“You must be mad!” Alexias said incredulously.
“I’m inclined to agree with you.” Lomax helped himself to some more wine. “But it does leave a faint chance that Steiner might believe we pulled it off without any local help.” He turned to the priest. “Best I can do, Father.”
“I am grateful, Captain Lomax,” Father John said. “You are a brave man.”
“Or a fool,” said Van Horn.
“I’ll drink to that,” Lomax said.
He half-turned, raising his glass, feeling suddenly reckless, and was aware that Katina was staring at him, eyes shining. For the first time since they had met, there was colour in her cheeks.
Ternple of the Night
It was a quiet night, the only sound a dog barking fn the depths of the valley from one of the hillside farms. The night sky was incredibly beautiful with stars strung away to the horizon where the mountain lifted uneasily to meet them.
Lomax looked at it all for several minutes and wondered why everything wasn’t as simple and uncomplicated as a summer night. You only had to stand and look at it and it cost you nothing except a little time and gave so much.
Katina turned to wait for him and he moved on and a few minutes later they came over an edge of rock and the ruins of the temple lay before them in the centre of the plateau, bare and wind-swept, crumbling with the years.
The yellow sickle of the new moon touched the scene with a faint luminosity and the dark shadows of the half ruined pillars fell across the mosaic floor like iron bars.
“It’s over here,” Katina said.
He followed, boots clinking on loose stones, and they paused in front of a large, square tomb in chipped marble. It stood about six feet high and a half-obliterated frieze had been carved on each face.
“So this is the Tomb of Achilles,” Lomax said.
“So they say.” She turned and looked down towards the valley and the sea beyond. “What an incredible thing that on a night to thank God for, men should be occupied with thoughts of death and violence.”
He dropped to one knee, cupping his hands to light a cigarette When he looked up, she had moved to the far edge of the plateau.
She turned to come back and for a moment fear touched him. The moon was directly behind her and her image blurred at the edges. She looked unreal and ethereal and utterly transitory as if she might fly away at any moment. As soon as she moved, the spell was broken.
She sat on a stone, her back against the tomb, and he crouched beside her. “You’ll have to be going soon, it’s past midnight.”
She nodded and leaned forward curiously. His shirt was open at the neck and in the moonlight the coin that he wore on the end of a gold chain was clearly visible.
“A religious medal?” she said.
He shook his head. “An old bronze coin with the head of Achilles on it,”
She nodded as if suddenly understanding. “A good luck charm?”
“Something like that. I got it from an old fortuneteller in a back street in Alexandria just before I went on my first operation. She told me I’d meet great danger, but always with courage as long as I wore the coin.”
“And you believed her?”
He grinned. “Not really. If I remember rightly, even Achilles was vulnerable when it came to the final showdown.”
She hesitated and then said slowly, “When you killed the soldier at the farm last night, there was a coldness in you that frightened me. My Uncle Alexias kills because he hates the Germans. Why do you kill?”
“God knows, I certainly don’t hate them.” He shrugged. “Men like Boyd and myself have a talent for it, it’s as simple as that. We do it because it has to be done.”
“I see.” There was another silence before she said, “Do you think you’ll be successful tomorrow?”
“One can never tell. Something unexpected always
S3 seems to happen, something not planned for. I think the real trouble will be in surviving until the boat picks us up.”