Perfiditas (7 page)

X

Beyond the maze lay a secluded part of Domus Mitelarum’s grounds. A three-metre high wall enclosed a private garden full of lavender, sage and rosemary, edged with mulberry and fig trees between walkways festooned with trailing vines. Across one corner lay a triangular wooden summer house, with honeysuckle chasing all over it. The rich scents of the plants released by the warm evening drifted and swirled around inside the confines of the golden stone wall. A large myrtle tree stood at the centre with a teak bench circling it. Myrtle for Mitela. I stretched up my hand and crushed its leaves between my fingers. You could get high on the rich scent released.

There was only one gated entrance, so it was totally private. Nonna had handed me the heavy, spiral-headed key when I’d first arrived in Roma Nova like she was handing on an heirloom. After the break-up with Conrad years ago, it had been my haven. Now I shared it with him.

‘This afternoon,’ I said, not looking at Conrad, ‘after Aidan’s interview, I know I stepped across the line. I apologise.’

‘We’re still waiting for various reports so it wasn’t crucial. I appreciated that you didn’t pull the family card in front of others.’

I stared at him. Well, obviously not. I sometimes wondered if I was more aware of keeping a professional distance at work than he was. But now, despite being in our intimate retreat at home, he was still in work mode.

‘So what did you think of what Aidan gave you? What’s your general analysis?’

‘My instinctive reaction is that you, and by extension all of us, are being challenged in some way, personally, as a family.’

Conrad raised his brows. ‘Reaching a bit, aren’t you?’

I made a moue but said nothing.

‘Things like the reorganisation, new staff appointments and my attitude to corruption are pretty much open book,’ he said. ‘It’s the sort of standard information any intelligence agency would have on record. Fair game – we have it on others.’ He smiled. ‘I suppose that both our imperial connections are interesting,’ he admitted. ‘But what the Hades is this “attitude to the throne, loyalty, any resentment or bitterness about his first family’s punishment” to do with anybody? I thought that was all behind me.’

I saw the shade of Caius Tellus flit across the garden and shivered. Nearly thirty years after his death, Conrad’s traitor stepfather was still reaching out to taint us. I remembered Conrad’s haggard face the day he’d revealed what had happened to him. We’d been at Castra Lucilla, our summer home in the country, lying on a rug drying in the sun after a vigorous swim. He wouldn’t detail the personal abuse Caius had imposed on him. He stayed silent for a few minutes at that part, his breath light and eyes unfocused.

After the city had been retaken by imperial forces and Caius’s brutal rebellion defeated, Quintus had discovered the nine-year-old Conrad cowering, filthy and terrified, in a locked cellar in Caius’s suburban villa. During the journey to the derelict farm in the east that the ruined and disgraced Tella family had been allowed to keep, Conrad remembered pulling the blanket over the back of his head and huddling on the seat of an old utility truck, refusing to let go of Quintus as they drove through the night. He remembered the headlights shining through the rear window panel from the escort vehicle and blinding him whenever he glanced back.

I’d held Conrad quietly in my arms that day by the lake while he wept at the memory of his ruined childhood.

‘I don’t think it’s to do with that,’ I said. ‘Uncle Quintus is surely more vulnerable than us if that were the case.’

Conrad looked thoughtful, his gaze fixed on the far wall. Without turning, he asked, ‘What do you think about consulting Aurelia? She has excellent instincts.’

My grandmother operated these days as a consultant to the Imperatrix Silvia. But they were even closer; Silvia’s father had been Aurelia’s youngest cousin. More importantly, Aurelia Mitela headed the most senior of the Twelve Families, so knew everybody, and everything about everybody.

‘I don’t think I want to involve her – I feel it would endanger her.’

‘Why on earth do you think that? She’s not as strong physically, granted, but inside she’s as tough as old boots.’

I took a few moments to watch the light playing on the stone wall through one of the fig trees. Strange how the pattern chopped and changed, yet the light stayed essentially the same. Too bad life wasn’t like that.

‘Do we need to take any special precautions here, at the house, do you think?’ he asked.

‘The building itself is pretty secure with the scanlocks. And they have regular security staff and CCTV. What more could we do? The only way in is with the access codes.’ I glanced up at him. ‘Maybe this isn’t the moment to mention it, but I had Flav and Livius try to break in last month.’

‘What?’

