The Carnival of Curiosities (Matt Drake Book 27)

by David Leadbeater

  “Hagi has become a serious threat. He can’t be underestimated. If he’s threatening to wipe us out, we need a plan. And we have to strike first.”

  His sons, Mihai, Nicu and Stevo, looked ready to leap to their feet and start the long journey to Hagi’s home right away. Lupei felt inner pride at their instant readiness but said nothing. “Hagi can be a fool,” he said. “After all, he allowed his daughter to attend the Carnival. But he’s a dangerous fool.”

  “I remember that was an olive branch,” Oana said. “Sending his daughter to the Carnival.”

  “If he thought such a gesture would end a century of feuding, he’s more a fool than we thought,” Aurelia grated. “The bitch got what she deserved.”

  “She was twenty,” Oana said carefully. “She knew nothing of Roma warfare, of vendettas and bad blood between shallow men.”

  “This coming from a con artist.” Mihai laughed. “The woman that lies to men to make her living.”

  “And what do you do, Mihai?”

  Lupei let them argue for a while, knowing it would take the sting out of them. There were some difficult subjects to tackle tonight and he was not one for diplomacy. “What we did to Hagi’s daughter—Anyana—was essential,” he said finally, to shut them up. “She was the first to fall on the road that ends with her father’s demise.”

  Both Oana and Alba looked away. Lupei followed their stares. The woods had grown dark, the gale still howling between trunks and setting the branches and leaves swaying, rustling and swishing as though performing to a dance devised by the inmates of an asylum. The fire gusted and raged left and right, driven by the wind, but those gathered around it were hardened to the elements and barely noticed.

  “Sixty years ago,” Lupei said into the darkness and chaotic fire. “Our grandfather found a strange boy with his daughter and killed him. This boy turned out to be Hagi’s grandfather’s son. They had been together, fucking, for months under the radar, disrespecting their families. Our grandfather would not apologize for the killing. And why would he? He was fully in his rights to kill that boy.”

  “And too much of a Lupei to admit he’d gone too far,” Oana said.

  “Girl, you know nothing,” Lupei growled. “Respect your forefathers. Do as they did. They are the reason the Lupei family sits head and shoulders above all the other families today. The reason we are the kings of the Romas.”

  “Kings of the gypsies more like,” Alba grated out.

  “More insolence,” Lupei snapped. “Speak again and I will slap you until you start to make sense.”

  Alba looked ready to stand, to rise and scream in Lupei’s face, but Oana hooked an arm over her shoulders, holding her down. Lupei saw the look that passed between the two sisters and knew right then that it meant trouble. He considered straightening them out the proper Lupei way but held off. They had an awful lot to go through tonight and were reliant on everyone’s help.

  “The Lupeis have long been considered Roma leaders,” he said. “Among those that believe. The Hagis are upstarts. The Grotsus and others just losers, scum and has-beens.

  “But in the late fifties, 1959 in particular, the leaders of the four great families were friends,” Oana pointed out.

  “That’s true,” Lupei admitted through gritted teeth. It was a period of history that he consistently tried to forget. “But your comment is pointless. Everything changed in ’66. There is no going back. And the feud helps cover our darker dealings now, as you know.”

  He’d never hidden the darker side of the Lupei family’s endeavors, not from his children, which was part of the reason Camden and Ruby flew the coop several years ago. But losing those two was a small setback compared to the damage an all-out war with the Hagis could do.

  “The fifties and the decades before that, not including the war years, were legendary,” Oana said. “The stuff of myth, still regaled to young children at bedtime. Why can’t it be like that again, Tată?”

  She might as well have said: Why can’t you be man enough to change your nature, Tată? To be a different man? To be... better? He read it in her eyes, in the way of her stare and he hated her for it.

  “It could be worse for you, Oana.”

  The threat was vague, but it curdled the air between them. Family blood ran as thick as Lupei wanted it to. He would cut ties in a second if he thought he needed to.

  It appeared to take Oana a great effort, but she did lower her eyes. Lupei took it as a sign of deference.

