She raised her hands warily above her head and stood up. “Ooops!” she said.
Chapter 35 – Lyrical Interlude
Daniel drew out a handkerchief to mop his forehead. He felt exhausted from fighting the heat and the altitude. They’d been searching for days, working their way methodically through the villages that dotted the eastern slope of Mount Ida. Climbing ever higher. Mosques and churches and shrines. They’d covered every inch of the interior and exterior facade of each structure.
Hunt was clearly growing tired of the quest though he hadn’t lifted a finger to help. Today his principal occupation had been to locate a fresh supply of raki once he’d emptied the bottle that Ilhami had brought along in the car.
Daniel walked up to the exterior of yet another obscure shrine which their guide had selected to show them.
“Here, you come inside here, please!” Ilhami beckoned to the scion insistently.
Hunt trailed absently in their wake. Now well into his second bottle of liquor, his gait had become a trifle unsteady.
Daniel wasn’t impressed by the structure that confronted him. A small round building, windowless with a single arched doorway that stood open to the elements. Erected of rustic grey stone and mortar, it seemed to have sprung from the rocky terrain underfoot.
“This is church of Aiya Anastasia,” Ilhami informed them. “Very old. Nobody come here now.”
The Turk stepped aside to allow Daniel to pass. Daniel knew that Aiya meant something like “saint” in Turkish. He walked into the cool, dim interior. There was nothing to see. One stuccoed room with a flaking, faded fresco of what appeared to be an angel. In front of the fresco stood an iron votive stand with several dozen glass candle holders. No one had come here to pray for a very long time. He could tell by the thick layer of dust that coated the tops of the burned-out candles.
The scion lit his flashlight to inspect the ceiling and walls. As he expected, there was nothing to be seen. No lily symbol that would guide him to the artifact his father so desperately wanted him to find. He sighed as weariness overtook him.
Stepping backwards out of the little stone church, he walked around its perimeter, followed closely by Ilhami. He looked first at the rounded roof and then at the foundation. There were chips and irregularities in the surface of the stone but nothing that seemed to be a distinct mark of any kind.
As Daniel came back around to the front of the shrine, he noticed another car climbing up the dusty trail. A young couple got out. They appeared to be in their twenties. Perhaps newlyweds on vacation. The man held a video camera.
“Hello,” the woman greeted them. Her accent was American.
“Hello,” Daniel replied.
Ilhami bobbed his head.
Hunt tipped his cowboy hat but said nothing.
The three men moved several yards away to allow the couple privacy as they toured the shrine. They were deeply engrossed in a guide book that gave the history of the site. The woman was reading aloud from it while the man filmed the church.
Hunt had a calculating gleam in his eye as he leaned over to whisper in Daniel’s ear. “Hey, what say I get ‘em to clear out in a hurry?” He opened his jacket to briefly reveal the gun resting in a holster beneath his arm.
The scion grew alarmed. “Mr. Hunt, you can’t be serious!”
The mercenary shrugged. “Ain’t nobody around to tell on me. This trip’s been mighty dull so far. How about I stir things up a bit? Throw a scare into ‘em.”
Daniel gripped Hunt’s wrist. “You’ll do no such thing! I’m afraid I must insist.”
Hunt raised his eyebrows, shaking his hand free. “You gonna insist?”
For a split second, Daniel thought the man was about to strike him.
Then the mercenary broke into a lopsided grin. “Aw shucks, can’t you tell I’m just pullin’ yer leg? When you gonna learn to take a joke, boy?”
Daniel only relaxed by a hairsbreadth. Hunt’s face was flushed, exhilarated. There was liquor on his breath. Despite his protests, Daniel wondered if Hunt might not have been serious about terrorizing the young couple. He seemed to like to scare people. He also seemed to like to kill people when the opportunity presented. If he thought he could get away with it, Hunt might have shot the couple for sport.
Shaking off the chilling notion, Daniel said, “Mr. Hunt, why don’t you sit down in the shade of that tree for a while. I won’t be much longer.”
Leroy gave Daniel a sour look and wandered off to take a seat on the grass. He opened his bottle again.
Ilhami tapped Daniel on the shoulder. “Back here is cemetery. You come look here.”
Strewn across the green hillside were a series of headstones. Unlike the neat, orderly rows of a modern cemetery, the rocks were scattered haphazardly Many were sunken into the ground.
Hunt called out, “Brother Hammy. Y’all come on over here and set yourself down for a spell.”
The guide looked questioningly at Daniel.
“Go with him,” the scion suggested, secretly glad to be rid of the duo while he inspected the rest of the site.
The Turk happily ambled over to the tree in whose shade Hunt was reclining. He sat down cross-legged on the ground and took a long draught from the bottle which the mercenary held out to him.
By this time the young couple had departed. After filming the exterior of the shrine, they got back into their car and headed down the mountain.
Daniel turned upland to inspect the markings on the headstones. Even though he tried to ignore the conversation of his companions, it was impossible.
Hunt was apparently in a jovial mood fueled by too much raki and the fantasy of killing innocent tourists. He put his arm around the Turk and said, “Brother Hammy, how’d
