The Moses Stone

53

Yacoub held his mobile phone to his ear and listened as Hassan provided a running commentary while he shadowed Bronson and Angela around the old settlement. Although he was used to the high temperatures in Morocco, Yacoub was finding the heat unbearable, even though he was wearing the lightest jacket and trousers he'd been able to find. He would have preferred a jellaba and keffiyah, but that style of dress would have marked him as an Arab, and in Israel that was something he wanted to avoid, because of the attention he might have attracted.

'They're acting just like tourists,' Hassan reported.

'They've walked around the ruins, but now it looks like they're going to leave.'

There was silence for a few seconds, then the man spoke again. 'No, they're not heading for the car park. It looks as if they're walking up to the caves.'

'Right,' Yacoub said. 'There was a reference to Qumran on my tablet, so it's possible they think the relics are hidden somewhere here. Follow them; try to get close enough to hear what they're saying. If they go into a cave, follow them in unless it's really small. You're just another tourist, and they don't know your face, so there should be no danger.'

'And if they find the relics?'

'That's obvious,' Yacoub said. 'You kill them and then you call me.'

'It's not very deep,' Bronson remarked, as they stood up cautiously just inside the entrance to one of the caves close to the Qumran plateau. 'It's more like a crack in the rock than a cave.'

The entrance was about three feet wide and five high, but the cave itself only extended a matter of perhaps fifteen feet into the rock, and was completely empty.

'No,' Angela agreed, 'but there are some here that are a whole lot bigger than this. Let's take a look in one more, then we'll go.'

'Fine by me,' Bronson said, leading the way out again.

Once they were outside, he looked around, then pointed further up the slope. 'That looks like it could be bigger,' he said, indicating a much wider oval opening in the rock face perhaps eighty yards away. 'Do you want to try that one?'

Angela looked up the hillside, and nodded. They were both finding it hard to talk in the oppressive heat.

As they set off, picking their path slowly and carefully across the hillside, Bronson glanced behind him. A man was making his way up the slope towards them, apparently heading for one of the caves. There were actually numerous people visible at Qumran and on the surrounding hillsides, and nothing in particular to distinguish this lone tourist from any of the others swarming over the site, but the figure still concerned him.

When they'd emerged from the first small cave, the man had been heading directly towards them, or towards the cave itself, but now he had changed direction and was walking towards the larger cave Bronson and Angela were aiming for. Either that, or he was on an intercept course with them. Whichever it was, Bronson decided to watch him.

Angela reached the cave entrance first and stepped inside, Bronson following a few seconds behind, after taking a last glance down the slope. The man was over fifty yards away, still ambling, apparently quite innocently, towards them.

Motioning Angela to keep quiet, Bronson stepped back to the entrance and peered out, being careful to keep himself in the shadows. The approaching figure paused about thirty yards away and, as Bronson watched, he slipped a mobile phone into his jacket pocket.

'Oh, shit,' Bronson muttered, as the man pulled a semiautomatic pistol out of his belt, extracted the magazine from the butt to check it, then replaced it and cocked the weapon. 'There's a man heading this way with a pistol.'

'A policeman?' Angela asked hopefully.

'Not in a million years,' Bronson said. 'Not carrying a weapon like that.'

He looked around the cave. There were two short side passages, one on either side of the entrance, each one partially blocked by fallen rocks. Either of them could be a death-trap, but only if the approaching man knew somebody was hiding in them.

'Quickly,' Bronson said, pointing to his right. 'Go into that passage and hide behind the rock-pile.'

'Where will you be?'

'Down there, deeper in the cave. I'll make some noise and try to attract his attention. As soon as he's passed you, get out and go back to the car.'

'No, Chris.' Bronson could hear the fear in her voice.

'I'm not leaving you here.'

'Please, Angela, just do it. I'll feel happier knowing you're safely out of the way. And I'll follow you down as quickly as I can.'

Bronson turned and strode deeper into the musty darkness.

He didn't have a gun, but he did have a torch, something he'd remembered to buy in case they did go into any of the caves. Now he switched it on, thankful that he had it with him. Behind him, he heard Angela's quick footsteps and glanced back to see her vanishing into the side tunnel.

And then the brilliant oval of light that marked the cave entrance was partially obscured as a figure stepped inside.