‘I bet them a crate of beer, but they couldn’t crack the scanlock codes.’ I wasn’t going to say that Fausta had programmed the codes for Junia. ‘They failed, but I gave them the beer anyway.’

He tugged my hair, but gently, and shook his head. But it made him smile.

‘The children are well-protected. Helena will ensure they don’t go anywhere at the moment without her, plus one of the house servants. But I’ll talk to Nonna anyway about increasing security.’

‘We should have preliminary results from the interrogations tomorrow and the intel reports, so should have a clearer idea then,’ Conrad said.

‘You know something?’ I took a deep breath. ‘I’ve had it with not seeing it. I’m going to try a deep state analysis.’

XI

I’d always been able to switch off – daydreaming, Uncle Brown had called it and snorted when I’d misplaced a whole afternoon once. I’d never connected it to how solutions to my girlish problems appeared soon afterwards.

One warm day, seven years ago at my training camp, I was slumped over on the grass, recovering after a strenuous trail run. I’d been trying to puzzle through a problem and thought a hard run would help. I closed my eyes to relax and woke only when a small bird chirruped near my ear. In a clear, almost overbright moment, I had my solution. More importantly, I knew how I’d done it. I’d been slow making the connection, but now I had it.

With practice, I could access this dream state at will to analyse any problem. But forcing it wasn’t always good. Sometimes my head stung like it had been scoured out with coarse-grade tungsten carbide sandpaper. And my hearing and vision became super-sensitive. But it was a great gift. And gave great results.

Next morning, as the meeting broke up and the first debrief started, Conrad came over, gave me an appraising look. ‘Any good?’

‘Oh, yes, and then some.’

‘My office, then, lunchtime.’

My debrief with Petronax in the internal security office was as wonderful as I’d anticipated. During her interview, Aburia had been composed and had said very little.

‘She just sat there and wouldn’t give a reason beyond that it was personal. Did you girlies fall out about a new frock or someone you fancied?’ Petronax smiled, nastily. I knew he was trying to bait me, but I ignored it. I couldn’t tell whether or not Aburia had accessed my lock box for information about my meetings with Aidan, but I wasn’t going to mention that to Petronax. Besides, that was pure speculation.

He was perfectly aware he had an unpopular job and that most people instinctively avoided him. Lucius said he was meticulous and disciplined in everything he did, but regretted that Petronax couldn’t resist the temptation to take his obnoxious attitude out for an airing whenever possible. If he were more professional, more people would forgive him for existing.

Looking disappointed I wasn’t going to provide him with any fun, he pulled his lips together as if attacked by lemon juice. ‘She strikes me as being completely distracted. We pushed her hard, but she wouldn’t budge. That’s the problem trying to deal with you lot – you’re all too well trained in resisting interrogation.’ He snorted. ‘Her initial profile was of a steady, hard-working and reasonably keen young officer.’ He looked at her file on his desk. ‘She’s never had any disciplinaries, even when training, unlike some people,’ he said snidely. He half-threw a stapled bunch of paper at me, ‘Here’s the transcript. Make what you will of it.’

‘What happens now?’

‘We’ll commission psych reports on her and she’ll have a judgement hearing in due course. If proven, she’ll probably get between five and eight years.’ He looked straight at me. ‘I don’t like you, Mitela. You’re said to be a popular officer, and sharp as all hell. I think you’re disruptive. I won’t have this kind of incident on my watch.’

I waited to see if he had any more golden nuggets to offer. Apparently not.

‘I’ve got nothing more to say to you – dismissed.’

Back at my desk, an urgent message was flashing on my screen ordering me to Colonel Somna’s office in attendance on the legate.

Juno.

Somna, the Head of the Interrogation Service. What in Hades did she want? As I rushed through the IS general office, I almost collided with Daniel.

Before I asked, he shook his head. ‘Not a clue.’

I rolled my eyes at him and trooped in after him to find Conrad already there along with Sepunia.

Somna’s office looked fairly standard, with bookshelves the dominant feature. She seemed to have more on philosophy and history than applied harassment. Around forty-five, Somna looked like a tax inspector, complete with glasses, thin lips and ordered hair. Although the rest of her face didn’t show any hostility, her pale grey eyes were cold. I knew how formidable in action she was from the receiving end. Maybe she could have got more out of Tacita. But Petronax protected his internal security jurisdiction like a vampire defending his source of blood. Sharing did not occur to him.

Somna was handing out sheets of hardcopy and gestured at us to take chairs from her meeting table.

