Gladiatrix (46 page)

I couldn't move. I had nothing left.

Alex dived down to check Mertling and take his gun, as Victoria dropped beside me. ‘Celeste?' Her eyes were the same as mine — blackest black.

‘Yes.' It'd been a very long journey. ‘Yes, I think so.'

‘My darling. My darling.' Tears started running down her face leaving streaks in the dirt. She gently helped me roll onto my back. I moaned heavily, as I rolled off my fingers.

‘Are you shot, my love?'

‘He missed me.'

‘Did he hurt you? You're covered in blood.'

I just had the energy to say, ‘No.'

Alex knelt on my other side. Victoria looked across at him, ‘What's wrong with her?'

He said, as gently as possible, ‘She fought as Bellona today. In the arena.'

Victoria's face whitened. She knew very well what that could entail. Then she checked me again for wounds. As though she couldn't believe I'd survived intact.

‘Her fingers are broken. She needs to get them set properly,' said Alex. ‘There's a deep gash on her left thigh that should be cleaned and stitched. And she's been struck heavily on the head and shoulders. I think they tried to stone her.'

Victoria, her face turning whiter at every word, softly touched my arm. ‘The Isiacs have called the police. The medics will be here soon, love. We can get you straight to hospital.'

‘No!' I tried to move. The room pitched suddenly so I stopped.

‘Lie still, my love,' implored Victoria.

‘You don't understand. I have to get Alex out of here. Now. If the NTA finds out about him they'll send him back.'

She looked at Alex, then at me. She instantly knew what I was saying. ‘How did you get him through?'

‘I used Armstrong's transponder.' She grimaced at the name. ‘I had to bring him,' I said.

She accepted that without question. Then bit her lip. ‘But I can't leave you here, alone like this.'

‘Just tell me where to go. I can hide,' Alex cut in.

Sirens screeched close by.

‘You can't.' I tried to roll on my side, so I could push up to my knees.

‘Stop.' Victoria realised how serious I was. ‘I know where to take him. Then I'll find you in the hospital.'

‘Then hurry, please!' I lay back on the floor again. Alex touched my cheek once, and then together they sprinted for the fire door. The alarm triggered and they were gone.

The floor was warm. My head hurt. Everything hurt. I drifted … I think I dozed.

A boot nudged my side. ‘There's another one over
here, Parnelli. Live one, I think.' I opened my eyes. Mertling was being loaded onto a stretcher.

‘Jesus!' The policeman looking down at me shouted, ‘Get over here now. It's Jarratt. The terrorist the NTA had us searching for.'

Another uniformed officer came to his side. ‘You're right. Call for back-up. There could be a bomb. We'll have to evacuate the Iseum.'

I'd forgotten about Mertling's frame-up. I tried to sit up. ‘No. No, you've got to calm down. Marshal Dupree can explain everything.' I might as well have been still talking in Latin.

They cuffed me and dragged me into the back of the patrol car, ignoring everything I tried to say.

By now I was dry heaving every few minutes, and something really bad was happening to my balance.

At the station they sat me in a small room and grilled me for a while, before the FBI arrived and went through the whole deal over again.

I lost all sense of time, just floated in a glazed sea of pain. It went on forever.

‘Why don't you just tell us the truth, Jarratt? Or whoever you really are! Instead of this bullshit. Who are your associates? We know at least four others helped when you broke into the NTA and damaged the portal.'

Mertling had done a good job on me. Nothing I could say would get them off their list of questions. ‘If you'd just wait and talk to Marshal Dupree — she'll tell you everything.'

‘Yes, but where is she? Dead like Mertling? Have your friends got her? Tell us who shot him with the spear gun?'

If I said Victoria that wasn't going to help either. ‘I told you, Mertling set me up. It was part of his plan.'

‘Is that why you killed him?'

The circular questioning wasn't helping my throbbing head and hand. And I had to be careful answering questions as I could let slip about Alex. Where had Victoria taken him? Was he safe? I really needed to know he was all right.

I leant forward resting my forehead on the table, my right hand cradled against my chest. I didn't know whether I was going to throw up or faint. Or both.

Bang.

Someone had kicked open the door to the interrogation room.

‘Why is my daughter NOT in hospital?' It was Victoria, on full volume.

I didn't have the energy to raise my head, but I could see her bare legs. They were blue from the cold, and she was wearing men's black dress shoes. They were too big for her.

The blond guy got to his feet. ‘Marshal Dupree. Ah. We were told …'

‘I don't give a fuck what you were told! She's the victim of Mertling's conspiracy, not a fucking terrorist. Your boss knows what happened so ring him.'

