The Lost Testament

86

Angela looked quickly across at Bronson as the car sped along the city streets.

‘But if all of the gang are dead, then surely that’s the end of it? We can just drive to the airport, buy a couple of tickets and fly back to London?’

‘I don’t think it’s going to be anything like that easy,’ Bronson replied slowly. ‘There were only three people inside that warehouse, four if you include the man I tackled in the car park. Pere said they were only a small proportion of the people looking for us. They’ll certainly be covering the airport and the railway stations. About the only way we’re going to be able to get back to England in one piece is if we drive there. Trying to find one car in the vast network of roads that cover France should be almost impossible, as long as we stay off the autoroutes.’

‘That’s a hell of a long way to drive. Are you sure there’s no other way we can travel?’

Bronson shook his head.

‘None that I can think of. If they don’t find us in Madrid, they’ll widen the search and start checking the Atlantic ports like Santander, and probably station men at all the other airports anywhere near here, and on both sides of the border up to the north of us. They’ll be covering Barcelona, Gerona, Reus, Lourdes, Toulouse and Carcassonne, places like that.’

‘That would be a huge manpower commitment,’ Angela objected. ‘Do you really think these people believe that old parchment is important enough to justify that?’

‘I’m afraid I do,’ Bronson replied. ‘The man who seemed to be in charge inside the warehouse did explain something to me. Up till now, you and I have probably both had our own ideas about who, or what organization, is coordinating these people. I think we’ve both been fairly certain that the parchment was probably originally the property of the Catholic Church. Pere pretty much confirmed that, by mentioning Rome and also the fact that the relic had been stolen from them, years ago. But the people who are looking for it aren’t members of the clergy, which I suppose is something of a relief. According to Pere, his organization has been retained by the Vatican to recover the parchment, and he was adamant that we would be hunted down and killed. He told me that we’re facing one of the biggest and most dedicated organizations on the planet, and one of the most ruthless.’

‘You sound like you’re talking about the Mafia,’ Angela said.

Bronson laughed shortly.

‘No, not quite, though there have been links between the Vatican and the Mafia for decades. But if I’m right the people who are looking for us have probably got just as wide a reach as the Cosa Nostra. We’re facing a group with followers in every country, who’ve proved time and time again that they’re both extremely ruthless and very competent, who’ve committed murder on countless occasions and, in nineteen seventy-eight, very probably extended their lethal reach into the heart of the Vatican itself and killed Pope John Paul I.’