From the picture you sent me it looks to be surprisingly well preserved. I would like to have a look at the cave myself. Could you get me inside?’
‘Vasilis, you know I cannot do that. I’ll be putting my job on the line. No unauthorised access is allowed and I am not the person to give that authority. The bureaucracy in this place is astounding, beyond comprehension. I really don’t know how people do anything here, as it makes things so expensive and time-consuming.
‘I actually admire them for persevering and achieving so much. It challenges my patience every single hour of every single minute of every single day. Well, I am exaggerating a bit, but you get the picture. If I let you in and they find out, I’ll be in big trouble. They’ll have my guts for garters. They’ll no doubt deport me and put me on a black list, never to allow me to enter the country ever again.’
Vasilis said nothing, but gave her that look she could never resist. She looked at him for a while, lost in her own thoughts.
Lara was debating with herself. She felt it was a mistake to think that this place, this setting, was the set of her dreams. Maybe she had to change it. Was Vasilis the answer? Was what Vasilis wanted the answer? Was Cyprus the answer?
But then again it didn’t have to be like that. They both had compromised in the past and she was sure they could do it again. There had never been any regrets. She was sure they would both do it all over again the same way, not changing a thing, if they had to.
But her mind had gone into overdrive. Both sides of her brain were fighting a battle with her heart. The jury, selected and approved, was growing impatient. It was split down the middle, still not ready to deliver a verdict.
The decision was floating there in the air, almost invisible, like an indecisive cloud, becoming more elusive with every passing second. She suddenly pushed the thoughts out of her mind and focused her eyes on Vasilis, an air of selfishness, a healthy dose of defiance raising its ugly head and animating her face.
‘I will help you on condition that you re-arrange your schedule, so that you start spending at least a few weeks at a time here in Cyprus with me. Perhaps not this time as you seem to be busy with something, but after this, whatever it is, is finished.’
His mouth twitched and started to droop, his eyes spoke volumes in their own special language she knew so well. He looked hurt, but his eyes were saying “maybe”, and yet they seemed to be passing judgement condemning her conduct as screaming of intransigence and belligerence that was so unlike her.
She almost felt sorry for him and was close to relenting and capitulating.
‘OK, alright, stop that. Don’t give me that sorrowful pleading charm of yours.’
His face spoke with the raising of a quizzical brow.
‘Vasilis, stop it. Don’t make that face. Come, on. You know you are doing it. It’s always like that. You always do it when you want me to do something. This time it’s not working.’
The brow rose higher.
She broke the impasse. ‘What do you expect to find there?’
‘A body.’ Vasilis blurted out with no qualms about shocking Lara.
‘You mean bones, a skeleton?’
‘No, I mean a body or more specifically a part or parts of it.’
Even with her belief that nothing could shock her, Lara had gone white. This was serious. The reality that Vasilis might be involved in something shady began to dawn on her, but she chose not to voice her suspicions and her concerns in case she was wrong.
She didn’t want to mess things up between them, if she was wrong, especially as things had been going well between them lately, and she was in no doubt that it was all legitimate and above board. He would never forgive her, if she insulted him by thinking him capable of anything illegitimate. She had to know more about this matter.
‘I don’t understand. What’s so special about this body you are looking for? What research do you have to back it up? How do you think you can find something where we have been excavating for months and have found nothing?’
‘I just know. I have a feeling.’ Vasilis said, an inner voice leading him to waters untravelled, and Lara could see his firm belief in his words. Her scepticism began to waiver, but she could not help a bit of mocking for her amusement. And there was also the fact that she could not be seen to so easily capitulate and accept that there could be the possibility of some truth in what he had said.
‘A voice at the back of your mind is speaking to you?’
‘Something like that. You know I’ve always been a bit unconventional, for some people crazy even, in doing things my way, but my instinct has served me well so far. So indulge me on this. Have some faith.’
Lara took a quick decision. ‘OK. But I’m coming with you.’
‘No, you’re not. You are staying here to watch my back.’
‘It’s non-negotiable.’ Lara was adamant. ‘I can get you a pass and have you attend the dig for a couple of days for people to get used to you. We’ll introduce you as a visiting expert archaeologist from Crete.’
‘Will that work? Who’s checking authorisations?’
‘Trust me, it won’t be a problem.’
‘Won’t they recognise me?’
‘You have a bit of a high profile, but I don’t think they read the society or the business pages. But we’ll give you a little disguise just in case.’ Lara said and winked at Vasilis.
Suddenly Vasilis had a strange feeling that they were being watched. He turned to the two men at the table next to them. The eyes he saw were empty and cold and licensed to kill. They had to get out of there.
There was another reason for Vasilis’ urgency to leave. Vasilis did not want to involve the other diners in any violent altercation that might follow. They had to leave before anything happened that got people hurt.
A waiter was passing by with the most humungous tray split in two, one half laden and piled on high with a mountain of meat laced with rice, the other half with fruit and bordered in semi-circle shapes with two jugs full of steaming hot juices and gravy.
Vasilis tripped the waiter as he was passing by the adjacent table. The whole pile practically buried and burned the two men. But it was enough to distract the two men and put them out of action for long enough for Vasilis and Lara to make their escape.
Vasilis grabbed Lara’s hand and they ran outside where a taxi was already waiting with the meter running. Vasilis had taken that precaution in the event that they had to make a quick get-away.
They got into the taxi, and, in a movie-like moment, Vasilis fired a sharp order to the taxi driver to step on it. The taxi speeded off.
Katerina and Aristo had witnessed Vasilis’ and Lara’s sudden rush for the exit. They stood to the side of the restaurant and waited. It took less than a minute for the two men, whom they suspected to be Ruinands, to come out of the restaurant, get into another waiting taxi and follow at great speed.
Katerina and Aristo got into a taxi that had at that moment left a couple on the kerb and followed close behind the other two taxis, bringing up the rear.
‘Katerina, we will need to find a way to sabotage the taxi in front of us to give Vasilis a fighting chance to break free of the pursuit.’ Aristo’s mind was working furiously for a solution.
The car chase was on. Inside the first taxi, Vasilis turned to Lara, who was almost a wreck from the sudden excitement, his voice on the verge of breaking.
‘Lara, we cannot wait for a few days. We’ll have to go to the site tonight. They must be after the same thing that I am. We have to shake them off first, though. How the hell did they know where to find us? I was careful. I was sure I had not been followed.’
‘And to think that they were sitting next to us for all this time and we didn’t suspect a thing.’
‘I’m not surprised. We were a bit engrossed in our own world back there as is always the case when we get together.’ Vasilis said and smiled sweetly at Lara.
‘I dare say more than a bit engrossed.’
Vasilis leaned towards the driver. ‘We need to shake off the taxi following us.’
‘No problem, sir. Though there are actually two taxis following us.’
‘What? Two?’ Vasilis turned back to look, but couldn’t be sure that the third taxi was not an innocent bystander.
