The Messiah Secret

‘I didn’t say that,’ Angela objected. ‘The last line – “to rest forever” – is simple enough, and that’s just a repeat of the last part of the second verse. And I think the second line is most likely a reference to a cave, either a man-made cave or, probably more likely, a man-made structure within a cave. That is what I believe is meant by the phrase “a place of stone” in the second verse. I don’t think Isaac and his followers would have had the time or the equipment to excavate a cave. It would have meant weeks or months of hammering away into solid rock. It’s far more likely that they found a suitable natural cave and created some kind of a stone chamber inside it. Or maybe even hid the relic at the back of a cave and simply built a rock wall in front to hide it.’

‘So where should we be looking, once we’ve started heading east along that road north of Thirit? What do you think that line means?’

‘It’s a bit ambiguous. The first part – “between the pillars” – reads as being descriptive and geographical. Somewhere along that road, and presumably over to the north because the river runs along the bottom of the valley, to the south, there must be a couple of stone pillars or a kind of rock formation that looks like a pair of pillars. Maybe some vertical fractures in the rock, something like that. I’m just hoping that when we drive along there we’ll recognize whatever feature they saw two millennia ago.’

‘And the second half of the line?’ Bronson asked.

‘That’s the tricky bit. The phrase “beyond their shadows” could refer to the pillars, perhaps, if they were free-standing structures. So it might mean that the entrance to the cave is close to the pillars, just beyond the furthest point that the sun casts their shadows. But I suppose it’s also possible that “their shadows” refers to Isaac and his company, in which case it might simply mean that they kept on going north, heading for a point “beyond their shadows”. Or it could be a description of something completely different – something that’s not so far occurred to me.’ Angela sighed in frustration.

‘Look, we’re at the top,’ Bronson said, pointing through the windscreen.

They’d been climbing steadily ever since they’d left Leh, the road steep and rough, but it now looked as if they’d finally reached the crest of the Khardüng La pass. As he spoke, he saw a sign at the side of the road bearing characters he didn’t recognize, but underneath were the English words ‘Khardüng La’ and below that the height – 5,385 metres, or almost exactly 17,500 feet. The word La means ‘pass’.

‘The last time I was as high as this I was in an aircraft,’ Bronson said in amazement.

The view was, indeed, spectacular. Uninterrupted vistas opened up in all directions from their vantage point, and Bronson had the feeling of being literally on top of the world, because almost everything they could see around them was actually below them. In that instant he had a sudden insight into the reasons why mountaineers found climbing so exhilarating.

‘I guess it’s downhill all the way from now on – at least geographically,’ Angela said, as Bronson slipped the jeep into second gear for the long descent down the east side of the pass to the river Shyok that ran along the bottom of the valley. If he used the brakes to keep their speed down, they’d be useless – the fluid would boil and the pads burn out – long before they reached the end of the slope.

The road up to Khardüng La had been steep and impressive, but as Bronson looked ahead he realized that the descent was going to be even more spectacular. He could see a virtual knitting-pattern of steep drops, hairpin bends and only slightly wider turns that marked the route down to the point where the rushing Shyok and Nubra rivers met at the bottom of the valley.

They’d covered about another quarter of a mile down the hill before a scruffy grey Land Rover crested the rise behind them and started the same long descent to the river valley below.

53

On the outskirts of Hushe, in Eastern Baltistan, Nick Masters jumped out of the army helicopter and started supervising the unloading of his men and their equipment.

The weapons were wrapped in sacking to avoid them getting damaged while in transit, although damaging a Kalashnikov with anything smaller than a sledgehammer was quite a difficult thing to do, and the ammunition and pistols were packed in green-painted steel boxes. Masters had even found a Barrett sniper rifle.

At one side of the landing area stood two well-used four-by-fours on Indian plates, and beside them, watching their arrival, was Rodini.

‘Come to check on your investment?’ Masters asked, walking over to him.

‘Just making sure everything is correct,’ Rodini replied, looking at the men who’d accompanied Masters. ‘Let me show you these vehicles.’

He led the way across to the Land Cruisers and swung open the rear door of one of them. The door was heavy, because a spare wheel was bolted to it.