INCEPTIO (Roma Nova) (9 page)

XXII

I stumbled out of bed some hours later. I was only half-awake, but I felt a whole lot better when I’d had a shower. I was lying on the bed afterward in the robe I’d found in the bathroom, watching CNN, when I heard the door ping echoed by the remote control in my hand. The remote’s tiny display panel showed Conrad’s face. I touched the screen which buzzed him in. One of Sextilius’s inventions, I recalled.

‘Are you up yet?’ he called out.

‘Sure. Been awake for ages,’ I lied, scrambling up and heading for the living room.

My mouth fell open. He was dressed in uniform: beige pants and short-sleeved shirt with shoulder tabs and breast pockets, with a black tee underneath showing at his neck. A gold badge like an NYPD detective’s ID, but with a crowned eagle, was clipped to his right pocket. His hair, his beautiful long hair, had gone. Only an inch of gold stubble remained on his head.

‘Bit of a change, isn’t it?’ He grinned. ‘I can’t sit around and do nothing. I’ve nearly caught up on my leave, so I may as well get back on duty. I’ve never worked on a legation detail. It’s not exactly my normal line of work, but…’ He shrugged.

‘What
is
your normal line of work?’

‘Oh, general security stuff.’

I waited but he didn’t say any more.

‘But it’s not likely to be for very long, is it?’

A shadow passed across his face. ‘I saw the political officer this morning, very briefly. She believes there may be complications with the Americans. Sometimes, they seem to think they rule the damn planet, and we lesser mortals all have to dance to their tune. There’s a case meeting this afternoon with Steven Smith. Where will you be after lunch?’

‘I don’t have a clue.’

He laughed. ‘Memmia is bound to be along with a full schedule soon, so I’d get dressed if I were you.’

‘Before you go, give me your number on this wrist thing.’

He lifted my hand, entered his number for me then glanced up to look directly into my eyes. That woke me up.

‘Why don’t you have a wristband?’

‘I use a different system, but the number’s good.’

‘How?’

‘Never mind, Miss Nosey,’ he said, touching my nose with the tip of his finger.

I made a face at him.

‘By the way, have a look in your closet,’ he said as he crossed the hallway. He was gone before I could reply.

I found a small selection of ‘casual smart’ clothes, maybe a little preppy for me. Two pairs of shoes looked lonely in rows of transparent boxes. I had no doubt that everything would fit.

I gazed at my reflection in the mirror. I didn’t think I looked any different from twenty-four hours ago. It was my world that had been reordered.

My old world interrupted in the form of a frantic text from my friend Amanda.
Where tf r u? CM ASAP.
Sure, Amanda, I’ll call, but would you believe me? I texted back that I was fine, staying with friends and would call tomorrow. Inevitably, the cell rang.

‘Karen? Are you okay?’

‘Hi, Amanda, I’m fine.’

‘That’s it? I’ve been really worried. The boss said you’d had some accident and your “friend” had called you in sick. So did Mr Fabulous re-materialise?’

I laughed.

‘So spill. Did you get it on?’

‘Amanda! No.’ I heard her groan. ‘Look, I’m fine. I’m staying with some of his friends in Washington for a little while.’

‘Washington. Jeez! I think I’d better come down there and check it out.’

‘No! I mean, no, don’t worry. Everything’s fine. Really.’

Who was I trying to convince?

‘You be careful now. Don’t get up to any shit I would. Promise you’ll call me in a day or two, yeah?’

‘Sure. Have to go now. Love you, ’Manda. Bye.’

I could see her sitting at her wreck of a desk, shoulders hunched, sucking on a pencil, eyes darting all over the room while she spoke. Maybe looking across at my empty chair. Or she could be pressing buttons on the drinks machine in the corridor, her brick-size cell jammed between her tilted head and raised shoulder, but now getting drinks only for one.

Gaia Memmia knocked on the door at exactly ten-thirty.

‘Coffee?’ I waved a mug at her.

She looked horrified.

