Eric Lustbader - The Testament

Movement off to his right caught his attention. Without turning either his head or his body, he saw the two bearded men, who looked even more solemn now as they knelt on small prayer rugs they had laid over the mosaic floor. They were on the opposite side of the mosque, just slightly behind where he knelt. Their foreheads were pressed against the rugs, which gleamed richly in the light, their deep colors burnished like polished metal. Something was wrong, something hidden in plain sight he was missing-what was it?

There came now at the nape of his neck a delicate prickling that advanced down his spine like a venomous serpent. All at once, he sensed a trap, its jaws closing around him, but glancing around he could find no imminent threat.

Still, he resolved to find his father's next cipher and get out as quickly as possible. Looking down, he studied the pattern of the mosaic floor at the base of the spiral. At first, it seemed the same as it was in other parts of the floor, but as he knelt down he could see various differences. For instance, here a green tile was blue, over there eight red tiles where elsewhere there were four, and at various intervals what were orange tiles in other areas of the floor were here white. Following these small anomalies outward, he found that they ended in straight lines and that, further, they corresponded precisely to the width and length of the "Goldenhead" painting, a moire of Mother Mary, coated in gold.

He looked at the color changes-red, white, blue-and pulled out the enameled lapel pin, one of the items his father had left for him in the boat in Washington. He had already examined it, determined that the American flag had the wrong number of stars and stripes.

He looked up, saw that a priest in a hooded robe with a wide cinched waistband-an imam? he couldn't be sure-had appeared and was now talking to the two bearded men, interrupting their prayers. All three of them looked grim as pallbearers. There was something familiar about the priest, either in his physiognomy or in the way he stood, possibly both. Bravo chanced a quick direct look, but the priest had turned his back, and with the hood up he could make out no distinguishing characteristic. Perhaps, after all, he'd been mistaken.

Once again, he returned to his work, though his feeling of unease had increased exponentially. Having determined the area of the color-altered section of the mosaic, he now found the tile at the exact center. From this point, he moved up five tiles, the number of missing stars in the flag pin, then three to the right, the number of missing stripes. He encountered an ocher tile. Nothing there. Now he reversed the direction, went up five tiles, three to the left, where he encountered a green tile. Nothing. Next, down five, right three. This brought him to a black tile. Down five, left three: a brown tile. No red, white or blue tile, as he had been expecting. Now what? He moved, his shadow moving with him. Oblique light played over the mosaic, drawing his eye back to the black tile. Running his fingertip over it, he discovered that it was slightly rounded rather than flat like the other tiles.

With his forehead almost touching the floor in a position not unlike that of the prayerful bearded men on their rugs, he inspected the black tile more closely. It appeared to be made of a different material than those around it.

Inserting his nail into the space between the tiles he was able to pry it up with surprising ease. The stone was shiny, black as midnight. He rubbed the pad of his thumb over its surface for several seconds, then brought it near the floor, saw that it had attracted, by way of static electricity, a fine coating of dust.

The test served to prove his suspicion that this was not another mosaic tile, but rather a small piece of jet-more specifically oltu tasi, a stone used for jewelry and the like, which had been worked by the monks of the Sumela Monastery in the mountains just above Trabzon. From the cavity into which the stone had been set he plucked out a folded slip of paper.

It was at this moment that he became aware of movement off to his right. The priest had left the bearded men and was walking in deliberate fashion toward him. As he did so, he lifted one hand, cupping the fingers of his right hand to draw back the hood of his robe. Bravo was aware that the inside of the mosque had been overcome by a kind of unnatural hush; save for himself and the three other men it was, improbably, deserted.

The priest passed through a diagonal shaft of light and Bravo recognized Adem Khalif. Why had he been talking to the two bearded men? Whose side was he on-Mikhail Kartli's? It seemed that Trabzon belonged to Kartli, even though it was Khalif who was the native.

As if in confirmation of this hypothesis, Bravo saw the two bearded men rolling up their prayer rugs. Again, the light played off the rugs' nap, revealing all its sheen and rich colorations. And now, with a single indrawn breath, Bravo understood what had been disturbing him, what was hiding in plain sight: the rugs were silk-they were far too valuable to be used as daily prayer rugs. The bearded men hadn't come into the mosque for prayer, they were emissaries of Mikhail Kartli, the carpet dealer. Adem Khalif, making the only practical choice he could make, had allied himself with the Georgian. It was as he had feared: ally and enemy alike were after him.

Bravo turned and ran. He heard Khalif's voice raised behind him, but the sound was cut short as he sped around a cluster of columns, sprinted toward the door. The two bearded men were also on the run, trying to cut him off before he reached the front of the mosque.

He veered one way, then another, in an attempt to throw them off, but they came on. Risking a glance over his shoulder, he discovered why: Khalif in the imam's robes was closing in from the opposite direction. Again, he called out, but Bravo refused to listen, he would not be distracted. He had to concentrate on survival, and right now that meant making a clean escape from the trap.

A wooden bench was coming up too fast and he leapt over it, banging the trailing toe of his left shoe just as he went over the top. He twisted in midair, stumbled badly as he came down, lost several vital steps. One of the bearded men, taking advantage of his falter, launched himself into the air like a human missile. He struck Bravo in the small of his back, driving Bravo to his knees. The man reached out, seeking to end the encounter quickly, and Bravo slammed his cocked elbow into the bridge of the man's nose. Blood exploded, the man's grip on him vanished and Bravo gained his feet.

Adem Khalif was upon him by this time. As Khalif began to shout, Bravo plunged a fist into his solar plexus. Khalif groaned and doubled over. Leaping over him, Bravo was up and running again, between the twin columns flanking the entrance, out the door, down the steps and away.

Whirling out into the slate and gunmetal-gray evening, Bravo plunged into the crowds and almost at once lost all sense of direction. He allowed the flow to move him like a piece of jetsam thrown off a ship. At the moment, it did not matter to him where he went, as long as it was away from his enemies. Borne along on this human tide, he absorbed flashes of color, the scents of spice, strong coffee, anxiety and foreboding. The day was ending and, with it, all the mixed blessings and tiny setbacks that accompanied the preoccupations of each person he passed. The rhythms of languages and street argot fell on his ears like the beat of prayer drums.

The precious few moments of blissful anonymity passed through his fingers like sand. It wasn't long before he spotted one of the bearded men and, not far behind him, the other one, trying to stanch the flow of blood from his broken nose on the stained sleeve of his shirt.

Had they spotted him yet? He didn't know, he only knew they were heading in his direction. At once, he veered off to his right, out of the crowd flow. Yes, he was exposing himself for a moment, but he felt the risk was worth his gaining a safe haven.