The Istanbul Puzzle (17 page)

The sight of the guards brought home to me what we were planning. I felt a tingle of anticipation, and a strong sense of determination. This was for Alek, whatever happened.

‘Keep smiling,’ I said.

‘That’s my secret weapon,’ she replied. ‘Didn’t you know?’

We strolled up to the grim-faced guards.

One of them put a hand up to stop us.

‘We’re going to the concert,’ I said. I moved forward another step.

He put his hand up close to my chest. I stopped, looked at it. I was tempted to swipe it away, but his buddy had his weapon pointed at us now.

He said something in Turkish, then, in English, he said, ‘No entry.’ He was grim faced.

I clenched my fists. We didn’t have time for this.

Isabel had taken her phone out of her pocket. She stabbed a number into it. I could hear it ringing. ‘Wait, Sean,’ she said to me. She put a hand on my arm.

The guard said something in Turkish. He didn’t sound happy. She held her hand up, as if she wanted to attract attention to herself. The guard looked at his buddy.

‘Is this a good time to make social calls?’ I said.

The other guard said something rather loudly. Isabel raised her hand higher, as if to silence him.

The guard’s mouth closed. He was deciding what to do next, contemplating getting nasty, probably. Isabel took a step towards him and held the phone out in front of her. The other guard took a step back and adjusted his machine pistol. We all listened to a faint ringing noise, an electronic cricket sound, emanating from the phone.

For one long painful moment it seemed as if no one was going to answer. The guard took a step forward.

‘
Merhaba
, Cem!’ said Isabel loudly as the phone was finally answered by what could only be described as a grunt. She put the phone to her ear and began to speak rapidly in Turkish. The guards listened to her. After a brief conversation she passed the phone to the one nearest her.

He said something brusquely to his colleague over his shoulder. Then he took the phone, said something in Turkish, listened and a moment later stood to attention. It looked as if he was about to salute. He handed the phone back to Isabel and muttered something under his breath. It sounded like an apology. He and the other guard stepped aside, raised the barrier and waved us forward.

‘What was that all about?’ I asked, as we walked up the steep sloping lane.

‘It helps to have friends in high places,’ she said.

‘You’re a useful person to bring along. Who did you call?’

‘A friend. A new Turkish general. He taught me some beautiful verses from the Koran.’ She had a fond smile on her face.

As we crested the hill, the main gate of Topkapi, the one the bus had got stuck in, appeared to our left. Guards stood to attention near the gate in coal-black uniforms, with highly visible round white helmets. A high pale stone wall loomed behind them.

Hagia Eirene was a hundred yards ahead beyond some thin trees. It was all lit up. Golden light blazed from tiers of arched red brick windows and from a circle of skylights that surrounded the raised dome. A few guests in evening wear could be seen milling around the far end of the building to our right. Was the concert over? Then I heard some music faintly.

Hagia Eirene was looming in front of us, rearing up like an ancient fortress. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. The arched, leaded windows of the great church had golden light pouring out of them.

Between the church and the path around it was a deep, twenty-foot-wide moat.

‘After the conquest this was one of only a few Christian churches not made into a mosque,’ said Isabel.

‘Anyone know why?’ I said.

‘Supposedly Mehmed the Conqueror was into the Kabala. Apparently he received mystical warnings about Hagia Eirene.’

I looked up. The sound of distant laughter and a bus revving filled the air.

‘If Eirene was the Greek goddess of peace,’ I said, ‘why didn’t they change the name of the building when they made it into a Christian church?’

‘Don’t ask me,’ she replied.

I was peering down into the moat. It was a mess of ancient half-broken walls and tumbled stones.

‘The Greek temple that was on this spot before it was a church was probably a den of prostitutes. That could have been why Mehmed didn’t want the place,’ I said.

‘It goes back a long way,’ she said, looking up at the walls.

‘You better believe it. Alexander the Great came here, I’d say. And that was six hundred years before Constantine. The Greek town that was here was even part of the Persian Empire for a while. We can only guess what went on on this site when it was one of their temples.’

We kept walking. I still hadn’t seen any sign of a doorway with a recently installed security camera, my big clue from Bulent, the ace I’d been hiding. It wasn’t that much of a clue, but I was hoping it would be enough.

‘So how do we find the place Alek took those pictures?’ she said, as if she was reading my mind.

‘Patience, patience.’ I was examining the moat. The bottom of it was about fifteen foot below the level of the path. We walked to the right, to the end of the building, then turned left alongside it, staying with the path. People were milling around here. The concert had ended.

I was grateful for them being there. It meant we could have a good look at the building without attracting attention.

