‘There is no one by the name of Francesca Harper on Cassandra’s payroll, nor has there ever been. The name doesn’t exist in their system. No account, no emails, no messages. No mention of it anywhere,’ Eloise recited.
‘But… but she is mentioned online. We’ve all seen her photos. She used to be Cassandra’s CEO. She’s a public figure, for fuck’s sake! We found a bank account that was being used to pay Wagner. Dammit, she’s been one of the fifty wealthiest people in the Alliance for four years running.’
‘She doesn’t exist!’ Larsen bellowed, and instantly lifted his hand in apology. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take it out on you. The bank account was opened in her name nearly six years ago and had large funds deposited that have generated quite substantial profits since. It was being used to pay large sums of money to a number of people, Wagner included. The Alliance’s facial recognition database returned no matches when we used the photos we found online. She just doesn’t exist.’
‘You mean she never existed or someone removed all traces of her?’
Larsen nodded towards Eloise, letting her explain.
‘Tilly has run a probability check. The chances of removing so public an identity to the extent that all of the resources available to the MIS could not find her are below one point two per cent. I concur with the analysis and I have personally checked the assumptions Tilly used. To put it in simple terms, it would have been extremely difficult to remove all traces of her existence.’
‘What then?’ Toscano demanded.
‘The current theory is that Francesca Harper never existed.’ Larsen sighed. ‘At least, not as a person. We believe it’s a cover name for the brain of the sex-slavery operation. What we got out of Cassandra’s files are a lot of small fish and a few middlemen. Nothing more.’ There was so much disappointment in Larsen’s eyes it hurt to look at him.
‘But—’ Toscano began, but cut herself off. All that sacrifice for nothing. ‘Are you telling me that after all that, after we got their entire database and the name of every single customer, we’ve failed to get to the bottom of who organised it? We have nothing but a lot of angry, anonymous people who will remember forever who busted their vile but lucrative operation?’ Living with a big target painted on her back wasn’t exactly a pleasant thought.
‘That actually puts a rather positive spin on it. We don’t actually know that their operation has been busted,’ Eloise said quietly. ‘Olympus might have been just one site.’
Larsen sighed and a shadow crossed his face. ‘You should rest, Aisha.’ He gave her hand one final squeeze and left without making eye contact with either of the women.
‘How close was he with Megan?’ Eloise asked, looking at the door after it had closed silently behind Larsen.
‘Not as close as both of them would have liked.’
‘You think she is still alive, don’t you?’
‘Yes, I do. Wagner shot her, but none of the bullets hit her head—I’m sure of it. And there was hardly any blood. He pumped her body with drugs that slowed her metabolism. He staged it. That’s why there were no cams recording it.’
‘The colonel doesn’t believe she’s dead either.’
‘No, he doesn’t. He knows she’s alive. Somewhere.’
Author’s note
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By the time you read this, book two in the Roc de Chere series will be nearing completion.
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About Mariana C. Morgan
Hello!
Mariana C. Morgan is not my real name. I borrowed ‘Mariana’ in memory of my grandmother. ‘C’ stands for Camille, an anglicised form of my given name, and ‘Morgan’… well, Morgan la Fey was just cool.
Writing has been my dream since I was eight, but there was always something in the way—school, university, setting up my own business, life… I’m delighted that passion has eventually won!
In my writing (and reading), I love to escape into the future, into the realm of science fiction, where ideas and fantasies flow unimpeded. I like drawing on my medical sciences degrees for the setting and my hypnotherapy diploma and training for character creation (although my characters definitely have a life of their own!).
When I’m not writing, I love to exercise (aerial, acrobatics, handstands, running) to keep the hunched-over-the-laptop posture at bay.
