‘What happened then?’
She shook her head and closed her eyes.
‘Marina, tell me.’
She bowed her head and muttered, ‘I can’t.’
‘Has somebody told you it was your and their little secret, that something bad would happen if you told?’ I lifted her head and searched her face. ‘Has somebody told you that you were dirty or you should be ashamed?’
She shook her head. I pulled her into a hug and she broke down into hysterical sobs.
X
I couldn’t get any more out of Marina. The therapist couldn’t get her to open up any further. He said she should be kept quiet, allowed to rest, do simple, practical things and never be allowed to feel threatened or in danger. He thought she would talk eventually, but it could be weeks, months or even years. Pressuring her would hinder the process.
As I walked down the house steps on Saturday morning to the car waiting in the courtyard to take me to the council meeting, I nodded to Callixtus. He glanced down at his watch and a second later the gates swung open in the tall archway. A military short wheelbase roared in and jerked to a stop. To my amazement, Fabia climbed out in full battledress. After she sent a death look at her driver, she pulled herself up and snapped a salute at me.
‘Consiliaria, my apologies for not being here earlier.’
‘I didn’t know I was expecting you, Major.’
‘The Colonel’s ordered an escort for you on official duties. She considers an attack on the foreign minister to constitute a national security threat.’ She half smiled and said in a lower voice, ‘Besides, she’s taken a shine to you.’
*
The duty Praetorians saluted Fabia as we made our way through to the meeting room. Clever of Volusenia to detail her to accompany me. Praetorians were the only armed force allowed to enter the palace precinct and had the right to be admitted into any part of the palace for any reason.
The pre-meeting murmuring stopped as I walked in with her two paces behind me. My fellow councillors stared at her tall figure as we passed them. I stood at my place to the right of the imperatrix’s chair and Fabia stationed herself behind me.
‘Dear me, Aurelia has brought her own toy soldier.’
Only Caius could have made such an undermining remark. My pulse rocketed. I gripped the back of my chair. It took every ounce of my self-restraint to face him across the table. Even more so when he gave me a little smile. I had no doubt in my heart that he was responsible for Marina’s rape and the murder of my people. I wanted to kill him for it. But I had no proof and without it, he would twist every word of my accusation round. I had never felt so powerless. My logical brain knew there was so much else to occupy our attention, so painful as it was I had to push it aside. But once this crisis was over, I would focus all my resources – emotional and financial – and call in every favour and make any alliance to prove it beyond doubt and see him brought to trial.
We stood like marble statues until the tension was broken by the door opening; Imperatrix Severina entered. She cast around and blinked when she saw Fabia standing behind me.
‘What on earth is this, Aurelia? Are you starting a coup?’ She tittered and her hand jerked nervously to sign us to sit at the table.
For the thousandth time, I asked myself how we had come to be led by such a ninny. A half-second later, I trod on that; warmth crept up my neck into my face at such a disloyal, not to mention discourteous, thought. She was my ruler and I owed her my best guidance. And my full support.
‘No, of course not, domina. I’m too busy.’ More nervous tittering, this time from two of the other councillors. ‘I’m sorry if it disturbs you, but the Praetorians have assigned me a guard in light of the vicious attack on my household and the rape of my daughter.’
A stone cold silence fell. The interior minister brought his hands up to his head and slumped. Some councillors sat with fixed faces and part-open mouths. Two muttered oaths. All looked shocked apart from Caius. He sat relaxed and doodled on the pad in front of him.
‘My dear cousin,’ Severina said and touched my forearm with her fingers. Her eyes stared almost out of her head and shone with sympathy. ‘Gods, Aurelia. I apologise for my stupid remark. How is Marina? What can we do for her?’
‘She is being cared for, thank you, domina. I hope she will recover eventually.’ I looked at the interior minister, still sheltering behind his hands. ‘I have reported the whole incident to the vigiles prefect and he seemed almost interested. But on the night of the riot, I regret to say, he couldn’t have cared less.’
‘Such an insult to the heir of the senior of the Twelve Families cannot be tolerated,’ Quirinia piped up.
