‘Enough of that,’ Angela said, squeezing his arm. ‘I think you rather lost the thread of where you were going. You were telling me why you believed that the purging of the Templars was a crime.’
‘Oh yes. That’s right. All I was going to say was that if Philip the Fair genuinely believed that the Templars were guilty of heresy and engaged in heretical practices, then for the sake of the souls of the Templars themselves he should have acted immediately, and sent in the inquisitors. No, he was a deceitful and duplicitous, not to mention treacherous, man. He’d actually allowed Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Order, to act as a pallbearer at the funeral of one of Philip’s own relatives just a week or so before the arrests took place. In those days such a job was an honour and would only be performed by a member of the immediate family of the deceased or somebody who was an important and valued family friend. If Philip had genuinely believed that the Templars were guilty of heresy, there is no way that he would have allowed the leader of the order, by implication the biggest heretic of the lot, to take part in such a ceremony.’
‘And by that time Philip must already have made his plans to swoop on the Templars?’
‘Weeks earlier at least,’ Bronson agreed. ‘Getting his sealed orders to his various military commanders and assembling troops in the right positions throughout France would have been a long process in those days. Messages could be sent as fast as a man on a horse could gallop, but the soldiers would have had to march to their destination, and that would have been the slowest part of the entire process. No, the whole thing — the arrests, the trials and everything else — was a set-up, an operation set in action simply to allow Philip the Fair to get his hands on the assets of the order. Only, as I said before, he didn’t, because they’d disappeared.’
Angela was silent for a few moments, then she glanced at the computer screen, at the pages scattered across the desk, and finally at Bronson.
‘Are you saying what I think you’re saying?’ she asked. ‘Do you really think that the inscription we found has got something to do with the lost treasure of the Knights Templar?’
Bronson shrugged and spread his hands wide.
‘I genuinely have no idea,’ he said. ‘If it has, I think it’s the first tangible clue ever found that might give some indication of what happened to the Templar assets, which would explain the lengths these terrorists have gone to in order to cover it up. What I do find interesting is that the text you’ve deciphered seems to point us towards the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is where the history of the order really began, and it is definitely telling us about a hoard, a collection of objects or possibly even a treasure, depending on how you translate the Latin word, that’s been hidden. That just seems to be too intriguing a possibility to ignore.’
Angela nodded briskly.
‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I agree with you. The Temple Mount could well be the location referred to in the inscription, though adding the Templars into the mix is a bit unexpected. I also think the idea that we could be on the trail of the Templar treasure is something of a stretch, but I’ll keep an open mind on that. So, yes, we are going to keep following this trail, and the sooner we can get ourselves out to Jerusalem the better.’
35
The two biggest problems Bronson had encountered in booking a flight were that the majority seemed to arrive in Israel in the very early hours of the morning, and most also involved an intermediate stop at Brussels, Amsterdam or Rome. He was keenly aware from what they knew had happened to Stephen that it would be fairly easy for someone to track down their whereabouts once there was a record of them booking a flight.
It cost more — a lot more, in fact, almost double — but eventually he’d found a direct Air France Airbus out of Charles de Gaulle to Tel Aviv, and they’d bought the tickets when they’d arrived at the airport the following morning, at the very last minute.
As they had expected, security on arrival at Ben Gurion Airport was both obvious and comprehensive, and it took some time to get through the system and into the arrivals hall.
‘Shall we hire a car?’ Angela asked.
‘That’s probably not a good idea,’ Bronson replied, scanning the crowded building as he spoke. ‘We’ve already left an electronic trail by using a credit card to pay for the flight, and if they are as organized as they seem to be, they’ll already know that we’re here in Israel. It’ll take longer, but I’m sure we’ll be a whole lot safer if we just become two more anonymous passengers on a bus. And according to my map it’s not that far to Jerusalem.’
They headed to the bridge on the second floor of the airport and crossed over it to the bus stop for the short ride to the Egged bus station at Airport City. There, they disembarked and took the next available number 947 to the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem, a journey that was completed in just under an hour and a quarter.
‘Shall we look for a hotel first?’ Angela said as they stepped into the bright sunshine of late afternoon.
‘Definitely. We’ll take a taxi to somewhere near the Temple Mount and see what we can find. On the map it looks like about two miles from here to the Old City, which would take us a while to walk. Not to mention that we’d probably get lost if we tried.’
Modern Jerusalem surrounds and entirely encloses the Old City, but planning laws have mandated against high-rise buildings and most development has been restricted to the higher ground, leaving the valleys as open spaces, so it provides a sensation of space and openness. And it was a British regulation, imposed when Great Britain governed the area, that specified local limestone — Jerusalem Stone — was to be used for all the façades. Pinkish-white in colour, the shade changes throughout the day as the light alters, meaning that the colours and appearance of the buildings, of the whole city, in fact, changes as well.
A quarter of an hour later, Bronson paid off the cab driver at the Jaffa Gate, the gate to the west of the Old City near the Tower of David and one of the busiest entrances penetrating the sixteenth-century wall — built on the orders of the Ottoman ruler Süleyman I — that surrounded the ancient heart of Jerusalem. In his hand were three business cards for local hotels, given to him by the taxi driver.
The Old City lay before them, within the mediaeval wall. It was not particularly big — very roughly square shaped, with the Temple Mount occupying about half of the eastern side, directly opposite the Jaffa Gate, and a little over half a mile from north to south and roughly the same from east to west. Within the boundary wall the Old City was divided into four quadrants representing the dominant religions that had occupied Jerusalem over the centuries. Running clockwise from the north, there was the Muslim district — which included the Temple Mount — then the Jewish, Armenian and Christian districts.
All three of the hotels the driver had suggested were in the Christian and Muslim quarters and were, the man had assured them, both very high quality and very reasonably priced. They passed along a section of the main axis of the ancient city, skirting the permanent Arab market or suq. One of the most dominant features of Jerusalem life, it was crowded with shoppers talking and haggling over the prices asked for goods.
They walked east along David Street, heading directly towards the Western Wall, but then turned north up Shuk ha-Basamim Street and continued past the Alexander Nevski Church. One of the hotels recommended by the taxi driver was only about a hundred yards in front of them.
Jerusalem has been a melting pot of cultures and religions for centuries, and the streets teemed with people. Orthodox Jews, black hats perched seemingly precariously on the tops of their heads and black curls dangling down both sides of their faces, bustled around, some alone, others in small groups talking earnestly together. None of them ever seemed to smile. Arabs moved steadily through the crowds, their pace relaxed and sedate. Tourists from almost every nation on the planet stood and walked and talked and took photographs of the almost indescribably ancient buildings.