The Templar Succession

by Mario Reading

  Hart glanced up at her. ‘Yes. They were shots. By sheer good luck I managed to brain the Captain with a piece of rock and get his pistol off him. It’s tucked beneath my shirt. Here.’ He pointed behind himself. ‘I had the bastard covered when his park guard started shooting at me. He must have thought I was about to kidnap his precious client. There’s no way he could have taken a good look at me, though. I must have been close on five hundred yards from where he was standing. And uphill too. And these guys don’t seem to run to telescopic sights, thank God.’ Hart jerked his chin back towards the guard in their car, with his open-sighted rifle. ‘Do you think Calamity Jane back there will give us any trouble?’

  ‘No. He’s clearly used to hearing gunshots. He scarcely flinched. Just carried on eating his sarnie.’

  ‘Incredible,’ said Hart. ‘Do you think he’s deaf?’

  ‘No. Just unmotivated.’ Amira straightened up. ‘So what’s all this baloney about your losing a lens?’

  ‘I wanted to get us away from the road in case the Captain decided to come after us.’

  ‘Hardly likely, now he knows that we’re armed,’ said Amira. ‘You brained him with a stone, you say?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Hart. ‘I got him a good belt on the back of the head. Then I kicked him. He was all over the place. It was the last thing he expected. I had the pistol off him before he knew what was happening. It’s good to know he’s mortal like the rest of us. That he can make mistakes.’

  ‘He’ll be seriously pissed off,’ said Rider.

  ‘My heart bleeds for him.’ Hart shouldered his lens bag. The worried expression on his face didn’t quite match his defiant words. ‘What do you think he’ll do now?’

  Amira turned to Rider. ‘Might he get the guard to report us? Try to nobble us that way?’

  Rider shook his head. ‘It would be a hard thing to prove. If what Hart says is true, and the guard was five hundred yards away from the action, it will be his word against ours. And nobody was killed.’

  ‘We’d better get rid of the pistol, though,’ said Amira. ‘That’s the only evidence against us.’

  ‘Over my dead body,’ said Hart. ‘It nearly cost me my neck getting it. And if the Captain talks about the pistol to anyone, he’ll be as good as admitting he smuggled it into the country. The police will go through his car with a toothcomb. No. I think we can assume we are still in the clear as far as that goes. The pistol can stand as evidence later when we hand him in. It might be traceable. You never know.’

  ‘And Biljana? Did you see her?’ said Amira.

  ‘She’s fine,’ said Hart. ‘Frightened, but fine. I saw the other Serb too. He doesn’t seem cut from quite the same boilerplate as the Captain, but who can tell? Take Eichmann. He looked like a postal clerk. But he was personally responsible for managing the logistics of the Holocaust. Either way, we can’t afford to leave it too long before making our move.’

  ‘We’ll have to leave it until we get out of the park again,’ said Rider. ‘We can’t risk involving these guards in anything else.’

  ‘Fair point,’ said Hart. ‘Should we go out by a different route from the Captain then? Just in case he can’t persuade his guard to keep his trap shut? I mean, what if the guard flags down a police car inside the park and tells them about us?’ Hart ran his finger across his throat.

  ‘Then they’d be waiting for us at all the exits.’ Rider started back towards the car. ‘It wouldn’t matter which way we went out. But I don’t think the Captain will let him get anywhere near a police car. Reason dictates that he’ll be more chary than we are of involving the local authorities because he’s got more to lose. Either way, we need to keep following him. He’s got two ways of making for Eritrea. The Bure route to the east. And the Adigrat route to the north. No telling which way he’ll choose. But in many ways the Bure route would be his better bet. It’s shorter. And it leads straight to Assab on the Red Sea coast. A few hours on a ferry from there and he’d be in Mocha.’

  ‘Maybe I gave him a slow-burning brain haemorrhage when I hit him with the rock?’ said Hart.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Rider. ‘Maybe you did.’ He grinned. ‘And maybe pigs can fly.’

  SEVENTY-TWO

  Danko stared at Gersem in astonishment. The man was standing on a rock. He had his rifle up to his shoulder and had just fired two single-spaced shots towards where the Captain was located a third of a mile away at the top of the hill.

