The Boudicca Parchments

Chapter 86

The cable car had arrived and Sarit was already walking briskly on the wooden walkway when she heard the explosion. At that point the brisk walk broke into a run. Within seconds she was through the archway at the entrance and onto the plateau.

She arrived to see people swarming around an area ahead of her and a little to the right. Some looking concerned, others crouching down. A couple of men in dark green uniforms — border guardsmen — were telling people to stand back. As she raced up to the scene, she heard a man who was crouching down saying “I’m a doctor.” The border guardsmen left him alone, but ushered the others back.

She arrived to see the self-styled doctor trying to revive a man in the black religious garb common amongst the ultra-orthodox. One of the border guardsman tried to interpose his arm and push her back. She pulled out her ID and flashed it at him. He backed off without another word.

The man on the ground was a small man and Sarit knew immediately who he was: Shalom Tikva. She felt like telling the doctor not to waste his efforts. But she had more important concerns right now. Where was Baruch Tikva? And where were Daniel and Ted? She turned to the border guardsmen.

“What happened?”

“There was an explosion. That’s all we know.”

The other guardsman had a theory.

“Probably a grenade.”

Sarit needed to know more.

“Concussion or fragmentation?”

The border guardsman shook his head. He was whistling in the dark.

The doctor leaned back from Shalom Tikva, also shaking his head. He answered Sarit’s question.

“Concussion.”

Sarit realized that he was probably a military doctor, or at least had experience of treating military casualties. But if it was a concussion grenade, who had thrown it? Neither Daniel nor Ted were likely to have had such an item in their possession, still less to have used one.

Then she surveyed the immediate environment and had a thought.

“What’s that?”

She was pointing to the large ditch. A member of staff looked where she was pointing and then at Sarit.

“It’s the sewage cistern. We’ve been doing some maintenance work on it.”

“Is there supposed to be an opening there?”

“Of course. It was accessible, but entry was prohibited.”

In that instant, Sarit realized exactly what had happened. The only thing she didn’t know was if they were still alive. Without explaining her actions, she leapt into the ditch and started clawing away at the rubble, tossing it aside in handfuls and attacking it with the ferocity of a mother trying to save her baby.

Some one made the mistake of trying to stop her. She back-elbowed them.

“There are people trapped in there!”

Some one asked “how do you know?”

“Just trust me, I do!”

Seeing the determination in her eyes, first the border guardsman and then some of the members of the public, clambered into the ditch and started digging away at the earth and rubble, bare-handed.