No Place Like Rome Read online

Slash picked up the box, handing it to me. I tossed it on the shelf like a hot potato.

  Slash leaned in close. “The clerk went to get Marcus. He should be out shortly.”

  I turned around as another older gentleman came out from a room at the back of the store. He walked up to Slash and said something to him in Italian. Tito joined them, listening and the two of them talked for a bit. Slash took a piece of paper out of his pocket and showed it to the man. They spoke for a few minutes and then the man went behind the counter and pulled out some papers and wrote something down, handing the paper to Slash. Slash and Tito shook his hand, then Slash motioned for me to leave.

  We huddled on the sidewalk. “So, where’s Marcus?”

  “That was Marcus.”

  “Huh?”

  “It appears as if Serafina’s boyfriend hijacked his name and profession.”

  “You mean Marcus is bogus?”

  “Not exactly.”

  Slash handed me the paper with the picture and addresses I had printed out.

  “He recognized this guy. Said his name was Alex Rogolli and until three days ago, he worked as a night clerk in the pharmacy.”

  I squinted in the sun. “So Alex stole his co-worker’s name and profession for an online dating service?”

  Tito shrugged. “So what? Can’t be too careful who you date these days.”

  Slash and I stared at him until he lifted his hands. “Okay. Dead girl. Not so brilliant comment.”

  Slash took the paper back from me. “Marcus said Alex only worked there a month. Showed up, was pleasant to the customers, and kept the cash register on target. Stayed to himself, but no one sensed anything out of the ordinary about him. Then two days ago he doesn’t show up for work. Phone calls went unanswered and finally they brought in the police to check on him at his address as they wondered if something bad had happened. Turns out he’d split. Paid up his bill where he was renting a flat and cleared out.”

  “So, he disappears right before Serafina is killed.”

  Slash nodded. “They gave me his employment identification number, but I have a feeling it and the name Alex Rogolli will lead nowhere. However, since they confirmed, via the photo you printed, that this is indeed the man who worked here, I have a better idea.”

  It took me about two nanoseconds to guess his train of thought. “Face recognition software?”

  “Si. The pupil gets an A.” He put an arm around me. “I can access numerous databases and do a cross-reference. If he has a passport or a driver’s license, it shouldn’t us take too long to find our man.”

  “Italian?”

  He smiled. “It doesn’t matter, cara. Whatever the nationality, I’ll find him.”

  We started to walk down the street and Slash kept his arm around me.

  “So, um, Slash, I was wondering... Am I your pupil?”

  He squeezed my shoulder. “Would you prefer to play the teacher?”

  “Are we playing?”

  “Not yet.”

  Tito snorted behind us and I gave him a puzzled look over my shoulder. He snorted again. “Ah, dear Lexi. I see why Nico adores you.”

  Slash murmured something in Italian.

  Tito just laughed harder. “All this fresh air and love. It makes me hungry.”

  I looked at him in disbelief. “Seriously? You just ate a plate of gnocchi. Make that two plates, since you ate most of mine.”

  Slash steered me to the right. “I know a little café where we can pick up something to eat and take it back to the hotel. Besides, I want to check on the encryption program and get started on finding the real identity of Alex Rogolli.”

  The café had cute little outdoor tables and umbrellas, though eating there would like having lunch in the middle of a parking lot since people in Italy apparently thought it was okay to park your car on the sidewalk. As a result, I didn’t feel too disappointed about having lunch back in the hotel in front of a computer. Since I didn’t have a clue what anything on the menu meant, Slash and Tito ordered. While we waited, I wandered out by the mostly-empty tables and watched as an elderly gentleman using an umbrella as a cane shuffled toward the cafe. Twice he almost tripped on the cobblestones and I debated whether I should go and help him or not. I didn’t want him to fall, but on the other hand, I didn’t want to insult him either.

  He stumbled again, wavering on his feet and swinging his umbrella.

  “Oh, for crying out loud.” I scooted around a table and moved toward him.

  I got about two steps away when Slash yelled something. I turned around just in time to see him flying through the air and crash directly into me and, by the force of gravity, the old man as well. My breath left my lungs with a sickening whoosh as I smashed into a table and my right knee and hip slammed against the cobblestones. I could hear shouting and screaming as people grappled on top of me and I tried to push them off.

  At some point I managed to scramble away, just in time to see Slash roll to his feet and Tito take off down the street after a suddenly-turned-spry old man. People ran up to us saying things I didn’t understand in Italian while Slash pulled me to my feet, patting me down like an airport security guard.

  “What’s going on?” My shoulder, arm and hip hurt like hell and I saw my lunch all over the cobblestones.

  “You okay, cara?”

  “Of course, I’m not okay. I’m not having a very good day, if you haven’t noticed.” Not to mention the dead body, which I didn’t point out, seeing as how we’d gathered a small crowd.

