The Three Most Wanted (35 page)

“I won’t say Luciano loves us ‘cause he doesn’t, but he’s got a heck of a lot more appreciation for… uh…
our
methods than most of his lot. I reckon he might just consider helping us to get suitably equipped worth a little time and effort.”

Pope Cornelius shrugged.

“Well, providing we are all agreed on the nonviolent nature of this enterprise, I’ve no objection to you getting in touch with the man. So, where do you plan on
getting
these weapons?”

Bane opened his mouth to reply—hesitated, as though spotting an unexpected fly in his ointment.

“Well, um, I think the only way is to take them from the EuroGov.”

“You mean
steal
them from the EuroGov.”

Bane spread his hands.

“They own the factories. We can’t
buy
them.”

“Actually,” put in Father Mark, “we can’t
arrange
a purchase. But we’re still sending the EuroGov monthly invoices for the Forbidden Square tours and rent on all the Church property they’ve occupied throughout the EuroBloc, aren’t we?”

“Yes,” said Pope Cornelius dryly, “and they’re shredding them and using them as bedding for their children’s pet hamsters, for all the response we’re getting.”

Father Mark shrugged.

“So add the rent for Vatican State as planned—and once we’ve helped ourselves to what nonLees we need, deduct the value, taking into account any damages caused acquiring them, print it up on the invoice, nice and official, and send it to them. Then it’s not stealing. Just an unofficial transaction.”

Pope Cornelius smiled slightly.

“That… might be acceptable. I will pray about it. But I think the answer will be yes. So make your plans accordingly.”

Bane had his permission to proceed. Part of me was more sorry than glad. But Bane was saying thanks, eyes gleaming with excitement, and we were all getting up to go.

“Keep me up to date,” appealed the Holy Father. “And
be careful
.”

“Of course,” said Bane. How many times had I heard that?

“He won’t,” said Jon, “but we will.”

“
I will
,” objected Bane.

“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” said Father Mark, holding the door open.

Bane and I left Jon to make his way to a suitable, empty phone room, whilst we went down the stairs to the basement room where Eduardo had made his lair.

“Can we make an external call, Eduardo?” asked Bane from the doorway. No point making plans ‘til we knew if Luciano would help and no one made calls out-of-state without the Head of Security’s permission.

“Yes.” Eduardo picked up a code card from the desk and held it out without looking up from his screen. Bane crossed the room and took it.

“Well, that’s very obliging of you. Who shall we ring, Margo?”

“
If
it’s the one you just discussed with the Holy Father,” clarified Eduardo, still busy with his screen.

“Have you got the place bugged, or something?”

“The Holy Father called down to me already, not that it’s any of your business. Go and make your call.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Is there any news about Juwan and Doms?” I asked.

Eduardo turned from the screen at last.

“Nothing yet. They’re still being held in Reims Detention Facility until the boy Louis recovers enough to testify against them.”

“Will he?”

Eduardo grimaced.

“I’m sorry, but they do seem to think he will. Sooner or later.”

I bit my lip. Bane’s plan wouldn’t help. Not at once, anyway. First we needed the weapons. And then… well, a Detention Facility really was a different kettle of fish.

“I’m monitoring the situation as a priority,” said Eduardo softly, and turned back to his work.

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, thanks,” said Bane seriously.

When we’d joined Jon, Bane went straight to the phone and typed in the number from the code card, then the phone number he’d retrieved from his old omniSIM. He put it onto speaker setting so we could all hear, but it rang and rang and rang. Luciano might not have his phone on him, might have it on silent whilst he went about his bloody work. We’d have to try again later…

“
Si?
” A woman’s voice.

“Uh, who is that?” asked Bane in Esperanto.

“Who’s
that?
” snapped the voice in the same language. “And why are you calling this phone?”

“Carla,” Jon mouthed at Bane, who nodded.

“Carla?”

“Who is it?” she asked more warily.

“Bane.”

A long silence. “What the hell do you want?”

“We want to speak to Luciano.”

“
You can’t.
”

“Oh, come on, is he there?”

“No, she means
can’t
, not
won’t let you
,” said a male voice—Carla had the phone on speaker too.

“
Francesco?
Why not?”

Silence from the phone, then Carla spoke in a hard, tight voice.

“He’s dead.”

###

Boring Legal Bit

Copyright © 2014 Corinna Turner

First published in the UK by Unseen Books* in 2014

This US edition published in the UK by Unseen Books in 2015

The right of Corinna Turner to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the copyright owner or, in the case of reprographic production, only in accordance with the terms of licenses issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, and may not be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Initial quote (
Isaiah 42:16a)
is from the
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition
Copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotation p.
155 (
Psalm 61 (62) v.7  
) translation based on the
Knox Bible
Copyright © 1945 Diocese of Westminster. Used by permission.

The EuroBloc map incorporates parts of the map:
European sub-regions (according to EuroVoc, the thesaurus of the EU)
by Samotny Wędrowiec, whose design was based on:
Map_of_Europe_(political)
. Licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

Cover design by Corinna Turner, Anthony VanArsdale, and Regina Doman

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-910806-09-8 (ebook)

Also available as an paperback

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, incidents and dialogues in this publication are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual locales, events or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

* An imprint of Zephyr Publishing, UK—Corinna Turner, T/A