  “The Hagis killed one of our grandfather’s sons in reprisal. A good, quiet boy that never hurt anyone. Retaliations came thick and fast after that, mostly through the seventies when rivals would take great pleasure in abducting sons and daughters and making a show of torturing and kill them. The Carnival-related deaths became more showy and elaborate. The hatred runs deep between the clans.”

  “We should destroy the Hagis,” Mihai said, and his brothers nodded.

  Aurelia clasped his left hand. “We should raze the weaker bloodline.”

  “We will,” Lupei said. “This time, Hagi has crossed a line. I will do what my grandfather and father could not. I will end this war, with a war.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Everyone except Oana and Alba grinned, the blustering fire reflecting red in their eyes. They were the demons of the Roma Lupei clan right then, and Marko Lupei was proud.

  “The Carnival’s next stop is north of Bacau,” he said. “We’ll find out where Hagi is by then. Stealth and showmanship will defeat him. We’ll hang the bastard, his wife and all his children outside their home. We’ll bleed them dry.” Lupei rubbed his hands together at the prospect. “This is my will, and I am willing to sacrifice whatever I must to make it happen. There will be no fucking peace,” he spat. “Peace is what I will get when I see their blood soaking the ground below their twisted necks.”

  “If the sixty-year war taught us anything,” Alba spoke up, “it is that these battles can’t be won. We’re no further forward now than we were in the sixties.”

  Lupei had to admit she was right. “And that’s why we carry on as normal, daughter. I am the escapologist, Aurelia the great trapeze artist. We will rob people whilst the Carnival draws attention: thieving, knife-throwing, sword swallowing. The burlesque will captivate them, the magic lantern, the Ferris wheel, the fire-eaters. And while that great distraction consumes them all, the Hagis will meet their deaths.”

  “A shame we have no bare-knuckle boxer to help with that diversion,” Mihai grumbled.

  He was right though. Lupei remembered Camden being the greatest diversion of all. His bouts captured the full attention of the men and women that watched, offering thieves and murderers many options.

  “One day he will regret that,” Aurelia said. “His welcome has expired. Camden is no longer a son of mine.”

  Whilst the men nodded, both Oana and Alba gazed at their mother with sad eyes. “He was protecting Ruby,” Alba said. “That was a difficult time.”

  “The family protect,” Lupei spat at them. “Not Camden. Standing up for the coward makes you sound weak.”

  “And what of Ruby? Should we stand up for her?”

  “They ran away like dogs in the night,” Mihai said with a sneer. “The family would have protected her.”

  “That depended on who she needed protection from,” Alba said quietly.

  Lupei decided the conversation had veered far enough off course. “The Carnival endures,” he said. “We will make our plans, call our allies. Historically, there has always been war between the clans. Before the fifties, when all Roma joined to ward off threats from the police and other authorities that were threatening to disband and drag away our people... before that legendary decade, we fought. It was the way.”

  He spread his arms, talking simply now. “Family against family. We stayed clear from each other. If we crossed paths it was with a brief nod, a hand rested on our pistol and men at arms lying in the back of vans. Or wagons. The Roma feuds stretch back for cent
uries. The Carnival saved us in decades past as it will save us today. I mean, who doesn’t like a carnival?”

  Lupei laughed along with his wife and sons. Oana and Alba smiled wanly. Their lives revolved around the roaming Carnival of Curiosities and they knew it. Their parents ensured they had no savings, no means. Where could they run to except to the streets?

  “War is coming,” Lupei said. “We should embrace it. Do not forget that we have hidden means. Hagi cannot hope to defeat us, and in trying he will forever doom his family and all those that oppose us.”

  “A Roma war will be bloody,” Oana said. “And are you sure you can count on members of our government?”

  Lupei waved a hand as if the question was senseless. “We will have an army,” he said. “Honestly, I welcome the attack of the Hagis.”

  “To war.” Aurelia lifted a shot glass full of vodka. The entire family followed suit.

  “To war,” they echoed.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “I have to go back,” Cam said, face white and drawn. “My sisters, Oana and Alba... they need my help.”