‘What?’

‘You can’t serve me.’

‘I’m not serving you. I’m making you a cup of coffee.’

‘Please, let me do it.’

‘Look, this is my kitchen, in my apartment. Here I’ll act like a normal person. Outside, I’ll go along with what you want. End of discussion.’ I added a smile to soften the sting of my words.

I set the coffee on the table opposite my place and sat down. She hovered for some moments, glanced over at me, but eventually took the chair where the coffee was. She sipped and collected herself. Was it going to be this hard with everybody?

‘Before we get going, I’d like to call my grandmother, but I can’t find a telephone in this apartment. Or do I use my cell?’

‘Oh, no, no, of course not.’ She led me over to the slimline PC screen on top of the small desk in a corner of the living room. She pulled up a dining chair beside the office chair already there and gestured me to sit.

‘We don’t use standard telephones – they’re a bit old-fashioned.’ She tapped away and clicked on an entry in a database. After a couple of seconds, a solemn male face appeared on the screen. ‘Domus Mitelarum.
Salve
.’

Gaia rattled off a volley of Latin, the screen cleared and my grandmother appeared. Gaia jumped up as if the seat was suddenly too hot and fled. I heard her close the kitchen door behind her.

‘Karen. How are you?’

‘Bewildered.’

She forced out a short laugh. ‘I’m not surprised. I’ve heard the whole story from Steven Smith. You’ve had an appalling time. I’m so sorry.’

‘I feel an idiot, lecturing you and Conrad on how this type of thing didn’t happen here.’

The set lines in her face softened. ‘Don’t upset yourself, darling. You were only standing your corner for what you believed in. It’s the corner that’s let you down.’

I looked down at my hands – I was embarrassed at how naïve I’d been. My nails were chipped and skin rough. Despite the arnica, the red bracelets on my wrist skin hadn’t faded.

‘I think so much has happened that your mind hasn’t caught up and processed it all yet,’ she said. ‘Give yourself a few days to settle down.’

A few days? I doubted I would ever get over it.

Gaia came back a few minutes after I had finished the call. She had plenty of ideas for me. Firstly, Latin coaching – that was putting it politely. She would go through social and cultural stuff herself. I hoped she would get over her deference issues, but I doubted it.

She took me on an extended tour of the legation. People seemed friendly, but nervous of me. Lunchtime, despite Gaia’s protests I insisted we eat where everybody else did – I didn’t want to be stuck on my own. In the central dining room, heads turned and bodies twisted around in their seats, checking out my every move. Gaia led me to the back where my new cousin Faleria sat along with Sergia, the angry woman I’d met at Gianni’s. This time, she was wearing a business suit and had black hair drawn back in a chignon, but had kept the sour face.

‘I believe we’re meeting this afternoon,’ I said, and smiled at her. Maybe she’d be a little more relaxed on her home territory.

‘I think you are correct, Carina Mitela,’ she replied; no, she was still uptight. Filling the silence, Faleria asked how I was doing.

‘Not too bad, but I feel uncomfortable when people stare at me. Some of them are really nervous when they talk to me.’

‘How would you like to be treated, then?’ Sergia interrupted

‘Good question. I know I’m an interloper, a refugee. I wish they would talk to me like I was a normal visitor, not some exotic alien from outer space.’

‘You
are
an exotic alien from outer space as far as most people are concerned,’ Sergia shot back. ‘They’re unlikely to have come into contact with such a senior patrician, and they’re not likely to again.’

Gaia gasped at such directness.

‘So are you saying I should suck it up and sit on it?’

‘I don’t always follow American idiom, but it sounds as if you have summarised it well.’ Even Faleria stared at that. I had the firm impression that Sergia was being rude in order to provoke me. I laughed in her face.

She looked annoyed, her face flushed. Round one to me.

‘Something to fortify you.’ Conrad appeared at our table out of nowhere and set a steaming cup in front of me.

Oh, was I glad to see him.

