The Istanbul Puzzle (29 page)

And everything fitted together neatly.

‘That was why Alek was killed,’ I said softly. ‘Those bastards must have found traces of plague in that chamber under Hagia Sophia. This plague outbreak in Istanbul is involved. It has to be. Plague was probably the reason why that underground cavern was sealed up for so long. It had been used to bury people who’d died of it.’

‘I’m not going to argue with you,’ Isabel said.

‘They must have seen Alek when he went into the tunnel. Maybe he followed them. Then they kidnapped him. They had to make sure he wouldn’t spill the beans. He could have stopped them if he’d gone public with what he’d found. This was why they came after me. Then they blamed fundamentalist Islamists in that video. Was that part of their plan too, to stir things up? But why the hell did all these people have to die?’

She lowered her voice.

‘I’ll tell you what I was told. I know I can trust you, Sean. And after what you’ve been through I think you deserve to know.’ She was sitting near me on the white sofa.

‘The two people who were arrested near St Paul’s this afternoon, the ones Malach was trying to text, were about to distribute a thousand boiled sweets from two plastic carrier bags. The sweets are being tested. We believe they’re laced with the plague virus, the same as from that outbreak in Istanbul. Apparently, the people giving them out didn’t even know about it. They were stooges. They said they were just told to wait until they were texted, then give one to everyone they could find in the crowd until they ran out.’

‘They wanted to infect people with the plague?’ It was hard to imagine what kind of people would want to spread sickness and death, but when I remembered what Malach had been like I knew such people existed.

‘A thousand infected people is enough to start something serious if a virus spreads quickly and is widely disbursed. Muslims would have been blamed too, for bringing the virus into communities.’

‘And they killed Bulent because he helped me?’

She nodded. ‘The bastards must have figured it out. Maybe someone saw you together.’

‘I need some air,’ I said.

She turned the TV off and opened the glass door to the balcony. We went outside and stood watching the city for a while. It was late twilight now, and four floors up, the view over slated rooftops towards the futuristic office towers of central London was as good as you could get.

I could see the dome of St Paul’s glittering on the horizon. I felt a warm summer breeze on my face. The temperature was perfect, not too warm, not to cool.

‘There were other people involved with that guy Malach. There had to be.’

‘We’re tracking them. It’ll take a while. They’ll go to ground when it gets out that their plan failed. But we have leads we can follow up.’

‘I hope you get them all.’

She was standing beside me. I gripped the shiny steel railing.

‘What did you mouth at me when I was about to be thrown into that pool?’ I asked.

The tangled branches and leaves of the upper reaches of a white-skinned London plane tree, which stood at the side of the apartment block, were behind her. I could smell a mustiness from the leaves as they shimmered in the warm air.

She looked down to ground level, where a car was being parked.

‘I said,
take a deep breath
.’

‘You were right.’

And in that moment I knew what I wanted more than anything. The loss that had buffeted my heart, which I had lived with every single day since Irene had died, was gone. I felt normal again, as if I’d been reborn. And I felt strangely off-guard, as if my heart had left a way in.

‘What are you thinking about?’ she said.

‘Everything’s changed.’ I felt a little light-headed. My life with Irene was a memory, a faded sepia picture, still valued, but from the distant past.

‘You know,’ she said. ‘If those buggers hadn’t wanted to do all this, we’d never have met.’

We looked out over the city. We were about a foot apart.

‘What’s your plan for the next few days?’ she said.

‘I’m going to rest, then see what’s happening at the Institute. Get back on track.’

‘Why don’t you stay here tonight?’ Her smile was inviting. She turned and brushed against me. My arm tingled.

‘On the couch.’

Our arms touched again.

She looked up at me. ‘You know, I never thought I’d trust another man after my marriage ended.’

We were inches apart.

I took her hand and pulled her to me. I could feel her skin under her cotton T-shirt.

A rush of longing rose like a cresting wave inside me. I pulled her nearer. She didn’t resist. I was ready this time. It was right this time. We kissed. I felt it would never end.

I spoke softly then, ‘I should warn you, I’m damaged goods. I used to roam the streets at night after Irene died. My psychotherapist used to get calls from a nice cop in Fulham police station whenever he spotted me.’

‘We’re all damaged,’ said Isabel softly. ‘Every one of us.’

I’d started running again, early in the mornings. The summer had turned into a perfect autumn. I always loved London when the sky was blue and the weather was warm.

I was sweating lightly. The traffic was building up on Park Road, even though it was only 6.45 AM. I took the silver key out of my pocket and held it between my fingers as if it was a lucky charm.

As soon as I put it in the lock, the door opened. Isabel was standing on the other side in a long white T-shirt. It stopped at her thighs. She looked amazing.

