The Orchid File by R. J. Strong

Author:R. J. Strong [Strong, R. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: R. J. Strong

21

The cool spring air had coaxed a thick fog from the warm water of the lagoon. It enveloped the city, making every stone dark with moisture. Even the many lights of Saint Mark’s Square four blocks behind her barely cut through the mist.

Maisie hurried along a wide avenue with the San Marco lagoon on her right side, away from Saint Mark’s Square. Ahead warm yellow light spilled onto the gray night from a shop window facing the water.

As she passed the window piled with leather carnival masks and leather-bound books, she slowed down. In the dismal night, the light looked like warmth and she wanted to linger in it, but she had to keep moving. As she passed, everything plunged once again into a dark haze. Maisie shivered.

A block later, she turned left into a dark alley leaving behind the wide-open space for the claustrophobic jumble of the city streets. Soon she emerged into another campi, marked by another boarded well and the ever-present church. On the far side, Maisie spotted a small clothing shop with racks of clothes outside a half-closed grate. No one was around it.

When she got closer, Maisie saw a long gray tulle skirt poufing out from the last rack. She grabbed it without slowing down. In the next alley, she slipped the elastic waist over her jeans to alter her appearance. The best she could do right now.

Maisie didn’t know where she was going, only where she needed to end up. With the help of the stolen skirt and some dark shadows, she could pass for a theatre patron, her destination. She shivered again wishing she had stolen a jacket instead.

She couldn’t help looking behind her. Adrian wasn’t following her, but he would be soon. Every minute he slept increased her time cushion. She moved faster.

Every few blocks Maisie spotted what she was looking for, an arrow painted on crumbling stucco pointing the way to Teatro La Fenice. Every time she saw it, she made the turn and checked behind her.

After crossing what seemed like a hundred bridges and canals, her narrow alley opened to a small campi sitting adjacent to a much larger one. The small square contained a cafe with a few people inside.

Beyond it, the lights and noise of the large plaza blazed through a wide break in the medieval houses. Edging around the dark campi, she made her way toward the light to check out the scene.

None of the elegantly dressed and elaborately masqued theatergoers seemed bothered that it was freezing, and too late in the year for Carnevale. They laughed, drank, and danced in the glow of the square while they waited for the intermission to end.

Maisie sidled up to a vendor cart selling cheap Chinese-made paper-mâché masques and swiped one while the attendant was busy texting. Pulling it down over her face, she made her way through the tipsy revelers to the circular stone well. This well was ornate carved marble, not the rough-hewn stone of the more humble campi.

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