The Navigator - Cussler Clive - Страница 57

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“You’re welcome,” Austin said. “I’m also head of the NUMA Special Assignments Team. It consists of Joe and two others who investigate mysteries on, under, and above the sea, that don’t fit easily into any mainstream category.”

“And how does this mystery stack up with your past experience?”

Austin gazed off at the queue of cargo ships that stretched off into the distance.

“Looking at events objectively, I’d say that this is a case of someone wanting something, ready to destroy anything or anyone in the way. Subjectively, I’m afraid it goes deeper than that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You get a sixth sense when you spend a lot of time under water. It’s telling me that there is more to this than what we see. There’s evil lurking behind the violence.”

“As if things weren’t strange enough,” she said with a nervous smile. “What do we do next?”

“Enjoy our lunch, savor the view and the sunshine, and then check out the plaster of paris casts Hanley is making for us.”

“Do you think the casts will tell us anything?”

“That’s my hope. Someone didn’t want us to find the second statue. I think we’ve got all we can out of Turkey. The NUMA plane is heading back to the States tomorrow. We can regroup at home. I’d like to look deeper into the Baltazar question.”

“And I’ve got to salvage the pieces of the national tour. Kurt,” she said, lowering her voice. “Don’t turn around. I think one of those men who attacked us on the boat is sitting at a table.”

“Maybe you’ve got the jitters.”

He rose from his seat and came around behind Carina. He put his hands on the back of her chair and quickly scanned the other tables. A man sitting alone saw Austin glance his way and raised a newspaper as if he were reading it.

“You’re right. I’ll see what he’s up to.”

Carina looked on in horror as Austin strolled over to the table. He peered over the top of the newspaper directly into the man’s face. “Peekaboo!”

The man lowered the newspaper and his lips curled into a snarl.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Austin said. “I don’t even know your name.”

“The name is Buck. You won’t have to remember it for long. You’re dead meat, Austin.”

“How’d you get out of the woods?”

“We called in backup.”

Austin sized up the husky physique and the military brush cut.

“American accent. Green Beret or Delta Force?”

“Neither one, smart-ass. Navy SEALs,” he said with a proud smile.

“That explains why you swam so well. The SEALs are a good outfit. Why’d they throw you out?”

Austin must have struck a nerve with his wild guess because the smile vanished.

“Unnecessary roughness.”

“Who are you working for now?” Austin said.

“Someone who wants you dead.”

“Sorry I can’t oblige your employer.”

The man gave him a nasty chuckle. “They want you to suffer, but I’m going to make it quick. I owe you. When you killed Ridley, I became squad leader. Look around.”

Austin surveyed the courtyard restaurant. He picked out the other men he had last seen swimming for shore. One lounged against a wall. A third man sat at a table. They stared at Austin as if they wanted him on a dinner platter.

“I see you’ve brought along the rest of the Turkish swimming team.”

“Go along with us. You can make it easy on the lady.”

“You’ll kill her quick and easy too?”

Buck shook his head. “My employer has other plans for her.”

“Nice chatting with you, Buck. I’ll explain the hopelessness of our situation to Ms. Mechadi.”

Austin sauntered back to the table where Carina sat, her face frozen in fear.

“Good spotting,” he said. “There are three of them. They want my hide, but they want you alive.”

“Dear God! What do we do?”

“They won’t try anything now. It’s too public. Let’s go for a stroll.”

Austin guided Carina in the direction of the palace gate. His pursuers kept pace a hundred or so feet behind. He scoured his memory and tried to recall the layout of Topkapi and the palace grounds, searching for a hidey-hole where they would be temporarily safe.

An idea came to him. Not a total escape, but it might gain them valuable time.

Carina saw the faint smile on Austin’s face and wondered if her friend had gone mad.

“What are you thinking?” she said in an anxious voice.

“No time for questions. Just do exactly what I tell you.”

Carina was an independent woman who bridled at anyone telling her what to do, but Austin seemed to have the knack of getting them out of tight places. She felt him tug gently on her arm and walked faster to keep up.

Austin guided her through the camera-toting crowds milling in the courtyard outside the treasury. They ducked around the corner of an elegant stand-alone marble building that once housed the sultan’s library and broke into a run. They ran through the ornate Gate of Felicity into another expansive courtyard. Austin guided her to the right, dashing through an open chamber where the sultan’s viziers used to meet, his eye fixed on a long row of colonnades and a ticket gate for the Topkapi harem.

They were in luck! The ticket taker who normally manned the gate had wandered off to have a smoke.

Hardly breaking stride, Austin pulled Carina past the untended gate to a door. It was unlocked. Austin opened the door, pushed Carina ahead, and stepped through the portal into the sultan’s harem. He closed the door behind them.

“What do we do now?” Carina said. She was breathless from their last-minute dash. Austin’s wound was kicking up again. He put his hand to his ribs.

“I’ll let you know just as soon as I figure that out,” he said.

Chapter 33

IN OTTOMAN DAYS, when the Topkapi harem was filled with hundreds of veiled beauties, an uninvited entry into its forbidden precincts would have been met by razor-sharp scimitars in the hands of the African eunuchs who guarded the place.

As Austin and Carina stepped into a long courtyard, the handsome young tour guide stopped his spiel and gave them a steely stare that was almost as cutting.

“Yes?” he said.

Austin put on his best Gomer Pyle grin. “Sorry we’re late.”

The guide frowned. The harem tours were conducted on a strict timetable. No one from the ticket booth had called to say there were two add-ons.

He clicked his hand radio to call the security guard.

Carina stepped over and gave the guard her most beguiling smile. She fumbled in her pocketbook and extracted a hundred-lira bill. “Do we tip you now or later?”

The guard smiled and clipped the hand radio onto his belt. “It is customary to tip at the end of the tour, but only if you are satisfied.”

“I’m sure I’ll be satisfied,” Carina said with a flutter of her long eyelashes.

The guide cleared his throat and turned back to the mixture of about two dozen Turks and assorted foreigners clustered around him.

“At one time, the harem housed more than a thousand concubines, slaves, sultan’s wives, and the sultan’s mother. The harem was like a small city, with more than four hundred rooms. On your left are the quarters of the Black Eunuchs and the chief eunuch, who guarded the harem. Other doors lead to the quarters of the imperial treasurer and the chamberlain. You can go through that door and inspect the apartments of the eunuchs,” he said.

The guide gave the same speech in Turkish, and then led the way into the guards’ dormitory like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Austin held Carina back until they were alone in the courtyard. His blue-green eyes scanned the doors, searching for a possible escape route. He tried one door handle. The door was unlocked. He was hoping they could lose their pursuers in the vast labyrinth of apartments and courtyards.

“Kurt,” Carina said.

The Carriage Gate door had opened. Buck stepped into the courtyard with his hard-faced friends and signaled to his men to spread out. They moved three abreast toward their prey.

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