The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 110

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these things take time."

"Howard Carter worked for ten years at Thebes before he found the tomb

of Tutankhamen," Nahoot pointed out maliciously.

"I hope that it will not take that long," said von Schiller coldly. "If

it does, it is very unlikely that you will still be involved with the

search. As for myself, I have a series of very important negotiations

coming up here in Germany, as well as the annual general meeting of the

company. These I cannot miss."

"You will not be coming back to Ethiopia at all, then?" Nahoot perked up

at the prospect of escaping from von Schiller's malignant influence.

"I will come as soon as there is something for me there.

I will be relying on you to decide when my presence is needed."

"What about the stele! I should-'

"You will continue to work on the translation." Von Schiller forestalled

his objections. "You will take a full set of photographs with you to

Ethiopia, and you will continue your work while you are there. I shall

expect you to report to me by satellite, at least once a week, on your

progress."

"When do you want me to leave?"

ly, "Immediately. Today if that is possible. Speak to Frulein Kemper.

She will make your travel arrangements." For the first time during the

interview Nahoot looked happy.

Dolly droned on steadily southeastwards, ig and there was very little to

relieve the boredom of the flight. The dawn was just breaking when they

crossed the African coast at a remote and lonely desert beach that

Jannie had chosen for just this reason.

Once they were over the land there was as little of interest to see as

there had been over the sea. The desert stretched away, bleak and brown

and featureless in every direction.

At irregular intervals they heard Jannie in the cockpit speaking to air

traffic control, but as they were able to hear only half the

conversation they had no idea as to- the identity or the nationality of

the station. Occasionally Jannie dropped the heavily accented English he

was affecting and broke into Arabic. Royan was surprised by Jannie's

fluency in the language, but then as an Afrikaner the guttural sounds

came naturally to him. He was even able to mimic the different accents

and dialects of Libyan and Egyptian convincingly as he tied his way

across the desert.

For the first few hours Sapper pored over his dam drawings; then, unable

to proceed further until he had the exact measurements of the site, he

curled up on his bunk with a paperback novel. The unfortunate author was

unable to hold his attention for long. The open book sagged down over

his face, and the pages fluttered every time he emitted a long grinding

snore.

Nicholas and Royan huddled on her bunk with the chessboard between them,

until hunger overtook them and they moved to the makeshift galley. Here

Royan took the subservient role of bread'sticer and coffee-maker, while

Nicholas demonstrated his artistry in creating a range of Dagwood

sandwiches. They shared the food with Jannie and Fred, perched up behind

the pilots' seats in the cockpit.

"Are we still over Egyptian territory?" Royan asked.

With his mouth full, Jannie pointed out over the port wingtip of Big

Dolly. "Fifty nautical miles out there is Wadi Halfia. My father was

killed there in 1943. He was with the Sixth South African Division. They

called it Wadi Hellfire." He took another monstrous bite of sandwich. "I

never knew the old man. Fred and I landed there once.

Tried to find his grave." He shrugged eloquently. "It's a hell of a big

piece of country. Lots of graves. Very few of- them marked."

Nobody spoke for a while. They chewed their sandwiches, thinking their

own thoughts. Nicholas's father had also fought in the desert against

Rommel. He had been more fortunate than Jannie's father.

Nicholas glanced across at Royan. She was staring out of the window at

her homeland, and there was something so passionate and fraught in her

gaze that Nicholas was startled. The temptation to think of her as an

English girl, like her mother, was at most times irresistible. It was

only in odd moments such as these that he became intensely aware of the

other facets of her being.

She seemed unaware of his scrutiny. Her occupation was total. He

wondered what she was thinking what dark and mysterious thoughts were

smouldering there.

He remembered how she had seized the very first opportunity on their

return from Ethiopia to hurry back to Cairo, and once again a feeling of

disquiet came over him. He wondered if other emotional ties of which he

was unaware might not transcend those loyalties which he had taken for

granted. He realized with something of a shock that they had been

together for only a few short weeks, and despite the strong attraction

that she exerted over him he knew very little about her.

processor' Alost POPU

At that moment she started and looked round at him quickly. Crowded as

they were at the portside window, they stared into each other's eyes

from a distance of only a foot or so. It was only for a few seconds but

what he saw in her eyes, the dark shadows of guilt or some other

emotion, did nothing to allay his misgivings.

She turned back to Jannie, leaning over his shoulder to ask, "When will

we cross the Nile?"

"On the other side of the border. The Sudanese government concentrate

all their attentions on the rebels in the far south. There are some

stretches of the river here in the north that are completely deserted.

Pretty soon now we will be going down right on the deck, to get under

the radar pings from the Sudanese stations around Khartoum.

We will slip through one of the gaps."

jannie lifted the aeronautical map on its clipboard from his lap, and

held it so she could see it. With one thick, stubby finger he showed

Royan their intended route.

it was drawn in with blue wax pencil, "Big Dolly has taken this route so

often that she could fly it without my hands on the stick, couldn't you,

old girl?" He patted the instrument panel affectionately.

Two hours later, when Nicholas and Royan were back at the chess board in

the main cabin, Janrfie called them on the PA, "Okay, folks. No need to

panic. We are going to lose some altitude now. Come up front and watch

the show."

Strapped into fold-down seats in the back of the flight deck, they were

treated to a superb exhibition of low flying by Fred. The descent was so

rapid that Royan felt they were about to fall out of the sky, and that

she had left her stomach back there somewhere at thirty thousand feet.

Fred levelled Big Dolly out only feet above the desert floor, so low

that it was like riding in a high-speed bus rather than flying. Fred

lifted her delicately over each undulation of the tawny, sun'scorched

terrain, skimming the black rock ridges and standing on a wingtip to

swerve around the occasional wind-blasted hill.

"Nile crossing in seven and a half minutes." jannie punched, the

stopwatch fixed to the control wheel in front of him. "And unless my

navigation has gone all to hell there should be an island shaped like a

shark directly under us as we cross."

As the needle of the stopwatch came up to the mark, the broad,

glittering expanse of the river flashed beneath them. Royan caught a

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