‘I want to show you some interesting footage from the public feed, but first I’ll bring you up to date on the interviews. We haven’t had a great deal of luck with Caeco. Our language psych says he’s a native speaker, from the western provinces – he thinks perhaps Aquae Caesaris – but he’s spent a lot of time in the city. He’s a self-confident individual, convinced of his abilities. Although he looks like a standard muscleman, he has a very solid internal core. He may well turn out to be ideologically motivated.’

‘In what way ideological?’ Conrad asked.

‘We don’t know,’ Somna replied. She looked at us all. ‘I understand that’s frustrating for all of you. We’re trying some other things in the meantime, but it would be helpful to know, Legate, how quickly we need to crack him.’

‘It’s becoming more important. There are no individual DNA matches, which I find astounding. We must find out who Caeco and his people are, and why they held the therapist hostage. He’s a nobody, but they put considerable resources into their operation. At a guess, I don’t think they realised we would discover them so quickly.’

‘I see,’ said Somna. ‘You’ll be pleased to know we’ve done better with Sextus. He’s a local boy. Sepunia’s intelligence section has been invaluable in liaising with my team. Their staffer has been able to cross-check instantly and advance our interrogation considerably. I hope this new interdeployment will continue.’ She flicked a glance toward Conrad who nodded back. ‘Anyway, Sextus. He’s had a couple of warnings, nothing serious. Living with his father, who took him away from his family when the boy was four years old. Sextus is his real
praenomen
, but his mother’s family is a branch of the Corneliae.’

One of the Twelve! I wonder what snooty Livia Cornelia would think of their wandering boy?

‘The father is a middle-ranker, with his own small business, and has supported them both since the split with the family. DNA testing done years ago proved the father-son relationship. The certificate has been lodged as a public record. The boy uses the father’s surname only.’ Conrad and Sepunia looked shocked. As foreign-born, Daniel and I were less anal about these things.

Somna continued, ‘The Corneliae had official custody – we found the court papers. The mother married some years ago and made a financial settlement on Sextus, but he hasn’t touched a
solidus
of it. He refuses to see his mother. He has an original view on the role of women and men.’ Somna paused and looked up from her report. She didn’t meet Conrad’s eyes, but glanced away for a few moments and scratched the back of her neck with her index finger. I’d never seen her betray a moment of unease like that. She rubbed the top sheet of paper between her fingers.

‘In what respect?’ Conrad prompted.

‘He is a patriarchalist.’

Sepunia gasped. I heard a sharp crack. Conrad’s hand was holding the remnants of a stylus. He stared at Somna with an intensity that should have incinerated a block of Aquae Caesaris granite, a tense, frozen expression on his face despite the angry flush. Somna’s grey gaze flickered back at him, but she refused to give way. Daniel stared at Conrad but said nothing. Muted vehicle noises from outside and a footfall outside Somna’s door gave us some kind of anchor in the real world.

Conrad cleared his throat. ‘Is this a personal opinion or do you think Caeco shares it?’

‘At this stage, we don’t know. Do you want me to push this line of investigation?’

‘Given that you think Caeco must be ideologically driven, I think it’s highly relevant.’

After a full minute’s awkward silence, Somna signalled to her aide who started playing the footage from the public surveillance feed.

‘Watch the figure in the pale jacket,’ Somna instructed. I recognised Caeco entering a bar on the Dec Max: he walked with that same smooth, purposeful movement he’d used in Aidan’s office. The images speeded up to ten minutes later, and three more men arrived at three- to four-minute intervals. The date was a month ago. Fast forward to a week ago and we saw Caeco enter the main Macellum colonnade and sit in one of the outdoor cafés. Same men, but much clearer pictures.

‘This one,’ Somna highlighted a tall, brown-haired man, ‘is a provincial curia employee called Cyriacus from Brancadorum; next to him is one Pisentius originating from Castra Lucilla.’

Conrad and I glanced at each other. Our summer villa was at Castra Lucilla. A coincidence, surely?

Somna looked directly at me with her unnerving stare. ‘Is he known to you, Captain?’

‘No,’ I replied, feeling pinned down in my chair like a dead butterfly in a museum case. ‘No, I don’t know the name at all. I’ll...I’ll ask our steward, just to be sure.’

Her gaze swivelled back to the screen and I relaxed. ‘We haven’t ID’d the last one yet, but I feel we’ve made good progress.’

