INCEPTIO (Roma Nova) (26 page)

LXI

How I made it through that day, I don’t know. I put the conversation aside and plunged into my work. I was getting into the routine of talking to Murria and Sentius in the conference room with other people listening in. I started writing my own notes, following their style, and discussing it in the afternoons with the full team.

I was also getting used to Lurio and his robust ways. We had a day’s leave and spent it eating, making love and sleeping. He had a disconcerting habit of sitting in bed and doing his paperwork. Then he’d put it down, turn to me, take the book I was reading out of my hand and have me. It was funny, annoying and touching. I didn’t love him, or really lust after him. It just seemed a natural part of life, like eating or drinking. But, inevitably, we drew closer.

I was writing up the visits to the club by Palicek one morning. I was uncomfortable and not a little guilty over what I knew about Renschman. I should have insisted on having him indicted for trying to murder me last year. But that was as Carina Mitela, formerly Karen Brown. He would have gotten life for that. But he was guaranteed to get twenty plus years’ hard labour for drug dealing. And very few survived that long. I should be satisfied with that. I supposed it didn’t matter he was going down as Williams. Or did it? Should I say something? Atrocious as the thought was, I had to seek advice from Somna. I knocked on her door.

‘Come.’

Crap. She was in.

‘Ah, SJ Bruna.’

I closed the door behind me and hesitated.

‘Yes?’

‘Ma’am, I have some additional information which may or may not be relevant to this investigation.’

She gestured for me to sit and focused her unblinking gaze on me. I took a deep breath.

‘I don’t know where you and the DJ are with Jeffrey Williams, or even where he’s in custody, but you should know I’ve encountered him before. He’s ex-EUS military and ex-CIA. He headed up the enforcement group for an EUS government agency called the Economy Security Department. It sits somewhere within the American Security and Trade departments.’

I recovered my breath and waited.

‘You seem remarkably informed, SJ Bruna.’ Her grey eyes blinked once, like a lizard’s.

‘Has Major Tellus taken you into his confidence about me?’

‘He and I frequently exchange information, and he has given me some details of your background, yes. In the strictest confidence.’

‘Then you’ll know I was kidnapped in New York by people from the ESD. This Williams ran the operation, but his real name is Jeffrey Renschman. He attacked me here last year, nearly killing me, as well as instigating the incident in the Washington legation.’

‘I see. Please wait one moment.’ She turned to her commset. ‘Murria. Somna. In here, stat.’

We sat in silence. I didn’t know where to put my eyes. The chair creaked under me as I fidgeted. Was she going to tell Murria everything?

Murria appeared in under a minute. She raised her eyebrows when she saw me sitting opposite Somna.

‘Lieutenant, we have fresh information about Jeffrey Williams.’ She gave Murria only the details about Renschman’s background. The junior officer hurried off to process them.

‘This is valuable intelligence, SJ Bruna. Do you have any other gems you wish to share?’

Should I push it? I wanted my five minutes with Renschman, to see him crushed, no, destroyed. To be honest, I wanted to gloat.

I cleared my throat. ‘I wondered if it would be possible for me to have a few minutes with Renschman?’

She tapped her fingertips together a few times and studied a file on her desk.

Crap. She wasn’t going to play.

‘Your request is most unusual, you know. The best I can do is for you to be an observer at the next session with him. We’re sharing the questioning with your colleagues, so the presence of another
custos
won’t appear untoward. But I must ask you to be discreet and stay silent. On no account will I tolerate any ideas of retaliation at this stage.’

I figured that was it – disappointing, but it was something.

Later that afternoon I was editing a transcript when Somna came into the conference room and told me to follow her. Sentius gave me a funny look, but I scurried after her.

We went down to the custody suite. I steeled myself as I placed my foot on the first step of the stairs. Not the real descent into hell, but this wasn’t going to be pleasant. I shivered as we slipped into the back of the same interview room I had left only a few days ago.

Murria was leaning against the wall, one leg bent at the knee so her foot was flat on the wall. She looked bored and was examining the nails on her left hand with intense interest. Renschman had his back to us. He wore the standard prison tunic, his hands cuffed behind him. I heard him tell the DJ interrogator to go screw himself.

