Successio

by Alison Morton

  After the guards took Conrad away to PGSF headquarters, I grilled Sertorius.

  ‘Explain, please, exactly what this indiligentia majestatis is.’

  ‘Basically it covers minor acts of treason. They brought it in two centuries ago as a warning measure and to deal with rabble-rousers. It didn’t carry the death penalty, mostly punishment by short-term imprisonment and/or fines. I’m afraid I’ll have to look into my histories to find the details.’

  Sertorious brought his hand up to push back some strands escaping from his normally immaculate hair. He gestured his assistant to gather up the files, slipped the cover onto his el-pad and pocketed it. ‘Right, let’s get to the magistrate’s clerk. Then it’s the night shift.’

  *

  Faenia grudgingly let me home after three more days, but insisted on sending a nurse with me with a load of instructions. He would continue the electric therapy on my leg for the next week. She had booked me back in in two weeks to start repairing my face. Something to look forward to.

  After a week, I ventured into the swimming pool. Four lengths up and down and I lay on the side like a struggling turbot. Plas-seal kept the water off my leg, but the leg brace didn’t help. Five days later I managed ten, although my legs shook as I climbed out. I picked up my robe and trudged over to the stairs, wishing the elevator extended down to the basement. Head bowed and my hand groping for the stair rail, I contacted another human hand. I looked up, expecting one of the hovering servants, but found a copper-brown and green gaze fixed on me, a smile below it. My heart squeezed. He drew me in and I fell into his embrace.

  We said nothing. He half-carried me upstairs, helped me dry off and put me into the bed. We lay there, warm and content, and slept.

  *

  The next morning, we sat behind the three-metre high wall that enclosed a private garden full of lavender, sage and rosemary, edged with mulberry and fig trees between walkways covered with the skeleton of bare vines. It was March so the honeysuckle that ran all over the summer house in the corner was just breaking bud; a tentative start to the year. The rich scents of the summer were months away. We talked about the trial, the lesser hearing to come, my next medical treatment, a possible holiday and then we ran out of polite conversation.

  ‘Carina,’ he said, ‘I’m sorry, truly sorry for everything.’

  The ache in his voice made me want to put my arms around him, but this wasn’t the moment. I leaned back on the teak bench circling the large myrtle tree at the centre of the garden.

  ‘I thought I would hate you for the rest of my life when I walked out of your office in the PGSF building,’ I said, my gaze fixed on the flagstones. ‘You destroyed my work, our marriage and my trust. So nothing too major.’

  He said nothing, just hunched over, holding his hands palms together, elbows resting on his knees and looked at the ground. He scrubbed his foot in a circle on the rough stone.

  ‘You put me through eight months of hell.’ He went to speak, but I held my hand up. ‘No, let me finish. I know now you were going through a terrible time, but you were so cold and discarded me from your life.’

  A tiny breeze passed over my arms and I shivered.

  ‘I thought once I’d brought you back to Roma Nova, that would be it – divorce for me, prison for you. I never wanted to be involved with you again.’

  He didn’t move. Two finches chased each other around the trees, eventually settled and chirruped melodies at each other.

  ‘Do you want me to go?’ he said to the ground.

  ‘No, it was in the transport, on the way back here, that I realised I couldn’t walk away. You were in such a state.’

  ‘Oh, so you just felt sorry for me.’ He sat up, anger and hurt in his eyes.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I retorted, but maybe there was a little truth there.

  ‘So what now?’

  ‘We get through this indiligentia majestatis hearing, then try to get back to some sort of life together.’

  He looked up at me. ‘I don’t deserve you.’

  ‘No, you don’t,’ I said, ‘but I’m not going to give myself the heartache of throwing you out.’ I took his hands in mine. ‘I am bound to you by something I can’t explain. You know the ancients’ marriage vow “Ubi tu Gaius, ego Gaia”? Well, it seems to apply even in the 21st century.’

  *

  On Monday, Sertorius came back with the goods; indiligentia majestatis was like neglect or failing to stop a crime against the imperium, which probably fit what Conrad had done better. After wriggling around, protecting his rear with ‘all things being equal’, the lawyer was confident the worst sentence would be a large fine and some community service.

