Page 26

I t’s my own fault. I’m spending so long watching the house, I don’t even see the police until it’s too late. Three of them, positioned out of sight of me and the binoculars.

I curse myself as I take the steps three at a time, sprinting for the wall that separates the site from the surrounding streets. I leap up and get hold of the brickwork, clambering over it as fast as I can manage.

I’m still too late. I get a glimpse of the car vanishing into the distance. I spin around and another car’s coming this way. I jump in front of it and it halts just in time.

I run around to the driver’s door and before the guy inside can start to hurl insults; I yank him by the collar and pull him out. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, which makes the maneuver all the simpler.

I get in and gun the engine, tearing after the police car. It’s got a head start, but I manage to close the gap as we approach the city center.

I make calls as I drive, but I know it’s useless. My soldiers will be too far behind to be of any help. I give them my location anyway and the plate of the car I’m following. They’ll be able to track it and maybe I’ll get lucky. Maybe the odds will tip in my favor.

The police car pulls away, but then the roads snarl up.

The traffic slows us both down and I think I’ve lost sight of them by the Basilica, but then they reappear and I put my foot down, edging closer. They turn down an alley and I stop at the end, getting out in time to see her vanishing through a doorway.

No time to wait for help. I have to move fast, and that’s where I really fuck up.

I’m moving so fast I don’t stop to think. I run over to the door and turn the handle. Locked. I step back and give it a kick. It splinters and gives at once.

I get into the building and almost trip down the stairs. They’re right in front of me and there’s no light anywhere except what’s shining in from the street behind me.

I take the stairs down and then stop to listen. Nothing. Then a noise. It’s her voice coming from somewhere to the left. I pull out my cellphone and use the flashlight on it.

I’m standing in front of three tunnels and it’s clear which one they went down. Footsteps in the dust leading that way. I turn out the light. I don’t want them to see me coming.

The police are supposed to be in our pockets, but obviously, these three have made their own arrangements. Hope they think it was worth it when I put a bullet in each of their skulls. Whatever their plan is for her, it ends here and now.

When was Ricardo on to me? That’s what I wonder as I make my way down the tunnel. Did he see me at Ostia Antica, watching his house? Did he have someone checking the airports? The hotels? How much power has he got left?

It doesn’t matter. Pretty soon, all the power in him will be draining out onto the floor, leaving a corpse behind.

I turn a corner and something feels wrong. I go to get my gun and that’s when they jump me. I should have heard them waiting, but I’m so busy listening for her, I don’t notice anything else.

Two of the police officers, I can tell by the way they attack, using the training methods they’ve been taught. They have batons and they’re hammering my skull with them. I roar and fight them off as best I can, but the blows keep coming and my knees are giving way.

I get hold of one baton and try to yank it from the guy’s hand, but that’s when the other one gets his stun gun onto me. A flash of blue light and then jolts are flying through my body. I drop to the floor, unable to use my muscles.

More blue light and I’m groaning in pain, unable to do anything but flex my back and bite my tongue. Blood fills my mouth as they give it a third long blast, and then they start dragging me down the tunnel.

I’m taken through a door into a dimly lit chamber. I’m starting to fight back as they get me into a chair, but before I can land a blow, the blue light hits my chest again.

“Enough,” a voice says from the darkness. I look up and there’s Ricardo, emerging from the shadows. He’s wearing a crisp linen suit like it’s a day at the safari.

He picks his nails as he walks slowly toward me. “Lorenzo and Marco here have both got zappers so you might want to keep your seat.”

I calculate whether I could get to him in time, tear his throat out before they reach me. He shakes his head. “You know what this place is? ”

“Where is she?”

He carries on like he hasn’t heard me. “Temple of Mithras. Over two thousand years old.”

I go to lunge at him, but I’m barely out of my seat before the zappers are on both sides of my neck. I’m poleaxed by them and fall heavily to the floor. The two guys yank me upright and shove me back in the chair.

Ricardo continues as if nothing happened. “Rumor has it they sacrificed people down here. Won’t it be appropriate to end your life in this spot? Maybe I should ask the ancient Gods for a favor. What do you think? Bless my upcoming marriage, maybe?”

There’s a scream from the next room, somewhere to my right. I look that way and I’m up before I have control over myself.

The zappers bring me back down an instant later. My limbs are feeling weak. The jolts of electricity are taking their toll on my ability to function.

“Their colleague sounds like he’s having some fun with her,” Ricardo says with a snigger. He nods and they zap me again.

For a moment, my vision goes. When it comes back, Ricardo has taken a step closer, a long dagger in his hands, the handle encrusted with jewels.

“Got this from a dealer last time I was out here,” he says, turning it over in his hands. “Told me it was used right here. Now, that might be bullshit, but maybe it’s true. What do you think?”

The whole time he’s talking, I’m trying to get my jaw to work, and it finally does. “Let her go,” I say. “And I won’t kill you.”

He barks out a laugh. “It’s all over,” he replies. “Don’t you get it? She gets tortured next door and you die in here. Then I go in there and fuck her until she begs me to let her marry me. I become Capo dei Capi and I erase the Gianni name from history.

“All you’ll be is the last sacrifice made in this temple. How’s that for becoming a part of history? You killed my father and that bumps me up the ranking. Now I take over the whole fucking thing, Dino. I win. You get that, you son of a bitch? I fucking win.”

I’m glad he spends so long ranting at me. Gives me time to recover. I can feel myself getting ready, adrenaline coursing through my system, dulling the pain. “Let her go,” I say, clenching my fists slowly, feeling the strength coming back to them. “You’ve got five seconds.”

“Or what?”

“Or this.” I drop to the floor, but before the goons can get the zappers on me, I’m lashing out with my feet. I catch the nearest guy and knock him off balance. As he tips, I leap up and duck under the zapper of his colleague. Then I’m landing some punches of my own.

I’m not as fast as I should be, but I’ve still got enough strength to send them both staggering back. I grab the zappers from them and shove them into their balls, hitting the button and sending them into paroxysms of agony. I keep the buttons held for a long time and only let go when I can smell flesh burning.

They don’t get up again.

I turn to face Ricardo. He’s no longer smiling. He’s reaching into his pocket for a gun at the same time as I reach for mine. Normally it would be no contest, but I’m fumbling after all the jolts that ripped through me. It’s touch and go who gets there first.

All I know is, if I don’t kill him, Rose dies. I will not let that happen. We both pull out our guns at the same moment. I squeeze the trigger, and the chamber is filled with the deafening sound I know so well.

There’s a flash of blinding light in the gloom, and then it all goes dark.