The Minoan Cipher

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

While Hawkins and Abby were still on the road, a black Suzuki Sidekick sports SUV turned off the E75 at a sign marking the Gournia ruins. The vehicle followed a dirt and gravel service road that lay between an olive grove and the ancient settlement. The Suzuki pulled up behind a vintage Land Rover parked near the entrance. A tall man got out of the SUV and walked to the gate.

The man was dressed in baggy shorts, a brightly-colored Hawaiian shirt with a hibiscus motif, and leather hiking sandals. Unruly hair the color of hay stuck out from under the brim of a wide-brimmed tan Tilley hat. The ruddy features visible below the mirrored sunglasses were on the fleshy side. A black leather camera case hung from his shoulder. He could have been a British tourist on holiday, which was exactly the look Leonidas was trying for when he’d assembled this latest identity.

He had listened to the recorded conversations between Hawkins and Vedrakis and the discussion of travel plans with Abby. Then he had gone to the lobby and asked the concierge to arrange a flight to Crete for the next day. A last-minute decision, he explained. He and his late wife had traveled to the island years before her death and he wanted to return to some of the spots they had visited.

The sympathetic concierge worked the computer. An Iberia Air flight was scheduled to leave early the next morning and connect with an Air Berlin flight traveling from Zurich to Heraklion. Leonidas made sure he gave the concierge a big tip.

The Air Berlin flight landed a couple of hours ahead of the Gulfstream and its two passengers. Leonidas pick up his rental car and headed east. He stopped to enjoy a Greek lunch at a taverna in the resort town of Aghios Nickolaos before continuing on to Gournia.

A sign on the chain-link fence announced that the site was closed to the public, but the gate was unlocked, allowing Leonidas to enter. He walked for about a hundred feet and studied the narrow, stepped streets and foundations covering the slope. Movement at the top of the hill caught his eye.

Leonidas took a pair of binoculars from his camera case and focused on the bearded face of the man walking along the ridge. He recognized Vedrakis from photos he had seen while checking the Heraklion museum’s website. The professor walked a short distance before he disappeared on the other side of the hill.

Leonidas checked his watch. If Hawkins were following the schedule he had discussed with Vedrakis, he would arrive soon. Heading back to the Suzuki, he drove around to the other side of the olive grove where he parked under the cover of trees.

Leaving the Suzuki, he walked back through the grove to a stone wall located around fifty feet from the service road. He sat on the wall and studied the site. He could see the road and gate from his chosen perch, and would be almost invisible in the shade. Closing his eyes, he inhaled the heady fragrance of rosemary and ripening olives and went into a calming, almost Zen-like state.

For a few minutes, the only sounds were a chorus of cicadas and the rustle of the wind in the olive leaves. Then his ears picked up the growl of a car engine. His eyelids snapped open like window shades. The sun glinted off the hood of a silver Mercedes moving along the service road. The car slowed to a crawl near the Land Rover, then sped up and kept going. A short distance from the gate, the car pulled into the olive grove where it would be hidden, much the same as Leonidas had done with his ride.

Highly suspicious behavior. Leonidas swung his legs to the other side of the wall and dropped belly-first to the ground. His hand reached into his camera bag and came out with a Sig Sauer pistol. He checked the load, then peered through a gap in the wall and saw four men dressed in black, moving single file along the road. He did a double-take. Their skulls were shaved and painted blue. They paused at the entrance, pushed the unlocked gate open and entered the site.

Waiting until they went past the ticket booth, Leonidas then stood and climbed back over the wall. Dangling the pistol at his side, he bent low in a half-crouch, dashed across the road and squatted behind a clump of oleander bushes where he’d have a good view of the slope. The group had broken up. Each figure was climbing a stairway, moving parallel to one another through the ruins. He spotted more movement at the top of the hill. Professor Vedrakis had reappeared and was silhouetted on the ridge.

He looked at his watch.

Hawkins could arrive at any time.