Hardly anyone gave us a second glance as we walked as far as we could, right up to the main entrance where the high doors stood open. A stream of concert goers were drifting out. Security guards in black suits were hanging around the entrance.

Maybe we could claim we had to go back inside, to find something we’d left behind. What was the worst they could do, stop us?

‘Where to now?’ said Isabel.

‘Let’s check back all the way around as far as we can go.’

‘What exactly are we looking for?’ There was a definite note of frustration in her voice now.

‘I’ll tell you when we find it.’

She groaned. We retraced our steps.

There was only one possible door that I’d seen so far. It was near the main entrance, almost under it, down at the level of the moat, which might have been what we were looking for, but, although there were steps down to it, there was no security camera near it. Was there a similar door on the other side of the building?

We walked back alongside the moat to the spot where we’d first approached the building. Around the next corner, turning right this time, the moat-like area became wider.

There was nobody else in this part, between the high outer wall of Topkapi and the looming red brick south wall of Hagia Eirene.

Trees and giant weeds grew in the wide moat here, a steep walled area of ancient foundations, much of which was in shadow and about twenty feet below ground level.

Then I saw it, in a corner of the exposed foundations: a recent addition, a wooden walkway, with steps leading down to a wooden platform. We walked off the path towards it and looked down. There were more steps leading down again, disappearing from view.

I went down to the first platform. Isabel followed me. I could smell fresh wood.

My thoughts were racing. Was this where Alek had been? And if Alek had died because he came this way, were we being stupid by coming down here?

But I didn’t care. I had to do this.

I looked up at the wall of Hagia Eirene looming over us like a brick cliff. If you wanted a building to survive seventeen hundred years near an earthquake fault, in one of the most contested cities in the world, this was the way to build it – squat and heavy.

I went down another flight, rounded the corner of the stairs and stopped as if I’d met a glass wall.

Isabel was beside me in a second. The light streaming from the windows of Hagia Eirene way up above us was enough for her to see why I’d stopped. My heart was thumping. This was it.

‘Kiss me,’ she demanded.

Arap Anach reached into the pocket of his midnight-blue Armani blazer. He pulled his phone out, glanced at the screen. A text message had arrived. He’d read it as soon as he got a chance. An usher was leading him through the wood panelled corridors of the House of Commons. The bustle of the parliamentary staff and visitors pushing past him was annoying him.

The usher stopped at a long stuffed-leather sofa outside a tall brass-handled door. An ivory plate on it read PRIVATE. The sofa looked as if it had been new in the 1920s. There was a lemony smell of polish in the air.

‘Wait here, sir,’ said the usher, motioning towards the sofa. The man Anach was meeting didn’t have his own office. He was using an out-of-the-way meeting room. All this would change soon. Anach sat, looked at his phone, tapped at the screen.

A decrypted message from Malach popped up a few seconds later. Malach had done well.
Diagnosis confirms faster outcome than anticipated
, read the message.

He imagined the girl slipping into a coma, the look on the doctor’s face when she died, and then… the doctor’s terror at feeling a headache come on, then the lumps growing. He’d know what his fate would be. That would be the worst part.

Many who were about to die would have no idea what was coming for them. They’d line up in hospitals and doctor’s surgeries and pharmacies convinced that modern medicine would save them. And then they would die. And the world would be a better place.

Man, the intelligent animal, was about to prevent his own natural extinction before he reached the point where he’d used up all his planet’s resources.

And then the changes could begin.

The door he was waiting outside creaked open. A young woman bulging out of every part of her black suit came out. ‘Lord Bidoner says to go in, Mr Anach,’ she said. Then she walked off.

A drum was beating in my head. I hadn’t kissed a woman properly in years. Even if this was a trick, because of the security camera above our heads pointing down at us, the reality of kissing Isabel was more exciting than it should have been.

And there was something achingly familiar about it too. A memory of my first kiss with Irene swirled through me. The smell of Isabel’s skin, her touch, it was all so similar. I pulled away.

‘Sean,’ she whispered.

Our bodies were touching; we were pressed together. Hers was warmer than I’d expected.

‘Don’t get too excited.’ Her tone was playful.

I looked up at the shiny security camera above us. There wasn’t a speck of dust on it. It looked as if it had been put there only last week, at a position where it could observe both the stairs and whatever was below us. And if the camera was on, someone must be watching us.

A new security camera was exactly what I’d been looking for. Now the question was, what would whoever was watching us, if someone was watching us, make of us being down here?

If they were the ordinary security guards for this part of Topkapi Palace, we’d probably be OK. We’d get into trouble for trespassing, sure, but that would be it. But, if it was someone else, the people who’d taken Alek, and they realised what we were up to, we would be in a very different class of trouble.

