The Rome Prophecy

112

Valentina twists her ankle for the second time and curses the never-ending stairs.

If there wasn’t a gun at her head, she’d have a tantrum that no one would ever forget.

She tries to ignore the pain and calculate how far below ground she is.

It’s harder than it sounds.

After every twenty steps, the stairs level out for a couple of paces.

Then they begin again.

The first two descents were extraordinarily steep and straight, the next five more spiral, but the steps were still stone and not metal, the kind of tight circular steps, thin in the middle and wide on the outside, that you find in an ancient bell tower.

Valentina does some maths.

So far, she’s come down more than a hundred steps.

That’s useful information.

As a cop, she’s walked the floors of many hotels during surveillance operations, and a hundred and fifty regular steps equals about five floors of the average hotel.

That’s deep.

And they’re still descending.

She just hopes there’s a big bed, flat-screen TV and heavily stocked minibar at the end of it all.

Fat chance.

Twenty steps later, the journey ends.

She can hear people around her sighing in relief.

‘Can I take that thing off her head now?’ asks the kind one. ‘She must be dying from the heat.’

Someone must okay it, because Valentina feels hands working on the coat belt pulled around her neck.

It’s off.

Valentina feels good. She inhales the cool air and does her best not to look frightened or flustered. If she appears relaxed, then it will make them relax, and relaxed criminals often make mistakes.

By the look of it, they’re in some kind of wine cellar.

A large open space with little gated alcoves.

Valentina realises her first impression is wrong.

Very wrong.

The place is lit by old-fashioned torches, burning in special metal holders on the walls, and the gated alcoves aren’t gated alcoves at all.

They’re cells.

Off to her left, she spots a child in what looks like a white nightdress, curled up on the floor near the bars of one of the cells.

For the first time, she starts to panic.

There’s no way that they’re going to let her see this and then allow her to go free.

No way on earth.