Arcadia Awakens (33 page)

He sighed. “You tell her, then,” he told Alessandro.

“There’s an organization,” Alessandro said after a moment’s hesitation, “an international group that takes an interest in the Arcadian dynasties. It’s known as TABULA to its members. No one seems to know anything definite about them. They play many different parts, pretending that they’re employees of governmental authorities, or politicians, or public prosecutors.”

Rosa was listening, but she had difficulty concentrating on his words.

“TABULA has been trying to find out more about the Arcadian dynasties for years,” Alessandro went on. “At first everyone believed it just had to do with the clans’ business activities—the usual anti-Mafia campaigning. But for some time now there have been rumors that one of the dynasties based in Sicily is working with these people, feeding them information.”

“Why would anyone do that?” Rosa’s voice was husky.

“Promises. Money, power, that sort of thing.”

Cesare spoke again. “It’s no rumor. One of the clans is certainly working with them.
Your
clan, Rosa. The Alcantaras are traitors. They’ve sold themselves to TABULA.”

“That’s only what he suspects,” Alessandro put in. “He has no evidence.”

“I won’t need evidence once sentence has been passed on the Alcantaras,” said Cesare. “The problem will solve itself then.”

“Tano’s death must have been very convenient for you,” said Rosa.

Cesare took a quick step toward her. In the overhead lighting, his eyes glowed like a cat’s. “Tano was my son,” he cried, only inches in front of her face. “And someone has already died for what was done to him. Others will follow. None of you Alcantaras will be left, none of those who were loyal to you. You’ll pay for his death and your treachery. There’s nothing more valuable than the camouflage under which the dynasties have existed for centuries, and I will not allow anyone to endanger it. I maintain the tradition. I preserve our security. And I will punish anyone who breaks the Arcadian laws!”

He fell abruptly silent. A vein was pulsing at his temple, and his features were shaking, but he got himself under control again. Finally, almost casually, he took his cell phone out of his jacket pocket, typed something on the shining surface, and held it in front of Rosa’s face.

“Look at that,” he ordered.

On the tiny screen, no bigger than a pack of cigarettes, a video appeared. The camera, swaying, moved past bars and out into a corridor, passing rows of cages stacked on top of one another. Heavy breathing could be heard over the camcorder’s loudspeaker, along with background animal sounds of many kinds: spitting, growling, hissing. Whoever was filming seemed to have been in a state of panic, afraid of being discovered.

Animals crouched or huddled in the cages. In the dim light, Rosa saw several big cats. An unusually large fox. A gigantic bird, taller than a heron or a stork. A monitor lizard darting its tongue in and out. A couple of wolfhounds and a hyena. Then the camera passed a trembling creature that Rosa couldn’t see properly in the dim light, but it seemed to have too many legs to be a mammal. Shortly after, the screen showed tigers and lions again, a wild boar with curving tusks, a man-size rat with a shaggy coat. They were all shut up in the endless rows of cages, looking undernourished and half-crazed with fear. Some appeared to have mutilated themselves.

“TABULA,” whispered Cesare, as if the word filled him with unspeakable horror. “And that’s only a part of what they do. That’s why I hate the Alcantaras so much. And why you will all soon die. But until then,” he added, breathing out sharply, “until then do as you like.”

He slipped the cell phone back into his pocket, cast a last glance at Alessandro, shaking his head, and left the room. He walked slowly, shoulders bowed, as if in spite of everything he had suffered a defeat.

“Keep them down here for a few more hours,” he called back to his men, “until you’re sure they’ve calmed down. And then you can let them go. We’ll be able to find them as soon as the tribunal has passed judgment.”

R
OSA PUT THE CELL
phone down. Outside the car windows, the landscape of Sicily was racing past in the light of dawn.

“Who were you calling?” Alessandro gripped the wheel of the black Mercedes very firmly. At this speed, a moment’s lapse in attention could kill them both.

Rosa deleted the last number in the menu and put his cell phone into the glove compartment. “Can you take me to Catania?”

“I thought you wanted to go home.”

“Change of plans.”

“Rosa—who was that on the phone?”

She didn’t reply. There was a good reason for her silence. Several, in fact.

“You still don’t trust me,” he commented.

She looked straight ahead, through the windshield, at the flame-red sky above the road. “No one ever said anything about a
hunt
. And why didn’t you tell me my family were working with this—this TABULA, and—”

“Cesare is convinced they are,” he interrupted her. “I’m not. Oh, damn it, Rosa… I know almost nothing about TABULA. Who these people are, what they want … no one knows, and that includes Cesare. They capture Arcadians and keep them in cages. Obviously they have some way of keeping us in animal form. They carry out experiments, or so people say, but whether that’s all—”

“What was that stuff that Cesare’s men injected us with?” She clenched her fists and added, icily, “Forgive me, but I’m just a
teensy
bit sensitive about injections that I didn’t ask for.”

“Only a tranquilizer. The prescription is as old as the hills, said to date from classical times … but I don’t know if it’s true. Maybe that’s just talk, too. I’ve even injected myself with it. As long as you don’t overdo it, it doesn’t do any harm.”

“Says who?”

