‘That’s not what I wanted,’ he said. ‘I wanted a life of peace. I didn’t ask to be brought back in.’
‘But now you’re here.’
‘And I mean to finish it.’
She shook her head. ‘It’s not going to work, Ben. You’re wanted for murdering two police officers. You’ll get picked up before you get anywhere near these people. You have to do this thing my way. I’m your only alibi, remember.’
‘You’re in just as much shit as I am,’ he said.
‘Try explaining to your superiors why you killed one of your fellow agents and aided a fugitive.’
Alex said nothing.
Ben turned to Zoë. She was slumped against the wall with a sulky expression, staring into space. ‘You have a lot of explaining to do,’ he said.
‘Me?’
‘Yes, you. Where are the ostraka?’
She huffed. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘I thought Greenberg said you were making progress,’ Alex said. ‘You still don’t remember anything?’
Zoë screwed up her face and sank her head in her hands. ‘I want to go home.’
Ben stared at her. ‘How do you even know you have a home, if you don’t remember anything?’
Zoë looked up and fired a filthy look at him. ‘Piss off. Leave me alone.’
‘You have no idea what I’ve had to go through to find you. People have died because of your stupid little scheme.’
‘Easy on her, Ben,’ Alex said. ‘It’s been a tough time for her too.’
Ben was quiet for a moment. ‘All right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be hard on you.’
‘You almost broke my jaw last night,’ Zoë said, rubbing it.
‘I’m sorry about that too.’ He reached out and laid a hand on her arm. Pain stabbed through his shoulder with the movement. She pulled away from him.
‘We’d better make moves,’ Alex said. ‘This could be a long day.’
They killed the fire, wrapped the remnants of the rabbit in fresh leaves and stowed them in Ben’s bag. After packing up all their kit they took turns washing in the cold stream at the bottom of the wooded slope. Then they left the cave behind them and set out across the harsh terrain. To keep moving due north would mean going over the mountain, so they skirted its base through miles of fir and spruce trees.
‘We could walk for weeks and find nothing,’ Alex panted. ‘This is one of the biggest States, with one of the smallest populations. We should have stayed on the road.’
After a few more miles Ben was beginning to think she was right. Apart from the occasional buzzard, the only sign of life they saw for hours was the big elk that stepped out of the trees as they passed, stared at them for a moment and then vanished like a ghost.
They stopped and rested a while, then kept moving. Ben’s head was spinning and his shoulder was throbbing badly. After just a few hundred yards he had to rest again.
‘You’re in a bad way,’ Alex said. ‘Listen. I can move faster on my own. I could scout ahead. Maybe I’ll come across a road or a farm. I’ll come back for you. With luck I won’t be more than a few hours.’
He knew he couldn’t argue. ‘You be careful.’
She smiled. ‘I can take care of myself. Back before you know it, OK?’ She checked her pistol, took a long drink of water from the bottle and headed off without another word.
It suddenly struck him that he hated to see her leave.
‘She’ll come back with Jones,’ Zoë said, watching Alex walk away. ‘You’re pretty naïve, letting her go off on her own.’
He ignored that. ‘She’ll be gone a while. We need to find a place to rest up.’
After a few minutes of hunting around they came across a broken spruce, its trunk bowed sideways at a right angle. Ben grabbed a branch. ‘Help me pull this down,’ he said.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Making a shelter. We can’t just sit out in the open, where we can be seen from the air.’
She frowned. ‘They’ll be looking for me, won’t they?’
He nodded. She took hold of another branch of the bent tree, and together they strained and heaved downwards. With a crackling of timber, the trunk gave. The heavy canopy sagged right down to the ground, forming a space they could crawl into without being seen. He settled himself into the leafy den, resting against his bag.
Zoë crawled in after him and arranged a blanket on the ground. She lay down and sighed loudly. ‘I’m so fucking exhausted,’ she complained. ‘My feet are killing me, and this place crawls with insects. Jesus, I’d give anything for a soak in a hot bath right now.’
