The Sacred Scroll Read Online Free PDF

me?’
    ‘I do the censoring. Bring me this knight. His thinking’s too independent.’ A new thought struck the doge. ‘Is he
immune
, do you think?’
    ‘Unlikely. Possible.’
    ‘I’ll censor his book today. Use my work as a model to censor the other stuff the Crusaders have written. Burn anything that delves too deep.’
    ‘You have nothing to fear. History will be your judge. So long as you control the majority, the rest don’t matter. Just give them a bone to gnaw on from time to time,’ Leporo said.
    Dandolo’s face showed nothing. ‘Bring me some wine. Then we’ll get the work done. And bring Frid with you when you return.’
    Leporo looked angry.
    ‘Do we need him,
Altissima
?’ Leporo hated Frid. That filthy Danish cuckoo in the nest. That brainless sack ofmuscle. One day the Viking would be off guard and then … Leporo fingered the thin knife at his belt. He’d already wasted too many years in Frid’s shadow.
    The doge looked at him again. ‘Are you still here?’ he said.
    Frid doesn’t know what I know
, thought the monk as he slunk away.
I have that advantage.

5
     
    Somewhere in the South-east European Hinterland, the Present
     
    Brad Adkins thought, fleetingly, of his safe, comfortable home, of his wife and children. What was going through their minds? Did they even know what had happened? The images were strong enough to touch, but at the same time dreamlike. Yet the picture his mind held most firmly, him pushing little Sarah on her swing, wrenched his heart. Panic rose in knots from his gut to his throat.
    Somewhere near him in the gloom Rick Taylor groaned.
    ‘Rick?’ he said tentatively, fighting down his thoughts, relieved that there was some kind of companionship again. ‘You awake?’
    ‘Wish I wasn’t. Where the hell are we?’
    ‘We’ve been drugged. How long have we been here?’
    ‘They’ll be looking for us.’
    ‘How will they know where to look?’
    Taylor stirred, his voice thick. ‘Wherever it is, it’s warm. Can’t be far from Istanbul. Maybe we’re still
in
Istanbul.’
    ‘I don’t remember any kind of journey.’
    ‘Nor do I.’
    ‘And where’s Su-Lin? What have they done with her?’
    Adkins remembered the young woman screaming, but from the moment they’d put the hood over his head, he recalled nothing more.
    ‘Got her in another cell?’ he said.
    ‘Maybe she got away.’
    ‘How could she?’
    ‘Poor kid. Jesus, if they’ve got her alone somewhere –’ Taylor said angrily. ‘Christ, everything’s a fucking haze since that bastard hit me.’
    ‘They drugged us,’ Adkins repeated emptily.
    ‘What do they
want
from us?’
    ‘Don’t you remember? When they beat us? The hammering they gave us? The questions they asked? Christ, if they did that to Su–’
    Adkins fingered the bruises on his arms and legs, praying that their colleague had come to no harm. Maybe she had escaped. Raised the alarm? Then his mind began to slump back into the lethargy he continually had to fight. Both men were naked, grimy, the stench of their bodies heavy in the confined space. At least now their captors had untied them. ‘But none of the questions had anything to do with what we were looking for. They seemed to be after something else,’ he said.
    ‘Maybe they’ve got the wrong people.’
    ‘Maybe we weren’t told everything.’
    ‘That’s crazy.’
    ‘They wanted more out of us than just archaeological skills.’
    ‘That’s even crazier. Jeez, my head –’
    Adkins didn’t answer. He was too tired to think any more. Despite himself, his brain was drifting back into a comfortable miasma. All he could think of, for some reason, was the deep sea, drifting over endless underwater dunes.
    He shook his head to clear it. ‘They’ll be looking for us,’ he said, echoing his colleague. ‘They’ll find us,’ but he wasn’t convinced, and neither, he knew, was Taylor.
    Taylor had fallen silent.
    ‘Rick? Still with me?’ Adkins mumbled.
    ‘Still