Perfiditas (22 page)

‘Thank you, Marcella.’ I tried to sound sarcastic, but she was being kind, that stifling kindness that people who’ve known you for several years feel they can exert on you.

Allegra was watching me, as was Marcella, so I had to swallow it all down.

Marcella started to go but as she reached the double doors, turned. ‘Welcome home, lady. We’re all delighted to see you back safely.’

I took Allegra down to the swings in the garden. We perched on the seats, idly pushing at the worn patches in the grass with our feet, Allegra’s legs at the perfect angle, mine bent back almost on themselves. Helena’s assistant brought out some milk and biscuits which we ate sitting side by side at the picnic table with the blue and white segmented umbrella shading us from the strong sun.

I sought my daughter’s hand and held it in mine. ‘Allegra, do you want to tell me about when the men took you all away?’ I cringed inside, not knowing what to expect.

‘They were cruel and noisy. The twins cry at anything, so they don’t count.’ How hard children were to each other.

‘Why did they push Nonna and slap Helena?’ she asked. ‘We hadn’t done anything wrong – I always try to be good. So why did they hurt us?’ Her face didn’t show distress or upset, just bewilderment. ‘Helena said they were bad men obeying bad orders from that smelly Superbus. But they looked like soldiers, like you and Daddy.’

‘Oh, darling, they were a different type of soldier. Not very good ones. I’ll show you some pictures of different sorts, if you’d like, so you can see the difference.’

‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘So I know for next time.’

I hugged her tightly to me. After a few minutes, I released her and said, ‘Allegra, I’m going to do my very best to make sure there won’t be a next time.’

‘I know you will, Mama, but, as Great Nonna says, you never know.’ She looked straight at me. ‘Will you punish the ones that were cruel to us?’

‘Yes.’

‘Oh, well. That’s all right then.’

We walked back, hand in hand. In the dayroom, we kissed and I left her with Helena.

I was far too incensed to start my report. I had to calm down first, so I went and talked to Aurelia again. I told her about my conversation with Allegra. One of Helena’s friends, a cognitive counsellor specialising with children, had started sessions with Allegra, but Nonna thought Allegra would get over it reasonably quickly now that I’d started the healing process with her. I wasn’t too sure that was what I’d done, but Nonna seemed confident.

I tried for an hour and a half to draft the bones of my report for Conrad and managed to flesh out part of it as well, but it was a struggle. I had an ergonomic desk in the office in the apartment, a comfortable, personally-contoured chair, perfect lighting – everything of the best. Normally, I could sit there forever. This evening, I found I had to stretch, rub my neck, stare out of the window, and flex my legs. I let my arm out of its sling and made it attempt a few picking up exercises around the rest of the office. I drew the drapes, filed some papers, played with the paperclip pile. Eventually, I ground to a halt, saved my draft, password-protected it and messaged it to my secure storage box at the barracks. After a quick sandwich, I put my uniform back on and went on duty.

XXIX

Before reporting to the Interrogation Service, I checked in at my strategy office for mail and requested a couple of slots with Julia Sella for the next day. An email from outside pinged in. [email protected].

Justus! Crap squared. I was toast.

Knowing I should know better, I opened it. It was very formally worded and had numerous attachments. A second one pinged in. More attachments. He’d sent everything we’d uncovered – statements, recordings, reports, photos – all of it. I stared at the screen, unable to move. It had penetrated the security check system. Albinus was a real smart Harry. The internal security section had been disbanded. What was I supposed to do with this bunch of stuff? My finger hovered over the Delete button. How easy to tap and erase the two emails and save myself a shovel-load of trouble. Except, of course, there’d have been copies saved automatically on the central registry.

I closed down, locked up and reported to the interrogation centre, as requested.

Unfortunately, Somna was on duty. She was a professional soldier of many years’ standing, extremely effective at her job as senior interrogator. Conrad had enormous respect and liking for her. I was biased, having been on the receiving end several years ago. I’d always felt nervous around her.

Despite the name, the Interrogation Service mostly used psychological techniques, persistent questioning, hours of it, sometimes the odd chemical, but that was strictly regulated. They just sat there, going on and on at you. They didn’t interact or show a flicker of emotion. One favourite of theirs was when three of them sat in a circle around you and just stared. Didn’t sound too bad but, after an hour, most people start gibbering.

Somna had been a captain working with Conrad on the Pulcheria case when I’d first encountered her seven years ago. I’d been brought in as the chief suspect. The interrogation had taken a dangerous turn, and I’d ended up holding Somna in a threatening death grip. When the DJ had identified me as their agent and had me released from PGSF custody, she’d simply nodded at me and said, ‘My respects,’ and walked away. She was one of the few who knew the full story. Her only reaction when I joined the PGSF was a tiny jolt of recognition in her normally expressionless eyes. Nothing since.

The duty sergeant directed me to her door. I swallowed hard, which was difficult with a dry mouth, and knocked.

‘Enter.’

‘Good evening, ma’am.’

‘Ah, Captain Mitela, glad to see you.’ She smiled at me. ‘How’s the report coming along?’

‘Um, quite well, ma’am. I’d hoped I might be able to work on it tonight. However, something’s come up.’