‘Er. Marshal Dupree …'

‘Now!' Victoria had worked herself into a towering rage.

I shut my eyes. That was the last thing I heard for a while.

 

When I woke up, I was clean and bandaged, with a cast on my right hand.

Victoria was asleep in the chair next to my bed, still wearing the torn green tunic, but now with hospital slippers on her feet. She woke after a few minutes and
we just looked at each other in silence. There was so much to say, how to start?

Victoria leant forward and picked up my other hand. She held it gently between her own. ‘You must understand, my love, that I never gave up trying to find you. I joined the NTA because I believed that one day I'd be able to go back to the kidnapping and find out where they'd taken you. That's all that's kept me going.'

She kissed my hand and held it to her cheek.

Conflicting emotions crashed through me. A year ago, I'd sat beside a hospital bed like this one, and watched Yuki die. Now Victoria was here, taking me into her arms and her life.

Not an ending, but a beginning.

I started crying, jolting with twin waves of grief and happiness.

She moved up to hold me tenderly, resting her cheek against mine. ‘I'm here, my love. I'm here.'

Gradually I calmed. The tiredness took over again and I relaxed into the bed. Victoria felt the shift and went back to her chair to give me more room.

She took my hand again. ‘Constan told me why they called you Kannon. Which name would you like me to use?'

‘Constan?' Given Rous's treachery, I didn't feel like trusting anyone from the NTA.

Victoria read my expression perfectly. ‘No. He's on our side. And definitely on yours. At this point it looks like it could be just Mertling, Scolette and Rous from Union Square.'

‘But I followed another man from the NTA into the Iseum. Mertling had rung him. He ferried a briefcase over for Mertling.'

‘So that's how you knew where he was hiding? Smart. Okay, I'll pass that on.'

‘But how did you find me? How did you know to go into the Iseum?'

‘Alex. He took one look at the pyramid and muttered something about Egypt … about a field of reeds? We were dodging the FBI — I knew they'd slow me down — and we had no other leads, so I just followed him in.'

The image of Victoria standing before the aqua Isis flashed into my mind. ‘Why did you use the spear gun?'

‘The Isiacs stopped us at the front door. They refused to let us in armed, so I improvised. But how did Alex know where to look?'

I was silent for a moment. It seemed as though Mersekhet's message had saved my life. But had it been her message? Could I really believe that some divine being had communicated with me?

That just didn't fit my world. But what had happened here?

I shrugged. ‘It's a long story. A very long story.' It was going to take me a while to work out what it all meant.

She patted my hand. ‘Tell me later, my love. I want to know everything.'

‘Is Alex safe?'

She smiled.

‘What?'

‘Alex made me swear to keep him informed. He's staying at Constan's apartment. When I called last they were watching TV — Alex was laughing his way through some gladiator movie.'

‘He was watching TV?'

‘Yes. Constan said he's a real couch commando, too. Had to offer him steak to get him to change from the news channel.'

‘The news channel?'

‘Yes.' She smiled again. ‘He's special, isn't he?'

‘Um.'

‘Yes?'

‘He saved my life.'

‘I'm sure he did. I don't think he'd let anyone hurt you.'

‘Um.'

‘Yes?'

‘If I'd left him in Rome he would've died. Horribly.'

‘He told me that, too.'

There was a soft tap at the door. Victoria eased herself out of her chair. She half opened the door, but I couldn't see who it was.

‘You're Victoria Dupree, aren't you?' The voice was familiar.

‘Yes? Who are you?' Victoria was wary.

‘A friend of Kannon's. Is she awake yet?'

I knew that voice. ‘Des!'

Victoria checked with me, then stepped back to let him in. He was in a rumpled old suit, tired but happy.

I sat up, and they both hurried forward to stop me. ‘I'm fine. Des, why are you here?'

‘Kannon, you went missing! So of course I came. I've been banging on doors all over town, trying to work out what happened. Then I heard you arrived back.' He looked at Victoria. ‘Both of you.'

They shifted awkwardly. A real introduction was needed.

‘Mum. Marshal Victoria Dupree,' I said proudly. She beamed back at me. ‘This is Des. Retired Senior Detective Sergeant Carmichael. He helped raise me, and he never stopped investigating my case.' I paused. ‘He sent me over here, to find you.'

They looked at each other. Des shyly stuck out his hand. Victoria grabbed it and pulled him into a bear hug. They both started laughing.

I leant back on the pillows. Journey's end.

‘Of course that was just the beginning,' Constan grinned as he said it.