  They were lying low. Alicia had finally accepted that Drake had been right all this time—their enemies had gotten knowledge that they’d been cut loose by the US government and were fair game. It wasn’t that they were unprotected or no longer engaged overseas in various missions—it was that they had no easy resources, no backup, no Intel to work with.

  Who would give their enemies that knowledge?

  Alicia suspected a storm was coming. A riotous tempest that would scoop them all up, try to destroy them, and throw out what was left when it was done—disheveled, half-beaten, stunned. Marinette, the Devil and the Blood King were only the warm-up acts. The real deal... the new President of the United States... was the star of this horrifying show and he was up next.

  But first there was Cam.

  “You’re planning to return to Romania to hook up with your sisters?” she said aloud, her words echoing around the wide, high-roofed, metal-sheeted warehouse they were currently seated inside.

  “That doesn’t sound right,” Shaw said, her tight ponytail bobbing back and forth as she shook her head slowly, her ubiquitous black leather jacket creaking.

  “They’re in trouble.”

  Alicia understood. Cam had already lost one sister—Ruby—and wanted to do everything he could to ensure the safety of the other two. There was no doubt that he had to go. She sat back in her seat with care, thinking, looking left and right. They’d rented this place using cash, from a guy in Fort Lauderdale after driving through the night, leaving Clearwater firmly in their rearview. It was damp and dirty. It leaked. The walls were thin. Drake still hadn’t called to say he was on the way.

  But it did have a surveillance system.

  Dahl and Shaw had checked the place out earlier. They’d identified two exits other than the obvious one and then prepared for the worst. Not that anyone would find them here, Alicia was sure. It wasn’t like they were walking around in plain sight.

  Is this the new normal for the rest of our lives?

  New normal... their lives had changed since the Blood King shot President Coburn. The world had changed. As a team, they hadn’t coped too well, but they were still alive, still functioning as a unit, and ready to move at a moment’s notice.

  And they did work better together.

  “My sisters,” Cam was saying, “hold a measure of respect for our father. He is the glue that binds the family. Everything he knows was taught to him by his father, and his father before that. But those ideals are old, out of date. Instead of choosing war we should be looking for a path to peace, a way to coexist and even help the other clans. We should not be choosing crime. Ruby and I left because there were no good options. My father will never change and had already brainwashed my three brothers.”

  “Why didn’t you and Ruby take your sisters with you back then?” Shaw asked.

  “I tried but through some misdirected loyalty to my father they wouldn’t come. Finally, they appear to have realized that there’s no future for them, the family, or the Carnival.”

  “This Carnival,” Dahl said, “that I have heard so much about and yet know nothing. What is it exactly?”

  Cam sat back. “The Carnival of Curiosities is basically an old-style circus without the animals. There are many shows from basic illusion to death-defying stunts. There’s a Madhouse. A motorcycle stunt bowl called the Wall of Death. To my knowledge two men have died performing there, their deaths kept quiet. Those men simply disappeared. The traveling carnival attracts much attention and many guests, and is famous throughout Romania, but it is still only a front so that my father can conduct his real business.”

  “Which is?” Alicia asked.

  “He’s snug with a powerful Romanian Minister. A man called Dumitrescu. Between them, they’re responsible for 70 percent of the people trafficking that occurs in Romania. And that is a lot. What easier way to transport people in secret can there be outside a traveling carnival? Several extra vans of varying sizes aren’t questioned. The trucks are specially constructed and have their own drivers and guards. This Dumitrescu is an evil, evil man. Not only that, but he has major influence with the Army too. It is said that he could enforce a coup if he wished, so the prime minister must tread very carefully around him.”

  “Your father is a trafficker?” Dahl asked. “With access to the government and the Army? And he wants to start a gypsy war? Fuck me. You kept all that quiet.”

  “Be careful,” Cam warned. “Gypsy is a derogatory term these days. More associated with illegality and crime. My people are Roma, or Romani, or Tigan in Romania. The term gypsy originates from Middle English and is short for Egipcien, owing to a belief in the Middle Ages that the Romani were roaming Egyptians when, according to the Biblical book of Ezekiel, they were ‘scattered among the nations by an angry God,’” Cam said. “They were exiled from Egypt as a punishment for harboring the baby Jesus.”

