‘Damn right you should.’
‘If this doesn’t work out will you forgive me?’
She turned quickly and kissed him on his lips and in the soft glow of the setting sun he realized she had never looked more beautiful. ‘There’s nothing to forgive.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Sure. Let’s get this thing done.’
He nodded.
‘Let’s.’
He put the car in gear and they drove on. To find Walter Brohm’s Sun Stone and the discovery that would change the world.
LXI
DRESDEN’S OLD TOWN was a curious mix of the old the new and the unlikely. Sprawling Renaissance palaces and layer-cake opera houses evoked the glory days of Saxon culture while rubbing shoulders with the thronging modern shopping malls, hotels and cinema complexes that are the ever-present advertisements for consumer capitalism in any twenty-first-century city worth the name. Yet the building that caught Jamie’s eye, as he drove through the centre hunting down a place to park, was an enormous Stalinist sports hall covered with multi-coloured mosaics of Dresden’s Soviet-era heroes; a reminder that this city had spent forty-five years in the very heart of Communist East Germany. All around them on the banks of the River Elbe, giant cranes dwarfed the buildings they helped construct and the constant machine-gun rattle of jackhammers shattered the early-evening silence. Despite all the building work, Jamie noted an unlikely number of empty, weed-infested sites and the kind of structural ruins that would have looked more at home in the forum in Rome. If Sarah noticed, she didn’t comment. In fact, since they’d entered the city proper she hadn’t said a word.
They reached the Altmarkt, the Old Market, which, in true Dresden style, seemed to be surrounded mainly by modern buildings. On the far side of the street Jamie spotted the sign for an underground car park. He pulled in at the roadside outside a shop that sold fine china. For a moment he felt like an Olympic ski jumper waiting at the top of the slope and when he laid a hand on Sarah’s shoulder he could feel the tension in her body. ‘I’ll drop you here, so you can make your call to your boss. Just be natural and tell him exactly what I told you. I shouldn’t be more than five minutes.’ She turned and gave him a long, searching look. He wondered what she was seeing. He hoped it wasn’t the truth. A moment of decision and, finally, the hazel eyes softened. She leaned across and brushed her lips against his.
‘I’ll be right here, waiting.’
The first floor of the car park was full, so he took the narrow, curving ramp down to the lower level. Here, the cars were all parked in the spaces closest to the lifts and he drove to a vacant spot at the far end of the low-roofed cavern. As he sat in the car with the engine running he felt the weight of everything he’d set in motion threatening to crush him into his seat. What gave him the right to gamble with other people’s lives? What if it all went wrong? Then his mind filled with old Matthew’s face and he heard Tenzin’s words and he realized he’d never had any other choice. The next thirty minutes were mapped out before him like the acts of a play. All he needed was the courage to play his part. He opened the car door just as the squeal of synthetic rubber on dust-coated concrete announced a second vehicle entering the building. The car park smelled of motor oil and petrol fumes, but it wasn’t the smell that made Jamie’s stomach lurch. As he walked towards the lift he was conscious of another presence keeping pace with him on the upper floor, which was just visible through a narrow gap close to the ceiling. He stopped for a second. From above, three soft footfalls and then silence. The lift was ten paces away and he felt the panic rising inside him as he made for the metal doors. What now? Breathe and think. There’s no rush. Think! With fumbling fingers he attacked the knots of his shoes and removed them, then, standing in his socks, he pressed the ‘up’ button. An arrow showed that the car was ascending from the floor below. He sent up a silent prayer that it would be occupied by someone who’d just parked their car. A family, including a couple of schoolchildren who’d giggle at the idiot in his socks holding his shoes in his hand. The ‘ting’ as the lift arrived startled him even though he’d been expecting it. The doors parted and he felt a physical pain as he stared into the empty compartment. He hesitated. Was he being paranoid? Sarah would be waiting. It didn’t matter. A little paranoia was good for the blood pressure. He stepped inside and pressed the button for street level, immediately leaving the lift and jogging silently towards the far end where a ramp led up towards the exit. He hit the slope at a run, and when he reached the top he could see the barriers and ticket machines. The upper floor was empty and away to his right the lift doors were just closing. A draught of fresh air made him smile at his own foolishness.