  Sertorius had also applied to the imperial accusatrix for an arrest warrant to be issued against Nicola Sandbrook, formerly Tella. If it was granted, although in absentia, she could be detained immediately if she ever set foot again in Roma Nova. Being realistic, Pelonia and the DJ couldn’t do much more than issue border alerts, but the application didn’t hurt Conrad’s case any.

  Hallie came to see him that afternoon and I left them to walk in the park, brown and white heads leaning together. Stella, confined to the rehabilitation centre, was still out of his reach.

  I came upstairs, wiping my face from a remedial session in the gym with the therapist and found Junia talking to a tall, brown-haired man in casuals and trainers. Flavius. His face burst out in a smile. He hurried over and kissed the less ruined part of my face.

  ‘How are you, Bruna?’

  ‘I don’t know if I can still use Bruna as a nom de guerre.’

  He scanned me, ’Oh, I don’t know. I think you qualify on the guerre part.’

  He’d been on an exchange mission; Daniel had sent him to Bavaria and he had missed the trial.

  ‘Well, you’ve got the most expensive legal team going,’ he paused to grin. ‘So I expect they’ll get the legate off.’

  ‘He’s not the legate any more, Flav.’

  ‘I know, but… Well, you know.’

  I cleared my throat to break the silence.

  ‘It’s lovely to see you, Flav. Please give my regards to the others.’

  ‘You’ll be seeing them soon yourself. We’re going to help you get fit again.’

  *

  Stella’s trial came up and, apart from Conrad who was still under house arrest, we all went along to support her. Silvia didn’t make anything like the sensational entrance Hallie had at Conrad’s, but slipped in with me. Not completely unnoticed.

  Stella stood quietly as the charges were read out and Silvia’s advocate listed the attenuating circumstances. I was questioned on my deposition, but there were no surprises. Stella was sentenced to two years’ full-time residential community service, level four, and was directed to work in the addict support centre where she’d been helping out. She held her head up as she took the sentence, looking the judge in the eye. Before leaving with the custodes, she turned and smiled to her mother. Silvia nodded back, her eyes moist. I remembered how I’d felt when Allegra had been in court. Ignoring the frowns of her Praetorian security detail, I put my arm around Silvia’s waist to support her as we walked out.

  *

  Faenia had performed the last operation on my face, thank Juno, and a new tooth had been implanted two weeks ago. Flavius and the others had been soft training with me in between times and I figured I was rested and pretty much recovered. Until I ran a cross-country trail. After that I kept to our park until I had rebuilt my stamina. The plus was that Conrad could come with me.

  Our low-key life settled into a routine; I was kept busy with the spring Senate hearings and budget wrangling. The gods knew we had a sound economy. Why did they need to pick over every solidus? It struck me that verbal debate had become the most dangerous thing in my life. I regretted my and Conrad’s PGSF careers ending the way they had, and although we hadn’t eliminated the menace of Nicola, we were healing from her attacks and reckoned we had thrown her out of our lives for
good.

  Part IV: Nemesis

  XXX

  ‘Mama!’

  I jumped. Sheets of paper fell on the floor. I’d been absorbed in a stack of Senate papers. Why they had to issue commission minutes in hard copy, I didn’t know. I could have easily signed them digitally.

  Allegra bounced into my study, fine brown hair flying. Hallie followed less energetically, with a serious expression, no sign of her usual sunny smile. She bent down and picked up my papers and set them back on the pile.

  ‘We had to come and tell you immediately,’ Allegra said.

  Her eyes shone copper brown, the green drowned out. Pink flooded her usually pale face.

  ‘What’s his name?’ I winced internally. She wasn’t going to be sixteen until November and I wasn’t ready to play the hardliner mother.

  She batted that away with an impatient hand and frowned. ‘No, nothing like that. It’s Nicola. We think we’ve seen her.’

