The Rome Prophecy

90

‘She’s waking up.’

Louisa hears them talking before she sees anyone. People are moving all around her.

Her fluttering eyes finally focus.

She’s staring up at a ceiling.

A real ceiling.

Not the rough roof of a cell.

The picture before her slowly becomes clear.

She’s in a strange room that smells of dust and wet plaster.

It doesn’t matter.

At least she’s not underground. She’s not in a cell. Not in an enclosed space.

She hunches up on to her elbows.

A blurred shape enters her eyeline.

‘You passed out.’ It’s the man in the purple cloak. ‘You panicked and collapsed when we were moving you.’

Louisa looks around. His scarlet-robed henchmen are hovering in the background, along with a woman in a shimmering pale cloak who turns and walks away as soon as she notices Louisa looking at her.

The woman in her apartment block? Purple Cloak’s accomplice?

No, Louisa doesn’t think so.

She looked older. Somehow more important.

Purple Cloak leans over her again. ‘Let’s get you some water. You haven’t drunk anything for about twelve hours.’

Twelve hours!

The words crash around in her mind like a frightened bird stuck up a chimney.

‘What?’

‘It’s a little after eight a.m. You’ve slept through the night. Probably a combination of shock and stress.’ He remembers the circumstances of her abduction. ‘And perhaps a little after-effect of the chloroform.’

Louisa takes a plastic cup of water from him. She notices he’s right-handed and wearing a heavy gold ring bearing the image of a woman astride some ugly wild animal. ‘ Grazie.’

She drinks it in two gulps.

He smiles. ‘I’ll get you some more.’

Louisa can see the room better now.

It’s weird.

She can’t quite think what it reminds her of.

Then she gets it.

It’s like a half-decorated room in a new house. The walls are dark peach, the colour of fresh plaster. There are ladders lying on the floor, dust sheets piled in a corner, and a strong smell of gloss paint.

She sits up a little more.

No windows.

It panics her slightly.

There are workmen’s portable lights off to her left, cables snaking away to some hidden power source or generator.

She’s certainly in some newly built or newly refurbished building – somewhere that is going to be seen by the public, otherwise what’s the point of decorating it?

‘Here.’ Purple Cloak pushes the topped-up water cup into her hand. ‘Don’t even think about wondering if you can run away. Even if I took you outside, you’d have no idea where you are, and our people are guarding all the tunnels and exit routes.’

Tunnels.

Was that a slip?

Louisa sips the water.

The more she thinks about it, the more she realises that the word tells her nothing. Rome is like a rat run.

The whole subsoil of the city is riddled with secret tunnels, caves, dungeons and ruins.

She could be anywhere.

She passes back the empty cup.

‘Good. Now, how about you make that call to your office and explain to us how we can recover Anna?’

‘I need my phone,’ she says wearily.

He clicks his fingers and someone goes off to fetch it. ‘I know. We brought you here so you can get a signal. It would have been impossible in the cells.’

Cells.

Plural.

Cells.

And tunnels.

Louisa pushes her luck. ‘I’ll need to go back home and change. I can’t go into work wearing yesterday’s clothes; it’ll look suspicious.’

He seems amused. ‘If necessary, we can give you fresh clothes, but you won’t be going home until all this is over. And if you don’t achieve what we want, then you won’t be going home at all.’

One of the henchmen returns and hands his boss Louisa’s phone.

Purple Cloak flashes a thin smile. ‘We’ve even charged it for you.’ He gives Louisa a long and considered look. ‘Now, who are you planning to call? What are you going to say? And how exactly do you intend to help us get Anna back?’

Louisa has thought this through. A hundred times. She clears her throat with a rusty cough. ‘We’ve taken her out of the hospital before. We took her to Cosmedin, near to where she was arrested, to see if we could unlock any memories that would help us with her therapy.’

Purple Cloak stays poker-faced. ‘Go on.’

‘I’m going to call my assistant and tell her to get Anna ready to go out again. I’ll say I’ve been reading through the case notes and want to take her on another cognitive trip.’

‘You can authorise that?’

‘Of course. That’s why you brought me here, isn’t it?’

He accepts her point. ‘Where would you say you were taking her? How will she get there?’

Louisa knows she has him hooked. ‘Wherever you like. You tell me.’

He thinks for a moment, then looks pleased with himself. ‘Piazza di Santa Cecilia. Do you know it?’

Louisa does.

It sends a shudder rippling through her.

‘Yes. I can go into work, collect Anna and bring her there with my assistant.’

He holds up the phone. ‘No. You’ll get your assistant to bring her. You only go free as and when we see Anna.’

That’s not the way Louisa was hoping to play things. ‘I’ll have to be there to sign her out,’ she lies. ‘It can’t be done.’

‘It can. Find a way. And remember, if you try to trick us, we will kill you.’ He passes the phone over. ‘Show me on the display who you are going to call before you press any buttons.’

Louisa takes her cell and thumbs her way through the electronic directory.

Her hands are shaking. She can feel her breathing quickening.

Another panic attack is on its way.

Finally she holds up the name and number for him to see.

He peers closely at the display. ‘Okay. Make the call.’