hidden the relic there, I'd have expected them to use a different expression.'
'And is there a cistern at this Megiddo place?'
Baverstock nodded. 'Actually, it's another spring, but the important thing is the description of Har Megiddo itself. I'm quite sure that's what the author of the scroll was talking about.'
Hoxton turned to Dexter. 'Go and get yourself cleaned up,' he said. 'I don't want you dripping blood all over the car seats. And be quick about it. Then we'll get the hell out of here.' He looked back at Baverstock. 'Bronson and Lewis gave us the slip today, but I'd lay money they've already worked out that the Silver Scroll's hidden somewhere at Har Megiddo. We need to get up there as soon as we can.'
* * *
Bronson and Angela's route had taken them north-west out of Jerusalem, skirting the West Bank and Tel Aviv, through Tiqwa and Ra'annana before joining the coast road at Netanya. The road paralleled the Mediterranean coast, along the edge of the Plain of Sharon, all the way up to Haifa.
But before driving on to Megiddo, there were a few things Bronson wanted to buy, so he turned the Renault west, towards the centre of Haifa itself.
'Shopping time?' Angela asked.
'Exactly. I don't think I'll bother buying flippers because I doubt if I'll be swimming very far, but I'll certainly need a face-mask, and probably a rope.'
Twenty minutes later they walked back to the car, Bronson carrying a small plastic bag and an empty rucksack, which he shoved into the boot. Then they headed south-east out of Haifa towards Afula. The route they'd followed wasn't the most direct track to Har Megiddo, but it had saved them having to climb up and over the Mount Carmel ridge, which separated the two areas of level ground that dominated the area – the plains of Sharon and Esdraelon – so it had been a much easier, and probably faster, drive.
'It's only mid afternoon,' Bronson said. 'Why don't we go straight there and at least check it out? If you're right and what we're looking for is in an underground tunnel, it won't matter whether we go there in daylight or at night.'
'That's true,' Angela agreed, 'but we'll have to be careful up on Har Megiddo at night, waving torches around.
Any lights up there after closing time will attract attention.'
'What do you mean – 'closing time'?' Bronson asked.
'Well, the site is a major tourist attraction, you know. At this time of year it closes at five. And we'll have to pay to get inside.'
70
Levi Barak looked with some satisfaction at the notes he'd scribbled during his exchanges on the radio with his various teams of watchers. Both groups of suspects seemed to be heading for exactly the same place in northern Israel. Bronson and Lewis were in the lead, having just reached the outskirts of Haifa after a brief stop in the city.
'Bronson's just turned south-east,' one of the surveillance officers said, his voice crackling over the loudspeaker. 'He's taken the road towards Afula, or maybe he's heading for Nazareth.'
'Keep watching,' Barak ordered, 'and make sure they don't see you. I don't want them spooked now. I'll join you shortly.'
'You're coming up here?' The man sounded surprised.
'Yes. Let me know the moment they stop again, even if it's just for a meal or a drink.'
'Understood.'
Barak leant back from the radio microphone and picked up the internal telephone. 'This is Barak,' he said. 'I want you to get me the number of the direct line for the commanding officer of the Sayeret Matkal. And when you've done that, I want a military helicopter on standby here within thirty minutes, fully fuelled, with two pilots. If possible, get me one that's equipped with a Forward- Looking Infra-Red scanner and a night-vision camera.' He glanced at his watch, then looked out through the window, calculating times and distances. 'And make sure it's here on time. The end-game is near.'
71
The Plain of Esdraelon stretched out before them, a patchwork of green and fertile fields punctuated by small woods and clumps of trees. The road snaked away from Har Megiddo towards the lower slopes of a range of hills that rose in waves towards the distant horizon, gradually vanishing in the heat haze.
Bronson followed the road signs, written in Hebrew and English, and turned north from the Megiddo junction on to road number 66. After a couple of minutes, he made a left turn, and almost immediately swung left again. He slotted the Renault into a vacant space in the car park at the foot of the hill and switched off the engine.
For a few moments he and Angela just sat there in silence, staring up at the craggy slope that rose above them.
'It's big,' Bronson said.
'I told you the area of the city extended to about fifteen acres.'
'I know. Fifteen acres doesn't sound that huge when you just say it,' Bronson replied, 'but when you see something like this in the flesh it's a bit daunting. Are you sure you know where we should start looking?'
'Yes. There's only one source of water here, and the entrance to the tunnel that leads to it is now one of the biggest structures on the site. All the garrisons stationed here through the millennia had the same problem, just as they did at Jerusalem – the only reliable source of water lay outside the walls of the fortress. And in both cases, they did exactly the same thing: they dug an underground tunnel direct to the water source.'
'Right,' Bronson said. 'We're not getting anywhere sitting down here in the car talking about it. Let's go and take a look.'
Off to one side of the car park was a low building that housed the museum and visitors' centre.
'Let's have a look around there first,' Bronson suggested, glancing at his watch. 'We've got plenty of time before the place closes.'
The museum was quite informative, with numerous displays showing different sections of the site and an impressive model of how Megiddo would probably have looked in ancient times. By the time they walked out of the building, they both had a much better idea of the layout of the ruins, and Bronson had bought a guide-book in English that contained a detailed map of the entire site.
They followed the footpath that led to the entrance located on the northern side of the hill, and then started to climb, almost immediately surrounded by ancient masonry.
'According to this book,' Bronson said, pointing to an ancient structure lying to the right of the path, 'those are the ruins of a fifteenth-century-BC gate, and just around this corner we should see the main entrance to the fortress, what's called Solomon's Gate.'
The gateway was in fairly good condition, built with massive stones and obviously designed to withstand not just attack by enemy forces, but also the ravages of time. There were three chambers located to the side of the gate, again in quite a good state of preservation.
'Each of these chambers,' Bronson pointed out, again referring to the guide-book, 'was designed to hold an armoured chariot and two horses, presumably so that they could quickly sweep down on to the plain and sort out any trouble. A bit like a modern police squad car, I suppose.'
They turned left, following a well-trodden path, and walked past Ahab's stables – though to Bronson the remains didn't look much like any kind of stables he'd ever seen, just a tumbledown collection of low walls and fallen masonry – and on to a viewpoint that offered a spectacular vista looking north over the Jezreel Plain towards the town of Nazareth, which nestled in the hills of Galilee.
They stopped near a large, almost circular, structure, approached by a flight of about half a dozen steps on one side. Angela took the guide-book from Bronson and pointed. 'This is the circular altar that was renovated – not built, but