‘No young woman should be so insulted, whatever her status,’ I replied coldly. ‘The vigiles lost control of the riot. And I didn’t see a sign of the Urban Cohorts where I was. Only the intervention of the Praetorians was effective. But the riot should not have been allowed to develop in the first place. Where the hell were the stewards supposed to be provided by the demonstration organisers? Where were the vigiles and UC patrols to police it?’ I looked around the whole table. ‘I have urged the reform of the police services many times in this room. Perhaps now some action might be taken.’
‘Really, Aurelia,’ Caius interrupted, ‘there is no need to become hysterical.’
I think even he flinched at the violence of the look I shot at him. I half rose out of my seat, ready to confront him and hovered there, ready to spring.
‘You know nothing, Caius,’ I threw my words at him. ‘Or perhaps you know everything.’
‘I haven’t the faintest idea what you are alluding to, my dear Aurelia.’ He turned to Severina. ‘Perhaps, Imperatrix, we can move to the calm of the agenda after this, er, diversion.’
Severina nodded like an automaton; the others fidgeted with their papers. I sat down, defeated again. If I said more, I would look hysterical.
*
I tried to relax on the way home; Marina did not need me tense and upset. As we approached the house, I noticed a line of barbed wire had been added along the top of the stone wall that ran along the street side of the house. At the archway, a new camera peered out at us. The driver used the standard remote control and as the gates swung open to admit the car and Fabia’s short wheelbase behind us, an alarm screeched out. Two armed guards I had never seen before trained their weapons on us. Gods! Was this another attack? I swallowed hard. Marina. Was she safe? Had the household hidden her in the cellar room?
Fabia and her driver rolled out of their vehicle. He dropped to the ground in classic kneeling position, she tensed, ready, with her back against the vehicle, left foot forward, her weight balancing on both feet. I heard the safety click off on both combat rifles.
I was never more relieved when I saw Callixtus step forward. I opened the window.
‘Domina. I hope we didn’t startle you.’
‘Startle me? I nearly had a cardiac arrest. What in Hades is going on? You’ve turned my house into a fort. And who in hell are these people?’ I waved my hand at the two grim-faced guards as the gates shut behind us. Fabia’s driver had got to his feet, but both kept their weapons trained on the newcomers.
‘I’ve brought in additional security. Let me show you.’ He opened the car door and ushered me towards the inner wall of the archway. ‘This is one of the new bioscanners. If it doesn’t recognise your eye, voice and palm imprint it will alarm. Let me enter your details.’
I stood impatiently while the machine scanned me. I recited one of my latest speeches into it plus a few standard greetings and eventually it flashed a green light. Although the new scanning panel was within the courtyard gates now, contractors were coming tomorrow to replace the hundred-year-old wooden ones with new metal security gates recessed back from the road. Any vehicle approaching would be forced to stop for scrutiny. I motioned Callixtus into his o
ffice on the far side of the courtyard.
‘I’m pleased you’ve increased the level of security, Callixtus, but do we need such sophistication?’
‘Yes, after the attack on Countess Marina and the instability out there.’ He looked out through the lodge window onto the courtyard, tilting his chin towards the guards. ‘My team is carefully selected. You know we investigate their backgrounds in minute detail and make them swear an oath to the Mitela family. But many of them come from, shall we say, tough backgrounds, sometimes criminal ones.’
I would have been naive to think otherwise, but I wondered where this was leading.
‘They talk among themselves about their friends, cousins, about who’s doing what, what’s happening in their families and sometimes they report things to me and ask my advice.’ He brought his gaze back to me. ‘It’s not formal intelligence, some of it may be exaggerated.’
‘Yes?’
‘The news from Aquae Caesaris, Brancadorum, even Castra Lucilla is the same. Strangers coming into the towns, delivering pamphlets, giving political speeches calling for jobs, stability and order, knocking on doors. These toga wearers seem to be parading as well. My brother-in-law’s a vigilis in the countryside outside Aquae Caesaris.’ He snorted. ‘A real yokel. Normally you’d have to push his fat arse off his bicycle before he sees anything’s wrong, but even he’s noticed. And he seemed frightened by it all. Only him and another vigilis cover their beat at any one time.’