  “You know a great deal about your history,” Dahl said.

  “I have to. I want to. It helps me confirm where I stand in the world and who I am. My people have a rich and varied history and have been persecuted through the years by everyone from our own families to the Nazis through systematic genocide. The horror stories from that time are... grim reading.”

  Dahl lowered his head, allowing Alicia time to collect her thoughts. Cam had proven himself to be an essential member of their team. Of course, his membership had developed out of her desire to take care of him after she’d witnessed Ruby’s death at the hands of mercenaries during her hunt for the galleon’s gold. Everything was intertwined, it seemed, and had led them to this day.

  More than that; a group of relic hunters had recently used the Sword of Peter—the sword she found—to locate the tombs of King Arthur and Guinevere and the most renowned sword of all time, Excalibur. Alicia admired their perseverance... she knew from experience that finding ancient items of great significance wasn’t easy and sometimes came at great cost.

  “If you’re heading to Romania,” she said. “I’m coming with you.”

  The sandy-haired young man stared at her. “I can’t ask you to do that. You... you’ve done enough. All of you. This is my fight, my family, my responsibility.”

  “Not exactly.” Dahl rubbed his tired eyes. “The odds aren’t good. And we don’t allow human traffickers to continue unpunished. There are few more cowardly and contemptable crimes in this world. We will all go with you.”

  Cam looked grateful and turned away. Alicia thought she saw a slight wetness around his eyes and smiled. The kid might be twenty-nine, but he looked and acted more like a twenty-two-year-old. Like a naïve youth abroad in this hard world for the first time.

  He was a paradox to be sure.

  “The whole team,” Dahl said, to make his point clear.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Alicia said. “We can divert Drake. Traveling to Romania will help conceal our whereabouts. And traveli
ng inside Romania will make us all but impossible to pin down. We will, essentially, fall off the grid. Let’s get the team back together.”

  Dahl was nodding and so was Shaw. Cam stopped them before they made a decision they couldn’t reverse.

  “First you have to know,” he said. “You have to know how cruel and blinkered my father is and how bad it can get. His name is Marko Lupei. Our worst rivals are the Hagi family, though there are several others. The Hagis and the Lupeis have been at each other’s throats for decades. Recently though, the Hagi’s leader has been trying to orchestrate a truce. An end to the skirmishes and senseless tit-for-tat killings of young men and women. It presented a new dawn for us, something Ruby and I embraced with open arms. But my father... he wants anything but peace. It was engrained in him from birth that war and strife is preferable to harmony. Hard struggle breeds great men, it is said. Exertion, hardship and battle is preferable to complacency and lethargy. Also, he needs to protect his trafficking business, something he’s grown in collaboration with Dumitrescu, something that has now become a monster he can’t escape. I guess he also sees this as an opportunity to decimate the Hagis forever and make a name for himself as the Lupei that became King of the Roma.”

  “King of the Roma?” Dahl asked. “Is that a thing?”

  “It’s been done before. Back then, they were called the King of the Gypsies. Names such as Bluebeard and the Boswells are best known. And Billy Marshall from Scotland.”

  “We understand your mum and dad aren’t running for parents of the year,” Alicia said. “But do you think your brothers can be... salvaged?”

  Cam stared at the dusty floor for a minute. “You guys have taught me nothing’s impossible but honestly—I don’t think so.”

  “Why now?” Shaw asked. “What’s brought everything to a head?”

  “It has to be the death of Anyana,” Cam said. “Less than a year ago, Anyana and her boyfriend spent a night at Lupei’s Carnival. Just those two—an enjoyable night on their own. At some point they made their way to the escapologist tent—the place where my father performs. He had a tank full of water that night and was cuffed to the floor at the ankles. His hands were cuffed at his back and then a bag shoved over his head. A member of the audience had already tested the cuffs. The curtain came down and then, a minute or so later, swept back up to reveal my father sitting on top of the tank, grinning. I always remember growing up thinking that was so weird, so out of place, because my father never smiled. Anyway, the audience were happy and departed, leaving Anyana and her boyfriend behind who, due to their Roma heritage, assumed my father would explain how he performed the trick.”