Cassandra sometimes.’
Itching to move, I went to the gym downstairs for some hard circuit training, followed by a kilometre on the outdoor track. Despite pushing my pace so my breath seared through my lungs, making my eyes water, it didn’t distract what was pounding through my mind. My gut instinct was to keep running. Now.
As I sweated back inside, one of Sepunia’s staffers found me. ‘Captain Mitela? Captain Sepunia would be grateful if you could call by her office this afternoon,’ he said. ‘She said it’s not urgent, just interesting.’
What had Sepunia dug up that she couldn’t leave until tomorrow’s meeting? And what exactly did she mean by interesting?
Half an hour later, I knocked on the door frame of her office, a friendly smile on my face.
‘Hi, Carina. Come in and sit down,’ she said, as cheerful as I appeared. I shut the door and waited for her to speak. She dropped the happy look, glanced at me almost furtively, then glued her eyes back on the paper in her hand. She wasn’t very tall, and fidgeted around like a little brown mouse in front of a stalking cat.
‘When we were searching the safe in Sextus’s house, we found an envelope marked “Sympathisers”. One of my people was logging the contents – mostly letters and message printouts – and putting a list together. She was somewhat taken aback to find these. Any comments?’ She shot me a speculative look.
Two photos showed a group of people in full formal dress filling a magnificent hall. Domus Corneliarum. I recognised it from the last gathering of the Twelve Families. In the foreground were my grandmother, Livia Cornelia, Laetia Volusenia, her daughter Marcella and Claudia Sella, Julia Sella’s aunt, and me. A rough circle had been drawn around my head in red marker. In the top photo, I was slightly turned away, accepting a drink from the waiter who was…Sextus. No. The second photo was similar, but included Imperatrix Silvia Apulia. My face was turned at a more direct angle as if I was in serious conversation with Sextus.
Hades.
‘I don’t know what to say – I don’t pay attention to each and every servant that hands me a drink,’ I said coldly. That probably sounded snooty, but that was how it was. Maybe Sextus had wormed his way onto the staff list for the big bash at Livia Cornelia’s. Maybe he was curious about his mother’s family after all. I hadn’t had the slightest murmur of recall about him when I first went to Aidan’s office. And my memory was pretty good.
‘The photos look like part of the batch taken for publication. Anybody could have accessed them via the public pages of the Twelve Families’ site,’ I said. ‘C’mon, Sepunia, this is the kid fantasising with some fancy graphics package.’
‘And the letter?’
She stretched out, but held on to a single sheet, handwritten in blue ink. The sloping, hurried scribble looked exactly like mine. I read it through twice. A big lump of lead landed in my middle. It was supposed to be from me saying that Conrad and I had been impressed by Sextus and wanted to hear more about his ideas. Would he please like to contact me and arrange a time to meet?
I stared at the letter, caught somewhere between dismay and shock. Why in Hades would Conrad be remotely interested, with his history?
‘This has to be a forgery,’ I said when I’d recovered my voice. ‘I always use black, when I write something. Not something I do often.’ I shrugged. ‘And we have our own hand-milled paper, not this everyday stuff.’
‘Perhaps so, but you understand I have to submit it to full forensic examination.’
A shiver ran through me. I felt a noose tightening, not only around my neck but Conrad’s too.
‘Of course,’ I agreed. What else could I say? Somebody was mounting an attack on the Mitelae. Nonna and I thought it would be financial or digital, and she’d had yet another layer of BI security programs installed. I hadn’t anticipated anything from the
Itching to move, I went to the gym downstairs for some hard circuit training, followed by a kilometre on the outdoor track. Despite pushing my pace so my breath seared through my lungs, making my eyes water, it didn’t distract what was pounding through my mind. My gut instinct was to keep running. Now.
As I sweated back inside, one of Sepunia’s staffers found me. ‘Captain Mitela? Captain Sepunia would be grateful if you could call by her office this afternoon,’ he said. ‘She said it’s not urgent, just interesting.’
What had Sepunia dug up that she couldn’t leave until tomorrow’s meeting? And what exactly did she mean by interesting?
Half an hour later, I knocked on the door frame of her office, a friendly smile on my face.
‘Hi, Carina. Come in and sit down,’ she said, as cheerful as I appeared. I shut the door and waited for her to speak. She dropped the happy look, glanced at me almost furtively, then glued her eyes back on the paper in her hand. She wasn’t very tall, and fidgeted around like a little brown mouse in front of a stalking cat.
‘When we were searching the safe in Sextus’s house, we found an envelope marked “Sympathisers”. One of my people was logging the contents – mostly letters and message printouts – and putting a list together. She was somewhat taken aback to find these. Any comments?’ She shot me a speculative look.
Two photos showed a group of people in full formal dress filling a magnificent hall. Domus Corneliarum. I recognised it from the last gathering of the Twelve Families. In the foreground were my grandmother, Livia Cornelia, Laetia Volusenia, her daughter Marcella and Claudia Sella, Julia Sella’s aunt, and me. A rough circle had been drawn around my head in red marker. In the top photo, I was slightly turned away, accepting a drink from the waiter who was…Sextus. No. The second photo was similar, but included Imperatrix Silvia Apulia. My face was turned at a more direct angle as if I was in serious conversation with Sextus.
Hades.
‘I don’t know what to say – I don’t pay attention to each and every servant that hands me a drink,’ I said coldly. That probably sounded snooty, but that was how it was. Maybe Sextus had wormed his way onto the staff list for the big bash at Livia Cornelia’s. Maybe he was curious about his mother’s family after all. I hadn’t had the slightest murmur of recall about him when I first went to Aidan’s office. And my memory was pretty good.
‘The photos look like part of the batch taken for publication. Anybody could have accessed them via the public pages of the Twelve Families’ site,’ I said. ‘C’mon, Sepunia, this is the kid fantasising with some fancy graphics package.’
‘And the letter?’
She stretched out, but held on to a single sheet, handwritten in blue ink. The sloping, hurried scribble looked exactly like mine. I read it through twice. A big lump of lead landed in my middle. It was supposed to be from me saying that Conrad and I had been impressed by Sextus and wanted to hear more about his ideas. Would he please like to contact me and arrange a time to meet?
I stared at the letter, caught somewhere between dismay and shock. Why in Hades would Conrad be remotely interested, with his history?
‘This has to be a forgery,’ I said when I’d recovered my voice. ‘I always use black, when I write something. Not something I do often.’ I shrugged. ‘And we have our own hand-milled paper, not this everyday stuff.’
‘Perhaps so, but you understand I have to submit it to full forensic examination.’
A shiver ran through me. I felt a noose tightening, not only around my neck but Conrad’s too.
‘Of course,’ I agreed. What else could I say? Somebody was mounting an attack on the Mitelae. Nonna and I thought it would be financial or digital, and she’d had yet another layer of BI security programs installed. I hadn’t anticipated anything from the
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