“Panem nostrum cotidiánum da nobis hódie, et dimítte nobis débita nostra…” Nina mumbled the words of the Lord’s Prayer along with the rest of the congregation, stumbling over the pronunciation as she dredged up the Latin words from the recesses of her memory. Shifting her wrist to reveal her watch, she stole another glimpse. Twenty minutes to the train. Fifteen minutes to the station if she walked fast. Five in a cab.
It had been years since Nina had last set foot in a church as anything other than a wedding guest. Even then, she knew very few Catholics and had not attended Mass since Religious Education had compelled her to do so. Desperately she tried to remember what still had to happen. Was the Lord’s Prayer the end? ‘No,’ she thought, ‘there’s Communion still to go. When does that happen? It’s the very last thing, isn’t it? How much is there to go before we get there?’
She did not realize that she had trailed off and stopped reciting the prayer until a sudden movement brought her back to her senses. The woman in the pew in front of her turned round to face her, and Nina jumped, expecting to be told off or threatened or perhaps just grabbed. Instead the woman stuck her hand out towards Nina and muttered something. It was not until she repeated it that Nina caught the words “Pax vobiscum.” With a sigh of relief she took the proffered hand and shook it. Her memory refused to yield the correct Latin response, so she reached for the nearest equivalent she could find. “Und mit deinem Geiste.” The woman looked a little confused, but she said nothing. Her duty done, she turned back to face the front again.
“Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem…” The congregation mumbled in unison, over and over. Nina joined in absent-mindedly, risking a glance over her shoulder in the direction of her pursuer.
To her surprise, the hooded figure was gone. The seat was empty. Nina’s heart leapt. Seeing her chance to make a break for the station, she inched her way along the hard wooden bench, getting ready to run. Just as people began getting to their feet to join the queue for Communion, she felt fingers close round her arm.
“Don’t look round,” a voice behind her instructed; the same voice she had heard the night before. “You are Dr. Gould, yes? Simply nod. I am certain that you are her, so, there’s no sense in attempting to deceive me. There is something we need to discuss, Dr. Gould. But we must not be seen together. Go and join the line. I shall be right behind you.”
Nina rose reluctantly and made her way towards the growing line. Another glance at her watch confirmed her suspicions. Time was running out. ‘I’ve got to make that train,’ she thought. ‘If I get stuck here on my own…’ She could not complete the thought. She honestly had no idea what would happen if she were stuck on Florence on her own. But she could imagine that without expert help, she would quickly find herself unable to avoid the long reach of the Order of the Black Sun.
With sudden certainty Nina spun round, ready to face her pursuer and fight her way out if she had to. But the hooded figure was not there. They were stuck behind an elderly lady who was taking her time to get to the aisle. Nina saw her chance. Calmly, carefully, she walked towards the door, slipping through the congregation as they walked in the opposite direction to her.
As she turned the heavy iron handle she saw the hooded figure looking for her among the throng seeking Communion. The obscured head turned towards her just as she slipped out of the door and into the dark street. ‘Ten minutes,’ she thought as she began to run. ‘I can do this.’
The bright lights of Via dei Panzani blurred into streaks as Nina raced along the pavement. All she could do was curse internally as she blundered into groups of pedestrians, forcing herself onward towards the monolith that was Santa Maria Novella. Through bleary eyes she scanned the departures board for Milano Centrale, then took off again at full pace towards her platform.
She hurled herself onto the train just as the door closed behind her and collapsed to her knees, gasping and wheezing. As the train gathered speed, carrying her away from Florence, Nina limped through the carriages to find the seat in which she would spend the next hour and a half speculating about their next destination.
Chapter Twelve
“Dr. Gould?”
Nina jumped. Had her pursuer caught up with her? She glanced round. A plump, pretty woman with blonde curls had taken the seat next to hers and was smiling pleasantly at her.
“Nein,” Nina replied curtly. “Tut mir leid.”
The woman seemed neither surprised nor confused. “Wie heißen sie dann?”
“Sabine,” said Nina, thinking that it would be less suspicious to supply her false name than to refuse to answer the question. “Warum?”
“I’m terribly sorry,” the woman said, “but may we speak in English? My German is not what it once was, and I am certain to confuse you if I lapse into Flemish by accident. I believe you know a friend of mine — Matteus?”
Remembering her instructions, Nina nodded.
“Ah, how wonderful!” the woman cried. “I hope you will not mind the imposition, but Matteus told me that you would be travelling this way and suggested that I go with you. We are going the same way, I believe, and dear Matteus knows how nervous I get about travelling alone, ever since the death of my fiancé.”
“Of course.” Nina allowed the blonde woman, who gave her name as Axelle, to squeeze her hand and exclaim over how glad she was to have company, since a woman travelling alone never knew the dangers she might encounter and no-one would be likely to cause problems for two women travelling together. Nina understood the subtext well enough — if the Black Sun was looking out for Nina, they were either looking for her alone or accompanied by Sam, Purdue or both. They were not searching for two women.
“But where are your bags?” Axelle cried, observing the empty space under Nina’s seat and the vacant luggage rack above her. “Don’t tell me they were lost at the airport! Baggage handlers can be so clumsy, don’t you think? How fortunate that you had your tickets on your person! Though I think this is yours — did you drop this? A strange sort of luck you are having today!” She reached down and plucked a ticket off the floor. Nina was certain it had not been there before, but she took it and examined it. It was a ticket for Milan’s airport shuttle. “Yes, yes that’s mine,” she said. Axelle offered no further information about their eventual destination, just a beaming smile, an unstoppable flow of chatter, and a much-appreciated open wallet when the refreshment trolley arrived.
“Boarding passes!” Axelle trilled, fishing the papers out of her handbag and thrusting one into Nina’s hand. Now that they were no longer aboard the train, surrounded by a different set of strangers, there was no longer any need to pretend that they had just met for the first time. Nina understood the gear shift. They were now acquaintances, perhaps even friends, travelling together. She glanced down at the boarding pass, eager to know their destination.
‘Brussels,’ she thought. ‘Is that where we’re hiding out next? I wonder where we go from there. I wonder why Brussels.’