Somna and I listened for around ten minutes. She must have forgotten I was there. Murria turned into bad cop now, head jutting forward, within millimetres of Renschman’s face, questioning aggressively, slamming her hand on the table. But they weren’t making any progress. It didn’t help that they were forced to do it all in English and that he was answering in American street talk in order to confuse them.

I leaned over to Somna and whispered, ‘Would you take a chance and let me have a try?’

Give Somna her due – she could make a decision. She narrowed her eyes, looked up and a little to one side then back at me then nodded. She beckoned the two interrogators to follow us into the corridor. Once the door was closed, she gave them her reptile stare and spoke in a low voice. ‘What you are going to hear next in that room is to be kept completely confidential. You are never to allude to it in any way. I will personally edit the recordings and transcript to produce an extract.’

They nodded, but I saw a flash of resentment in Murria’s eyes. She gave me a cool look. ‘Captain, may I ask what this is about? We’re making some progress, not very rapid, I grant you, but now we know he’s a professional, we can use a different approach.’

‘I understand, Lieutenant. But Bruna here can cast a unique light on this. I think we could give it a try.’

Murria didn’t look happy. She was senior in her branch, so I guessed she didn’t like being treated like a rookie. I had the impression that I needed to deliver or I would be back down here myself.

Murria turned away from me and tugged on the door. As I prepared to follow her and the DJ interrogator back into the room, Somna caught me by the arm. ‘Ask only one thing at a time. Repeat it until you get a reply. And remember what I said in my office.’

I took a deep breath as I went back in. But I was no longer some soft city girl terrified out of her wits. I crept up behind Renschman’s chair, bent down and spoke right into his ear.

‘Ain’t it just the pits when something comes back and bites you in the butt?’ I said in my whiniest Bronck’s Quarter accent.

He jerked and his head whipped around. His face was like some kid’s play mask: brows halfway up to his hairline and huge round eyes above a mouth fixed open. He stared for ten full seconds. He recovered, closed his mouth and waited. But his eyes searched around, uncertain.

‘Yup, it’s me.’ I came round in front of him and perched myself on the edge of the table. I crossed my arms and brought my right ankle up onto my left knee. I was tense, but determined to give out an impression of total relaxation.

He attempted one of his creepy smiles, but most of his face was wary. He couldn’t help but stare at me. The combination made him look like a carved Halloween pumpkin. And about the same colour.

‘Lousy shock, isn’t it? I’ve waited a long time for this.’

I signalled toward Somna, Murria and the DJ interrogator standing at the centre of the back wall behind Renschman as if dismissing them. They didn’t move.

‘Now we’re alone, we can continue that little talk you started in New York.’

‘Go screw yourself.’

I raised my hand and swung it down fast in a vicious movement.

He flinched and turned his head, attempting to avoid the blow.

I stopped one centimetre from his face. I smiled and shook my head. ‘I forgot. I mustn’t hit you. I’m not a trained interrogator, so I don’t know the proper rules.’ I bent down right into his face. ‘On second thought, I wouldn’t dirty myself by touching you, even if you were lying on the morgue slab.’ I sat back into my relaxed stance. ‘Unless, of course, I was carrying out the post-mortem and wore rubber gloves. But then, I wouldn’t bother killing you first.’

He swallowed. His Adam’s apple bounced hard. A few drops of sweat formed on his upper lip. ‘You can’t do that.’

‘Really?’ I kept my tone cold, utterly flat. ‘You’d be surprised.’ I smirked at him. ‘Who are you going to complain to? The EUS government would deny all knowledge of you, so don’t look there for help. You know we’re not bound by international protocols. Forget the Vienna Conventions. You’re out in the cold.’

He leaned back in his chair, imitating relaxation, but his shoulders were rigid with tension. ‘What do you want?’

I laughed. And waited. I was enjoying this. I drew my carbon fibre knife out of the sheath strapped to my ankle. Murria took half a step forward, but Somna put her arm out and stopped her. I traced a few patterns on the table with the knife. Although my touch was light, it scored the surface.

