The Templar Heresy

55

Farooq and Amir had entered the castle less than five minutes after their quarry, and had had no difficulty in locating Bronson and the woman. With Khaled’s specific instructions fresh in their minds, they had hung well back, making sure that neither of the people they were following realized that they were under surveillance. That wasn’t difficult, because there were plenty of visitors wandering around the old stones, looking at the view, taking photographs and examining the tumbledown remains of the fortress.

They’d seen Bronson stop and talk to the woman, and lead her over to the edge of the path to show her something that lay outside the fortress, but a few moments later, something unexpected happened.

The woman had turned and started walking straight towards them. Immediately, both men had turned away, pretending to be engrossed in an examination of a surviving part of the fortress wall, until she walked past them, apparently heading for the castle gate. As she moved away, both men turned to stare at her retreating figure, and when they looked back to where Bronson had been standing, they were stunned by the realization that he had vanished.

For a few seconds, neither man moved, then Farooq roused himself.

‘Find him,’ he snapped at Amir as he pulled his mobile from his pocket. ‘He can’t have gone far. I’ll tell Khaled what’s happened.’

Predictably, Khaled was unhappy at the news.

‘Find him as quickly as you can,’ he ordered. ‘I’m quite certain it’s him we need to pursue, not her. He probably sent the woman away while he investigates. I’ll watch for her coming back down from the castle. You two find him, and more importantly find whatever it is he’s looking at.’

Farooq ended the call just as Amir came trotting up to him.

‘He’s not with the group they were following before,’ Amir said. ‘And I went far enough beyond those people to make sure he hadn’t overtaken them, and he’s nowhere in sight.’

‘He didn’t pass me heading back to the gate, so he must still be here somewhere,’ Farooq said. ‘When we last saw him, he was over by that wall, so that’s where we’ll start looking.’

The two men walked over to the ancient L-shaped wall, and as soon as they reached it they were able to guess precisely where Bronson must have gone.

‘There’s a staircase going down,’ Farooq said, gesturing at the dark opening.

Then he held up his hand for silence, and the two men just listened. Barely audible above the ever-present sighing of the wind, they both heard the sounds of faint movement from somewhere below their feet.

Farooq made an instant decision.

‘You don’t speak English,’ he said to Amir, ‘so I’ll have to follow him. I’ll pretend to be one of the guides, and I’ll try to persuade him to come back up here, once I’ve seen what it is he’s looking for. Call Khaled right now and tell him what’s happened, and what I’m going to do. And,’ he added after a moment’s thought, ‘if I do manage to discover the clue that Bronson’s hoping to find, as soon as he comes back up the staircase, he can have an accident. I think he’s going to stumble and fall and pitch himself over the wall. It’s a long drop to the rocks underneath.’

Amir made the call while Farooq started to investigate the first few steps of the underground staircase. A few seconds later, he slid his mobile back into his pocket and nodded to Farooq.

‘Khaled says you can kill him, but only if you’re completely certain that you have identified the clue. And you can kill him down there, underground. It doesn’t have to look like an accident. Just get it done.’

‘Right,’ Farooq said, and promptly disappeared from view down the staircase, his pistol in his right hand.