Ben ignored her. After a few minutes, when she realised he wasn’t going to react to her huffing and puffing, she shut up and they sat in silence for a while. The pain in his shoulder was dulled by the codeine, but it still hurt badly. He drifted in and out, and time passed. He checked his watch. Alex had been gone more than half an hour.
‘I’m so hungry,’ Zoë groaned.
He pulled the bag out from behind him, undid the straps and reached inside for the package of leaves. He opened it and tossed it across in front of her. ‘Eat. Alex went out of her way to prepare this for you.’
‘I can’t eat dead things.’
‘Then you’re not hungry, are you?’
‘I’m starving.’
‘You look it,’ he said.
She glanced down at the rabbit in distaste, then glanced back up at him, hesitated, then picked up a piece with her fingers and took a small bite. Then a bigger one. After two more bites she was chewing away happily, except when she thought he was watching and she would pretend to be revolted. He smiled to himself at the display. When she’d finished and was covertly licking her fingers, he reached for the drinking flask and tossed it over to her. ‘I know how unpleasant that was for you,’ he said. ‘Wash it down with this.’
She twisted the cap off and sniffed. Her eyes lit up. She took a long gulp, then passed the flask back to him. He took a small sip and returned it to her. As she drank some more, he took out his cigarettes. He offered her one, and she refused. ‘Smoking kills you slowly,’ she said.
‘Good. I’m not in any hurry.’
She chuckled. ‘I haven’t had a drink for weeks,’ she said. ‘This stuff ’s going to my head a little.’
‘Finish it,’ he said, lighting up a cigarette.
She drank down the last of the Scotch, screwed the cap back on and leaned back, stretching. She gazed up at the blue sky through the leafy canopy. ‘So good to be outside,’ she breathed. ‘Feels like I was cooped up for ever.’
‘I’ll get you home soon,’ he promised.
‘You saved me. I haven’t thanked you.’
‘You can thank me when it’s over.’ He closed his eyes again. Waves of hot and cold were washing over him. He needed to get this bullet out.
She nodded. ‘I don’t understand. How do you know my parents?’
‘I’m one of your dad’s students.’
‘You? A theology student?’
‘I get that a lot,’ he said. ‘I was a soldier before. But now I’m looking for a new direction.’
‘The Church?’
‘Maybe.’
She smiled. ‘What a waste. You’re far too dishy to become a vicar.’
‘Thanks. I’ll bear that in mind.’
‘Have you got a girlfriend?’
He shook his head.
She smiled again. ‘You’re not gay, are you?’
‘Not that I know of.’
‘Good.’ She moved a little closer to him. Brushed a lock of hair away from her face. ‘I wonder how much longer she’s going to be away for.’
‘Alex? Probably quite a while.’
‘I’m glad we can talk like this,’ she said.
‘Me too.’
‘You’re nothing like any of Dad’s other students I’ve ever met. They’re all wimps.’
The sun was overhead now, rays filtering through the branches.
Zoë squinted up at the dappled sunlight. ‘Getting warmer,’ she said. She peeled off her heavy jumper and laid it down on the ground. She was wearing a flimsy top underneath. She leaned forward and smiled again.
‘Your bangle just slipped off,’ Ben said, pointing down at the gold bracelet that was lying in the leaves.
‘Shit. That’s always happening.’
‘You should be careful,’ he said. ‘It looks expensive.’
‘It was my great-grandmother’s.’
He nodded thoughtfully, and was quiet for a few moments. ‘Shame about Whisky,’ he said suddenly.
‘Yeah, it’s loosened me up a lot,’ she answered. ‘Wish we had more of it.’ She giggled.
He shook his head. ‘I wasn’t talking about the drink. I was talking about Whisky. He got hit by a car. He’s dead.’
Her eyes widened in horror. She drew away from him, her body snapping rigid. ‘What? When did this happen?’
‘While you were partying on Corfu.’
‘Those bastards never told me,’ she said.
Then she clapped a hand over her mouth, realising what she’d done.
‘No, they didn’t tell you,’ he said. ‘Because it’s not true. I just made it up. Your dog’s alive and well. And I think you’ve just given yourself away, Zoë Bradbury. You walked right into it.’