Renschman’s eyes followed the knife’s circling tip.

‘My colleagues would like to know why you’re here and what you’ve been up to. I’ll hand back to them – they’re much more civilised. They don’t have any kind of personal grudge. But then, you haven’t tried to kill them twice.’

I stood up, right in front of him. ‘Look at me.’

He raised his head slowly and looked up reluctantly. I was so close, he was forced to bend his head right back. I used my trick of looking straight into the back of his eyeballs. ‘You need to tell them everything. I’m going to listen for a few minutes. If we don’t make enough progress, I’ll have Captain Tellus join me. He told me he was going to kill you the next time he saw you. He was very, very angry. Your safety and well-being would be entirely in our hands. I would think about that if I were you.’

The sweat oozing out on his forehead shone in the intense light. He looked away first, grunted and bowed his head. He slumped in the chair, making no attempt at movement.

I’d won. I’d conquered my fear and I’d conquered him. The terror he’d inflicted on me in New York and in that freezing kiosk in the park was gone. I could hardly believe how easily he gave it up. It dawned on me he was a bully, and so a coward.

I beckoned Murria and the DJ interrogator over and retired to the wall, still looking straight at Renschman and still playing with my knife. I watched him and listened as he told them about Palicek, the drug distribution, his role, payment mechanisms, their contacts to date in Roma Nova. It was sweet.

Murria forgave me. I thought. Later, back in the general office upstairs, she gave me a coffee. ‘I’m not going to speculate about how you know him, Bruna, but you certainly pulled off a hell of a trick there. My congratulations.’ She smiled at me. ‘Ever thought of working in the Interrogation Service?’

I couldn’t find any words. How could she suggest such a horrific thing?

She laughed and walked away.

LXII

Three days later, Lurio and I had finished lunch early and gone to grab some air. The weather was hot and I was glad of short sleeves. The clear air was refreshing, a tonic both on my skin and in my lungs after the air-conditioning.

At the back of the main building, a few tough nuts were sweating round the sports track. We paused, half-hidden in the shade thrown by the side wall of the semi-circular grandstand. He pressed me gently against the wall, slid his arm into the gap at the back of my waist, bent down and kissed me. His kiss was thorough and surprisingly passionate. My arms around his back pulled him in, my legs instinctively folding around his. I gasped as a warmth beyond tenderness rolled through me.

He drew his head back, looked into my eyes, closed his own and gave a tiny shake of his head, as if to himself. Eventually, he released me, and pulled me into the grandstand to sit on the steps. He laid his arm across my shoulders and drew me to him.

‘They want to pull it all together by the end of this week,’ he said, his voice subdued. ‘Trials for a week, then it’s back to normal.’ He looked into the distance.

I leaned over and kissed his lips lightly.

And at that moment, Conrad came jogging past on the track.

I wasn’t surprised when Murria gave me the message that Major Tellus asked me to drop by his office before I left for the night.

‘I know he’s been reading your reports and following the transcripts every day, so perhaps he wants to congratulate you. Or even recruit you.’ She laughed. ‘Don’t look so worried; he won’t eat you. Besides, you have your inspector to protect you,’ she added with a sly look.

I wasn’t going to bite on that.

I hadn’t seen Conrad since our row in the hospital wing. I was careful to keep out of his way when he attended the debrief sessions. I’d accepted a while ago that what we’d had was over. I gathered myself together and knocked on the door. Nothing. I knocked again and went in.

He was sitting behind his desk, but the chair was swivelled around and he was gazing out the window.

‘You wanted to see me, sir?’

‘Did you think I wouldn’t find out?’

‘Sorry?’

‘That you were screwing Lurio.’

‘With the greatest respect, it’s none of your business.’

He turned around, his face set and eyes cold. ‘Not very professional, is it?’

‘Then refer it to the DJ internal affairs people if you feel that strongly.’