She kissed me on the cheek. Every time she did that, I still felt a tingle of relief. Maybe it was an echo of the relief I’d felt when I’d found her alive in that dungeon at Malach’s mercy. And there was something else mixed in with it too. Happiness.

‘Coffee?’ she said.

‘Love some.’

‘It’s on the balcony. I’ll be out in a minute.’

I sat on one of the wicker chairs, poured my coffee and Isabel’s too. I took a sip.

A lot of things had happened in the past few months. We’d attended a Greek Orthodox funeral service for Alek in Islington. His mother was Greek after all. She was traced after a week by the Polish authorities. We’d also attended a service for Peter in St James’s in Piccadilly.

The manuscript we’d found under Hagia Sophia had been sent to Cambridge University for tests.

I did some research on that diagramme on the inside back page. I didn’t find out anything new. It could have been a Byzantine magic symbol, an astrological chart or a puzzle, as Gülsüm had said, or it could have been something else completely.

I’d done some research on riddles from that era and I’d found out a lot about Byzantine magic. Apparently, the Emperor Heraclius had been a big collector of Jewish, Egyptian and other magic books. The manuscript we’d found could well have been from his collection, from the end of his reign. But I can’t say that for sure. We were just going to have and wait and see what the researchers at Cambridge came up with.

I’d tried to get back in to Kaiser’s photos on that website to have another look at them, but they’d all disappeared. I wasn’t surprised.

I’d also tried to get the Institute involved in doing some chemical and spectral analysis on the manuscript, but I was told to wait until the people in Cambridge had finished their work. No applications were being considered for any further analysis until then.

I decided to be patient. I had enough to be thankful for.

Isabel had requested a swift transfer back to the UK which had been granted almost immediately. And we were trying out living together for a while.

I’d recently decided to put my house up for sale.

It was time to move on.

In Istanbul there’d been a sensational opening of the cavern under Hagia Sophia in front of TV crews. It had been on the main evening news in England. There was no mention of our involvement, or that Alek had died there.

I still thought a lot about him, and every time I did I knew how lucky we were to be alive. The world is a strange place. If Alek hadn’t died I wouldn’t have met Isabel.

I heard a sound, turned.

She was coming out onto the balcony, smiling at me. I held my hand out. She took it.

As mentioned on pp.288–289. Low spectroscopy image revealing seven connecting lines and four Byzantine double-headed eagles. The top eagle in the original is black, the bottom white, the right one green, the left red. There was a riddle beneath it.

Hagia Sophia.

Before I first visited this city, almost twenty years ago, I imagined Istanbul as a dour colourless metropolis. What I encountered was something spectacular. Old Istanbul in particular was a revelation. Its ancient Byzantine and Ottoman sites, their beauty, power and historical significance stunned me then. They still do today.
The Istanbul Puzzle
was born from my amazement at the beauty of Istanbul.

Before deciding to spend a day in old Istanbul, and there are many modern sites and shopping experiences to occupy a more extended stay, please carefully consider the time of year you’ll travel. I can now survive the 29° C average high in August, but a more enjoyable experience will be had if you go in October (20° C average high) or May (20° C average high) or during any intervening month, if you’re not suited to high daytime temperatures.

If your hotel is overlooking the Golden Horn or the Bosphorus, and it has a restaurant with a view, a good way to start a day in old Istanbul is with a leisurely breakfast with an outlook that Ottoman and Byzantine Emperors would have enjoyed. I have always loved breakfasts in Istanbul. Sizzling fried salami, a selection of white cheeses, sweet jams and soft bread are enough to keep me at the table for far longer than I should. So don’t rush your breakfast, relish it.

View from Zeyrekhane Restaurant, overlooking the Golden Horn, with the Galata Tower on the horizon.

The following hotels are worth considering if you want to do this. First, at the more expensive end, the Hotel Nena, Klodfarer Cad ([email protected] around £250 a night), a stunning boutique hotel within walking distance of the historical sites. The Hotel Nena features an excellent open buffet breakfast on a terrace and rooms with air conditioning and free WiFi. At the more affordable end The Star Holiday Hotel, Divanyolu Street ([email protected] around £75 a night), in the same area, features breakfast on a terrace (in front of the Blue Mosque) and rooms with air conditioning too.

If your hotel is in Sultanahmet, the old part of Istanbul where the above hotels are located, the spit of land where Constantine created his new Rome, you won’t be far from Hagia Sophia, our next stop. Hagia Sophia was the largest Christian cathedral in the world for a thousand years. It opens from 9-16:30, except on Mondays.