‘Has he reported it?’
‘His captain told him to get on with catching apple thieves and not to meddle in things he didn’t understand.’
‘Sounds as if the captain doesn’t want to take any action, like that station vigilis on the night Marina was…’ I couldn’t say it.
Callixtus laid his hand on my shoulder for a brief moment. ‘Personally,’ he said, ‘I think they’re either stupid or as corrupt as all Tartarus.’
Silence hung between us. I heard the car being driven into the garages and the diesel engine of Fabia’s vehicle throbbing in the courtyard, preparing to leave.
‘Very well,’ I said. ‘Prepare a convoy to Castra Lucilla. Send the scout vehicles out tonight. Tomorrow we sharpen our spades.’
XI
I called my business manager, our lawyer and the family recorder to the house ostensibly for dinner. We didn’t stop working until two the next morning. We drove the secure telex lines to Zurich, London and New York to their capacity. Even though it was Saturday, our overseas correspondents received our instructions without protest. But then, we were moving millions.
I sent one last telex to the post office in Hungary nearest to Miklós’s family home with a high priority marker to warn him not to come anywhere near Roma Nova, for his own safety. I suggested we could meet in Vienna once the situation in Roma Nova had stabilised. I only hoped we had something of our relationship to rescue.
Once that last telex tape had run through, the security team destroyed the terminals and burnt the coding units under Milo’s supervision.
Five hours later in the blessedly fresh dawn, I looked back at his stern figure, legs braced, arms crossed, standing in the gateway and flanked by two of the security detail remaining at the house. He would not only keep the household running and supervise the contractors, he would defend the house against all comers.
*
Our small convoy wound through city checkpoints, mercifully staffed by military rather than the damned vigiles, and made for our farm at Castra Lucilla. Our standard 4x4 was accompanied by an older, slower version that crawled along, mostly because it was lined with armour plating and glazed with bulletproof windows. Marina slept on the back seat. Despite the new security, I wasn’t leaving her in the city.
The first scout car was parked under a tree in front of a mansio, a roadside plain hotel. No sign of the driver. Or his two escorts. Callixtus tensed, radioed to the other vehicle, then grabbed his rifle and slid out under protection of the door. I panned around with binoculars as the two men and one woman scurried forward from the other vehicle and spread out. I could see no movement through the mansio windows, nor any lights. Inside, they should have been clearing up after lunch.
I wanted to be out there, but I had to stay and protect Marina.
‘Two dead,’ Callixtus’s voice hissed from the radio.
Hades.
A click. Safety off.
I turned slowly. At the far left, by the garden fence, half-hidden by a shrub, a man was holding a hunting rifle aimed at Callixtus’s head. He was barely fifty metres away from his target – impossible to miss. I was twenty, less than half the distance. If I radioed Callixtus, the man would hear. His finger caressed the trigger. Praying Mercury wouldn’t spoil my aim, I raised my pistol, aimed and squeezed.
As the man fell, his gun fired. A scream behind me. Marina. I stretched my arm back and squeezed her hand with mine. She gulped, but nodded. I counted to twenty. One of Callixtus’s troops scurried back to my vehicle.
‘Domina?’ she said.
‘All safe here. Report!’
‘The owner’s dead, but her husband’s still breathing. We found the other staff locked in the cellar.’
‘Very well. Tell them to call it in to the local vigiles if the line’s not cut, then secure the building. Grab some food and water from the kitchen. We’ll stay with the vehicles.’ As she hurried off, I wondered how long we had before we were attacked directly.
Only clucking from hens and bleating from goats in the paddock behind the mansio interrupted the silence. We ate quickly, ignoring the rising heat from the afternoon sun. After I’d finished my bottle of water, I jumped down from my seat, turned and spread the map out on it. I glanced at the retreating backs of the two remaining members of Callixtus’s detail as they made their way back to the mansio front door. I wanted to make completely sure they were out of earshot before I spoke to Marina and Callixtus.