I knew he couldn’t. And he knew it. The DJ was a separate service; they would politely ignore him and, as long as it didn’t impact on the work, or service discipline, they didn’t care what relationships people had with each other. How dare he? We hadn’t dated for nearly a year.

‘Do you think I’m made of steel, Carina? I was bloody furious when I saw your face staring out of Pulcheria’s body. How the hell did you become part of that dirty world, living with criminals? And dealing drugs?’

He slammed his hand on the desk. Everything on it rattled.

I jumped.

‘Then bloody Lurio prances in and announces you’re the undercover agent. Jupiter’s balls! What in Hades possessed you?’

I wasn’t going to say anything. I’d tried once, from my sick bed.

‘And how did you learn to fight like that?’

‘After Renschman tried to kill me in the park, I learned to protect myself.’

‘That’s it?’

We stared at each other. He looked down at the file on his desk and waved his hand over it.

‘How can this be you? I’d be extremely pleased if one of my field officers did this type of work.’

‘Strangely enough, people outside the PGSF are perfectly capable of producing results.’

‘Don’t be bloody sarcastic with me.’

‘Sorry, sir. You asked.’

‘Hmm. You’ve learned to be insolent like them, I see.’

I said nothing.

‘And that business with Renschman. Why in Hades didn’t you tell me?’

‘Not my call.’

‘You’re totally impossible.’

‘No, I’m not. You just can’t accept it. Imagine how I felt facing up to him. But I did it. He was a dirty bully and I had my revenge. And now he’s going down.’

He looked down at the file again for a minute, and glanced back up through his eyelashes. Did he realise the effect that had? I tamped it down.

‘If you were anybody else, I’d apply to have you transferred immediately into the PGSF.’

Cold rushed through me. No. I couldn’t be shuttled from one service to another. Could I?

‘You can’t do that,’ I croaked.

He leaned back in his chair and smiled. Not a pleasant smile.

‘Actually, I can. Then we’d find out what you’re made of.’

It was one of those ‘Superman, save me’ moments. I couldn’t find words, even in my head, to describe the dread of that prospect. And my anger.

‘Contrary to the delight almost everybody else would show at such an invitation, you don’t seem very happy about it,’ he said. He was right. Most people would move mountains to join the elite PGSF.

‘No. I like it where I am.’

He laughed. ‘Not up to it?’

‘Not a problem. I’d go up against anybody. No, it’s…’

‘Yes?’ He smirked.

I wanted to slap it off his face. ‘If you want the truth, I don’t like the idea of being surrounded by arrogant, brutal morons so up themselves they can hardly breathe. Sir.’

His face darkened. ‘Is that really what you think of us?’

‘That’s my experience so far.’

‘You’re wrong.’

‘Probably. It’s always me that’s wrong, isn’t it? You can’t possibly make a mistake, can you?’

‘Don’t be so bloody stupid.’

‘Like I said – arrogant.’

We glowered at each other.

It was at that precise moment the door opened and Lurio marched in. Thank Juno.

‘Major.’

‘Inspector.’

They didn’t bristle or circle each other but, if they’d been a few steps down the food chain, that’s exactly how I would have described it. They stared each other out for a full minute. Then Lurio walked forward, braced his hands on the desk and bent down to within centimetres of Conrad’s face.

‘If you want to talk to any of my people, put in a formal request. Got it?’

‘Get your attitude out of my face, Inspector.’

Lurio stood back and, without turning, said, ‘Okay, Bruna, get going.’

I was out before I could take a full breath. I stood in the corridor trembling, looking down at the wood floor. I heard the door open and shut again.

‘Take me home, Lurio. Now,’ I whispered.

‘Keep it together till we get out of here.’

At the apartment, we made for my bedroom, where we had the most shattering sex ever. He stroked my back and head afterward while I told him about my interview with Conrad.

‘You know something, Cara Bruna?’ he said, his finger touching the tip of my nose. ‘You are the most tremendous fuck I’ve ever had and I’m going to miss that.’

How coarse he could be, but it was a great compliment from him. ‘What do you mean “going to miss that”?’

‘After the trials next week you’ll be free to go home.’