Untitled ~ 4

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Chapter Four

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When she came back, His Majesty had got his tracksuit back on and was working on his shoes. She pulled on her neat black trousers and her running shoes. Her underwear was not completely dry yet, but they could not hang around for longer. Then she moved away from the coast, into the wilderness. Just when she was navigating a combination of rocks and prickly bushes, her phone began to vibrate.

Anna Margaret answered it. It was the ambassador, who sounded panicked. As she listened, she still could not decide whether she would reveal her whereabouts once she could get a word in. The ambassador also seemed more concerned about the king being loose on his own than about people getting shot at.

“Could it be true?” the ambassador asked. “Or are they holding him and were they making him phone? I mean, the plan sounded completely daft!”

“Unfortunately, he is completely daft,” Anna Margaret said dryly. She made a decision. “But fortunately, I am here.”

“Where?”

“In Italy.”

“In Italy? What are you doing in Italy?”

“I was here for a working visit, trying to talk some sense into…him.”

The other woman paused to process this news. “But what can you do? Can you find him?”

“Oh, I have him here. He’s all right. Physically, at least.” She could see him glaring at her and she smiled back sweetly. “But that doesn’t mean he’ll allow himself to be picked up by a car.”

“You have him there? I sincerely hope you won’t allow him to take the bus to Rome!”

“The thing is, I’m not exactly clear on who is to obey who in this situation.” She could tell from his face he had an opinion on that, but this was not the time to discuss that. “But listen, it’s a bit difficult for me to use the phone here. I’d rather you made sure things are okay at the villa. We’ll talk later.” She put away her phone before she dropped it into a crevice.

“What did she say? At least you didn’t give her our exact location.”

“That is in part because I do not know our exact location.” She slid off the rock she had had to climb over. The terrain was sloping gently downwards. Well, on average – there were rocks and holes that were not so gentle. It was not impassable yet, but they could not see too far ahead. Ahead of them were trees. There was no telling what was beyond that. “She hopes I won’t allow you to take the bus to Rome.”

“Did she mention a car again?”

“No. She didn’t know if you were really free and not saying things with a gun to your head.”

It was probably around nine o’clock now and growing warmer. He paused in the shadow of a lone tree. “What time would you expect people to come looking, assuming they haven’t all been killed?”

She had no idea. “They could be fifteen minutes behind us, if they first searched in the same direction. But they could not know where we went, so it’s probably more. Personally I’d first check the road before I climbed a hill. You’d only have to drive a few minutes to find out that’s not where we went, whereas it would take you much longer to ascertain we are nowhere up here.”

“Twenty minutes ago, we were climbing up.”

“Yes, so if anyone is following us, they could be appearing at the top any moment.” She looked towards it.

“And they wouldn’t be the good guys.”

She agreed. “From the size of the villages around here, I doubt the locals have enough manpower to be at work on two fronts. They can’t be both at the villa and here. Any more sophisticated manpower will have to travel for a while to get here.”

King Frederick was keeping a wary eye on the top of the hill. He rolled behind a stone outcrop. “That is exactly right. Any extra security has always been our own responsibility. They appointed one of their local constables as liaison, but that’s it. Whatever they could bring in, it’s not yet here.”

“Can you phone your men?”

He hesitated. “I didn’t want to have a ringing phone reveal their location in case they were hiding, but they have not sent me any messages since the first one.”

“So we don’t know if there are any attackers and how many.”

“Presumably they do keep in touch with the local police in such cases,” he said hopefully. “Since that’s where reinforcements should come from. Not from me. I’m merely someone who has to get out of the way. I might have stayed there if you hadn’t been with me, though.”

“Those breakfast knives are very efficient against guns, I’m sure,” Anna Margaret said in a sarcastic tone when she imagined him defending her with cutlery.

“I have a gun. Still, my role is to be a coward and to get out of the way. If I stayed to shoot, I might get shot myself.” He sounded a little bitter.

Anna Margaret glanced up at the top of the hill. There was still no one in sight, but she hid behind the same outcrop just in case. They had not come down in a straight line, although that would have been possible. Anyone coming down might not find them right away. She hoped no one would want to look behind every rock. “They’re your friends, aren’t they?” she asked quietly.

“Yes.”

She squeezed his hand and held it for a moment. “Do you have your gun with you?”