‘I came to see if you wanted to take a walk through the garden before the meeting.’ His tone was light but, in contrast, his eyes were intense, the brown almost obliterating the green edges.

When I’d finished my coffee and stood up to go, Gaia, Faleria and, more slowly, Sergia, rose to their feet at the same time.

‘Please, don’t let me disturb you,’ I said.

‘Ladies.’ Conrad gave them his bedazzling smile as his parting shot.

‘I was nearly screaming.’

‘You did look pretty desperate. Have you been behaving badly?’

‘Not really,’ I said. ‘I only lost my temper once with Gaia, had a self-indulgent whine, and laughed in Sergia’s face. Does that count?’

He smiled down at me and I smiled back. My fingers touched his bare forearm. As we entered the garden, he clasped my hand. When we reached some tall shrubs, he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me to him so tightly that a hair would have been crushed between us. He held me as if he’d been saving the strength up for some time. I raised my face, barely opened my lips and he kissed me, lightly, as if only flirting with my mouth. A soft electric flow travelled into the centre of my body and spread through my nervous system to each cell. My fingers skimmed the side of his neck, feeling the pulse beating fast. He kissed me again; the electric flow crackled sparks. I gasped for breath as he released my lips and smiled into my eyes.

‘I’ve wanted to do that since I walked into your office in New York.’

XXIII

A shrill beep from Conrad’s pocket interrupted us. He relaxed the intensity of his hold, but his arm still encircled my waist. He raised one eyebrow as he consulted his PDA. My hand still gripped his other forearm.

‘We have to go.’ His lips spoke the words close to my ear.

I didn’t want to move my arms, my legs, any part of me. I wanted to stay fixed inside this moment. His eyes looked at mine, small darting movements from one to the other. His lips brushed my forehead. I closed my eyes and was consumed by sensation.

Another beep. He smiled at me again. ‘We really have to go. We’ll talk later.’

But I saw the frustration as he pressed his lips together. I found it hard to gather my thoughts, let alone my words. We walked on for a few minutes in silence.

‘So,’ I said eventually, ‘is this meeting we’re going to a council of war or a positioning session?’

He laughed. ‘And you call me cynical.’

‘Hey, I’ve been in some pretty intense meetings myself. Do you think the only sharks are political?’

He shrugged. His face took on a serious expression. ‘The trouble is the legation wants to keep its cordial relations with the government here, but is under pressure from home to give you a hundred per cent support. The last thing they want is a full-blown diplomatic incident. We don’t depend on the Americans like other countries do, but we’re small, and who wants to fall out with one of the three world superpowers, however annoying they are?’ He looked at me. ‘More than that, I don’t know until we get there.’

Favonius had marked out his territory in the conference room with his immaculate leather notecase and gold pen on the big square table, his chair angled back, facing the entrance. He was standing at the window talking to Sergia.

An expressionless Gaia was tapping notes into an electronic pad. She looked up as we entered the room and got to her feet. Right on cue, Favonius and Sergia turned as one.

‘My dear Carina Mitela, please, come and sit down,’ Favonius projected an intense smile. ‘Can I get you a coffee?’

‘I’m fine, thank you. Conradus?’

Conrad gave Favonius a cold, tight smile. I could see on his face that the temptation to have Favonius run around after him was almost overwhelming. Favonius let his diplomatic shell crack enough to shoot an angry glance back. Conrad moved half a step nearer me, keeping his eyes on Favonius’s face.

Thankfully, Steven Smith was announced at that moment. He grasped the situation immediately and half-smiled, his eyes bright. A second later, he switched to solemn and greeted the others formally.

‘If I may, I’ll bring you up to date on events since we last met,’ he said.

I was bursting with curiosity.

‘Very fortunately, my classmate at External Affairs was able to warn me that Renschman’s unit was obtaining special clearance for a live operation within the metropolitan area of New York.’ He turned to me. ‘I concluded his intention was to remove you from your apartment, despite the legal measures we initiated. I hadn’t received a reply about the action for damages. Given the sensitivity, I made my warning call to you as discreet as possible.’ He glanced over at Conrad and continued.