She went red. ‘I don’t know why I remembered that. I don’t remember anything else.’
He grabbed her wrist and held it tight, ignoring the pain in his shoulder. ‘No, of course not. Apart from the fact that your father is a theologian and all his students are wimps. That you don’t eat meat. That you’re wearing your great-grandmother’s bracelet. That a couple of weeks ago you were living it up on a Greek island. You know what I think? I think you know a hell of a lot more than you’re pretending.’
She struggled against his grip. ‘Let me go!’
He shook her. ‘No chance, Zoë. For once in your life, you’re going to tell the truth.’
Chapter Forty-Six
Zoë broke away from him and crawled out of the shelter. Ben followed her, grabbing for her ankle. She kicked back at him, and caught his injured shoulder. He cried out and collapsed in the dirt as she scrabbled out and made a run for it. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ he yelled after her.
Zoë ran through the trees, swiping branches out of her way.
Then she stopped and screamed. A figure stepped out from the bushes.
It was Alex, hot and red-faced from her long hike. Her hair was messed up and full of leaves, and her jeans were soaked to the thigh from where she’d been wading through water. ‘Zoë? Where are you off to?’
Ben caught up with them, panting and clutching his shoulder. His eyes blazed as he saw Zoë. ‘Right, you little fucker. You’re going to talk.’
Alex stood there looking bewildered. ‘What’s going on here? I just came back to tell you good news. There’s a farm up over the ridge, about two miles away.’
‘What’s going on is that this one’s got her memory back,’ Ben said. ‘She’s been holding out on us.’
Zoë burst into tears and fell to her knees in the dust.
Alex stared in disbelief. ‘Is this true?’
‘Come on, let’s have it,’ Ben said. ‘Where’s the ostraka? What’s this all about? What do Jones and Slater want with it?’
‘I don’t know,’ Zoë sobbed.
‘You won’t leave here until you tell us the truth,’ Ben said.
‘I mean it!’ she screamed up at him. ‘I don’t know what they want it for. I was only using it to blackmail Cleaver!’
‘Then tell me where it is,’ Ben said, trying hard to curb the fury in his voice. ‘Then maybe we can get out of this. We can use it against them.’
Zoë was shaking her head violently, her face streaked with tears and dust. ‘I can’t tell you where it is,’ she sobbed.
‘Why not?’ he demanded.
‘Because … because … I can’t say it.’ She burst into tears again, and raked her face with trembling fingers.
Alex stepped over to her and took her arm. ‘Don’t be afraid. We’re trying to help. Tell us. Then we can all cross over to the farm. It’ll be over soon.’
Zoë wiped her eyes and glanced up at Ben with a look of fear. She sniffed, hung her head.
‘Well?’ Ben asked.
‘I can’t tell you because … it doesn’t exist.’ Her shoulders sagged. ‘There. I’ve said it. Happy now?’
Ben was stunned into silence for a few seconds. ‘What?’ he said quietly.
Zoë sat up, her feet planted apart in the dirt. ‘It was all a bluff,’ she whispered. ‘It was all lies, all right? There is no evidence. I made the whole thing up.’
Ben was struggling to make sense of what she was saying. ‘But the fragment you sent Cleaver, that you got Skid McClusky to take him in the box. It was for real. Cleaver had it verified.’
Zoë shook her head tearfully. ‘He had it radiocarbon dated, that’s all. The fragment was the right age. Why do you think I chose it? But the inscription on it was meaningless. Nobody could have verified that. I only found a few shards. For all I know it was some ancient Hebrew recipe book or an accounts sheet. There wasn’t enough left to make sense of.’
Ben stared at her, his rage mounting. The pain in his shoulder was gone. ‘A recipe book,’ he echoed.
‘I wasn’t even sure Cleaver would fall for it,’ she blurted. ‘It was just a crazy idea I had one day on the Turkish dig. I didn’t have to work out the details because I knew I could bluff it. I thought it would be a way to get back at the bastard, shake him up a bit. That stupid book. Who’s he trying to kid?’ She reddened. ‘And why should he get all Augusta’s money? She was my friend first. I should be the one to have it.’
