Read Online INCEPTIO (Roma Nova) by Alison Morton - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Alison Morton
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churches?
Fifteen minutes later, I crouched behind a dumpster in a narrow alleyway, watching people filing into the neighbourhood church opposite in ones and twos, their faces composed, ready for a re-injection of goodness. After ten minutes, no one else appeared. I drew myself up and ran my hands down the front of my jeans, attempting to smooth away creases. My heart thumping, I forced myself to walk across the street at normal pace. But I remembered Conrad’s words about being ready to run.
I looked up and down. Nothing. I put my foot on the first grey stone step. Only four more and I was safe. I heard singing behind the now-closed door. As I grasped the handle, I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I was easing the door open so I could slip in as quietly as possible when two pairs of arms grabbed me and dragged me back down.
‘So you see, Miss Brown, you are in a fragile situation.’
I had stumbled as a woman in a suit pulled me back down the steps. She’d flashed a gold badge and declared herself as Special Agent O’Keefe. One of the people who had visited Hayden. Still gripping my arm, she’d put her hand on my head and pushed me down into the back of a plain grey car that had whirled from around the corner and braked hard in front of the church. It stank of stale junk food. I’d flung myself at the far door but it was locked.
‘How dare you? Let me out this minute.’
‘Sit down and keep still. I don’t want to have to cuff you,’ she’d said as her companion accelerated away from the kerb.
I gave up arguing after ten minutes of her ignoring me. Shortly after, she tapped the driver on the shoulder, and we stopped in a deserted street of warehouses.
‘I’m going to give you a friendly warning.’ She looked straight ahead, focusing through the windshield glass on the end of the street. ‘You need to keep away from dangerous people like Mr Tellus.’
‘You can’t tell me who I can and can’t see. This is a free country.’
Her laugh didn’t sound mean, just cynical. She swivelled around to face me. ‘You may like to think about this. Firstly, for whatever reason, you’re on the national watch list, where they put subversives and potential terrorists. Secondly, sure your father became a good American. He even reconnected with his cousins in Nebraska. But your mother stayed a foreign national. Maybe there was something irregular in her paperwork. Could be that you don’t have right of residence here, after all. You couldn’t work then, without a social security card.’
Bluff. She was bluffing. Besides, I had my mother’s money.
‘Your bank account would be frozen, of course, pending investigation, which could take years.’
‘You can’t threaten me like this.’
‘I’m not threatening; just showing you what could happen if you were unwise. Surviving on the street is very hard. Especially for a naïve young woman used to comfort and decent behaviour.’
‘You…you shit!’
She shrugged. ‘If you keep away from Tellus, your happy, safe little life will settle back to normal, and your listing might get cancelled. You have a fine future. In a few weeks, you’ll inherit a prosperous business, with a raft of secure government contracts. It would upset me to learn you’d thrown it away on a whim.’ O’Keefe fixed her light grey gaze on me. ‘We’ll take you back to your apartment now. But we’ll be keeping an eye on you for a little while longer, for your own safety.’
Outside my apartment building, O’Keefe got out and unlocked my door, opening it like she was a parking valet. I couldn’t scramble out fast enough.
‘Do I have your undertaking, Miss Brown?’
‘What do you think?’ I said. I turned my back on her and fled inside.
XIV
Renschman jammed his lips together and exhaled in one heavy pulse through his nose. Exasperation was an alien emotion. He’d been forced to accept the help of O’Keefe’s First Bunch of Idiots, but they
Fifteen minutes later, I crouched behind a dumpster in a narrow alleyway, watching people filing into the neighbourhood church opposite in ones and twos, their faces composed, ready for a re-injection of goodness. After ten minutes, no one else appeared. I drew myself up and ran my hands down the front of my jeans, attempting to smooth away creases. My heart thumping, I forced myself to walk across the street at normal pace. But I remembered Conrad’s words about being ready to run.
I looked up and down. Nothing. I put my foot on the first grey stone step. Only four more and I was safe. I heard singing behind the now-closed door. As I grasped the handle, I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I was easing the door open so I could slip in as quietly as possible when two pairs of arms grabbed me and dragged me back down.
‘So you see, Miss Brown, you are in a fragile situation.’
I had stumbled as a woman in a suit pulled me back down the steps. She’d flashed a gold badge and declared herself as Special Agent O’Keefe. One of the people who had visited Hayden. Still gripping my arm, she’d put her hand on my head and pushed me down into the back of a plain grey car that had whirled from around the corner and braked hard in front of the church. It stank of stale junk food. I’d flung myself at the far door but it was locked.
‘How dare you? Let me out this minute.’
‘Sit down and keep still. I don’t want to have to cuff you,’ she’d said as her companion accelerated away from the kerb.
I gave up arguing after ten minutes of her ignoring me. Shortly after, she tapped the driver on the shoulder, and we stopped in a deserted street of warehouses.
‘I’m going to give you a friendly warning.’ She looked straight ahead, focusing through the windshield glass on the end of the street. ‘You need to keep away from dangerous people like Mr Tellus.’
‘You can’t tell me who I can and can’t see. This is a free country.’
Her laugh didn’t sound mean, just cynical. She swivelled around to face me. ‘You may like to think about this. Firstly, for whatever reason, you’re on the national watch list, where they put subversives and potential terrorists. Secondly, sure your father became a good American. He even reconnected with his cousins in Nebraska. But your mother stayed a foreign national. Maybe there was something irregular in her paperwork. Could be that you don’t have right of residence here, after all. You couldn’t work then, without a social security card.’
Bluff. She was bluffing. Besides, I had my mother’s money.
‘Your bank account would be frozen, of course, pending investigation, which could take years.’
‘You can’t threaten me like this.’
‘I’m not threatening; just showing you what could happen if you were unwise. Surviving on the street is very hard. Especially for a naïve young woman used to comfort and decent behaviour.’
‘You…you shit!’
She shrugged. ‘If you keep away from Tellus, your happy, safe little life will settle back to normal, and your listing might get cancelled. You have a fine future. In a few weeks, you’ll inherit a prosperous business, with a raft of secure government contracts. It would upset me to learn you’d thrown it away on a whim.’ O’Keefe fixed her light grey gaze on me. ‘We’ll take you back to your apartment now. But we’ll be keeping an eye on you for a little while longer, for your own safety.’
Outside my apartment building, O’Keefe got out and unlocked my door, opening it like she was a parking valet. I couldn’t scramble out fast enough.
‘Do I have your undertaking, Miss Brown?’
‘What do you think?’ I said. I turned my back on her and fled inside.
XIV
Renschman jammed his lips together and exhaled in one heavy pulse through his nose. Exasperation was an alien emotion. He’d been forced to accept the help of O’Keefe’s First Bunch of Idiots, but they
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