“No,” he said, exhaling deeply. “I don’t generally carry it around. Now I wish I did. Your secretary, are you fond of him?”

“My secretary?” She looked puzzled.

“He’s at the villa.”

“Oh. Would I be sad if he got shot, you mean? We’re not in a relationship. He’d fancy you rather than me. I’m probably less fond of him than you are of your men, but I still care.” She looked at the green and brown smudges that had appeared on her trousers and blouse. It would be difficult to get on a bus without attracting curious looks, but there was no other transportation out of this area as far as she knew. “I hope he went back to the hotel. With the car.”

“Can you send him a message?”

“I’ll try.”

While she was tapping away, he peered around the outcrop. There was nothing. In the distance a helicopter appeared. He peered at it suspiciously. It appeared to go in the direction of the villa. “But it’s not the authorities, I think.”

“Who could employ shooters and a helicopter and why?” She moved a little closer, although it was pretty useless to depend on him for protection if he did not have a gun.

“I don’t know. Listen. If anyone asks, were we professionally dressed at all times or not?”

She glanced at the smudges on her blouse and then at his tracksuit. Professionally indeed. “I don’t think anyone would dare to inquire. By the time the anecdote ends up in my memoirs you’ll be too old to care.”

“Your memoirs?”

“My father is working on his memoirs. He seems to think people will read them. If people read his, they would certainly read mine if I include today’s episode.”

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He moved away from her a bit, under an overhanging bit of the outcrop. “Come.”

“Why?” But she was moving already.

Her phone vibrated. “It’s a message from George!”

“Who’s George?”

“My secretary. He’s at the hotel. How could he be at the hotel? If nothing is happening, what do they think we are doing?” Would their disappearance not look strange in that case? And how would it look if they came back?

He glanced at the top of the hill again and then at the sky. There was nothing. “Call him.”

Anna Margaret did so. “How can you be at the hotel? Do you know about the shooting? No, I don’t know. I have no idea. I’m not there anymore. Can you make inquiries, discreetly? No one should know I’m here. No, I can’t say. I’ll let you know later.”

King Frederick studied her as she ended the call. “He’s safe, then?”

“Yes. Apparently your men told him you’d keep me busy all day and he decided to go back to the hotel long before seven o’clock.”

“Busy? With what?” he asked innocently.

“I don’t know what they told him, but he’s not the sort to think anyone would say no to you, so my saying no didn’t even occur to him and he thought he had all that time to himself.”

“If he’s got a car, he can pick us up.”

“And take you to Rome.”

“I’m not going to Rome.” He heard the helicopter again and pulled her further under the overhang.

“I hope they’re not paparazzi.” They would have a field day with photos of this position. She knew he was probably hiding her because her white and black clothes were more noticeable than his grey jogging trousers, but this was never the sort of practical thing that occurred to paparazzi first.

“You’d rather they were terrorists?”

“Why won’t you go to Rome?”

He kept her pressed against the rock as he tried to peer out of their hiding place. “And hand myself over? This is freedom.”

“So effectively you’re kidnapping me for the sake of your freedom? You can’t seriously be thinking this is freedom. What do you need me for?”

“The helicopter is flying away along the coast,” he said. “Good. What do I need you for? Well, for instance you must know how to buy bus tickets and things like that.”

She sighed and pushed him away. If the helicopter was gone, there was no need to keep her confined here. “If you are in serious danger, call in serious help.”

“I want to go home and I believe the safest way is to go incognito. And certainly not via Rome. Rome is the other way.”

“My dear sovereign, I hope you were not thinking you could board a bus in these parts that would take you directly home?”

“I realise we may have to take a few.”

More than a few, she would say. “Probably, if you insist on buses, at least thirty. Which implies you would have to spend the night somewhere. Probably, if you insist on buses, at least ten. Does it still sound so attractive now?”

He said nothing, stood up and after a glance up the hill, began walking towards the trees.

Anna Margaret groaned and followed. She reached them a few minutes after he did. “I don’t like this. You have no idea what you’re getting into. I doubt you’re equipped for the real world. Show me you really have a credit card and a bank card on you.”

He showed her his phone cover.

“But you have no ID.”

“ID?” He looked as if he had no idea what he might need that for.

She spoke as calmly as she could. “The nice paradox is, if you want to travel incognito, you need ID.”

“It’s at the villa.”