‘And this is the truth?’ Ben said. ‘There never was any evidence about St John and Revelation?’
‘If there is,’ Zoë sniffed, ‘it’s still buried in the sand somewhere.’
Ben started shaking as it sank in. He thought of Charlie. In his mind he was replaying the moment when his friend had been blown to pieces. ‘I don’t suppose it would make any difference if I told you about the people whose lives have been destroyed thanks to your little scheme,’ he said. ‘Never mind your family are going crazy with worry. Nikos is dead. Did you know that? Do you even care?’ The pain was returning now, like a piece of molten steel in his flesh.
Zoë glanced up at him in alarm, then screwed her eyes shut and said nothing.
‘Not to mention the victims of a bombing in Corfu that you don’t even know about,’ he said. ‘But which you caused. And the doctor who risked his life to help you, and died trying. And your friend Skid McClusky, hiding in a dingy motel with his legs smashed. All of it thanks to you, you stupid little twit.’ He was getting breathless with pain. He fought the urge to grab a fistful of her hair and smash her face in. ‘I’ve always treated women just the same way as men. But if you were a man, Zoë, I swear this would be your last day. You have no idea what you’ve done.’
There was a long silence, the only sound Zoë’s quiet sobbing, the rustling of the leaves in the breeze and the call of a buzzard somewhere high overhead.
Alex was the one to break the silence. ‘So where does this leave us?’
Nobody replied.
Nausea came over Ben like fever. He felt something tap his foot, and looked down. His left hand was slick with blood, fingertips dripping fat splodges onto the forest floor. Alex saw it too, and her eyes flashed worry.
Then came the steady thump of rotor blades in the distance. Ben looked up. The chopper was just a dot on the sky, but it was getting rapidly bigger.
‘Company,’ Alex muttered.
‘Under cover,’ he said. ‘Now.’ He grabbed Zoë’s arm and hauled her roughly off her feet, sending her tumbling into the bushes. Alex ducked in after her, and Ben squatted close by. He could smell Alex’s hair, her hot skin. Even in his pain, there was a strange tingle from the fee
ling of closeness.
The chopper approached, its thudding roar filling the air. Then it swooped over the wooded valley, shaking the trees, and was gone.
Alex let out a long breath. ‘You think they found the car?’
Ben shook his head. ‘They’re combing the whole area. That’s what I’d do. Jones must have called on every resource he could muster up.’ He got to his feet, listening to the fading thud of the chopper. ‘Time to move on.’
Chapter Forty-Seven
The long, weary two miles felt like they were Ben’s last. He could feel his strength ebbing away with every step. Alex led the way, carrying his bag, stopping frequently to help him across the difficult terrain. Zoë followed silently, thirty yards behind, her face pale, avoiding Ben’s eye as they threaded their way through the pine trees and down a long rocky slope to a river.
‘We have to cross,’ Alex said. ‘The water’s fast-flowing but it’s not deep.’ She took his hand and they waded out. He stumbled and fell, and the impact of the icy water made his body spasm with chills. Alex helped him stagger to his feet. ‘Just a little further,’ she said, and tried to smile reassuringly.
He gritted his teeth and fought back the dizziness. One step at a time, he made his way across the river and then collapsed on the rocky bank. Zoë caught up after a few minutes, and then he willed himself to keep moving. The ground sloped sharply back up from the river. Then, at the top of the next rise, Alex took the binoculars from the bag and rested on a rock to scan the valley below. ‘There it is,’ she said happily.
Despite the pain and exhaustion, Ben noticed the spectacular view from up here. Open prairie stretched for miles in front of them, and the early afternoon sun was sparkling off the snow on the distant mountain peaks. Alex handed him the binocs, and he focused on the rambling range of farm buildings a mile away across the waving grassland. The place looked like a typical small hill farm, with assorted barns and horses grazing behind white-painted fences.
‘I don’t see anyone about,’ he said. ‘But there’s smoke coming from the chimney.’
‘Let’s get down there and take a look,’ Alex replied.
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