  He pulled me to his chest. “Thank God, you’re okay.”

  I looked down at my torn jeans, dirtied top and scraped elbow and hands. “This is your definition of okay? Why in the heck did you tackle me?”

  Kneeling down beside the old man’s umbrella, Slash picked it up gingerly, holding it in his hands.

  “Slash? Who was that old guy? Where’s Tito?”

  Still examining the umbrella, Slash said something to the crowd and then hustled me away. “That old guy wasn’t old. He tried to shoot you. Tito went after him.”

  I stopped in my tracks. “What? He tried to shoot me? Have you gone bonkers? I didn’t see a gun.”

  “There was no gun.” He held up the umbrella. “He tried to shoot you with this.”

  I stared at it in fascinated horror. “He tried to shoot me with a freaking umbrella?”

  He angled the tip toward me. “See that opening? There was a dart inside.”

  I peered down at the dark hole. “Is this some kind of joke?”

  “No joke, cara. Whether the dart held poison or a sedative, I don’t know.”

  “Poison?” I screeched. “Why would a complete stranger want to shoot me with poison? No, wait. Don’t answer that. Tell me why would he want to shoot me at all?”

  Slash looked over his shoulder. “Someone thinks you’re getting too close to something.”

  I stopped cold, looked into Slash’s eyes. “Me?”

  “Si, you, cara.”

  “How did you know? He was just an old man, for God’s sake.”

  Slash brushed a fingertip across my cheek. “It’s my job to know these things, cara. It was the way he held the umbrella, the manner in which he approached you, the look in his eyes. All of those things.”

  I shuddered. “To think I was trying to help him.”

  “Si. He expected that. But you’re alive.”

  “Because of you.”

  “As soon as I g
et you safe, I’m going to go back and scour the area to try and find the dart. For the time being, I want you off the streets.”

  He pulled me into to his side so close that I kept stepping on his feet as we half-walked, half-ran toward the hotel.

  “Jeez. Is this really necessary, Slash?”

  “Absolutely. I will not let anything happen to you.”

  I didn’t say another word until we got to the hotel. He didn’t release me until we were at the room door.

  “Stay back,” he murmured, pulling a gun from out beneath his jacket. He checked the gadget on the doorjamb and murmured something under his breath. He slid open a little panel on it and pressed something until the light blinked green. Then he popped the gadget off and put it into his pocket. Sliding the entrance key down the door pad, he pressed down the handle and disappeared. After a moment, he came back and motioned for me to come in, still holding the gun.

  “Someone tried to access the room,” he said, closing the door behind him and sliding the deadbolt across. “We’re going to have to move.”

  I looked around and everything seemed completely normal. Well, as normal as can be, given this day had turned into a never-ending nightmare. I’d seen a murdered girl and barely avoided being shot by a poison dart. What else could possibly happen? No, wait. I didn’t want to know.

  “How can you be sure?”

  “My traps were sprung.”

  Walking over to the computer cluster, he checked on the progress of the encryption program.

  “No movement on the big file. It’s not budging. But we’ve cracked the other two.”

  “Want me to take a look?”

  “Not now. Go pack. We’re getting out of here.”

  There was a knock at the door and I jumped.

  Slash strode across the room, standing to the side of the doorway, removing his gun from his shoulder holster and holding it up. “Who is it?”

  “Tito.”

  Slash did a quick check through the peephole, slid open the deadbolt and opened the door. He dragged Tito inside by the front of his shirt, slamming the door behind him. “Did you catch him?”

  Tito shook his head. “He got away. Had someone waiting for him in a vehicle a couple of blocks away. Did get this, though.” He held up a white wig. “Maybe we can get some DNA from it.” He looked over at me. “You okay, Lexi?”

  “I’m not shot, if that’s what you mean.”

  Tito slumped into a chair. “We shouldn’t have left you alone out there. Who would have thought they’d try something like that with the two of us about?”

  The lines around Slash’s mouth tightened. “It was my mistake. It won’t happen again. We’re packing up.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Sperlonga.”

  I glanced over at Slash, who sat down in front of the terminals, shutting everything down. “What’s Sperlonga?”

  Tito answered for him. “You mean where. It’s a town south of here on the coast. Nico is from Sperlonga.”

  “What about the police? I’m supposed to talk to them about Serafina.”

  “We’ll stop by the station before we leave,” Slash said, crawling under the table and unplugging cords. “Go pack, cara.”

  Sighing, I went into my room and pulled out my suitcase, stuffing everything back inside. I hadn’t even had time to enjoy the spectacular suite. When I came back, pulling my suitcase, Slash had almost packed up all the computer equipment. Tito was nowhere in sight.

  “Need help?”

  “Almost done.” He stood, brushed off his jeans and walked up to me. “I don’t like this turn of events.” He took me by both of the shoulders, his expression serious. “I’m thinking about sending you back to Washington.”

