The Last Templar

Chapter 56

Tess's entire body froze as she stared out in bewilderment, then her hand clawed at the door latch and she was out of the car before it had come to a complete stop. She stormed over to the edge of the ridge and looked around in utter incomprehension. The dark, shimmering lake just lay there peacefully, stretching from one end of the valley to the other.

"I don't get it," she blurted. "It should be right there." Reilly was now standing next to her. "We must have made a wrong turn somewhere."

"No way." Tess was all flustered, her mind racing, poring over the details of the journey they had taken, revisiting every marker along the way. "Everything fitted perfectly. We followed his journey to the letter. It should be here. It should be right here." Refusing to accept the glaring mistake, she scrambled down through the trees and walked a little further forward to get a better view. Reilly followed her.

The lake extended to the farthest reaches of the valley to their right. Its opposite end was obscured by the forest.

Tess stared at the placid water in disbelief. "I don't get it."

Reilly took in their surroundings. "Look, we can't be that far off. It's got to be around here someplace. We just screwed up somewhere on the way up."

"Yes, but where?" she said irritably. "We followed what he wrote, right down to the double ridge. It should be right here." She studied the map intently. "The map doesn't even show a lake."

She looked at him and heaved a sigh of sheer frustration.

He put his arm around her. "Look, we're close, I'm sure of it. We've been on the road for a couple of hours. Let's find a town, somewhere to eat. We can go over your notes there."

***

The village was small, the only lokanta tiny, a strictly local affair. An old man with a seamed face and dark, pebble eyes took their order, which basically involved their acquiescing to whatever he said was available. Two bottles of Efes beer and a plate of stuffed vine leaves quickly followed.

Tess was immersed in her notes. She had calmed down but was still disconsolate, visibly and justifiably mired in a deep funk.

"Eat," he told her. "You'll sulk better."

"I'm not sulking," she murmured as she glanced up at him, annoyed.

"Let me have a look."

"What?" The glare intensified.

"Your notes. Let's go over them together, step by step."

She pushed them away and leaned back, tightening her fists, squeezing the air out of them. "We're so close, I can feel it."

The old man came back with two plates of cabbage dolmas and skewers of grilled lamb. Reilly watched him as he placed them on the table, then nodded his gratitude before looking at Tess.

"Maybe we should ask him?"

"Beer el Sifsaaf'hasn't been on any map for hundreds of years," she grumbled. "I mean come on, Sean. He's old, but he's not that old."

Reilly wasn't listening to her. His eyes were on the old man, who broke into a gap-toothed smile and nodded sheepishly at him. Reilly felt a sudden tingle of anticipation. "Beer el Sifsaaf >" he asked the old man hesitantly, then, slowly: "Do you know where it is?"

The old man smiled as he nodded his head vigorously. "Beer el Sifsaaf" he said. "Evet."

Tess's eyes lit up and she rose from her seat. "What?" The man nodded again. "Where?" she snapped excitedly. "Where is it?" The man was still clearly agreeing, but now looked slightly confused. She frowned, then tried again. "Nerede?"

The old man pointed up the hill they had just descended. Tess lifted her gaze and followed his outstretched finger. He was waving his pointing hand to the north, and Tess was already heading for the car.

***

Minutes later, the Pajero was roaring back up the hill. The old man, riding shotgun, was hanging onto the handle above his window in a state of perspiring terror as he watched the mountain tear past him, the wind whipping in through the open windows, his cries of, "Yavas, yava-s1'' merely spicing Reilly's grinning abandon as they plowed ahead. Tess was leaning forward from the backseat, her eyes scanning the rushing landscape for clues.

Just before the ridge where they had seen the lake, the old man pointed, "Gol, jjol," and Reilly swung the wheel to take them along an even narrower track they hadn't spotted before. With tree branches whipping its sides, the SUV charged ahead. Another kilometer or so and the trees cleared, and they mounted another ridge.

The old man was grinning excitedly, pointing at the valley. "Orada, Orada! Sbte!"

As the valley opened up before them, Tess couldn't believe her eyes.

It was the lake.

Again.

She shot him a glance of utter dejection as Reilly ground the SUV to a halt, and they all disembarked. They walked over to the edge of the small clearing, the old man still nodding with self-satisfaction. Tess watched him and shook her head, turning to Reilly. "Of course, we had to 132

find the senile one." She looked at the old man again, imploring him. "Beer el Sifsaaf? Nerede?'

The old man's brow furrowed in apparent confusion. "Orada,'" he insisted, pointing down at the lake.

Reilly took a few more steps forward and took another look. From this vantage point, he could see the whole lake, including its western edge, which had been obscured by the forest at their earlier viewing point.

He turned to Tess, a small smirk breaking across his face. "Oh ye of little faith," he said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she blurted. His fingers were calmly inviting her to join him. She looked at the old man, who nodded in eager agreement, then, confused, clambered over to Reilly and saw it too.

From this new angle, Tess could see, a mile or more away and cutting across the edge of the lake, a concrete causeway that stretched from one hilltop to another. The top of a dam.

"Oh my God," she said.

Reilly had taken a notebook from his pocket and was now sketching a cross-section view of the hills with a line stretching between them for the surface of the lake. He then drew the rough outline of some houses at the bottom of the lake and showed the sketch to the old man, who took the ballpoint pen and made a large X at the bottom of the lake and said, "/Coy suyun altinda. Beer el Sifsaaf."

Tess looked at Reilly and he showed her his rickety drawing. "It's down there," he confirmed.

"Underwater. This dam flooded the whole valley, the remains of the village with it. It's at the bottom of the lake."