A kiss was a good excuse for us coming down here. But what Isabel did next was inspired.

She shook her finger at the camera, as if she was admonishing whoever was watching for snooping on us. Then she ran down a few steps, to a point where she was just below the camera, and reached up. It was clear she wasn’t going to reach it.

‘Boost me,’ she whispered. I went down, lifted her at the waist and boosted her up. I couldn’t believe how light she was. Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through me.

She wrenched the camera to one side, pointed it at the wall.

‘We’ve got a few minutes, no more,’ she said, as she dropped down beside me.

‘They’ll think we’re making out and send someone to investigate. They’ll probably hope to catch us at it if they can. We better find out what’s down here, and fast.’

At the bottom of the stairs was a heavy, out-of-place looking, red steel door set into the wall of Hagia Eirene. Its only embellishment was a small keyhole set into a brushed steel plate. I pushed at the door. It didn’t budge.

My pulse was still drumming from the memory of that kiss. The knowledge that we had only minutes before someone turned up didn’t help calm me.

I looked back up the stairs. Stars were glimmering faintly. I heard a woman’s voice, high pitched, in the distance.

Isabel had taken her phone out of her pocket. ‘No signal down here,’ she said. ‘I won’t be able to call for back-up if I get this open.’

‘You think you can open it?’ I pointed at the door.

‘It shouldn’t be too difficult,’ she said. She pulled out a set of keys from her pocket and held them up. There were two long bent pieces of wire on one of the rings. They looked like ornaments. She picked one out, held it up, straightened it a little and undid it from the key ring.

‘If I can see what I’m doing.’ She bent down. I watched her back.

‘How often do you do this sort of thing?’ I said.

‘Once or twice a year. We learned all sorts of stuff before we were sent out here. Now sssshh.’

I craned forward to see what she was doing, but aside from her poking methodically at the lock, there was not much to see.

She grunted.

‘It’s a German lock. This is not going to be easy.’

‘What’s wrong with German locks?’

‘They have wafer tumblers.’ She turned and looked at me. The whites of her eyes were visible. ‘Are you going to watch out for the guards or just stare over my shoulder?’

I had to go up two flights of stairs before I could see the path again. Thankfully, there was no one in sight. Maybe the camera was switched off.

A few souls were walking away from Hagia Eirene in the distance. Had we gotten away with this?

I thought about that kiss again, the sweet smell of Isabel’s perfume, so faint, so tantalizing.

The last time I’d kissed a woman was at a party a few months ago. I’d pulled away then. It had felt all wrong, as if I was being unfaithful to Irene. How crazy was I? How can you be unfaithful to someone who’s been dead for two years? It had felt almost as if her ghost was stopping me.

But I hadn’t felt like that this time. It had felt right. Or was I just going crazy?

My heartbeat was almost normal again. I felt detached as I watched the paths leading towards us, as if someone else was doing all this. What was beyond the door?

A distant crunching noise echoed in the warm night air. Something gripped at my insides. I scanned the paths. There! Coming towards us from the main gate, heading straight in our direction, was exactly what I didn’t want to see; a phalanx of maybe ten determined looking security guards. They were still quite distant, but they were approaching fast.

The guards were dressed in olive-green uniforms, which was a good thing. They looked like official Topkapi Palace security guards. But it still felt as if someone had dropped a weight on my chest. Maybe we weren’t going to get decapitated by this lot, but getting arrested didn’t seem like such a good idea either.

The urge to just stare at them approaching, like a rabbit caught in headlights, was strong. But I snapped out of it and with a jerk of my head, turned, and leapt down the stairs hissing Isabel’s name as I went.

As I came around the last bend, it was disappointingly clear that nothing had changed. Isabel was still poking at the lock.

Did she have any idea what she was doing?

‘Security guards are coming, Isabel. You’ve about thirty seconds. Maybe less.’ My words came out fast.

‘Don’t rush me,’ was her reply, as if we had all day.

I wanted to shout at her. Instead, I let out a short nervous laugh and looked back up the stairs. Everything seemed so serene. All I could hear was the scratching sound Isabel was making and the distant hum of the city. For one long endless moment I thought I must have been mistaken. That the guards were on their way somewhere else. It was possible, wasn’t it?

I listened hard.

I heard the rattle of stones.

Go on, pass by.

But a voice called out in a hard Turkish accent. Someone was calling down to us. I had no idea what he was saying, but it didn’t sound friendly. Then there was a great clattering noise, the sound of people moving on to the stairs above us.

Pebbles skittered wildly. One bounced in front of me. The noise of boots reverberated. Would Isabel be able to get through the door if I held them off for a while? It was time to act. I turned my head quickly.