Her grey eyes showed a flicker of interest.

‘I’ve had a couple of emails with some sensitive attachments. I would have reported it to the internal security office, but there isn’t one now.’

‘No,’ she said dryly and glanced at my sling.

‘So who would I inform?’

‘Sepunia and I are combining forces for the present. Our teams are working their way steadily through their whole set-up and work history. Why don’t you run it past me?’

‘May I log on to my account here and show you?’

‘Please.’ She moved aside from her keyboard and waved me to it. Wired as I was, sitting closely to her made me even more hot and uncomfortable. I forced myself to breathe evenly and slowly while downloading everything from Justus. Somna stared at the screen, her eyes darting in synch as if they were interacting directly with the information and images on it. A smile grew on her face like some alien construct. She looked like she’d been taken on a world tour of interrogation conferences, all expenses paid.

After she’d seen everything once, her hand darted out and she jabbed a button on her commset. ‘Longina, get in here. Stat.’ She didn’t shout, but it was on its way there.

A tall brunette, slender beyond skinny, came in; another one with a smooth, expressionless face. Was there a special factory turning them out? But, as she leaned over to the screen and absorbed the contents, she was moved to say, ‘Fuck me!’ which I thought was appropriate, but entirely unexpected from a robot.

‘Right, Mitela, start telling us about this lot.’

It went on for hours. True to type, they were relentless. Not in a hostile way, but like thirsty vampires, natural to them. I felt sucked out by the time we’d finished. Almost everything was acceptable. Somna regretted that I’d stamped on Pisentius’s foot and kicked Cyriacus, but it didn’t invalidate it.

‘Although a little crude from a professional point of view, for an untrained interrogator I think you did very well,’ Somna commented. I ignored the patronising tone and almost passed out with surprise at her praise.

‘I didn’t realise Jus— they were making recordings,’ I said. Sneaky bastard.

Longina took me to find a drink. Thank the gods. I was gasping.

‘That’s a goldmine, Captain.’ She held her hand out. Her handshake was dry and unbelievably firm.

I reciprocated and smiled back at her, relieved that it was mostly legal as well as useful.

‘The Colonel will want your report even more urgently now.’

‘Well, there’s quite a bit more to go in. It may take a few days.’

I was trying to put off the inevitable confrontations. Now, not only Conrad was on my case but Somna as well.

‘Let me know if you’d like to observe any of the sessions,’ Longina said.

She smiled, and I think she meant it kindly, like she was conferring a favour, but I passed for that shift. My nerves were still jangling from talking to Somna, and I needed to give them a break.

Instead, she gave me a quick tour of the service’s work and organisation. I was fascinated by the analysis and compilation facilities. I saw now there was much more work in this function than in the physical interaction with the prisoners – the iceberg syndrome, I guessed.

‘So how are the interrogations going generally?’ I asked.

‘We’ve wrapped up Aburia now. Her hearing before a military tribunal is scheduled for next week. Obviously, you’ll be called, so I’ll get a legal staffer in to brief you tomorrow or the next day.’

She consulted her screen. ‘Sextus Cornelius is wrapped. He’s being transferred to the remand centre for psychological reports. Ah! There’s a new note – the Cornelia Family legal officer is to support him. Lucky boy! They’ll bring a top-rate lawyer in for him. Not that it’ll make any difference.’

I didn’t want to shatter her illusions. Sextus would probably tell the legal officer to go stick herself.

‘Caeco, Pisentius, Trosius and Cyriacus were work in progress but, with your material today,’ she raised her head from the screen and smiled, ‘we’ve made a quantum jump.’

I seemed to have made somebody’s day, at least.

I finished just after two in the morning, pleased with the progress I’d made on my report. As she was also going for sleep, Longina introduced me to the early shift supervisor, Porteus. Somna was still welded to her desk but would probably nap for a few hours later, Longina said.

It was quiet in the IS general office: just the hum of computers, a vidscreen on low volume, and a few people working at desks. Desks were arranged open-plan in continuous worktops with a generous space for each workstation. I thought it resembled mission control in Houston. A meeting table and chairs occupied the corner opposite the entrance to Somna’s office. It looked like any boring workplace, but, of course, it wasn’t.

I tapped on the door frame of Colonel Sella’s office at 08.30 next morning. ‘I’m sorry to have made such a short-notice appointment, ma’am, but I wonder if you could do me a small favour.’

‘Well, you can certainly ask,’ she said.

That jarred. Her usual friendly tone was gone, her expression neutral with no smile. Nevertheless, I had to get this done. ‘I have a young cousin, Lucilla Mitela. She’s a student at the Central University, and she’s been working at the library over the vacation, down in the archives. She’s finished there now but still has three weeks to fill. I wondered if I could use her for some routine input work here?’

‘Fill in an application form online and I’ll approve it then.’

‘She’s filled it out. I have her CV and character affidavit right here,’ I said. ‘And her security form.’

She looked at me with a sucked-in face. ‘Do I get the impression you’re trying to steamroller me?’

‘Not at all, ma’am, but she only has three weeks, and it can take a week to process these things, at best. I promised her.’ I smiled with what I hoped was an appealing expression.

