wet shirt and kicked out lumps of raw flesh. The other men on the bank
shouted with laughter and joined in the fusillade, emptying their
magazines into the lifeless body. Mek did them. Some of their close
relatives not attempt to prevent had died most horribly under the
Russian's care. The corpse rolled over in a pink cloud of its own blood,
and for a moment Boris's pate bulging eyes stared at the sky. Then he
sank away beneath the surface.
Mek stood up slowly and went to meet Tessay. He took her in his arms,
and as he held her to his chest he whispered to her softly.
"It's all right. He won't ever hurt you again. It's all over. You are my
woman now - for ever!'
Since -Boris and Tessay had left the camp there was no longer any reason
to maintain security, and Nicholas -and Royan were no longer obliged to
skulk in Royan's hut when they discussed their search for the tomb.
Nicholas transferred their headquarters into the dining hut, and had the
camp staff build another large table on which they could spread the
satellite photographs and all the other maps and material that they had
accumulated.
The chef sent a steady supply of coffee from the kitchen, while they
pored over the papers and discussed their discoveries in Taita's pool
and every theory that either of them dreamed up, no matter how
far-fetched.
"We will never be certain if that shaft was made by Taita, or whether it
was a natural sink-hole, until we can get back in there with the right
equipment."
"What type of equipment are you talking about?" she wanted to know.
"Scuba, not oxygen rebreathers. Although the navy rebreathing outfits
are much lighter and more compact, you cannot use them below a'depth of
thirty-three feet, the equivalent of one atmosphere of water. After that
pure oxygen becomes lethal. Have you ever used an aqualung?"
She nodded. "When Dutaid and I were on honeymoon at a resort on the Red
Sea. I had a few lessons and made three or four open-water dives, but
let me hasten to add that I am no expert."
"I promise not to send you down there," he smiled, "but I think we can
safely say that we have found enough evidence both in Tanus's tomb and
Taita's pool to make it imperative that we mount the second phase of
this operation."
She nodded agreement. "We will have to return with a much more extensive
range of equipment, and some expert help. But you are not going to be
able to pose as a- tourist Sportsman next time around. What possible
excuse are we going to find for returning that will not set off all the
alarm bells in the minds of Ethiopian bureaucracy?"
"You are speaking to the man who has paid unofficial and uninvited
visits to both those charming lads Gadaffi and Saddam. Ethiopia should
be a Sunday-school picnic in comparison."
"When do the big rains start up in the mountains?" she asked suddenly.
"Yes!" His expression became serious. That is the jackpot question. You
only have to look at the high-water mark on the walls of Taita's pool to
have some idea what it must be like in there when the river is in full
flood." He flipped over the pages of his pocket diary. "Luckily, we
still have a bit of time - not a great deal, but'enough. We will need to
move pretty smartly. We have to get back home before I can start work on
planning phase two."
"We should pack up right away, then."
"Yes, we should. But it seems a damned shame not to take full advantage
of every moment we are here, having come all this way. I think we can
spare just a few more days to sound out some ideas that I have about
Taita's pool and the sink-hole, to try to arrive at some sort of
informed guess about what we will need when we return."
"You are the boss."
"My word, how pleasant to hear a lady say that." She smiled sweetly.
"Enjoy the moment," she counselled him, "it may never happen again." And
then she became serious again. "What are these ideas that you have?
"What goes up must come down, what goes in must come out," he said
mysteriously. "The water going into the sink'hole under such pressure
must be going somewhere.
Unless it joins a subterranean water system and makes its way into the
Nile that way, then it should come to the surface where we can find it."
"Go on," she invited.
40the thing is certain. Nobody is going to get into the sink-hole from
the pool. The pressure is lethal. But if we can find the outlet, we may
be able to explore it from the other end."
"That's a fascinating possibility." She looked impressed, and turned to
the satellite photograph. Nicholas had identified the monastery and
ringed it on the photograph.
He had marked in the approximate course of the river through the chasm,
although the gorge itself was too narrow and covered with bush to show
up on the smallscale picture, even under the high-powered magnifying
lens.
"Here is the point where the river enters the chasm." She pointed it out
to him. "And here is the side valley down which the trail detours.
Okay?"
"Okay," he nodded. "What are you driving at?"
"On our approach march, we remarked that this valley might at one time
have been the original course of the Dandera river, and that it seemed
to have cut a new bed for itself through the chasm."
"That's right,'Nicholas agreed. "I am still listening."
"The fall of the land towards the Nile is very steep at this point,
isn't it? Well, do you recall we crossed another smaller, but still
pretty substantial, stream on our way down the dry valley? That stream
seemed to emerge from somewhere on the eastern side of the valley."
All right, I am with you now. You are suggesting that this may be the
overflow from the sinkholes Clever little devil, aren't you?"
"Just capitalizing on your genius." She cast down her eyes modestly, and
looked up at him from under her lashes.
She was clowning, but her lashes were long and dense and curling, and
her eyes were the colour of burnt honey with tiny golden highlights in
their depths. At this close range he found them disturbing.
He stood up and suggested, "Why don't we go and take a look?"
Nicholas went to fetch his camera bag and the light day'pack from his
hut, and when he returned he found Royan ready to go. But she was not
alone.
I see that you are bringing your chaperon with you," he remarked with
resignation.
"Unless you are tough enough to send him away." Royan smiled
encouragement at Tamre who stood at her side, grinning and bobbing and
hugging his shoulders in the ecstasy of being in the presence of his
idol.
"Oh, very well." Nicholas gave in without a struggle.
"Let the little devil come along."
Tamre lolloped away up the path ahead of them, his grubby shamma
flapping around his long skinny legs, chanting the repetitive chorus of
an Amharic psalm, and every few minutes looking back to make certain
that Royan was still following him. It was a hard pull up the valley,
and the noonday heat was debilitating. Although Tamre seemed totally
unaffected, the other two were both sweating in dark patches through
their shirts by the time they reached the point where the stream
debauched into the valley. Gratefully, they sought the shade of a patch
of acacia trees, and while they rested Nicholas glassed the side of the
valley through his binoculars.
"How are they after the dunking I gave them?" she asked.
"Waterproof," he grunted, "full marks to Herr Zeiss."
"What do you see up there?"
"Not much. The bush is too thick. We will have to foot'slog up the side.
Sorry."