Scott Mariani - The Armada Legacy

By the time he’d reached the outskirts the houses had thinned out and the terrain had become rougher: rock and scrub on either side of the road, tree-dotted hills all around. Evening was falling, the temperature was dropping. Finding the church was taking much longer than he’d anticipated, and he knew that he faced a long walk home in darkness later. But there was no point in turning back now.

On the road out of the village he met nothing except the occasional car and a brown dog that was ambling along in the opposite direction. Cabeza mistrusted dogs and gave the animal a wide berth. Peering ahead through the falling dusk he thought he could see a sloping path that turned off the road to the left and seemed to lead up through the trees towards the church mound. He’d better hurry, or there’d be no daylight left.

As he walked towards the path his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an approaching vehicle, and he looked up to see the lights of another car heading into the village. He stepped close to the side of the road to let it by. As it came past he caught a glimpse of the four men inside, all facing their windows as though looking for something. Must have lost their way , he thought to himself.

The moment the car had passed him it slowed to a crawl, its tyres crunching on the rough road. Its four occupants turned simultaneously to give him a lingering stare. Cabeza had often got hopelessly lost himself in strange places, and felt sympathy. He smiled and shrugged apologetically, as if to say ‘Sorry, can’t help you, I don’t live here.’

Nobody smiled back. The car kept on going. Cabeza turned his back on it and resumed his walk towards the path, now just a few yards away on his left. It looked heavy going, all uphill except for a little dip after it left the road. He was glad that he kept himself reasonably fit.

Suddenly aware that he couldn’t hear the car any more, he glanced back and saw that it had stopped a little way farther up the road.

Cabeza thought nothing of it.

Not until the car’s engine revved hard, its wheels screeched and it came veering back in a tight U-turn, speeding towards him.

Cabeza’s heart flipped. For a second too long he stood gaping at the roaring car, then came to his senses and took off at a run. He reached the rocky path and sprinted up it. Heard the rasp of tyres behind him as the car slewed off the road and followed him up the path. There was no way he could outrun it.

Help! Visions of César Cristo loomed up nightmarishly all over again in his mind. It was them again. They’d found him. They were coming to kill him. And there was no Nico Ramirez to save him this time round.

But as he raced down the short dip before the slope rose again more steeply, he saw how narrow the gap between the trees was up ahead. Too narrow for a car. He went dashing between them, his feet pounding on rock and dirt as fast as he could make them go. Casting a frightened glance over his shoulder, he saw the car skid to a halt where the path narrowed. Yes! There was a chance. The distance between him and his pursuers was widening now.

Then the car doors swung open and the four men burst out of the vehicle. Cabeza saw the dark figures coming after him and let out a strangled moan of panic.

The path was steepening. In the failing light he could see the church bell tower looming through the trees. Just fifty yards, maybe sixty, and he’d reach it. Maybe there’d be somewhere up there to hide. Maybe there’d be people. The men couldn’t harm him if there were witnesses, could they? Could they?

He heard a sharp yell from behind and turned to look. One of his pursuers had lost his footing on the loose slope, fallen and gone rolling down several yards. Cabeza saw the man stagger to his feet and clutch his ankle in pain, and he grinned to himself. But his grin quickly dropped as he saw the others moving on determinedly. He turned and stumbled on up the uneven slope, jittery with fear. A sudden gust of wind caught the underside of his hat’s brim and flipped it off his head. His precious hat! But he didn’t dare go back for it.

Now he was panting hard and shaking all over. Just as the panic was threatening to overwhelm him completely, the ground levelled out under his feet and he realised that he’d made it to the top. The church loomed hugely overhead, surrounded by the craggy remains of the ancient castle walls. But his hope that there might be other people there was dashed. Silence and emptiness all around. It was just him, and four men who wanted to kill him.

Cabeza dashed through the castle ruins towards the Iglesia de la Villa. The fifteenth-century building’s blend of Mudéjar, Gothic and Renaissance architectural influences was totally lost on him as he made for the arched entrance, praying that the heavy iron-studded door would be open and crying out with relief when it swung inwards with a shove. He darted through the doorway and blinked in the darkness of the empty church.

Then, his heart in his mouth, Juan Fernando Cabeza searched for a place to hide.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Nico hammered the Subaru through the darkening streets, scattering pedestrians and sounding his horn at other cars. ‘Goddamned historians,’ he muttered. ‘They’re all the same.’

Ben looked at him. ‘You’ve known a lot of historians?’

‘Sister married some museum curator. Another real fuckhead. Left her for another guy. You believe that shit?’

‘Just drive the car,’ Ben said.

The Subaru’s suspension bottomed harshly at the base of a jarring cobbled slope, then with a screech of tyres Nico flew round a corner and they were speeding along the quiet road that circled the village. The church bell tower could be seen from anywhere in Montefrio, but as they drove on there seemed to be no road leading to it. ‘I can’t get close to the damn thing,’ Nico said, glancing up from the road at the mound. ‘Maybe we need to stop someone and ask, huh?’

‘Let’s just find Cabeza and get back to the house, all right?’ Ben said impatiently. ‘We’re wasting time here.’

‘This is no good. I’m gonna turn ar—’

‘No, wait. Pull up there,’ Ben said, pointing to the left, where the Subaru’s headlamps had picked out a path running up between the trees. Nico swerved across the road and skidded the Subaru to a halt on the dirt. Ben was the first to jump out of the car. He gazed up the path and saw that he’d been right: at the top of the sloping path, some three or four hundred yards distant, the church bell tower stood outlined against the early evening sky. This was the way. But something else about the dirt path perplexed him.

‘Cabeza doesn’t have a car, does he?’ Ben asked Nico, looking at the dark blue Audi that had been left empty, all four doors hanging open, where the trees narrowed on the path ahead.

‘Not unless he’s gone and borrowed one,’ Nico said.

Frowning, Ben walked over to the Audi and laid his palm on the bonnet. It was still warm. He looked down and ran his eye along the scuff marks in the dirt where the wheels had locked under hard braking. He pictured Cabeza on foot. Pictured the car coming after him. Gazed up the path at the church silhouetted in the half-light. His thoughts were disturbing. ‘You’re sure this place is as safe as you said?’ he asked Nico, who was walking over to join him.

Nico looked at the car and shook his head. ‘Come on, man, it’s a village. People live here.’ But Ben made no reply, because he was already heading through the trees and up the slope, his trot quickening to a run.

‘Shit, the bastard might be right,’ Nico muttered to himself, and followed. ‘Shit, shit.’

As Ben climbed the rough slope he could see where some of the stones had been recently dislodged. That hadn’t been done by idle walkers. A few yards further up he found a clear shoeprint in the dirt and paused to examine it. It was still fresh and moist to the touch, and deeply indented at the toe by someone moving in a particular hurry. Then a short distance further up the path Ben came across something else. At first it looked like a patch of shadow, or a dark rock. On closer examination it wasn’t. He picked it up off the ground and showed it to Nico as the Colombian caught up with him.