‘I hastened to your apartment and reached it twenty minutes after I put the phone down. Four of Captain Tellus’s colleagues arrived five minutes later and, with the two guards already there, we were able to repel boarders, so to speak. Of course, the notice declaring your apartment to be a residential annex of the legation didn’t hurt. It’s of dubious legality in this context, but it added impact.’ He shrugged, in a very understated way. ‘Mr Renschman was somewhat put out at his lack of success and lost his dignity to the extent of outlining what he would like to do to me. I’m sure he’ll reach a more mature decision when he’s had time to reflect. I took the liberty of recording our conversation in case his memory becomes defective.’

I laughed out loud. ‘Mr Smith, you are beautiful!’

He paused, looked down at his papers then glanced at Sergia. ‘Because of the political implications, I’ve discussed the case with Antonia Sergia. I expect an unofficial approach will be made soon to you, Favonius, probably a lunch, a country club evening or a simple telephone call. With the greatest respect in the world, for I would not dream of teaching you your job, it would be helpful if you didn’t agree to anything without consulting me. Whilst I recognise the political sensitivities, the primary interest here is that of the Mitela family heir. I understand that the imperatrix has taken a personal interest in her cousin’s safety.’

Favonius glanced down at the table for a second and frowned. He came back up with a bland expression and nodded at Sergia.

‘This Economy Security Unit is some kind of sub-group which we think is financed by Treasury and Security possibly with some input from Defense.’ She hesitated, consulting her el-pad. ‘We’ve confirmed that Renschman is ex-CIA, ex-military and regarded as a fixer. A very efficient one. He’s had some authority problems, but that’s as far as my informant went. I’m pursuing two other sources.’

‘Thank you, Sergia,’ said Favonius. ‘Keep on it.’ He aimed his full smile at the lawyer. ‘So what’s the next legal step, Mr Smith?.

‘We file for renunciation of Miss Brown’s EUS citizenship. It will be interesting to see what reaction that provokes.’

‘Very well. If I may give you a suggestion in turn, counsellor, I think it would be helpful to us if you didn’t pursue this too vigorously and alienate the authorities in your eagerness to get this processed.’

‘Please be assured, Favonius Cotta, that I’m fully aware of your anxiety. We are not entirely without the ability to be studiously courteous and patient in our approach.’

I could only admire Steven Smith for his mastery of the polite put-down.

Favonius attempted to regain the initiative. ‘I think that’s all, unless anybody has anything else?’

‘We’re going to talk with Mr Smith for a few more minutes,’ I said. ‘I wouldn’t dream of holding up your work, so please don’t let us detain you.’ I produced my best saccharine smile.

He nodded and left with his entourage.

‘You do enjoy pushing it, don’t you?’ Conrad gave me a measured look.

‘Yes, but he’s so up himself, it’s irresistible.’

‘I agree with Miss Brown,’ Steven Smith said. ‘Nevertheless, it would probably be wiser not to overindulge in that particular sport. Favonius is well connected and, although not one of the Twelve, his family has influence.’

‘Okay, point taken.’ I looked him in the eye. ‘Did I understand it right? Is this going to be a problem, this nationality thing? Will it take a long time?’

He glanced away for a few seconds. ‘Well, if we file the initial documentation now, it will start the process off.’

Which wasn’t any kind of answer.

He pushed a printed form with several attached documents toward me – a questionnaire and a voluntary relinquishment statement. He’d attached certified copies of both my birth certificates, with a translation of the Latin one, and my social security card. ‘All I need from you now is your signature in the three places marked with a pencil cross.’

I held the pen a few inches above the form. Scarcely seventy-two hours after being terrorised by government thugs, I was signing away something that other people desperately sought from that same government. Naïvely, they thought it gave them protection, rights and status. But I’d discovered the hard way what an illusion it was.

I duly signed
K Brown
. Would I ever use that signature again?