He glanced sideways at her. “All we know about ourselves and our kind is what we’ve been told. Traditions are passed on through stories. If we started questioning them, we’d have to doubt everything.”

“You already do. That story about King Lycaon being punished by Zeus … you said you didn’t believe it.”

“It’s a myth. Probably. But I’ve used that drug on myself, more than once. It stops the transformation for fifteen or twenty minutes. I even had a couple of doses with me in the States.”

Resigned, she shook her head. “And what about Iole? When he mentioned a hunt, did he really mean—”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t see fit to mention this to me?”

He angrily stepped on the gas. “What do you think I should have said? ‘Oh, and by the way, when a new
capo
takes over as head of the family, tradition says we spend a night hunting human beings?’”

Speechless, she stared at him.

“As it happens, I wouldn’t have had to do it myself,” he went on, “because I’m my father’s heir. If a
capo
dies and is succeeded by his son, there’s mourning and not a celebration. But if someone else, someone who isn’t a direct heir, takes over as boss, then that’s a victory guaranteeing him and his supporters prosperity for many generations—and
that
is something to celebrate.”

“And this celebration,” she said tonelessly, “means that the Carnevares go hunting human beings? Hunting and killing a fifteen-year-old girl who’s been through more than we can even imagine? Is that what your family calls a
celebration
, for God’s sake?”

“I didn’t make the rules.”

“But you don’t question them.” She gave an angry snort. “And you accuse me of not trusting you!”

His knuckles on the wheel were white; blue veins showed on the backs of his hands. “I’ve always told you the truth about everything.”

“But this is about what you didn’t tell me,” she replied forcefully. Then, after a moment, she asked, “How much time do we have left?”

“There’ll be an election. The highest-ranking members of the clan will gather to vote. Then, afterward, there’ll be a ceremony in which Cesare takes his oath as the new
capo
. All that will take a little time, particularly if he wants to convince the tribunal first that you’re to blame for Tano’s death.”

“When will they kill Iole?”

“The hunt comes right after the swearing in of the
capo
. In two days’ time, I should think.”

“Not any sooner?”

He brought his hand down on the wheel so hard that the car swerved. “How the hell can I know for sure?” They were both ashen-faced as he got the Mercedes back under control. More quietly, he added, “I don’t think he can manage to discredit me with all the others any earlier.”

“Discredit you because you protected me?”

He nodded. “Iole ought to be safe until then.”

“And you have no idea where they’ll take her?”

He shook his head. “Cesare’s obviously hunted humans on Isola Luna before. That’s why the animals were kept there—he used to enjoy hunting side by side with real lions and tigers.”

Rosa uttered a sound of disgust. “So maybe he’ll decide to go there again.”

“I don’t think so. The
capi
of other clans are usually invited to a swearing-in ceremony, and they all distrust one another so much, they’d never follow someone like Cesare to a remote offshore island. No, I think he’s picked somewhere on Sicily. I just have to find out where. If I know where the hunt’s going to take place, I can try getting Iole out.”

“By yourself?”

“It’s enough for one of us to risk life and limb.”

“We need help.”

“From the other clans? Forget it.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Who from, then? Your aunt?”

She shook her head. She didn’t even know where Florinda was. And Zoe? It was best not to think about it. She could cope well enough with the risk, not nearly so well with anxiety.

“Well?” he asked.

The road ahead led straight into the sunrise.

“Take me to Catania,” she said again.

An hour later they left the expressway and were racing through ugly industrial estates to the city center, when Alessandro noticed that they were being followed. Rosa was as unsurprised as he was. Cesare had let them go—probably to avoid any eventual accusations that he had anticipated the decision of the Arcadian tribunal—but he was no fool. He had clearly told his people to put her and Alessandro under surveillance.

But it took Alessandro less than ten minutes to shake off the other car in the dense rush-hour traffic.

“Where did you learn to do that?” she asked.

“Manhattan. I used to drive down to the city from the Hudson Valley, with a couple of other guys.” He didn’t have to say just what kind of pursuer he had shaken off in the chaotic traffic of the streets of New York. She was sure that he, too, had had plenty of experience with police questioning.

“You made it look easy,” she commented as he glanced in the rearview mirror again, and she saw his frown clear.

“That wasn’t all.”

“You mean there are more of them after us?”

He shook his head. “I’ll bet this car is crammed to the roof with tracking devices.”

“Wonderful.”

“Not to mention it’s probably bugged.”

“They’re listening in on us?”

“No.” He fished his key ring out of his pocket with his right hand. It clinked as he waved it in the air. Among the dangling keys, there was a small silver rectangle. In other circumstances she would have thought it was a lucky charm, or maybe a memory stick.

“Is that a jammer?”

He nodded.

“Where did you get that, Mr. Bond? From Q?”

“From eBay.” His smile was almost cheerful. “All they can hear is distorted noise and static.”

She pointed to his pockets. “Any more secret weapons I ought to know about in there?”

He smiled. “Just tell me where we’re going.”

She gave him the name of the street, but not the number of the building. “Drop me somewhere near there. I’ll go the rest of the way on my own.”

“What are you planning?”

“The less you know, the b—”