“Of course. And that’s why you need someone to book the hotels.” She nodded, but his face betrayed that he had not given any thought to either his ID or the booking of hotels. Of course not. He might not even know hotels had to be booked and paid for. “Do you realise that if we disappear, police everywhere will be mobilised? Hardly freedom. You’ll be caught at the first roadblock and I’d rather not be involved. The headlines!”

“Then let them know we’ve not disappeared. Besides, you cannot disappear, because they don’t know you’re here. Except the ambassador, whom you probably shouldn’t have told.”

“I told her so she wouldn’t mobilise every security agency thinkable. Though she still might.” She moved a little further among the trees, to see what the terrain was like. It was secluded, but more impassable. Great. And they might get lost.

“They will do that anyway.” He held out his phone. “Twitter says I’m dead.”

‘What made you look on Twitter?” She found him amazingly unpredictable. Twitter, of all places.

“Terrorists make good use of Twitter, usually.”

“I hope you didn’t post anything on Twitter yourself.” Anna Margaret’s phone vibrated again. “Yes?” she answered. “Oh. Yes. He just told me that too. What? All right. Thanks.”

She put her phone away again and looked at him seriously. “Three attackers got away on foot. Contradicting Twitter is still a bit premature. What the --” she exclaimed when her phone vibrated again. “Louis? What can he want?”

“He wants to tell you I’m dead.” He took her free arm and led her away from the edge of the trees.

“Yes?” Anna Margaret answered Louis’s call. “Yes, I heard. But it’s not true. He’s not dead. I’ve just spoken to him. Yes, really. I don’t know. Perhaps you should try to contact him. He’s obviously got his phone with him.”

At this, His Majesty turned towards her and grimaced. He seemed to like being dead.

She did not think that was nice of him. “No, I’ll leave that up to you for the time being. I don’t yet know what would be wise. Er, no. I can’t attend. I’m abroad on a private visit, but I’ll try to return as soon as I can. Which may not be very, very soon. But you can always contact me by phone.”

He pointed into the air.

Helicopter? She listened carefully, but heard nothing. Then she spoke again. “Yes, yes, thanks. Bye.”

“He knows your number. He’ll have your location in five minutes,” said the king. “Was he sad or glad that I’m alive?”

“He wasn’t sure he could believe me. So he’ll probably phone you to check.”

“There you go,” he said, as his phone vibrated too. “Yes? Hello, Louis. Yes, I heard. No, I don’t want my death to be either confirmed or denied. Yet. You’re still investigating. I’ve no charger with me, so I’m going to have to switch off my phone after this call. I need it later for more important matters. Listen, I was told three attackers escaped on foot, so I’m not going to waste any time persuading you I am me and I am alive, because nobody knows where they might be. No, I can’t do that. I don’t want to give away how I currently look.”

He slid his phone into his pocket after switching it off. “I had the feeling he thought I was a terrorist posing as me. Asked me for a selfie. He’s going to call you back, I bet. Do I sound like a terrorist?”

She could not say. “Do you really think he will try to find out where we are?”

“Where I am, certainly. Now, I don’t think he can get any men here very fast, so…”

“So?”

“We should keep our phones switched off and get on a bus.”

“I cannot switch my phone off.” She was the prime minister, for heaven’s sake, and this was an emergency. She needed to make reassuring noises from time to time and make decisions.

“In the interest of my safety, you can. All this phoning costs time as well. And I bet you don’t have a charger with you either, so we won’t be able to look up anything useful by the time we need to.”

Before she could do anything, she got another call. It was Louis again. “Yes?” she answered. “Yes. Yes. I know it sounds dodgy, but – yes. No. I advise you to leave him be. He says he knows what he’s doing. Concentrate on the attackers.”

They had been moving north, parallel to the tree line, instead of further into the wood. “There’s a very steep drop that way,” His Majesty informed her when she put her phone away again. “I’m looking for a place where it’s less steep. We’ll go down there and find a bus.”

This did not look a very likely place for a bus, but Anna Margaret was too tired to contradict him or to get him off the idea of buses. Now and then they stopped to examine the slope, but she was glad he kept judging it too steep. At some point they saw something below that looked like a garden. This excited him, because where there were gardens, there were people, and where there were people, there were bus stops. She wisely did not point out there had to be a sizeable population to warrant a bus line. He would simply not understand.