  “What? No. No.”

  His eyes darkened. “It’s getting too dangerous.”

  “So you think I’m a sissy? I’m up to my neck in this now.”

  “I can do it without your permission. Terminate my contract with X-Corp.”

  “Don’t threaten me. I’m not going to be shoved aside because you think I can’t handle it. You need me and you know it.”

  He sighed, brushing my hair lightly with his hand. “Someone shot at you, cara. My heart stopped beating when I thought I might not reach you in time.”

  His confession touched me. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  I tried to lighten the moment. “Look, it’s not like I haven’t been shot at before. Well, actually, I haven’t ever been the target of a poison umbrella, but that’s not the point...pun intended. I’m not running back to X-Corp because things got hot.”

  “Someone targeted you specifically, cara. That alone is alarming. But it’s the method that worries me. These kinds of weapons are usually reserved for special branches of the government or high-powered private firms that can afford them. The fact that they used one of these in their attack against you is significant.”

  “In what way?”

  “In the way that it signals to me they weren’t trying to kill you, but kidnap you.”

  “Kidnap me?”

  “They may suspect you’ve found something.”

  “The gateway program?”

  “Not that, cara. Something else. You were the only one who had a firsthand look at Serafina’s computer and enough time to copy some files, which is exactly what you did.”

  “Okay, but what’s the significance? The police will now have access to those same files. It’s not a big secret anymore.”

  Slash sighed. “Those police experts weren’t even able to determine that Serafina was the inside link. You, however, took just a few hours to trace the hack. They aren’t worried about the police discovering their secret, cara. They’re worried you will.”

  I paused for a moment to think about it. “Okay, then why not just kill me? Not that I’m advocating that particular line of action, mind you. But why use an umbrella?”

  “Why, indeed? Which leads me to the supposition I mentioned earlier that they don’t want to harm you. At least not, yet. They either need to be certain what you know or...”

  My pulse skipped a beat. “Or what?”

  “Or they need to use your brainpower for another purpose, thus the kidnap attempt.”

  The light bulb flashed on. “The encrypted file. You think that file contains something they’re worried about us finding.”

  “Si. I believe there’s something unusual about that file. It’s so far resisted every form of encryption-breaking program we’ve thrown at it and we’ve given it some pretty good ones. We’re going to have to refine our approach.”

  “Even more reason for me to stay.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You need me, Slash. It’ll take both of us to crack that file and you know it. I’m not going back to Washington with my tail tucked between my legs.”

  “You can’t help me if you’re harmed or missing.”

  “There’s no guarantee I’ll be safe back in Washington either. If I’m here, at the very least, you’ll be able to keep an eye on me.”

  He frowned. “I will not let anyone harm you. Ever.”

  “Which is exactly why I’ll be safe with you.”

  He searched my eyes for a moment and then abruptly released his hold on my shoulders. He strode to the window, yanking aside the drapes and staring out the window, leaning a forearm against the sill. At that moment it hit me how tired we both were—still jet-lagged, hungry and running on little more th
an adrenaline.

  “There’s something else, isn’t there?” I took a step closer to him. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  For a minute neither of us spoke and then Slash sighed. “Tito went to see if he could retrieve the dart the man shot at you.”

  “Guess it doesn’t really matter what he finds at this point.”

  “Not true. Whatever the substance inside, we might be able to trace it back to the manufacturer.”

  “Okay, but that’s not all. What else?”

  He exhaled a deep breath. “I think Serafina is the only person they had inside the bank, meaning the actual premises were physically impenetrable to them.”

  “So what? They didn’t need actual access. They could do everything remotely. Heck, they could have wiped the drive if they wanted to.”

  “I know. So why didn’t they?”

  I pondered that a moment. “Good question. Do you think Serafina’s death might have been unplanned?”

  He shrugged. “Who knows? It’s impossible to say how complicit she was in the entire process. Technically, all they needed her to do was open a program once she was inside the system.”

  “You think she was duped?”

  “Perhaps. However, we also have to entertain the possibility that she knew full well what she was doing and held out for more money. There is also the chance she stumbled across her boyfriend’s duplicity, if he’s indeed a factor, and confronted him or decided to tell the authorities what she’d done because her conscience bothered her. It’s difficult to say at this point.”

  I digested that thought. “Okay, but at some point, despite the apparent snail’s pace of the police’s tech force, it’s fair to assume the hackers would realize the trail would eventually be traced back to her. But I checked, Slash. The gateway program wasn’t malicious or self-destructive, which is weird because any decent hacker would have planted one just in case. Whoever wrote that program and then subsequently hid the trail was ace—way beyond decent. So, you’re right, which leads us to the thousand dollar question: why didn’t the program have a self-destruct capability?”