  ‘Your friend,’ Gersem shouted. ‘He is being attacked.’ Gersem leapt off the rock and began running up the hillside at a speed more suitable for a forty-year-old than for a man well into his sixties.

  Danko glanced at Biljana. Then back up the hill. As he did so, he found himself overwhelmed by a sudden revelation. This was it. This was surely it. The moment he had been waiting for for the past fifteen years. Danko understood this more certainly than he had ever understood anything in his life.

  ‘You come with me,’ he said to Biljana.

  Biljana straightened up. She looked like a fawn that has been spooked by a lion. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Why should I?’

  Danko drew the pistol from his belt. ‘I am not arguing with you. We have very little time. I am taking you back to your friends. If you do not believe me, I do not care. But you are going with me. Now.’

  Biljana stared at him. It was the stare you might give to a vagrant who was trying to convince you that you had just won the national lottery. And, what’s more, that he was the man who had been detailed to hold the cheque for you. ‘You are going to deliver me back to my friends? What do you take me for? A fool?’

  ‘Hardly that. Get into the car.’

  Biljana did as she was told. There was something about Danko’s expression that gave an added weight to his words. The man was as scared of the Captain as she was. That much had been clear to her for some time. Maybe he really was looking for a way out of their dilemma? But what did she care? Anything that took her away from the Captain had to be good. If she had ever held any illusions about his position as her father, these had been shattered into a thousand pieces a long time ago.

  Once Biljana was safely inside the Renegade, Danko threw himself into the driving seat and engaged gear. He slewed the car round and headed back the way they had come.

  Biljana watched him steadily from the passenger seat. ‘You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?’

  Danko nodded. ‘Absolutely serious. This is our last chance. The last chance for both of us. I am going to trade you for my freedom. So your friends will not pursue me for war crimes. So they will not follow me any more.’ Danko’s eyes filled with a wild hope, like those of a man reaching for the only remaining tuft of grass at the top of a sheer cliff. ‘I want to go back to Serbia. I want to see my family again. I am tired of running. Tired of being a soldier. This is the only way that is left for me.’

  ‘But what about the Captain?’

  ‘What about him? He is insane. If we stay with him we will die. He will bring disaster down on everyone’s heads. Just like he has always done. I cannot understand why I ever followed him.’ Danko’s eyes flashed sideways, as if testing the effect of his words on Biljana. ‘I have been a fool. I shall be a fool no longer.’

  ‘Look,’ said Biljana. ‘Down there to the left. A car.’

  ‘Is that their car?’ said Danko. ‘Do you recognize it?’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘Why are they stopping here? Are they mad? Don’t they understand who they are dealing with? I thought they would head straight back to Gewanē, and that we would catch up with them there.’

  Biljana didn’t answer. She felt a sudden sense of doom. As if an unexpected shadow had passed over her on a sunlit day. She turned her head away so that Danko would not see the expression on her face.

  Danko steered the SUV along the slip road. He had begun to sweat. His shirt was dripping with it. T
he back of his neck was slick with perspiration. He wiped both his palms on his trouser legs so that the steering wheel would not slip out of his hands.

  He pulled the Renegade up a few yards short of Hart’s car. He could see the three of them – Hart, Rider and the woman – what had Biljana called her? – Amira, Amira Eisenberger – clustered in a group together and staring at him. Like alpacas. Yes. Like a herd of alpacas. Their necks all stretched out and quizzical. The man called Hart had a pistol which he was pointing at the Renegade. Danko recognized the pistol. It was the Captain’s. Maybe Hart had killed the bastard? Because the Captain wouldn’t be an easy man to deprive of his weapon if he was still alive.

  Danko drew his own pistol and covered Biljana with it beneath the level of the dashboard. ‘Step out of the car. Slowly. Do not try to run or I will shoot you.’

  Biljana’s eyes went dead. ‘But I thought you said you were going to hand me over to them? Why are you pointing your pistol at me again? You’ve changed your mind, haven’t you?’

