turned to the largest of the two dead men, stripped off the man’s uniform, put it on then dragged off socks and boots from the feet of the other dead officer, who looked to be nearer his size, and put those on too. A quick search yielded a cap. Tallis dusted it down on his sleeve and slapped it on his head, pulling it down hard over his eyes, then headed for the remains of the staircase. Badly damaged, there was a yawning gap, revealing a vault three feet wide.
He suddenly realised the significance of the sound of running water. He must be near the Basilica Cistern, a popular and most unusual tourist spot. A vast underground water cistern dating back to 532, the roof held up by three hundred and thirty-six columns, each over eight metres high, only two-thirds of the original structure was visible, the rest bricked up in the nineteenth century, but had it remained so? What if it had been redeveloped? Where better to hide something as sinister as this place than right under the noses of the general public?
Tallis backtracked six steps, took the staircase at a run, leapt high and sure, adrenalin aiding his flight. His next obstacle was the automatic security door, which was shut. Not knowing the code, he banged on it, praying he’d be heard and hoping that in the mayhem protocol would be relaxed. Sure enough, the door drew open, a guard appearing. He was young, probably no more than twenty. He had frightened eyes.
‘Thanks, mate,’ Tallis said in Turkish, touching the young man’s arm in gratitude.
‘No problem. You all right?’
‘Sure, but don’t go back that way,’ Tallis said, gesturing vaguely behind him. ‘It’s completely annihilated. Was it a bomb, or what?’
‘Earthquake,’ the guard confirmed, eyes wet with terror. ‘Rezul came this way. Did you see him?’
‘Cok uzgunum.’ Sorry.
‘You mean?’ The guard’s eyes widened.
‘There’s nothing you can do for him now.’
The young man looked stunned. He looked as if he might breach the gap, investigate for himself. Tallis had to stop him at all costs. ‘What’s it like up there?’ he said, inclining his head, drawing the man’s attention away.
‘It’s bad. Many have been killed. Some of the prisoners have already escaped.’
Good, Tallis thought. ‘Come, we must get out.’
‘But Rezul,’ the guard said plaintively, trying to look past Tallis. ‘My brother.’
Tallis clamped a hand on his shoulder. ‘He has already gone to Allah.’
Tallis quickly discovered that his rescuer’s name was Hikmet. Above was exactly as Hikmet described: death and destruction. As always, the Grim Reaper had made no distinction. Bodies of prisoners and officers alike lay where they’d been crushed. The wounded, most of them beyond help, moaned where they fell. Tallis blocked out the sound of screams and the cries of those alive beneath the rubble.
He fell into step beside Hikmet, two buddies together, as far as anyone who counted was concerned. The guts of the building had been devastated. Structures twisted. Columns shattered. Water poured in. Electrics flashing. Still some tilt and sway with aftershocks. Both of them headed for the remains of a metal staircase, the only way, Hikmet assured him, of reaching safety. But they were not the only ones intent on saving their skins. Prisoners desperate for freedom, some of them armed, were massing in large numbers. As Tallis surged forwards, a fight broke out behind him. He quickened his pace, keen not to get caught up in the brawl, and saw Koroglu up ahead. Barking orders, he was trying to stem the tide of rising panic in the small number of officers at his side. Christ, is that how many survived? Tallis silently asked himself until it dawned on him that, rather than signifying the strength of the quake, the actual number of guards was probably very small, a classic schematic in detention centres. The fewer the people who knew what was going on, the less chance of word getting out.
Thick and dusty air coated his mouth. Shouts and yells bounced off and reverberated around the walls. Tallis could feel the tide of humanity threatening to crush and overwhelm him. It felt as if he was in the middle of a football crowd on the rampage. People were jostling on all sides, desperate to get onto the rickety staircase, which he feared would collapse underneath the volume of men. He and Hikmet leapt on together, steaming up the stairs, brutally punching away those who tried to obstruct them, glad to get to the next level.
They were in a vault. Light was limited, the air filled with ancient dirt. Tallis covered his mouth, trying not to breathe in the choking atmosphere, but what he could see through narrowed eyes was quite beautiful in its design. Gazing at the most exquisitely engraved columns of stone, he remembered that for a century, after the Ottoman conquest, the victors had known nothing of the original cistern’s existence. Perhaps this was a part of the old structure. Sound for thousands of years, would it hold up in the wake of an onslaught by Mother Nature? As if she’d heard and wished to remind them of her power, another tremor shook the ground. Tallis and the others stood stock-still, breath held, listening in terror as the walls around them crunched and crackled. Without warning, there was a terrible noise of tearing metal followed by the far worse sound of men screaming and falling to their deaths. As Tallis glanced behind him, he saw that the stairs, the only route to freedom, were gone.
They were moving urgently forwards again. Ahead, an archway and the entrance to a stone staircase like those seen in ancient castles. It led up. Koroglu had stepped aside as if counting his men in. Tallis fell in behind Hikmet, adjusted the cap he’d stolen so that it fell down a little more over his face and shuffled forwards. In line with Koroglu, near enough to smell his breath, the earth shook once more. Hikmet and the others threw themselves forwards, surging ahead, bounding up the stone steps as if it were their last snatch at freedom. Tallis followed. He didn’t look back to see whether Koroglu had joined the flight. Up and up, they went, until at last, dizzy and disorientated, they were disgorged into a stinking alleyway.
Tallis took a deep breath of dusty air, thinking it had never felt so good. Looking up to a sulphurous-looking sun, he estimated it was roughly around five-thirty in the morning, maybe earlier. He’d never seen the city look so busy at that time before. Everywhere were people out of their homes and shops, staring nervously at the sky, as if it, too, were about to fall in on them. He guessed men had been doing the same since time began. You didn’t have to be religious to require an explanation for a sudden act of God. Bang on cue, he heard the haunting call of the clerics to the faithful, encouraging the devout to attend the first of the prayer times as laid out in the Koran. Not all Turkish Muslims were quite so dutiful, but Tallis reckoned today the mosques would be full.
He turned at the sudden sight of a man wandering past, the shirt torn from off his back exposing burns to his skin. Tallis didn’t know if he was a local resident or one of the prisoners. Glancing furtively around him, he saw Koroglu striding away. Probably heading for the American embassy, or a safe house. Tallis didn’t care. He had no intention of following him. Hikmet turned and thanked him.
‘For what?’ Tallis said, perplexed.
‘For witnessing my brother’s passing.’
Tallis hung his head, feeling terribly ashamed. Didn’t Hikmet realise that he was wearing the clothes of the dead? ‘I’m truly sorry,’ was all he could manage.
‘I must go and find my family,’ Hikmet said simply.
Both men hugged each other as strangers did when thrown together in extraordinary times. Tallis wished him well.
While others also went in search of loved ones,
