The Flames of Time (Flames of Time Series Book 1) (34 page)

‘They must suspect we’re going into hiding when we hear the sound of the truck drawing near, so they’re using it as a decoy while the others watch from the rocks.’

It was a good idea, which could have easily caught us out if we hadn’t had Nbutu leading the way.

So it became almost a game of cat and mouse. They knew we hadn’t had time to get past them yet, but we now knew where they were and how they were looking for us. If we could get past them and into the rougher terrain of the hills beyond they wouldn’t be able to follow. Whereas if they found us on the plain then they’d be able to cut us off and close in without difficulty. It made our journey much longer, having to stick to the cover of the trees, or banks and hollows in the ground, while at the same time trying to maintain an idea of where the truck was. Though now we knew it didn’t have as many people keeping look-out in it we didn’t have to worry about giving it quite such a wide a berth as we had earlier.

It was slow going, but we’d managed to get most of the way round the hillock where the main watchers were based, while the truck had obviously gone off way over to the other side of the plain. Unfortunately we’d also attracted the attention of a group of hyena, that had shadowed our movements as we skirted round the outcropping. They didn’t normally bother with people, especially once they’d had a couple of warning shots put amongst them, but we just couldn’t risk making that much noise, so they’d started to get a bit curious.

Slowly they began to get their nerve up after still not being sent off, drawing closer and fanning out around the rear of our line. We had to do something about it before they started to spook the animals, or worse to nip and bite at our heels.

We knew the rifle shots were going to give our position away, so we tried to get to a location where we'd have some cover, and then if the gunshots echoed, it might still take our pursuers a while to home in on where we were... or had been.

Hyena are an evil-looking bunch, especially when they spread, ready to start their nip and run type of hunting, trying to encourage their target to wheel this way and that, using their energy up, getting confused and tired. But we knew exactly what was coming, having seen it dozens of times before. While Androus stayed mounted the rest of us slid off our horses, and slowly moved to the back of the line, and then let the horses move off a bit. Hyena might be powerful beasts, but they’re also one of the smartest animals in the bush, and they won’t attack when they know you’ve seen them, they’ll just sit and wait for a while to see what you’re doing.

It really wasn't very sporting when we finally opened fire. A dozen of them just sat there watching us, but we wanted to try and keep our shots down to a minimum to give our pursuers less to go. So, at a signal from Peter we all took aim and then fired once at a different animal each, a bit of an overkill just to deter them, but we didn’t want to have to repeat ourselves in ten minutes time.

Sure enough they scattered at that, leaving their dead or dying companions where they were, but we didn’t have time to stop and look. Now we had to try and put as much distance as possible between us and this spot. The chase was on.

We moved quickly but carefully for twenty minutes or so, sticking to the cover and checking the outcropping every now and again to see if the watchers were still in place. We could hear the truck getting closer, but we knew it would have to stop off to pick the others up on the way before it could come for us, at which point we’d have a few minutes to try and put some real distance between us and the place they thought we’d be. Then we heard the lull in the engine noise from the truck, and when we checked the rocky Kopje where the watchers had been it was now clear.

I wasn’t sure quite how far we’d have to go before the truck wouldn’t be able to follow us, but it would be close. If we could just stay out of their way for bit longer we might be in the clear. We were moving as quickly as we could, but unlike our pursuers we still had to watch out for any game that might cross our path, if we didn’t want to go signalling our location with rifle shots every few minutes. We were relying upon Nbutu to find a route for us around all the obstacles and delays while still giving us some cover. He seemed to have an idea of what to do and started to lead us a bit further toward the south-west, where we crossed first a steep-sided dry river bed, then through a patch of more dense trees, before turning more westerly back toward the hills.

