The Trespass(74)

Re. Blackbird. Clearance has been given to proceed with Blackbird. Intentions and aspirations are to create an exploitable alteration of personality in selected individuals, specific targets include potential agents, defectors, refugees, POWs and others.





Others. She couldn’t forgive Theodore Dracup for his part in the rape of her heritage, but he had suffered enough at the hands of his masters. A picture of Reeves-Churchill shot into her head, bobbing and nodding in his wheelchair at the nursing home. Simon needed to know. He had already guessed that his grandfather’s decline was caused not by some random biological failure but by a powerful and manipulative external influence. And the Americans had decreed that the discovery made by the second expedition was not for public consumption. No, Sara’s mouth was a firm, angry line. It was for furthering the knowledge of US Intelligence. She shuddered. The ultimate blasphemy. To think that they had actually begun to – the thought was overwhelming. She took a deep breath and calmed herself. It’s all right now. We can at least thank Kadesh for that.

Sara closed her PDA with a soft click and glanced at her watch. It was almost time to leave. She was desperate to get the information to Dracup, but there was no available network for her to tap into. Kadesh monitored a private link and she couldn’t access it even if she wanted to. So be it. She would just have to wait until they reached Baghdad. If they reached Baghdad.





At midnight she collected a sleepy Natasha from Ruth’s chamber. Her sister was calm, almost her normal self. She had packed two bags with essentials, and hurried them on their way with a pinched face and dry eyes. Natasha was too befuddled with sleep to ask any awkward questions, and as Sara jostled her through the twilit corridors the girl seemed unaware of their newly acquired fugitive status. The air temperature slowly increased as they climbed to the surface until, like ants emerging from a nest, they found themselves under moonlight in the open air. It was a beautiful night, the stars airbrushed across the sky like a broken necklace. Natasha tilted her face upwards and smiled. “It’s nice outside,” she whispered.

The vehicles were lined up in the shelter of the mound, their angular geometries silhouetted against the horizon as Sara squinted, tried to pick out the one most appropriate for their needs. Not too heavy. We’re in a hurry. A few minutes later she had settled on an open-topped four wheel drive with a robust set of fat, deep-treaded tyres.

“Okay. Hop in,” she told Natasha. The girl sleepily obliged and immediately curled up on the passenger seat. The keys would be in the ignition, Ruth had assured her. No car thieves around here. Sara almost laughed aloud at the thought. The keys were not in the ignition. She opened her mouth to ask Natasha to look for a set on her side when they were bathed in a brilliant, blinding light. The voice that told them to step out of the jeep and stand with their hands above their heads belonged to the one man she feared more than God himself.

Kadesh stepped into the searchlight’s exposing beam. His face showed a curious mixture of anger and disappointment. Sara put her arm around Natasha and waited for their fate to be decreed.





Chapter 26





Dracup stood just inside the threshold and shook his head in wonder. He removed his hat and allowed the cool, scented air to dry the sweat from his forehead. The place was enormous. It reminded him of an English cathedral, but without the clean lines favoured by mediaeval architecture. He angled his head to examine the distant roof, then returned his attention to the carved columns of reddish volcanic rock that served as gigantic, asymmetrical supports. The building was almost organic in structure, as if it had come into being not by premeditated plan or design but through some accidental quirk of geology – albeit enhanced by considerable skill. Dracup was speechless. It was as if he had stepped into Tolkien’s Mines of Moria, into a space that seemed timeless and set apart from the world.

“So what do you think, eh, boss?” Bek prompted.

Dracup frowned and stroked his beard. Something wasn’t right. “Think? I don’t know what to think, Bek.” He turned and looked at the boy. “How did you find it? It’s well hidden – there’d be no reason to deviate from the path –”

“I told you. Bek knows stuff.”

Dracup smiled. “Yes, I’m coming round to that idea. So – what else can you tell me?”

“Come further in, boss, I know what you want.” Bek ran forward into the building and gesticulated impatiently.

Dracup glanced behind him. The entrance was a reassuring rectangle of light, but his intuition would not be placated. The church possessed an ambience, a stillness that bordered on expectancy. Dracup murmured quietly to himself, his attention concentrated on the young guide. This feels different. Bek seems very keen...