Identical. I shuddered. What horrors had happened to her last night?
*
Screaming.
I jerked awake.
Marina, struggling up, her body rigid, eyes dilated and a soul-piercing howl tearing out of her mouth.
I seized her, enveloping her with my arms and body. She shook, collapsed into sobs with her cheek against my chest. I rocked her gently like the child she was. A medic pushed through the door, frowning.
I shook my head at him, but he hovered there, then went to check the monitor and drip.
Marina raised her face to me. I wiped the tears and snot away and smiled at her.
‘You’re safe. You don’t have to worry any longer,’ I said and pulled the blanket from the bed, draped it round her shoulders and hugged her. ‘I’m here. You can rest now.’ She blinked, gulped and gave me a little smile. She closed her eyes and relaxed into an instant sleep. I laid her gently back in the bed and drew the blanket up to cover her.
The medic beckoned me outside and we crept out. I pulled the door to, hardly letting the latch click as we slipped into the corridor.
‘I was coming to find you, consiliaria, when your daughter woke up. The doctor would like to see you.’ He looked away, then bac
k at me. His gaze was not quite as steadily professional as it had been.
‘What is it?’
‘I think it’s best that she speak to you.’ A lump of cold settled in my stomach as he opened the doctor’s door.
A figure in khaki combat trousers, boots and a white coat was sliding a folder into a tall filing cabinet. She pushed the drawer shut and turned. Her mouth was a straight line.
‘Consiliaria. Please, sit.’ She picked up a pen on her desk and rolled it between her fingers. ‘We’ve made your daughter comfortable, but because of her injuries she should be carefully monitored by her own medical practitioner. I suggest in three days’ time, then a week after that.’
She paused and looked down at her desk.
‘Tell me,’ I said.
‘Very well. She has linear contusions around her wrists and ankles which suggest restraints. From the discoloration around them, she must have struggled. As you saw, she has cuts and more bruising to her face. These will all fade in time.’
‘And?’
She looked straight at me.
‘She has further contusions to her abdomen and thighs. Her genital area is swollen and bruised, but not torn. We found three different semen samples in her vagina.’
*
Marina woke three hours later.
‘Mama?’ Her face, lost in a sea of white bedding, turned towards me.
I jumped up off the chair where I had been nursing my fury and hurried over.
‘I can smell coffee. You only drink it in the evening when you’re worried.’
I stared at her. How could my damaged child think of such a thing now? I reached up to touch her forehead. She flinched.
‘What happened, Marina? Can you tell me?’
She shook her head and looked away. Fresh tears leaked out of her eyes onto the pillows.
I folded her hand into mine to stop it trembling. ‘That’s okay, darling. Just rest.’
*
Outside Marina’s room, I paced the corridor, not caring who or what was in my way. I crashed into an innocent instrument trolley and overturned it. Metal and plastic shards lay all over the floor. I cursed at an orderly trying to approach to clear it up. Numb inside, I was ready to tear those three bastards who’d violated my daughter apart. Slowly and bare-handed. Then Fabia found me.
‘Consiliaria, you must stop.’ She stood in front of me. I went to push her away, but she was too quick for me. She shot out a hand and grabbed my upper arm. The pain from her grip on my radial nerve shocked me out of my frenzied pacing. She hauled me into an empty room and pushed me down onto a chair. When I started rising to my feet, she extended her upright palm and a hard grey look at me.
‘No,’ she said flatly. ‘You’ve lived the soft life for far too long. You wouldn’t have a chance. I’d rather not knock you unconscious, but I will if you don’t stop.’
We stared each other out. After a minute, I gave in. I slumped back on the chair and covered my eyes with my hands. I shuddered and broke into sobs.
Fabia gave me a paper cup of water from the machine and waited until I had finished.
‘Thank you,’ I said and swallowed hard. ‘I apologise for my behaviour.’
‘I haven’t a clue how badly you’re hurting,’ she replied, ‘but you’re going to have to hold it in control. There’s a war out there and we haven’t any time for the personal.’ She placed her hand on my shoulder for a few seconds. ‘Sorry.’
*
‘Well, consiliaria, I don’t know what to say to you. I know your daughter’s suffered a deep personal injury, but if you were still a serving major and under my command I’d have you broken to junior lieutenant for such an escapade. But I’ll settle for expressing my deep concern that a senior minister saw fit to take things into her own hands and waste the time and resources of a law enforcement agency.’
Colonel Marcella Volusenia was small, fierce and craggy. Her face was all features, particularly her grey eyebrows and long nose. She reminded me of a cross vulture. I’d met her once before, thirteen years ago, and she’d been formidable then as a senior lieutenant.
‘With respect, Colonel,’ I said, ‘you’re not a law enforcement agency. That’s the job of the vigiles. And they refused to help. I did what any other mother would do.’
‘Hardly.’