We could hear the engine getting closer again now, quarter of a mile at the most, when suddenly it roared and went silent. The ground was beginning to rise a little more steeply into the low hills where we hoped to gain refuge, but it wasn’t so steep or rough that they’d have to abandon their vehicle. So why would they have stopped? We couldn’t risk stopping to find out, so we continued going, expecting the engine to roar back into life again at any moment. But after another ten minutes or so, with still no sound of the truck pursuing us, it seemed that something must have happened. We all knew Selene and her companions were here to catch us, and probably weren’t going to be too fussed about what they might have to do to stop us. But at the same time, an accident in the bush was no way to die, which meant we should at least try and make sure they weren’t in need of help.

Still, we didn’t want to compromise our own goals in the event of it being a trap, so decided that Marlow and Peter should go with Nbutu to try and find out what had happened, while the rest of us continued on our journey, just to make sure it wasn’t another clever trick. Nbutu was as impassive as ever as we explained to him what we wanted to do, before dutifully leading Marlow and Peter off toward where we’d last heard the truck.

We continued to move further up into the hills, balancing the direction we needed to head in, against the need to stay out of sight from below. With every step it seemed the terrain was became more rugged making it less and less likely that the truck would be able to follow us. But it had been an exhausting day, with few stops or opportunities for rest since we’d set out, and as the threat from our pursuers seemed to recede I could feel myself getting tired. The afternoon was beginning to get on a bit by this time, and even though we could’ve gone on a little further, when we stumbled upon a good campsite, with the remains of a thorn fence still intact around it, we decided to stop and make camp.

It didn’t take us long to get the camp set up, though without any fresh meat for a meal we didn’t have to worry about cooking, instead just relying on the cold provisions we’d brought with us from the lodge. Androus was attempting to put a brave face on things, but it was clear he was done in. His normally jovial and expansive humour had all but disappeared now, replaced by a slightly ashen tinge to his features and a deathly tiredness in his eyes.

I suggested he get some sleep as soon as the camp was set up, on the pretence that we might need him to take a turn keeping watch later on, but it was really just to give him the excuse to get his head down for a bit.

We’d done our best to hide the fire with a couple of make-shift blanket screens, but I was hoping it was a precaution we wouldn’t need.

Two hours after we’d set up the camp Marlow, Peter and Nbutu walked out of the growing gloom to join us, and while you’d never have guessed it from Nbutu, the smiles and friendly chatter between Marlow and Peter were a clear indication that something had gone our way.

‘I tell you,’ started Peter, smiling warmly and gratefully accepting a cup of hot coffee, ‘Nbutu is a genius, he anticipated Selene and her friends perfectly. When we found them, they were all fine, but they’d driven their truck over the edge of that dried up riverbed we crossed. It was a little bit deeper at the point where they’d hit it, which would probably have made it more difficult to get out of than in. But they also managed to pick a spot where there were a number of large rocks, one of which seemed to have completely destroyed their front right wheel.

‘They were having a terrible time trying to move the truck onto level ground so they could change the wheel I can tell you. Better yet, the spare they had was almost useless, it had obviously been punctured at some point in the past and never been fixed, so it was looking like they were going to have to stop every few miles on their way back to re-inflate the thing! Anyway we stayed to watch them, just to make sure they were able to get moving again, without them even suspecting we were within earshot...’

‘Earshot, mon ami?’ Jean suddenly enquired, ‘Did you by any chance hear them talking about anything of interest?’

‘Well there were a few unusual things, now that you come to mention it,’ Peter replied enigmatically, stringing Jean along in exactly the same way that Jean liked to do with the rest of us.

‘For example?’ Jean played along.

‘Well, it did strike me as odd the way they talked when they thought nobody else was around,’ Peter replied thoughtfully. ‘They spoke in Italian mostly, and my command of that language is perhaps not as good as it should be… but at one point I could swear one of the servants referred to one of his mistresses as Sister.’

‘Yes, you understood it correctly,’ indicated Marlow looking more serious now. ‘Miriam obviously has the hotter temper of the three, and after rebuking one of the servants over some small thing, he responded with a request for forgiveness, and used the name Soura… which she seemed none too happy about, and rebuked him further.’

‘You are sure it could not have been Sorrella?’ asked Jean carefully.

