And as a constant reminder of the state of religious and political flux that characterized Jerusalem, and of the troubles that sporadically flared up between the nations, armed Jewish soldiers stood on corners, their eyes flicking from one face to another, looking for the first sign of trouble, their hands resting on the pistol grips of their Galil assault rifles.
But perhaps even more than the diversity of the people, it was the buildings that entranced them. The sense of age, of centuries, millennia even, was almost palpable. It was as if the countless years of occupation by disparate civilizations had weighed down the buildings and the streets, investing the very structure of the city with an unmistakable sense of timeless occupation. Above all, Bronson detected a sense of sadness, as though the fabric of Jerusalem, the very stones themselves, had somehow absorbed some of the emotions experienced by the inhabitants when the peace of the city had been brutally shattered by one or another of the invading armies that had breached the defences over the millennia and, all too often, massacred everyone they found inside the walls.
‘This is quite a place,’ he said, painfully aware of the complete inadequacy of his words to convey more than a fraction of what he was feeling.
‘Yes,’ Angela replied thoughtfully, and Bronson could see that she was feeling exactly the same way.
The hotel stood on the corner at the crossroads they were approaching and, as far as Bronson could see, it didn’t look too bad.
‘This should do us,’ he said as he led the way to the main entrance.
Twenty minutes later, they were standing side by side in their compact double room on the first floor of the building, and looking out of the window across the rooftops of the Old City towards the Temple Mount.
‘It looks bigger than I remember it,’ Angela said. ‘The Mount, I mean.’
‘Last time we were here, if I remember correctly, we were a bit too busy to do any sightseeing, and I doubt we’ll get much opportunity now either. The chances are that our pursuers are here already, either because they’ve tracked us or because they’ve also managed to decipher the first part of that inscription. They can’t know about this hotel, of course, but they’ll know that the only reason we would have for flying to Israel is because we think the clue referred to in the inscription is here, somewhere under the Temple Mount. So we’ll need to keep our eyes open and stay alert. They’ll have photographs of us by now, or at least of you, culled from some professional journal, so they’re already one step ahead of us.’
Angela looked worried at his last remark.
‘In a country like this,’ she said, ‘my fair skin and blonde hair are going to really stand out. When we leave the hotel I’ll put my hair up and wear a hat or scarf or something. I guess I’ll need to do that anyway, especially if we’re going to any of the religious sites, like the Kotel tunnels behind the Western Wall.’
‘That should be our first stop,’ Bronson agreed. ‘And with a bit of luck it might be our last stop as well, assuming that whatever we’re looking for is still there.’
‘But what are we looking for?’
‘Now that is a bloody good question. And our biggest problem. Logically I’d assume it must be a carving or another inscription or something of that sort — something that will provide the code word that we need to complete the decryption. What I’m hoping is that it will be recognizable, that it will have some characteristic or feature that will link it to the inscription you found in Iraq. But, frankly, I think we’ll just have to look at everything and photograph as much as we can and hope that we’ll somehow spot what we’re looking for.’
‘I feel like the odds are against us. And one more thing: I thought that the Kotel tunnels only ran along the very edge of the Temple Mount, and that most of the chambers were deep under the Mount and completely inaccessible from all entrances. If we take the translation literally, we should be looking for a cavity under either the Dome of the Rock or the Al Aqsa Mosque, depending upon what we believe is meant by the word “temple”, and one thing I do know is that there is no possibility at all of getting into those subterranean rooms.’
‘You may well be right,’ Bronson said. ‘It’s entirely possible that the key, whatever it turns out to be, will be hidden way beyond our reach, and if that’s the case we’ll have to rethink. But it’s worth trying, and maybe we’ll get lucky. If there’s nothing in the tunnel system that we can access, the only other possibility, I suppose, is that we try a little bit of discreet unauthorized surveying, and see if we can find anything that way.’
Angela looked at him for a few seconds before she replied.
‘I hope you’re not suggesting what I have a horrible feeling that you are suggesting,’ she said.
36
Farooq sat opposite Khaled in the hotel room the Iraqi had booked, and for a few seconds just stared at him. Then he shook his head slowly, trying to choose his words carefully.
‘I understand what you want us to do,’ he said, ‘but I’m not sure that we’re the right people for this kind of work. My men are freedom fighters, fighters for Islam. That’s what we know, and what we’ve trained for. When you first requested our services, you told me that we would be facing infidels, legitimate targets that we could engage in the name of the prophet, peace be upon him. And what you asked us to do we did, to the best of our ability. But this is not our fight.’
Farooq paused for a moment, his dark brown eyes fixed on the face of the older man.
‘I have no complaints about your work,’ Khaled said, ‘but I would like to remind you that you and your men have been extremely well paid for what you have done so far. You may be fighters for Islam, but you’re also mercenary soldiers.’
‘I don’t dispute that, but the point is that this has nothing to do with money. We came to Jerusalem on the understanding that you needed us to perform the same kind of services, to locate and kill more of that group of infidels who had opposed us in Iraq. We have obtained weapons as you instructed, but what you are now asking us to do is completely different.’
Khaled nodded. ‘I would agree with you if this were just a simple matter of exploring a cave or cellar, but what I want doing is far more dangerous than that. It is possible that we might encounter the couple who escaped us in Iraq, in which case we can cut off that particular loose end, but we will also probably have to contend with armed Israeli police and soldiers. This will not be a simple matter of exploration, and I really do need the protection and help that only you and your men can offer. And, let me remind you, I am offering you a substantial fee for your services.’
Khaled paused for a moment, sensing that he would have to do far more to convince the younger man to provide the assistance that he needed. It would mean taking him even further into his confidence — something he was reluctant to do for several reasons. But he saw no real alternative.
Marshalling what he hoped would be the final and most decisive argument, he leaned forward in his seat and unconsciously lowered his voice, despite the fact that they were quite alone in the room.
In the other armchair on the opposite side of the small glass-topped coffee table, Farooq mirrored his actions.