‘I wasn’t going to sit at home waiting for them to bring my daughter’s corpse back four days later. I will be questioning the interior minister closely about the behaviour of the vigiles. No citizen should be fobbed off as I was.’
‘Stupid of them to piss off a senior minister like you. They’re a complete waste of government budget.’
‘There have been concerns expressed at the highest level about their competence and internal organisation,’ I said.
‘Ha! Don’t give me weasel words.’
‘I will report the deaths of my staff and the rape of my daughter to them, but no doubt they’ll say it was collateral damage from the riots.’
‘You don’t think so?’
‘A long-distance marksman shot that killed my driver instantly, a professional throat-cutting of a young harmless servant? Not the work of a casual rioter, I think.’ I couldn’t stay still. I stood up and starting circling her office. I stopped halfway round and looked back at her. ‘This was a targeted attack on my family carried out by brutal cowards. I’m sure I’ve annoyed many people in my life, but I’m only aware of one person who hates me this much.’
I took a deep breath to steady the rage climbing up through me. Volusenia wouldn’t tolerate hysterics. I had to hang on to balance if I was going to get anywhere.
‘If you don’t mind having the Mercedes in one of your garages for a few days,’ I said, ‘I’m calling in a private forensics team to examine it.’ But I wasn’t optimistic it would produce any evidence useful enough for a court; he’d have been too careful.
‘Of course. Safer here, no sticky fingers to interfere.’
‘You think that’s a problem?’
‘You’re the minister, you tell me.’ She looked at me, her eyes hard. ‘You’ve seen it first-hand out there. Personally, I would guard my daughter well and bury my treasure.’
*
Marina woke in the early afternoon. She managed to eat a sandwich and fruit. The bruising on her face had started to fade to yellow, but she was still tense and nervous.
‘Take me home, Mama,’ she said in a tiny voice.
Callixtus collected us and a second car escorted us in the 4x4. I folded Marina in my arms as if I could physically shield her from the hurt in her mind and body. She shot glances out of the windows, her eyes darting everywhere as if watching for something or somebody. As the tall gates of Domus Mitelarum shut behind us, she shuddered.
‘You won’t let me be hurt again, will you, Mama?’
I didn’t talk to her about that night until I had the forensics report in my hand three days later. She slept in my bed with me, but even the sedative medication couldn’t stop her nightmares punctuating the night. She was my frail child again, nervous and frightened. The trauma therapist I hired hadn’t been able to get her to open up – neither had I – but Marina seemed calmer in the following days. She watched films, laughing and crying exaggeratedly, but the therapist said that was perfectly normal – a kind of release. Marina even helped in the kitchen, which surprised me. She showed absolutely no desire to go out to see any of her friends or even to receive them at the house.
I wrote to Miklós. He hadn’t just been my lover, my companion; he’d been my friend. Flowers arrived two days later. For Marina. She picked the note out of the bouquet and read it. I burned to know what was in it, but she said nothing and pocketed it. A formal letter arrived the day after for me. It wasn’t unfriendly, and he expressed his sorrow for what had happened to Marina. His father had died that morning and he was staying for a
n undefined period in Hungary. I held the letter in my trembling fingers and bit my lips along with my regret.
Claudia Cornelia brought my most urgent work to me and told me in her calm and efficient way that she had deflected the rest pro tem. The third day, when she mentioned the emergency imperial council meeting called for the following morning, she kept a serious gaze on my face. I knew I couldn’t neglect my public duty any longer.
After a quiet lunch at home, I asked Marina to come and sit with me in the atrium. She glanced nervously at me and her hand started to shake. I took it in mine and smiled at her.
‘Darling, we have to talk about it. Two of our people were killed and you were attacked. Take your time, but start. You’ll feel better afterwards, cleaner, I think.’
She didn’t say anything for a minute or two. She stared down at her hands, then took a deep breath. ‘We were driving back from the palace, trying to keep to the back streets, but you know you have to cross the Cardo Max at some stage. There was some debris across the road and the driver got out to clear it. She was careful, she looked around, but there was nobody. Nobody, Mama.’ Her voice went up several tones.
‘It’s all right, darling. You couldn’t do anything. She was doing her job properly.’
‘She got back into the car and was closing the door when we heard a shot and she fell back. Cassia and I couldn’t believe it. We just sat there. Cassia scrabbled in her bag to find her radio transmitter. She told me you said she had to carry it. She shook her bag upside down. Everything fell on the floor and she knelt down but she couldn’t find it. I’ll never forget how scared she looked.’
Marina brought her hand up to cover her mouth. She shook her head. ‘Then they appeared, a whole crowd of men. Two of them dragged me out of the car. One shone a torch in my face and said, “That’s her.” I couldn’t see anything properly for a minute. They pushed me into another car. I heard Cassia scream, then nothing. They stopped at a block of flats. In the Via Nova, I think. Two of them grabbed my arms and marched me up to a door on the first floor. They pushed me in and shut the door.’
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