  *

  Pelonia kept her manner professional and calm, but her eyes gleamed as she heard the girls’ story. They’d been in the Macellum shopping mall, along with Hallie’s Praetorian who didn’t look much older than eighteen herself. Allegra said she was trying to stop Hallie buying a sweater that would make her look like a fat duck. Hallie tapped Allegra’s upper arm at that point and grinned. I coughed and they subsided back into decorous.

  ‘What made you convinced it was Nicola?’ Pelonia fixed on Allegra.

  ‘Her walk.’ Allegra looked at me, her fingers fiddling with the pass around her neck. She dragged her eyes back to the inspector’s face. ‘You know I spent some time with her, when Maia Quirinia and I were taken in.’ She coughed. ‘It’s really embarrassing now, but we used to watch her walk away from us at the school gate until she disappeared. We had it really bad.’ She darted a glance at me, but it was Hallie’s hand she grasped in comfort.

  ‘Well, a skilled operator can simulate a walk,’ Pelonia said, ‘so that’s not conclusive, but we can run some comparisons with vids of other women of her age and see what comes up.’

  ‘I know it was her, Inspector. I’ll never forget.’

  *

  Hallie and I sat behind Allegra as one of Pelonia’s team ran a series of short films showing female figures walking, their faces blanked out, only white file numbers flickering in a black box at the top right of the screen. The custodes always videoed people they detained; a few steps were all they needed for their files. A person’s natural gait was the most difficult thing to change. ‘I want you to tell me as soon as you think you recognise her,’ Pelonia instructed.

  Some were from the public feed, most filmed in a custody suite or interview room. I jammed my lips together as I saw one walk into the courtroom, just seconds before Allegra shouted out.

  ‘That’s her!’

  Not a muscle moved on Pelonia’s face. She nodded to the tech to continue. More, this time all inside. When Allegra identified two more, Pelonia signed the tech to finish.

  ‘Very well. We’ll run these against the public feed from the Macellum. It may take an hour or so, so perhaps your mother can take you for a coffee. I’ll call you when we’re ready.’

  *

  An hour later, a tall figure loomed over our mess room table.

  ‘Bruna.’

  ‘Hello, Lurio.’

  He slouched into a chair opposite me next to Allegra and gave her a smile. ‘Well done, young lady, for observation. You got full marks on the vids.’ He paused, glanced at me before going back to Allegra. ‘But we couldn’t find anything in the public feed. Perhaps it was somebody who looked like her. You may subconsciously be associating that image with Nicola’s walk from before, when she was playing you.’ He took her hand. ‘Don’t feel badly about it, Allegra. It happens all the time. And to people a lot more observant than you.’

  Allegra stuck her jaw out. ‘It was her, Uncle Lurio, it was.’ Allegra’s voice was shrill. She looked fierce, almost like Nonna.

  ‘I know it’s disappointing, but you have to accept it.’ Lurio’s voice was final. He stood up, nodded to me and left.

  *

  She was silent in the car on the way home and went straight to her room. She reminded me of those ‘virtuous’ men of old Rome and the early settlers of Roma Nova I’d read about who’d rather die than tell a lie or do something off the honourable path. I sighed for her; it couldn’t be comfortable being such a serious soul.

  Conrad went and fetched her down for supper.

  ‘It’s hard, darling,’ he said, attempting to comfort her, ‘but it happens. Very few people get it right all the time.’ He glanced at me. ‘Even your mother, who’s got excellent instincts, has been known to fail.’

  I opened my mouth to protest, but he gave me such a look, I said nothing.

  ‘But it was her,’ Allegra muttered into her soup.

  *

  School routine and public exams took her life over for the next few weeks and she thawed out of her frozen certainty. But a doubt nagged at me. Allegra was pretty smart and noticed things others didn’t. I’d finished a boring meeting with my accountant, and needed some light relief so I headed over to the Custodes XI Station.

  Sertorius’ application for a warrant to detain Nicola had been granted within two weeks, but as nothing had happened, Pelonia had put the case on hold.

  ‘We’ve been monitoring it from time to time, but I’m afraid we’ve got more active cases.’