‘You’re not going away until I approve it, are you?’

I judged it better to say nothing.

She tapped on her keyboard, accessed the application and signed it off. ‘Drop the paperwork off with my clerk. She can start tomorrow.’

She looked down at her folder and slid the next sheet over. I closed the door quietly as I left. What was that about? Was she put out with me or was it something else?

The IS office was buzzing like a beehive that morning. I found my workstation, sipped my coffee and looked around. I was about to work on my report when Somna came up to me with a smile on her face like she was Fortuna with a sackful of gifts.

‘Ah, Carina, come with me.’

So we were on first name terms now?

We made our way downstairs and entered a control room with three sides covered with large screens. Pairs of IS were sitting at five of them, headphones on, scribbling on pads or tapping on keyboards. Fright Central. Well, maybe that was too harsh. I must have been watched on these screens for the two days I was down in one of those cells. I shivered. Somna gave me a rueful smile. It was scary how sympathetic she was. If I wasn’t too careful, she’d soon become my best buddy.

I stood silently while she listened to the supervisor’s report. Trosius was now wrapped up, and he thought Pisentius would be by the end of the day. The supervisor looked at me with a question in his eyes, but Somna didn’t introduce me.

‘Shall we listen in?’

Pisentius was on a chair, hands cuffed behind him. The interrogator was standing very near, one boot nudging Pisentius’s bare foot. He bent down and said softly, ‘Now you don’t want me to break the top of your other foot, do you?’ Pisentius flinched, his shoulders rolling inwards. He let his mouth drop open a few millmetres and I heard him catch his breath.

The other interrogator repeated her question in a bored voice. And again. Then the first one pulled up a chair right by Pisentius, crowding him, and repeated the question. And so it went on, unrelenting. Pisentius started sweating.

Two minutes later, he shouted, ‘Screw you! Of course we did!’ and he hung his head.

I almost found myself sympathising with Pisentius, the fundamentalist traitor who wanted to kill my cousin and destroy her country. I took the headphones off and walked away from the screens. I waited by the table. When Justus and I had questioned the conspirators, it was in anger and with urgency. I respected what the IS did, probably more than I had before, but I was too emotional to do their job in this depersonalised, methodical way.

Back upstairs, I grabbed another coffee and settled down to my report. I heard snatches of conversations around me, but kept my head down. Sober slogging calmed my nerves. By lunchtime, I was finished, but I didn’t share that piece of information. I had something to do first.

Longina was back at her desk.

‘What’s the situation with Superbus?’ I asked.

Her face fell. ‘Well, we’ve only done preliminaries with him, but even then he wanted his mummy, sorry, his lawyer. She’s a tough nut, so I think it’s going to drag out.’

‘Will you let me know if it reaches deadlock?’

She looked at me, puzzled but interested. I left it at that.

I knocked on Somna’s door and put my head around it to ask her to excuse me for my meeting scheduled later with Julia Sella. Although it was in the diary, I thought it polite to check in. Daniel was in with her and, as I tried to withdraw, Somna called me back.

‘Carina, Major Stern was wondering if he was needed any longer now you’re here. I rather thought not, unless you feel otherwise?’

Daniel looked incredulous and threw a load of questions at me with his eyes.

‘No, I don’t think so, ma’am,’ I replied with a smile.

‘Very well, you’re released, Major,’ said Somna. ‘Thank you for your help.’

Daniel and I walked back together to the general PGSF office. He’d completely forgotten our fight yesterday.

‘So now you’re best buddies with Somna? I thought you hated her.’

‘I think “hate” is a little overstated but, sure, I was nervous of her. But I have to say I’m finding it easy to work with her now, and her team are very nice.’

‘“Nice”!’ he exploded. ‘Are you listening to yourself?’

‘Yes,
you
should try it some time.’

‘So what more can you help her with? All the arrest reports are in.’

‘Oh, this and that.’

‘Hmm. Now you’ve crossed over to the dark side, I suppose you’re not going to tell me where you disappeared to before you showed up at the palace.’

‘No.’

Eating lunch, we speculated about the general fallout; who would head the security unit; whether Sepunia would be confirmed as Intelligence. Daniel wasn’t fooled and, between poking at his food, he continued to needle me about my down time.

After a while, we ran out of words.

Daniel was one of my staunchest friends. We were both risk-takers, strong-headed, ready to act. We’d done some insane things together in the past. After hand-climbing the inner courtyard wall – five storeys high – for a bet, even though it was strictly against orders, we were thrown in the cells for a week. But we both thought it had been a good laugh. It sealed our friendship and we got totally smashed the day we were released. We’d penetrated and destroyed a dangerous network together; trained allied personnel; been lent to other governments; broken active service units; trained hard, lived hard.

Our bond was strong, but would it survive the next forty-eight hours? I’d deceived him about Pulcheria. Sure, it had been for operational reasons, but Daniel had been humiliated and defeated by Pulcheria and her people several times. He’d taken it really personally. The one time he’d had complete advantage over her, at the end of the tunnel, and could have terminated her, Conrad had stopped him.