Nobody moved for a few seconds.

Sepunia coughed and broke the tension. ‘We’ll dig out a bit more on Sextus and run a full check on these two,’ she said. ‘It’ll be interesting to see if they have any ideological stance.’

Conrad moved at last, reaching over to pick up his el-pad from Somna’s desk. ‘I suggest we meet the same time tomorrow to check progress,’ he said in a low voice. ‘My office, unless you have any further screenings of the local low life for us, Colonel?’

‘Thoughts?’ It took me a minute to register Conrad was addressing me, not Sepunia or Daniel, as we walked back to his office. His face was pale, but otherwise he appeared to have recovered from his earlier shock. Apart from the revulsion any Roma Novan would have, it must have hit Conrad deep inside and unleashed the horrors of his childhood; his rebel stepfather had been the arch-patriarchalist.

‘Well,’ I glanced at Sepunia, ‘if the IS comes up with information suggesting they share ideology then we’re playing in a different ball game altogether. Ideologicals are historically both ruthless and blind. They’re convinced of their cause and don’t mind destroying anybody else on their way to achieving it.’

As soon as Conrad had disappeared along the corridor, and Sepunia trotted back downstairs, Daniel grabbed my arm and half-dragged me along to his new office.

‘What?’ I asked, once he had closed the door. I rubbed my arm, exaggerating a little.

‘Why did they all go into retreat-into-the-cave mode back there? And what the hell happened to Conrad?’

‘Ah.’ I could see the curiosity raging in his eyes. ‘Tell me, Daniel, what do you understand by the word patriarchalist?’

‘Something about the role of men and them taking the lead in the family, I suppose.’

Like me, Daniel had been raised with standard Western values, but more so as his first family was very traditional. His Uncle Baruch was the head of the family and Daniel’s widowed mother, even though she’d been the elder brother’s wife, deferred to him when the chips were down. Being a sophisticate from New York, I’d thought it was old-fashioned and repressive until I thought about Aunt and Uncle Brown with their Midwestern family culture.

I caught myself staring out of the window. Like that was going to help. How could I frame this so it’d make sense to Daniel? When Apulius had left Rome in the fourth century with his daughters and followers and headed out from Italy into the mountains, they needed to make radical changes to survive. So women took over social, economic and political life, and the men fought to ensure the colony survived. In the end, both sons and daughters put on armour and picked up blades in the struggle to defend their new homeland.

Inevitably, reversing values was a struggle. It took several generations to become entrenched, but Apulius the founder, his daughters and granddaughters enforced it. He’d married a Celt from Noricum, where women participated in decision-making, fought in battles and directed families’ property. Her four daughters had inherited her qualities in spades.

I sighed. None of that would help explain to Daniel how threatening the patriarchalists were. I went for the summarised version. ‘You know Roma Novans have lived almost since the founding with women running the families. It’s not just their history; it’s in their heads, their blood. Apart from that, they’ve seen how poorly other cultures have treated women and children over the centuries. Patriarchy is abhorrent to them, as a system and a personal value. That’s why they wouldn’t let Christians or Muslims in. For them, patriarchy is close to a perversion. They’ve fought hard to defend their way of life, and rejected anything that threatened it.’

‘I can follow that, but why did Conrad have that weird turn? I know he’s big on doing the proper thing, but I thought he was going to pass out.’

‘So did I.’ I chewed my lip. ‘Keep this confidential, okay? Some of it’s common knowledge, some not.’

He nodded.

‘About thirty years ago, when Conrad’s stepfather Caius launched the coup and made himself the so-called First Consul for a year and a half, he introduced a pretty brutal male-dominated regime. Quite a number of women didn’t survive it. Three female heads of family were executed on trumped-up charges within the first few months. My grandmother nearly died and was in hospital in Vienna for six weeks. Eventually, resistance groups united with exiles and retook the country piece by piece. I don’t know how they found the courage to do it.’

I paused and looked down at Daniel’s untidy desk.

‘Conrad was only nine at the time and had been living under Caius’s roof six years before that. He was beaten by Caius every day to “man him up”. That was his personal pattern of men in control. The gods know what other abuse he suffered. That’s why his reaction was so strong.’

Daniel leaned against the edge of the desk, looking puzzled. ‘I never thought about it. I don’t feel particularly disadvantaged as a man.’

I just laughed at him, lightening the mood. ‘You have too much fun to notice!’