  Danko shook his head. He lowered his voice to an anxious whisper. ‘I shall hand you over. Just as I promised. But I need to protect myself first. We need to reach an agreement. All of us. Out in the open.’ He motioned to her with his pistol. Then he called out in a loud voice for the others to hear. ‘Go on. Over there. I shall slide out afterwards and stand behind you.’

  Biljana got out of the Renegade. Danko came after her. He edged round the car, using it to protect himself from Hart.

  ‘The girl is not in any immediate danger.’ Danko’s voice broke unexpectedly. He was forced to clear his throat like a man with laryngitis. ‘I promise you this much. But I want you to lay down your pistol. I am a trained marksman. Which I suspect that you are not. I can easily shoot you from here. Tell your guard to get out of the car too. And to leave his rifle inside. I don’t want to see it.’

  Hart glanced at Amira. Then he took a further step towards Biljana. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yes.’ Biljana flapped her hands. ‘Please do as he says. He wants to bargain with you. I trust him. I don’t want anyone else to be hurt.’

  ‘You trust him?’ said Amira. ‘He’s standing behind you with a pistol to your head and you trust him?’

  ‘Yes. Yes, I do. I know it seems crazy, but I do. He has behaved kindly towards me. He wants a deal.’

  Hart could feel the hand of fate descending upon him. It was true. He was certainly no marksman. He’d fired a pistol, as opposed to a rifle, maybe three times in his life. This man could probably shoot him dead before he even took aim with his own weapon. Shoot them all dead. The fact that he hadn’t done so yet told Hart something.

  He laid his pistol carefully on the ground. Then he beckoned their park guard across from the car. The man eased himself out along the back seat and joined them, leaving his rifle. He didn’t seem sorry to be abandoning his weapon. He seemed more bewildered than anything else. As if he was attending the dress rehearsal of a play in which he had a minor part and for which he had long since forgotten the lines.

  ‘Did you kill him?’ said Danko.

  ‘Kill who?’ said Hart.

  ‘The Captain, of course.’

  Hart laughed. The laugh came out as a nervous bark. ‘Unfortunately not.’

  ‘How did you get his pistol then?’ said Danko. ‘I cannot imagine he gave it to you willingly.’

  Hart manufactured a grin. He still didn’t know whether he was dealing with a maniac of the same ilk as the Captain, or a man who genuinely wanted to parley his way out of a cul-de-sac. ‘I belted him on the head with a stone when he wasn’t looking.’

  ‘Impossible,’ said Danko. ‘The Captain would not let himself be bushwhacked by an amateur.’

  ‘I was lucky.’ Hart took a few more steps towards him. ‘Believe it or not. As you will. It’s all the same to me.’

  ‘Stop right there,’ said Danko. ‘I have Biljana covered. I will not hesitate to shoot her if you give me just cause. Or you, for that matter. I will shoot you in the leg. It will hurt a great deal.’

  ‘You’d better tell us what you want,’ said Hart. ‘We’re none of us comfortable standing out here in the open. How about putting your gun away as a sign of trust? You can easily draw it again before I have time to reach down and pick mine up.’

  Danko stepped round Biljana. He slid his pistol inside the waistband of his trousers. ‘This okay?’

  ‘It’s a start. Now tell us what you want for delivering the girl.’

  ‘He wants his freedom,’ said Biljana. ‘He wants to know you won’t pursue him and cause him to be put on trial for the war crimes he has committed.’

  Hart had difficulty suppressing a laugh. ‘They’ve probably got a file on him a foot and a half thick back in The Hague. We can’t do anything about that. What’s done is done.’

  ‘You could tell them that I am dead,’ said Danko. ‘You are journalists. They would believe you.’

  ‘What did you die of?’ said Hart. ‘Remorse?’ He scratched his head theatrically. He was feeling more confident by the minute. ‘Old age?’

  Danko grimaced. The sweat had begun to leach through his T-shirt. More of the garment was wet than was dry. ‘I’m sure you can think of something. In fact you must think of something if you want the girl back. Otherwise I will take her with me.’