Victoria and Constan had picked me up at the airport this morning, then driven down to Victoria's beach house at Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco.

‘And?' I prompted.

‘Then he offered me money for your flight number.'

‘So this reporter tried to pick you up in your local bar and get you drunk?'

‘Sweetie, they all want to know every little thing about you.' He signalled quotation marks with his fingers, ‘“Lost girl fights her way home via ancient Rome”. You're the media's sweetheart.'

Damn. ‘I was hoping this would've all settled down while I was away.'

‘Didn't the Australian press do the same thing?' asked Victoria, surprised.

‘Well yes. At first. But then the rugby league season started in earnest again, and that was it.' They were both a bit taken aback. ‘Seriously, Victoria,' I was still not used to calling her ‘mum', but she was okay with that, ‘are they going to start following me around again?'

‘Unfortunately, Kannon, I think they will,' she was apologetic. ‘With the NTA internal investigation still in full swing, and Rous's and Scolette's trials yet to be even scheduled — yes. But the good news about all this publicity, is that it's forced the Moral Legion to back down.' She smiled. ‘As of a week ago, all threats of violence against the Isiacs ceased.'

‘And damned time they did too!' When I'd left for Australia, White Gregson had been spitting vitriol at the NTA, and throttling up for open confrontation. ‘How did that happen?'

‘Basically the mainstream Christians finally had enough of Gregson's public ranting and storm-trooper tactics, so they put pressure on the rest of the Moral Legion to pursue more peaceful ways of getting their opinions across. I don't know if it's going to last, but it's working for the moment.'

‘Good. So the Legion accepted my testimony about Livia and the Hierophant? That the Hierophant just translated the text for Livia, but didn't actually have anything to do with the ritual itself?'

‘They had to,' said Constan. ‘Eventually.'

‘What do you mean “eventually”?'

‘Well, the Moral Legion lost a lot of their supporters, political and otherwise, when White Gregson publicly attacked you.'

‘Really? He attacked me?' I grimaced.

I'd been flat out for the past few weeks sorting out stuff with the Australian police. The revelations about Mertling and The Network had created as many questions as they'd answered. Obviously these two had been keeping quiet about a few things while I was away.

‘On what grounds?' I could just imagine. The man was a paranoid lunatic, living in his own nasty little vengeful universe.

Constan smirked. ‘Gregson gave a press conference and went completely locked ward. He demanded another NTA mission. Said you were lying.'

He shot a wry glance at Victoria. The mere mention of Gregson had triggered the same enraged expression that'd kept a battalion of ambitious FBI agents out of my hospital room.

‘Gregson is a malicious little toad!'

Constan gave a covert grin at her protective tone, then said, ‘Of course, once he publicly attacked you, well! Everyone just started backing away. Even his own people. Then the Director stepped in to defend you …'

‘What, Gaskell?'

I'd only met the Director of the NTA once, on the second day of the Congressional hearings. He'd been in hyperdrive, trying to deal with the savage media backlash against the NTA, as well as everything else. The NTA's many enemies had taken this all as an opportunity to stick the collective boot in.

‘Considering all the flack he's caught for appointing Mertling in the first place I thought he'd be relieved someone else was in the firing line.'

‘I know, I know, Kannon,' said Victoria. ‘But believe me, there are some good people in the NTA. People who believe we're doing something worthwhile. And Gaskell's one of them.'

Constan nodded. ‘Yes, Director Gaskell really went for Gregson's throat. He gave an interview on primetime TV and talked about what you went through to get that information about the Hierophant. Asked how Gregson could dare to cast aspersions on an innocent young woman who'd been dragged into Mertling's criminal dealings. And risked her own life to save her mother.'

‘Wow.'

‘Yes. And that's not all,' said Victoria, warming to the
topic. ‘He said he'd resign if another mission was ordered. And, that it was time our elected representatives stepped up and did their job. That the question of religious freedom shouldn't be about who did what two thousand years ago. But a matter for open discussion in the present.'

‘Finally!' I could never understand why the NTA had been sucked into trying to solve this controversy in the first place.

‘Anyway,' Victoria continued, ‘after Gaskell's interview, politicians from all over the political spectrum began jumping up and down about the right way to debate constitutional change. And — hallelujah — religious freedom became a political issue again.'

‘Good. Now, what am I going to do about Alex?' I'd been waiting to ask that question for two months.

I hadn't seen him since that day in the Cradle of Life. He'd been living with Constan, and Victoria had lied to everyone to keep him safe, so they'd both put their careers and even their freedom on the line just because I asked them to. They deserved to know what I was going to do.

