“What if I’m wrong about the guards?” he asked, almost as an afterthought. “What if they
I shook my head. In that case, our only chance of survival would be to abandon the Professor and run.
I tried to make a joke of it, but after the others had turned away, I lifted my sword and held the point to my own throat.
I stared straight into Lavon’s eyes.
“Can you do it?” I asked, “if it comes to that.”
His grim expression showed that he knew what I had in mind.
“I won’t let them be taken,” he replied.
Then he scurried off quickly behind the hill to our left, with Sharon and Naomi in tow.
***
I led Markowitz off to the right to form the other arm of our pincer movement. In a few minutes, we reached the edge of the quarry and circled back toward the center, where we crouched behind an oversized boulder lying only a few feet from a heavily traveled path.
Not long thereafter, I saw Lavon slip out from behind a ridge on the opposite side, along with the two women.
We listened carefully and to our great relief, neither of us heard the distinctive clanging of metal plates. The Temple police protected themselves with thick leather armor. Bryson’s captors were not Romans.
As the marching footsteps came closer, we eased back to avoid being spotted.
Moments later, a dozen black helmeted soldiers strode past us and up the incline that led up to the level ground surrounding Jerusalem’s main walls.
Though I couldn’t understand what they were saying, the men appeared to be engaged in an animated discussion — no doubt concerning how they would explain the events of the previous night to their superiors.
We breathed a quick a sigh of relief as they passed. For a brief moment, I worried that they might have first disposed of the Professor, before I realized that a prisoner would serve as a handy prop for whatever story they managed to invent.
The fact that their captive would be unable to contradict their tale would serve as an added bonus, assuming it came to that.
A few minutes after the first bunch had passed, we heard another set of footsteps. Lavon gestured toward Naomi, as if encouraging her to try an encore performance, but this time I shook my head.
Naomi, God bless her, ignored my instructions.
Rather than exude her natural charms, this time she took pains to disguise them. She pulled her hair back and her shawl up to cover her entire head. Then she hunched forward with her back bent at a painfully awkward angle.
If I hadn’t known better, I would have guessed that she had aged thirty years, which was the whole idea.
She shuffled her steps, favoring her left leg, as she trudged slowly up the ramp, with her downcast eyes glued to the ground only a step or two in front of her feet.
As she had intended, the two men escorting Bryson stopped, just behind where we had been hiding.
Once again, we achieved total surprise.
Before they could cry out, Lavon and I held our sword points to their throats. The two guards stared ahead in silence; their eyes reflecting silent terror.
“Don’t kill them,” said Markowitz.
I hadn’t planned to unless it proved absolutely necessary, but this intrusion irritated me.
“Be quiet, Ray,” I whispered.
“They’re Temple police, not Herod’s men. They’re Jews; my brothers. Don’t kill them.”
I sighed, though in hindsight, we couldn’t have playacted the scene any better.
The two guards had been careless, but they weren’t stupid. From the tone of our discussion, they developed a clear picture of how to save themselves and meekly submitted to our instructions.
Sharon handed over strips of cloth she had cut from her robe, and within less than a minute, we had bound and gagged each one.
We left our prisoners leaning against the side of a hill a few yards apart from each other.
I was angry enough to leave Bryson in the same condition as well, though I knew that would impede our progress. Reluctantly, I cut his bindings loose.
He immediately started to babble an explanation for his conduct, but I was in no mood to hear it; nor was anyone else.
“Shut up, Professor. Let’s get out of here.”
***
As we threaded our way back through the labyrinth heading the other direction, Lavon had the presence of mind to examine Bryson’s chip.
“Yellow,” he announced.
“Thirty minutes,” said Sharon. “Maybe even less.”
How much less, we had no way to know.
“Keep going,” I said. “It won’t be long before the main body realizes their comrades aren’t following behind.”
We had advanced to within striking distance of the western end of the quarry when Bryson suddenly jerked away.
“My camera!” he shouted.
Before any of us could react, he had already started to rush back to the tomb.
Had I been thinking clearly, I would have tackled the jackass and sent Naomi, by herself, to retrieve the infernal device. She had shed her old-woman act as quickly as she put it on, and I didn’t think the two we had trussed up would recognize her.
But I had been out of action too long to fight tunnel vision, and by the time the idea occurred to me, it was already too late.
Bryson had such a head start that we could do nothing but crouch behind the familiar hill and watch as he strode across the narrow bit of open ground to retrieve his precious camcorder.
He cautiously moved the rock pile aside, stone by stone, as if the device would crumble under the slightest impact. Once he had uncovered it, he lifted it up and brushed off the dust.
Then, to our utter dismay, he opened the viewfinder.
“He’s going to watch it right now!” Sharon whispered. “I can’t believe this!”
“Get back here, you idiot,” I said, trying my dead level best not to shout.
He ignored me for a moment, but the sound of approaching footsteps became unmistakable, even to him.
“Run!” I yelled.
Chapter 64
The Professor finally grasped the seriousness of his predicament. He snapped the viewfinder shut and headed toward me at full speed, while I waved to the others, imploring them to go ahead.
Just as Bryson approached me, two men — neither in uniform and both clearly winded — emerged from behind the rocks and paused in front of the tomb. One started to give chase, but his companion held him back. Neither seemed quite sure what to make of us.
I could guess who they were, but didn’t dare stick around.
I grabbed the Professor’s arm and rushed him along for a couple hundred yards before we caught up with the others.
“Keep moving,” I said.
By then, though, Bryson was gasping for air, so we finally had to stop.