Domes of Hagia Sophia and Hagia Eirene. Taken from a rear window in Hagia Sophia looking towards the dome of Hagia Eirene.

The building was opened with a lavish ceremony by the Roman Emperor, Justinian the Great, on the 27th December 536. Hagia Sophia features an unprecedented saucer-like dome. When it was built no similar structure had ever been constructed. Its glittering mosaics and unrivalled size were considered a miracle for many centuries.

The dome of Hagia Sophia is a hundred feet in diameter. The gorgeous interior of the dome features on the cover of The Istanbul Puzzle. The dome uses forty stone ribs to support itself. Forty windows set between the lowest parts of these ribs give the dome its light, floating feeling.

This building was, in effect, the Greek Orthodox Vatican for most of the period from 536 to 1453, a Catholic Cathedral during the Latin Empire from 1204 to 1261, and a great mosque and the seat of the Sunni Islamic Caliphate from 1453 until 1935, when Atatürk and the Turkish Parliament turned Hagia Sophia into a museum. No other building has had such an illustrious history.

A passage inside Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. Passages such as this one on the north side of Hagia Sophia most likely date back to the 7th century, when the structure was constructed.

If you get there early in the morning you will miss the twenty-minute queue for an entrance ticket that I encountered on my last visit in the middle of the day. The entrance fee was modest. I didn’t bother with any of the offers of a guided tour that I was assailed with during my wait. That was in the summer of 2011. When you finally get inside, stop in the narthex, the long outer entrance hall. It features modern wall panels describing, in multiple languages, the history of Hagia Sophia, including details about its unprecedented conversion into a museum.

View of ground floor of Hagia Sophia from upper gallery above main entrance.

After that, enjoy the stunning nave and the beautiful interior of the dome high above. Look out for the mosaics – many of the best ever made are here – and the views from the upper gallery. You can almost get lost in Hagia Sophia. Bring water and a good guide book.

A quick visit to Hagia Eirene nearby could also be fitted in before lunch. Hagia Eirene is in the outer courtyard of Topkapi Palace, which you might also want to visit. Hagia Eirene and Topkapi are both entered through a monumental gate at the back of Hagia Sophia. This gate leads into the park-like outer courtyard of Topkapi, the palace of the Ottoman sultans until 1853. Topkapi contains enough items of interest to fill another day. If harems, treasures, and relics of Mohammad interest you do not miss Topkapi Palace.

Entrance way and ramp down to main floor of Hagia Eirene July 2011.

Another place of interest in the outer courtyard of Topkapi is the Archaeological Museum. It features a superb collection of Greek and Roman sculptures, artefacts and tombs going back to the foundation of the first settlements in the area.

Hagia Eirene, which features in
The Istanbul Puzzle
, is only open to the public during occasional evening concerts. I have no idea why. The interior would be of great interest to many. The fact that its walls have none of the grandeur of Hagia Sophia would only add to its interest, in my opinion. It was one of the very few Orthodox churches not to be converted into a mosque by Mehmed the Conqueror, when the city was finally taken by his Ottoman army in 1453.

Hagia Sophia with ruins of Constantine I’s Great Palace in foreground.

Hagia Eirene’s magnificent outer walls, the amazing open ruins on its south side, and its grandeur alone were enough to keep me entertained for twenty minutes at least the last time I was there.

View of distant Blue Mosque from upper gallery window in Hagia Sophia July 2011.

Lunch will now be calling. Hot meatballs, delicious salads, natural lemon drinks all have their own distinctive voices in Istanbul. A visit to a nearby café with a roof terrace, perhaps at the Sultan Pub ([email protected]) across the tram tracks beside Hagia Sophia and then to the left (at the beginning of Divanyolu Cad) might be considered if your budget allows. The views from its rooftop terrace restaurant are spectacular. Or you might just go for an afternoon coffee there, if you’re on a tight budget, and enjoy your lunch at any of the other tourist restaurants nearby. The Doy-Doy restaurant not far away on Sifa Hamam Sok ([email protected]) has a roof terrace, a busy atmosphere and reasonably priced meals.

In the afternoon you could then walk a few hundred yards to the nearby site of the largest Roman hippodrome ever built. It’s directly in front of Hagia Sophia. This was where dedicated city factions followed the whites or the blues (if you were an aristocrat or a landowner) or the reds or the greens (if you were an artisan or a merchant). These guys were the prototype of the football hooligan.

In early January of 532, the Nike revolt started in the Hippodrome. It was organised by rival colours. After five days half the city of Constantinople had been burnt down, including the old church of Hagia Sophia. This was at a time when Constantinople’s city walls encompassed one hundred and fifteen square miles and Florence’s enclosed only two.