Blue spark.
Once again a shadow, this time to his right, although longer and right up against the wall. He fired in the opposite direction. Again he missed and there was more movement.
Blue spark.
He was against the wall. He couldn’t see Russell anywhere. This could mean he-
With a scream, Russell threw himself at Fowler, hitting him repeatedly on the face and neck. The priest felt the other’s teeth biting down on his arm like an animal. Unable to do otherwise, he let go of the Kalashnikov. For a second he felt the other’s hands. They struggled and the rifle was lost in the darkness.
Blue spark.
Fowler was on the ground and Russell was trying his best to choke him. The priest, finally able to see his enemy, closed his fist and punched Russell in the solar plexus. Russell groaned and rolled to one side.
One last, weak blue flash.
Fowler managed to see Russell disappearing into the chamber. A sudden dull gleam told him that Russell had found his pistol.
A voice to his right called out.
‘Father.’
Fowler crept towards the dying Kayn. He didn’t want to offer Russell an easy target in case he decided to try his luck and aim randomly in the dark. The priest finally felt the old man’s body in front of him and put his mouth to his ear.
‘Mr Kayn, hold on,’ he whispered. ‘I can get you out of here.’
‘No, Father, you can’t,’ Kayn replied, and although his voice was weak he spoke with the firm tone of a small child. ‘It’s better like this. I’m going to see my parents, my son and my brother. My life began in a hole. It makes sense that it will end the same way.’
‘Then entrust yourself to God,’ the priest said.
‘I have. Would you give me your hand while I leave?’
Fowler said nothing but felt for the dying man’s hand, holding it between his own. Less than a minute later, in the middle of a whispered Hebrew prayer, there was a death rattle and Raymond Kayn was still.
By now the priest knew what he had to do.
In the middle of the darkness he brought his fingers to the buttons on his shirt and undid them, then pulled out the package containing the explosives. He felt for the detonator, stuck it into the bars of C4 and pressed the buttons. In his mind he counted the number of beeps.
But he couldn’t leave the bomb outside the cavity where the Ark rested. Maybe it wouldn’t be powerful enough to seal the cave once more. He wasn’t sure how deep the hollow was, and if the Ark was behind an outcrop of rock it might survive without a scratch. If he was going to prevent this insanity happening again, he had to place the bomb next to the Ark. He couldn’t throw it in like a grenade because the detonator might come loose. And he had to have enough time to escape.
The only option was to overcome Russell, put the C4 in position and then run like hell.
He crawled around, hoping to avoid making too much noise, but it was impossible. The ground was covered in small rocks that shifted as he moved.
‘I can hear you coming, priest.’
There was a red flash and a shot rang out. The bullet missed Fowler by quite a long way, but the priest remained wary and rolled quickly to his left. A second bullet hit the place where he had been just seconds before.
He was still calculating when two more shots lit up the opening to the cave. This time Fowler rolled away from his original position just in time. The shot missed him by about four inches.
Four or five left.
‘I’m going to get you, Crusader. I’m going to get you because Allah is with me.’ Russell’s voice sounded ghostly inside the cave. ‘Get out of here while you still can.’
Fowler grabbed a rock and threw it inside the hole. Russell took the bait and fired in the direction of the noise.
‘Very clever, Crusader. But it won’t do you any good.’
He hadn’t finished speaking when he fired again. This time there were not two but three shots. Fowler rolled to his left and then to the right, banging his knees against the sharp rocks.
Just before he rolled the second time the priest lifted his head for a moment. It was maybe only half a second but what he saw in the brief light from the shots would remain in his memory for ever.
Russell was standing behind a golden box of giant proportions. On top of it two roughly sculpted figures shone brightly. In the flash from the pistol, the gold appeared uneven, creased.
Fowler took a deep breath.
He was almost inside the chamber itself, but he didn’t have enough space to manoeuvre. If Russell shot again, even if it was just a shot to see where he was, he would almost certainly hit him.
Fowler decided to do what Russell least expected.
In one quick motion he jumped up and ran into the hole. Russell tried firing, but the hammer made a loud click. Fowler took a flying leap and, before the other man could react, the priest had thrust the whole of his body weight against the top of the Ark, which fell towards Russell, the lid opening and the contents spilling out. Russell jumped back and narrowly avoided being crushed.
What followed was a blind struggle. Fowler was able to hit Russell several times on the arms and chest but Russell somehow managed to stick a full magazine into his pistol. Fowler heard the weapon being reloaded. He felt around in the dark with his right hand, holding Russell’s arm with his left.
He found a flat rock.
With all his might he slammed it against Russell’s head and the young man dropped to the ground, unconscious.
The force of the blow shattered the rock into pieces.
Fowler tried to regain his footing. His whole body hurt and his head was bleeding. Using the light from his watch, he tried to find his bearings in the dark. He directed the thin but intense shaft of light on to the overturned Ark, producing a soft glimmer that filled the chamber.
He had very little time to admire it. At that moment Fowler heard a sound that, in the struggle, he hadn’t noticed…
… and understood that while he had been rolling around to evade the shots…
.. without meaning to…
