Chapter 4 – Chapter 4

Magnus's eyes lit up with joy when he saw the gleaming Belt of Priam lying on the velvet cloth on the green room table. It was magnificent. And there was no doubt that it was the genuine article. He took up the pen and the authentication document lying beside it.

"No, you can't," Andreas exclaimed in a shocked voice. "You can't sign that. That will be your death sentence. They won't need you anymore."

"I doubt whether we can leave this place if I don't sign it," Magnus answered with a sigh. "The house seems deserted, but you and I both know that we're being watched—that our only hope is to make the bandits think their plan is being carried out."

"But, but—"

"And it is the honest thing to do. This, indeed is the genuine Priam's Belt. And authentication is what I do."

Andreas trembled in fear as Magnus signed the document with a flourish.

"Go check the corridor, Andreas," Magnus then said. "This is the most dangerous moment for us—finding out if they will keep with the plan they gave you. I'll follow along behind you."

Andreas moved to the door and looked back at Magnus. The Norwegian was holding the gleaming artifact in his hands, lovingly stroking it and feeling the heft of the solid gold. Andreas stole through the door and looked both ways down the corridor. Everything looked clear. A quick shuffle down the nearby staircase and they could be out the door in a twinkle of the eye. Once in the souk, Andreas was confident they could melt into the crowd. He hadn't been fully honest with the Russian and the Turk. They thought they denied him mobility in the neighboring streets enough that he was at their mercy in the Egyptian Bazaar. But Andreas knew the bazaar well. He'd been here long before he ever was bought in the slave auction by the Russian. All he needed to do was to have five steps advance on anyone the Russian sent to track them down.

Andreas looked back into the room. Magnus was drawing away from the gleaming Belt of Priam on the velvet-topped table and was already half way across the room. Then he was at the young Greek's elbow, and they moved for the door in a flash. Wherever the Turk had been hiding in wait, he miscalculated how long Magnus would spend with the golden artifact. He heard—or spied—the two leaving the green room, but by the time he got to the entrance to the house, Andreas had managed to win his five-step lead, and the two had vanished.

It was one panicked Turk who realized by the next dawn that Andreas was not coming back. Hanci's only solace was that the authentication document had been signed, with Magnus's authoritative signature clearly discernible, and lay beside the gleaming gold Belt of Priam. He'd decide later whether the Russian need be told that the Greek hadn't been disposed of.