He followed my look, raised an eyebrow, but shrugged.
‘We have several options,’ I said. ‘We abort our mission and go back to the city or we carry on as planned. Both of these are inherently dangerous as I have no doubt the opposition will be waiting for us whichever we choose.’ No change of expression on either face.
Marina tensed. She grabbed my arm. ‘What do you mean, Mama?’
‘Darling, somebody wants to stop us reaching Castra Lucilla. They killed our people to frighten us, to show how ruthless they are.’
‘But nobody knows what we’re doing,’ she said.
‘I had hoped not, but somehow they’ve found out or they’ve guessed. If it’s who I think it is behind this, they have a lot of manpower at their disposal, certainly enough to overpower us.’
‘Oh, gods.’ She put her hand to her mouth.
‘Or we go a different way. The problem is that the “different way” I’m considering is not the easy option, but we may all survive.’
*
Marina stumbled against me in the dark as we trudged along yet another gully. I checked my watch. Half past one. We’d been marching nearly three hours since the last stop. I clicked my fingers. Callixtus froze, then dropped into a crouch. I pulled Marina down. I panned round with the binoculars. No sound either. Thank Diana, the moon was a crescent.
‘We’ll rest here for thirty minutes,’ I whispered. There was some shelter from the gully wall, but we huddled close. At least we were wearing boots and walking clothes, and had our parkas. We placed our backpacks in the middle, like a cluster of brown misshapes. Callixtus stretched out and closed his eyes. Marina let out a huge sigh. I handed her a bottle of water.
‘Slowly,’ I whispered. I wrapped her in a trekking blanket, tucking it between her body and the rocks. Leaning over, I put my mouth up to her ear and said, ‘Shut your eyes and try to let your muscles go, as if merging into the rock.’
She stared at me for a few secon
ds, then lay back, gave a huge sigh and fell into sleep. She’d been medium fit before that dreadful night and I knew she’d used the gym and pool at the house since, but she wasn’t used to a route march with a heavy backpack. And I’d given her the lightest one.
I leant back against the gully wall and drew my knees up under my own blanket. Time was against us. We’d left the vehicles with the two security guards by the mansio. At best, the opposition would think we’d decided to spend the night there, but when we didn’t appear on the road in either direction by midday at the most, they’d start hunting us.
I really hoped they wouldn’t think first about the mountains. Only a fool would come up here looking for refuge. Sheer edges, countless blind ends, lethal scree banks and rocks full of iron to confuse the best compass. And glacial. But I knew this; I’d trained up here for years. The problem was it was nearly twenty years ago. I didn’t tell Marina about the wolves, either.
It seemed like only five minutes had passed when my watch pulsed against my skin. I prised myself off the rock and stood. I bent and shook Marina’s shoulder gently. ‘Come on, we have to go.’
She blinked. She glanced around; Callixtus was on his feet and stretching, warming his muscles for the next stage. I held my hand out.
‘How far now?’ She looked exhausted already.
‘We have to walk another three hours. The night is our friend. It’s just gone two, so we can put another twelve kilometres behind us before the sun rises. Then we’ll have to take more care.’
Marina nodded. She looked down at her bag, took a deep breath and reached for it, but before she could pick it up, Callixtus had it.
‘I’ll take it for a while,’ he said and swung it up, threading his arms through the straps so it rested on his chest. I smiled my thanks at him; he’d already loaded the heaviest pack on his back.
The cold crept in at our necks, our wrists, our noses as we ascended. Heavy plumes of warm breath left us and cold air flew into our lungs. Next stop we had to eat, or our bodies would lose the battle against fatigue and chill. But now it was the task of one foot in front of the other, repeated thousands of times. Up, up, up. Nothing less than our ancestors in the legions had done, and we had more protective gear, but it didn’t make it easier. We daren’t break into any marching song to relieve the monotony; the echo would bounce around the whole range and pinpoint our location faster than any of the new spy satellites the British were using.
INSURRECTIO Page 9