  ‘Sure, I understand, ‘I said, ‘but Allegra is pretty sharp for her age. I know you’re pressured on resources, but do you have any objection to me sounding out a few of my former contacts?’

  She paused for a few moments, her face serious and studying the papers on her desk. I guessed she was working out how to politely say, ‘Butt out, you’re a civilian now’.

  She brought her eyes up and suddenly smiled as if she’d made a decision. ‘Why not?’

  *

  I should have known better. I was out of the game. I had no legal warrant. But a frisson of excitement ran up me as I volumised my hair and changed into clubwear; short black skirt, silver strap top, what Conrad called my ‘minxy’ short boots, feather short jacket. He came in as I was applying the tenth layer of mascara.

  ‘Jupiter, where are you going? You look like some tart.’ His eyes ran over me, slowly. They drooped halfway shut and I saw an appreciative gleam in them as his lips parted.

  ‘Going to see an old friend,’ I said.

  He raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m not even going to ask, but you will be careful?’ His hand came up and he stroked my cheek with the backs of his fingers. I know he would have come with me if he could. He must be so frustrated. Thank Juno, his hearing was due the week after next. Hopefully, he’d lose the damned tag.

  *

  I breezed past the bouncers by waving Philippus’s token in their face and a heavy took me straight to him.

  He sank his head in his hand in true Greek drama mode then looked up. ‘I knew it was a shit day today, but what have I done to deserve another visit?’

  ‘Don’t be such a grouch.’ I looked around. ‘Much better, Phil. Good soundproofing and I like the bigger bank of monitors. So you used my voucher?’

  ‘Yeah. I picked the most expensive they had.’

  I just laughed. He gave a little smile.

  ‘Did you get what you wanted from the lead I gave you?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, and a whole load of grief. I lost my job.’

  ‘So a good result.’

  ‘You bastard.’

  ‘Sorry. Their loss.’ He glanced away, then brought back a serious expression. ‘So what now? If you were stuck, I’d offer you a pitch here, on favourable terms, obviously. There’s always a demand for well-preserved maturity,’ he smirked. He paused when I didn’t reply to his off-colour suggestion. ‘But I don’t think you’re looking for a job.’

  ‘No, more for a limb of Hades.’

  I gave him the background, without mentioning Allegra by name or he
r relationship to me.

  ‘You must trust your informant’s judgement to be so sure.’

  ‘She’s been a victim of this bitch. It’s scarred all over the back of her mind. I feel instinctively she’s right, but none of the formal proof stacks up. But if I find this woman, she’d better kneel in the sand and say her last prayers.’

  *

  Philippus promised to put out feelers for me. He’d found her once, but Nicola had moved on, learning Latin, the way things worked in Roma Nova and she had contacts in our criminal world. She’d lost none of her internal violence nor her external brutality, as I well knew. Maybe it was the time it was taking me to recover my full fitness or maybe frustration at not finding her, but I felt helpless and despite Philippus’ willingness to help, more than a little depressed.

  I’d graduated to longer runs now and Flavius took me out to the PGSF open country training ground. As we wound in and out of trees and dips and ran up long hills, I gave him the whole story in between grabbing air for my struggling lungs. We got to the top of Muscle-Death Hill and stopped to recover.

  ‘Lurio has a good point, but from talking to her previously, I’d say Allegra’s likely to be right,’ Flavius said, ‘but the scarabs can’t do a thing.’

  ‘I guess. But how in Hades can Nicola hide like that from the public feed? I know she’s skilled, but surely not that good?’

  ‘Oh, please! You used to do it all the time. C’mon, remember that bet we ran years ago to see who got picked up first by the scarabs?’

  I’d forgotten. We’d run book on trying to outdo the public CCTV. I’d slated it as a legitimate training exercise, but the local scarab commander almost had a fit. She wanted to throw us all in the pit for wasting their time and resources. But it had been fun as well as useful. I’d lasted over the two week deadline before they’d detected me. I remembered now they weren’t too gentle when they’d brought me in. But I’d won the book.

  ‘That was five years ago, Flav. The system’s updated several times over since.’

  ‘But you said yourself she was good.’