  ‘And do what?’ said Hart. ‘Adopt her? It strikes me your heart’s not in this any more. If it ever was. Why not get back in your car and take your chances? We’ll give you an even break if we can. But we won’t lie for you. That would be an insult to your victims.’

  Danko took a further step forwards. He appeared to have forgotten about Biljana. ‘But you won’t actively pursue me?’

  Hart shrugged. ‘We won’t actively pursue you. No.’ He glanced at his companions. Rider and Amira nodded their assent. ‘Let’s face it. It was never you we were after. As far as we’re concerned, you’re in the clear. Your freedom for the girl’s. It’s a fair price to pay. But much good it will do you.’

  Danko’s head exploded like a watermelon that has been cleaved in two by a hatchet. The accompanying rifle crack came a millisecond later.

  Hart sprinted towards Biljana and swept her to the ground in a flying rugby tackle. All the colour had drained from her. In the fraction of a second before Hart took her down, she had been staring at what remained of Danko’s head with an expression of unmitigated horror.

  The front window of Hart’s car starred and shattered.

  Hart and Biljana took cover behind the Renegade. Rider, Amira and the Ethiopian guard were lying flat on the ground, in full view of whoever was up on the hillside doing the shooting.

  Hart didn’t doubt for one moment that it was the Captain. He must have overwhelmed his own guard, taken his rifle and made his way across the intervening valley towards them. Hart cursed himself for not having driven further away before stopping to check on his stupid lens. It never did to underestimate a man like the Captain. Look at Danko. Lying there in the dirt with his head blown off. It wasn’t a pretty way to die.

  Hart eased open the Renegade door. ‘Climb inside. Quick. We have to get across to Amira and Rider before the Captain picks them off. He won’t expect us to take his car. That’s why he smashed the windscreen on mine.’

  Hart wriggled across to the driver’s seat. Every moment he expected to hear another shot. But nothing came.

  Four rounds. Two used on him, one on Danko, and one on the car windscreen. Maybe four rounds was all the park guard had in his magazine? If that was so, they still had a chance.

  Hart started the Renegade and engaged gear. He accelerated over to where Amira and Rider and the park guard were lying and threw open the passenger door to cover them. ‘Get in. I think he’s out of ammo.’

  ‘You’re sure of that?’

  ‘We’re still alive, aren’t we? He would have picked you of
f otherwise. You were sitting ducks out there.’

  ‘We have to get to our car,’ said Rider. ‘We need my laptop.’

  ‘Not any more we don’t,’ said Hart. ‘The bastard is probably sprinting down the hillside as we speak. We need to get out of here fast. Let’s face it. I may be wrong about the ammo.’

  When they were all safely inside the Renegade, Hart sheered away down the valley, leaving Danko and their damaged car behind them.

  ‘Did anyone pocket the car keys?’

  ‘No. They’re still inside the car.’

  ‘Damn. We can’t risk going back now. We need to make as much time as we can getting out of here. We’re ahead of the game for the time being. We’ve got Biljana. The four of us are intact. It’s close to a miracle, given what might have happened.’

  ‘Meanwhile he inherits our guard’s rifle, Danko’s pistol, which you dropped, and our car.’ Amira looked across at their guard. ‘How many bullets are there in the magazine you left in the car?’

  ‘Four,’ said the guard. ‘We are all given four bullets. I do not know why. Maybe to stop us selling them?’

  Amira shook her head in mock amazement. ‘You were right. There had to be a reason he didn’t take us out while we were lying out there in the open. Should we go back? Now we know he’s unarmed?’

  ‘He’s not unarmed any more.’ said Hart. ‘He must have reached our car by now and found the rifle our guard left in it. Plus my pistol is lying out there in plain sight. Want to risk it?’

  ‘Hell, no,’ said Rider. ‘But he’s going to regret like hell taking that windscreen out. This country is fifty per cent dust and the rest mud.’

  ‘He probably thought he had half a magazine left when he did it.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Rider grinned. ‘He would have thought that, wouldn’t he? Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Shall we head for Gewanē?’

  ‘We cannot go back towards Gewanē,’ said Biljana. ‘We must check on the other guard. He is called Gersem. He is a good man.’