"I am bushed," she told Nicholas. The excitement has been too much for
me. You won't see me again before noon."
"Good thinking! Sleep as long as you wish. I want you scintillating and
perceptive when we start going over the material which we gathered last
night."
It was long before noon, however, when Nicholas was woken from a deep
sleep by the harsh and intrusive bellows of Boris as he stormed into the
hut.
"English, wake up! I must talk to you. Wake up, man, wake up."
Nicholas rolled over and thrust one arm out from under the mosquito net
as he groped for his wrist-watch.
"Damn you, Brusilov! What the hell do you want?"
"My wife! Have you seen my wife?"
"Now what has your wife got to do with me?"
"She has gone! I have not seen her since last night."
"The way you treat her, that comes as no stunning surprise. Now go away
and leave me to sleep."
"The whore has run off with that black bastard, Mek Nimmur. I know all
about them. Don't try and protect her, English. I know everything that
goes on around here. You are trying to cover for her - admit it!'
"Get out of here, Boris. Don't try an involve me in your sordid private
life." saw you and that shufta bastard talking in the skinning hut the
other night. Don't try to deny it, English.
You are in this thing with them."
Nicholas flung back the mosquito net and jumped out of his bed. "Kindly
moderate your language when you talk to me, you great oaf'
Boris backed off towards the door. "I know that she has run away with
him. I searched for them all last night at the river. They have gone,
and most of his men with them."
"Good for Tessay.- She is showing some taste in men for a change."
"You think I will let the whore get away with this? You are wrong, very
wrong. I am going to follow them and kill them both. I know which way
they are headed. You think I am a fool. I know all about Mek Nimmur. I
was head of intelligence-' He broke off as he realized what he had said.
"I will shoot him in the belly and let that whore Tessay watch him die."
"If you are going after Mek Nimmur,.then my bet is that you won't be
coming back."
"You don't know me, English. You beat me up one night when I had a
bottle of vodka in my belly, so you think I am easy, da? Well, Mek
Nimmur will see now how easy I am."
Boris dung out of the hut. Nicholas pulled on a shirt over his shorts
and followed him.
Back in his own hut, Boris had flung a few essential items into a light
pack. Now he was stuffing cartridges into the magazine of his 30/06
hunting rifle.
"Let them go, Boris," Nicholas advised him in a more reasonable tone of
voice "Mek is a tough lad - they don't come tougher - and he has a war
party of fifty men with him. You are old enough to know that you can
never hold on to a woman by force. Let her go!
"I do not want to hold on to her. I want to kill her.
The safari is over, English." He flung a pair of keys on a. leather tag
on the floor at Nicholas's feet. "There are the keys of the Land
Cruiser. You can make your own way back to Addis from here. I will leave
four of my best men to look after you, and hold your hand. Leave the big
truck for me to use. When you get to Addis, leave the keys of the Land
Cruiser with my tracker, Aly. I will know where to find him later. I
will send you the money I owe you for cancellation. Don't worry - I am a
man of principles."
"How could I ever doubt it?" Nicholas smiled. "Good bye, old chum. I
wish you luck. You'll need plenty of that if you are going up against
Mek Nimmur."
Boris was several hours behind his quarry, and as soon as he had left
the camp he broke into a jog trot that carried him down the pathway to
join the main track to the west, towards the Sudanese border. He ran
like a scout, with an easy swinging gait that ate up the ground.
"Looks as though he is still in good shape, even with the vodka."
Despite himself Nicholas was impressed as he watched him go. "But I
wonder how long he will be able to keep up that pace?"
He turned back to'his own quarters to get a little more sleep, but as he
passed her hut Royan popped her head out.
"What was all the shouting about? I thought that you and Boris were
having another little difference of opinion."
"Tessay has done a bunk. Boris has guessed that she has gone off with
Mek, and he is chasing after them."
"Oh, icky! Can't we warn them?
"No chance of that, but unless Mek has gone soft he will be expecting
Boris to come after him. In fact, now that I come to think of it, he is
probably hoping for just that chance to even the score. No, Mek doesn't
need any more help from us. Go back to sleep!
"I can't possibly sleep now. I am so worked up. I have been looking at
the Polaroids that we took last night. Taita has given us an overflowing
cup. Come and have a look at this."
"Just one hour's sleep moreP He made a mock plea.
"Immediately, if not sooner."She laughed at him.
In her hut she had the Polaroids and the rubbings spread out on the camp
table, and she beckoned him to take the seat beside her.
"While you were snoring your head off, I made some progress." She laid
four Polaroids side by side, and placed her large magnifying glass over
them. It was a professional land surveyor's model on folding legs, and
under it every detail of the photographs was revealed. "Taita has headed
each of the sides of the stele with the name of one of the seasons of
the year - spring, summer, autumn and winter.
What do you think he was getting at?"
"Page numbers?"
"Exactly my own thought," she agreed. "The Egyptians considered spring
as the beginning of all new life. He is telling us in which order to
read the panels. This one is spring." She selected one of the
photographs.
"It starts with four standard quotations from the Book of the Dead." She
quoted the first few lines of the opening section: "'I am the first
breeze blowing softly over the dark ocean of eternity. I am the first
sunrise. The first glimmer of light. A white feather blowing in the dawn
wind. I am Ra. I am the beginning of all things. I will live for ever. I
shall never perish."' Still holding the glass poised, she looked up at
him. "As far as I can see, they do not differ "Substantially from the
original. My instinct is to set these aside for the time being. We can
always come back to them later."
"Let's go with your instinct," he suggested. "Read the next section."
She held the glass to the Polaroid. "I am not going to look at you while
I read this. Taita. can be as earthy as Rabelais when he is in the mood.
Anyway, here goes. "The daughter of the goddess pines for her dam. She
roars like a lioness as she hurries to meet her. She leaps from the
mountain, and her fangs are white. She is the harlot of all the world.
Her vagina pisseth out great torrents. Her vagina has swallowed an army
of men. Her sex eateth up the masons and the workers of stone. Her
vagina is an octopus that has swallowed up a king."'
"Whoa there!" Nicholas chuckled. "Pretty fruity stuff, don't you think?"
He leaned forward to study her face, for it was still turned away from
him. "Och, lassie, you have roses in your bonny cheeks. Not a blush,
surely not?"
"Your Scots accent is not in the least convincing," she told him coldly,
still not looking at him. "When you have finished being clever at my
expense, what do you think of what I have just read?"
"Apart from the obvious, I have't any idea."
"I want to show you something." She stood up and packed the photographs