‘No my friend, he definitely referred to her as a holy sister, not as a relation,’ was Marlow’s simple reply.

I hadn’t quite followed the significance of these two words, until Marlow explained it in these terms, and even once he made the issue clear it still took me a moment or two to think through the implications of what it all meant.

‘The more we learn about these people, the less I understand,’ mused Jean, as we all made ourselves more comfortable around the fire. ‘If these young women hold some kind of religious office, then that might explain the strange deference Luke paid to Selene when we saw them together in Jerusalem. But then they have wealth, political influence, and they use firearms as though born to it.’

It was an entertaining conundrum for us to throw around while we ate and relaxed, coming up with some truly silly ideas. But really it was just a relief to know that we could no longer be pursued, and hence that we could relax for a while. It might turn out to be a bit tricky on the way back if they were still around. But once we’d got what we came for, we could make our way in any one of a dozen different directions, or even just find a village and sit it out for a week or three. We just had to get to the Singing Stones and retrieve the tablets before anyone could beat us to it.

CHAPTER 23 – ANOTHER COUNTRY

It was good to be back under the stars in Kenya, away from the towns and villages and with the earth once more beneath my head. I slept a deep and dreamless sleep for the first time in what seemed an age.

I awoke early the next morning to find Androus already up and about, and looking very much like his old self. It was cool and ever so slightly misty, which gave the verdant bush an even more enchanting feel.

‘I thought you were going to wake me to take a watch,’ Androus asked smiling, clearly understanding the motivation for my slight deception.

I apologised to him for my dishonesty, then filled him in on the conversation he’d missed while asleep, including the news that our pursuers had turned back, and the strange enigma of Miriam being referred to as a holy sister.

‘I would have to agree with Jean and the rest of you,’ he declared, ‘that just doesn’t seem to make any sense. Although if Ms Selene, Miriam and Thea are linked to the Jesuits through the chapel in Jerusalem, then anything is possible.’

‘Why is that?’ I couldn’t help but ask. ‘Have you heard something about that chapel?’

‘No, no it’s not the chapel itself, or even the modern order, it is more that the Jesuits of all the different orders of the church, have had a rather… chequered history.’ He began, before going on to tell me about the various historic intrigues in which the order had once been reputedly involved.

‘I forget the details,’ he continued, pouring and handing me a coffee as he tried to explain more about the order’s history. ‘But the order was unusual to begin with in that it was founded by a Spanish noble who before becoming a priest had been quite a successful soldier and diplomat. According to some, this is the foundation upon which the later society was developed.

‘To begin with though, the Society of Jesus, or Soldiers of Christ as they are sometimes known, developed as a response to the growing popularity of Protestantism, which it successfully opposed in a number of areas, especially Poland, Prussia and Russia. But as the order started to gain significant levels of support in India, Japan and China, it also became more secretive, and supposedly began exerting its influence against governments and monarchs in Europe. At the time, it was rumoured to employ not only the advancements in learning and science it discovered in the orient, but also some of the more exotic mystical powers that were thought to be understood in those lands to achieve their goals. Eventually, as a consequence of their political manoeuvring they came unstuck and the order as a whole was suppressed by the pope. Aside that is, from in . . .’

I could see something had just struck him, as he suddenly froze and didn’t move for well over a minute. Whatever it was, he was obviously thinking hard about it. So, tempted as I was to give him a nudge and get him to continue, I held myself in check until he was ready.

‘That could be the link,’ he eventually said, ‘they must be one of the few connections…

‘I’m sorry my friend,’ he said, obviously remembering my presence, ‘but that could be the link… You see, when the order was suppressed in I think the 18th century, it was suppressed by a papal decree. A decree which was ignored in Eastern Europe and Russia, because they had recently become aligned with the Eastern Orthodox Church and not the Church of Rome. So, whilst the Jesuits today are very much part of the Catholic Church, there will be some elements of the order that still have strong ties to the Orthodox Church that once sheltered them.