What if there’s more than one?
What if he puts the pendant in, turns it and discovers it’s part of a sequence that has a time limit?
But what sequence?
What on earth could it be?
Tom stares at the huge chunk of tree and starts to drive himself mad. He has to come up with something.
And quick.
He searches the wood with his fingers. There’s a chance he’ll get lucky and spot something.
He stops again. He’s being stupid. If there’s a sequence, he has to understand it, not just come across it.
He tells himself to slow down.
Stay calm.
Think logically.
He grabs another couple of nails and cuts more twine.
After several false starts, he turns his thinking upside down.
Literally.
He holds the pendant upside down in the furthest top left-hand corner of the wood. He runs a line from here all the way down until it crosses the plotted lines made from the bottom right-hand point.
Bullseye.
He finds another silver-lined slot. It’s below and to the left of the first one.
He tries not to get excited.
He moves the pendant to the top right and inwards and runs another line down to the centre.
Perfect.
He stands back and admires his ingenuity.
The three silver-lined slots mark the point of their own scalene triangle.
More importantly, there’s a sequence, and it involves all three slots, but what is it?
Does it run clockwise, starting from the highest – the first slot he discovered?
Alternatively – because the second one he found is sited to the left of the first – does it run anticlockwise?
He can’t decide.
Beyond the wall, he hears a bang. A short noise, like a loud whip cracking or a car backfiring.
Could this be an exit into the street?
Could Guilio have got his bearings hopelessly wrong and a new danger is approaching?
Decision time.
Tom slips the tightest-angled corner of the pendant into the first lock. It takes a heavy push to get it in, and he’s frightened it will break.
But it doesn’t.
It makes a satisfying click.
Tom turns it.
It clicks again.
But what next?
He looks at the second slot.
To the left – or to the right?
Beyond the wall, he hears another bang.
Then another.
It’s gunfire.
Tom goes with his instinct.
He jams the pendant into the left-hand slot and turns it anticlockwise.
135
The huge temple doors are turning black.
But they’re not burning.
Valentina can’t believe it.
Why doesn’t the wood catch fire?
She guesses it’s to do with the age and strength of the oak. The fact that the flames from the torch are just not powerful enough to set it ablaze.
Maybe she’s being impatient.
She places the torch on the floor, where the two doors meet.
It has no effect.
Snapping point.
She pulls out the Glock and heads towards the pulpit.
If she can’t burn their way out, perhaps she can blast them out.
The old woman is still there.
Hands on the glass, scowling down at Valentina.
Well, screw her.
Valentina swings the pistol up and lets off a shot.
The glass doesn’t even splinter.
It’s like throwing pebbles at the windscreen of a truck.
She lets off another two shots, grouping them near the first.
The crone smiles.
It would take a SAM missile to blow the glass, and both women know it.
But Valentina’s not giving up.
She gathers more torches from the walls and stacks them by the door.
At least the flies don’t like the smoke, or the flames.
She hugs the child close to her and reassures her again. ‘We’ll get out, Sweetheart, don’t worry. I promised you. Any minute now, we’ll be out of here.’ She kisses her cheek and hugs her again.
At the far end of the temple, a hidden door slides open.
Five of Mater’s most trusted guards enter.
Sweetheart sees them and silently screams.
Only when she points at the armed men wearing scarlet hoods and robes does Valentina realise the full extent of the trouble they’re in.
136
The second lock pops as sweetly as the third.
Tom’s heart is all but in his mouth as he completes the sequence by plunging the pendant into the third and final slot.
He twists it and hears a satisfying click.
He gives the front of the big tree a shove.
It doesn’t move.
He can’t believe it!
He’s sure he got everything right.
He pushes again.
This time a large section falls away. There’s an almighty crash. A cloud of dust billows up on the other side of