Constan grinned. ‘I know what he's got planned.'

‘Don't worry about Alex for now, Kannon,' said Victoria, reassuringly. ‘He's adapting amazingly well. He's learning English …'

That wasn't my main concern. ‘What I'm worried about is whether I should see him soon. Or stay completely away.' I didn't say it, but I really missed him. ‘If they're following me around again — what if someone gets a photo of him? Starts investigating him? What if the NTA puts it all together?'

‘That's right, my love.' Victoria was concerned too. ‘He can't be seen with you. Not yet. It's not safe. For either of you.'

Too many people had seen Alex that first day, but Victoria had dealt with it. She'd said he was Armstrong. That he'd decided to help me after all. Then, of course, he'd disappeared rather than go to gaol. Everything had happened so fast, no-one really questioned that.

Well, who else could he be? Who else would be running around San Francisco in a tunic and sandals in the middle of a snowstorm?

‘Is he okay?'

‘Big and beautiful as ever.' Victoria snorted at Constan's enthusiastic description. ‘And ready to join the twenty-first century.'

I sighed. What could I do? I missed him, but if the NTA found him they'd send him straight back.

Victoria could see my disappointment, so she changed topic. ‘So … Des is by himself over there now?'

‘Just for a while.' I hadn't wanted to leave Sydney without him. ‘He's staying there until the police investigation is finalised. Then he's going to come over here for a visit.'

Constan and Victoria exchanged glances. He spoke first, ‘Does that mean you're going to stay here for a while?'

‘Well. The dojo and Makepeace Security seem to be going fine without me. Yuki trained all our staff herself. They're smart and I trust them to run things for now.'

I hadn't mentioned the matter to Victoria or Constan but Ledbetter was on the verge of being kicked out of police college and into court. The young female police cadet and three local girls had lodged serious complaints against him. The dojo incident had been seen as corroborating evidence of his violent attitude towards women.

‘What about Spud?' I'd sent Victoria a photo of my
pup. She'd agreed Spud was the spitting image of Suzie, the dog I'd had as a child, and now she wanted to meet her.

‘That's a hard one. She'd have to go into quarantine …' And I was still making my mind up about the future. Where was my home now? What did I want to do with my life?

Victoria sent Constan a sharp look. He immediately got to his feet and wandered over to the bay window. ‘Mmmm, that beach does looks inviting. I think I'll just pop out and get some fresh air.'

A brisk wind was blowing through the stand of Monterey cypress next to the house, and it was still not warm enough to lure Constan too far away from a good chat and a comfy chair.

‘What are you talking about, Constan? You hate the beach. Too much sand, you said?'

He didn't reply, just continued out the back door.

‘Subtle as ever,' said Victoria, watching him through the window. He was gingerly picking his way down the rocky path to the beach.

‘What's up?'

‘I've got some news for you — Constan is just being tactful.'

Given everything that was going on, I wanted the bottom line first. ‘Good news? Bad news? Can you at least give me a hint?'

‘Maybe both.' She paused. ‘I'm not sure how you'll see this … And I'm certainly feeling ambivalent myself. But I have to tell you anyway — it's not my decision to make.'

‘This is sounding serious.' I braced myself. ‘Okay, tell me.'

‘The NTA is going to make you an offer. To reward you for a job well done, under incredible hardship.
And,' she pursed her lips, ‘let's face it, this is a great public relations move for them, too.'

‘Now you've really got me worried. What've they got planned?'

‘From next year the NTA will allow a limited amount of public access to Union Square. That is, to the portal. Specially trained private investigators will be permitted to conduct approved investigations.'

She smiled, with a mixture of pride and anxiety. ‘They're offering you a spot in the first training program.'

My jaw dropped.

‘Kannon, my home is your home. And that offer includes Alex, Des, Spud, and whoever else you want. And it may take you years to get your life back on track, to feel normal. Safe again. I promised Gaskell I would tell you about this offer, but that's all.' She made a closing-off motion with her hands.

‘A private investigator? Who can use time travel?' What a buzz!

‘After all you've been through, this must be absolutely the last career you would ever want. You must hate the NTA for …'

‘Would I need to have a PI licence?'

‘Have a holiday first, Kannon! Have a look around. Meet your other relatives …'

‘What do I need to do to qualify for one in this state? And I'd have to decide what to do about the dojo. And Makepeace …'

Victoria started laughing.

The phone next to her rang. She picked up, listened, then said, ‘Yes, Kannon's right here.'

She handed me the receiver.

‘Kannon?' It was a warm, male voice. With a European accent.

‘Yes, Alex.'