became more raucous, making the work more difficult.
In the meanwhile, two hundred metres upstream of the dam site, the
Falcons and the Scorpions were at work.
These two teams were building the raft of treetrunks that they had
hacked from the forest. The timbers were lashed together to form a
grating. Over this was laid heavy PVC sheeting to make it waterproof,
then a second grating of treetrunks went over this to form a gigantic
sandwich. It was all lashed together with heavy baling wire. Finally,
one end of the grating was ballasted with boulders.
Sapper arranged the ballast of boulders to make the raft one-side heavy,
so that it would float almost vertically in the water, with one end of
it scraping the bottom of the river and the other sticking up above the
surface. The dimensions of the completed raft were carefully related to
the gap between the two buttresses of the dam. And while the work on the
raft and the wall continued Sapper built up a stockpile of filled
gabions, which he stacked on both banks below the dam.
Three other full work teams, the Elephants, the Buffaloes and the
Rhinos,,comprising the biggest and strongest men in the force, laboured.
at the head of the valley. They were digging out a deep canal into which
the river could be diverted.
"Your hot-shot engineer, Taita, never thought of that little
refinement," Sapper gloated to Royan as they stood on the lip of the
trench. "What it means is that we only have to raise the level of the
river another six feet before it will start flowing down the canal and
into the valley.
Without it we would have had to lift the water almost twenty feet to
divert it."
"Perhaps the river levels were different four thousand years ago." Royan
felt a strange loyalty to the long-dead Egyptian, and she defended him.
"Or perhaps he dug a canal but all traces of it have been obliterated."
"Not bleeding likely," Sapper grunted. "The little perisher just plain
didn't think of it." His expression was smug and self-satisfied, "One up
on Mr Taita, I think."
Royan smiled to herself. It was strange how even the practical and
down-to-earth Sapper felt that this was a direct personal challenge from
down the ages. He too had been caught up in Taita's game.
dint of neither threat nor heavenly reward could the monks be inveigled
into working on Sundays. Each Saturday evening they knocked off an hour
earlier and trooped away down the valley on the trail to the monastery,
so as to be in time for Holy Communion the next day. Although Nicholas
grumbled and scowled at their desertion, secretly he was as relieved as
any of them for the chance to rest. They were all exhausted, and for
once there would be no chanting of lock the next morning.
matins to wake them at four ' So on Saturday night they all swore to
each other that
they would sleep late the next morning, but from force of habit Nicholas
found himself awake and fully alert at that same iniquitous hour. He
could not stay in his camp bed, and when he came back from his ablutions
at the riverside he found that Royan was also awake and dressed.
"Coffee?" She lifted the pot off the fire and poured a mugful for him.
"I slept terribly badly last night," she admitted. "I had the most
ridiculous dreams. I found myself in Mamose's tomb lost in a labyrinth
of passages-. I was searching for the burial chamber, opening doors, but
there were always people in the rooms that I looked into. Duraid was
working in one room and he looked up and said, "Remember the protocol of
the four bulls. Start at the beginning." He was so real and alive. I
wanted to go to him but the door closed in my face, and I knew I would
never see him again." Tears filled her eyes and glistened in the light
of the campfire.
Nicholas sought to distract her from the painful memory. "Who were in
the other rooms?" he asked.
"In the next room was Nahoot Guddabi. He laughed spitefully and said,
The jackal chases the sun," and his head changed into the head of
Anubis, the jackal god of the cemetery, and he yelped and barked. I was
so frightened that I ran."
She sipped her coffee. "It was all meaningless and silly, but von
Schiller was in the next room, and he rose in the air and flapped his
wings and said, "The vulture rises, and the stone falls." I hated him so
much I wanted to strike him, but then he was gone."
"And then you woke up?"Nicholas suggested.
"No. There was one other room."
Who was in it?"
She dropped her eyes, and her voice was small, "You were," she said.
"Me? What did I say?" He smiled.
"You didn't say anything," she whispered, and blushed so suddenly and
fiercely that he was instantly intrigued.
"What did I do then?" He was still smiling.
"Nothing. I mean, I can't tell you." The dream returned to her, vivid
and real as life, every detail of his naked body, even the smell and the
feel of him. She forced herself to stop thinking about it. She felt
vulnerable as she had been in the dream.
"Tell me about it he insisted.
"No! She stood up quickly, confused and still blushing, trying to thrust
the images from her.
Last night had been the first time in her life that she first time she
had ever dreamed of a man in that way, the had ever experienced a full
orgasm in her sleep. This morning, when she awoke, she found that she
had soaked right through her pyjamas bottoms.
"We have a full day ahead of us with no work to do," she blurted - the
first thought that came into her mind.
have On the contrary." He stood up with her. "We still to make the
arrangements for getting out of here. When the time comes, we will
probably be in something of a hurry."
"Mind if I tag along?" she asked.
wo teams, the Buffaloes and the Elephants, with only their foremen
missingi were waiting, for them at the quarry. They comprised sixty of
the strongest men in the Tabour force. Nicholas unrill from one of the
pallets.
packed the inflatable Avon rafts neat pack, with Each raft was deflated
and folded into a ese craft had been the paddles strapped along the
sides. It is specifically designed for river'running in turbulent water,
and each was capable of carrying sixteen crew and a ton of cargo.
strap the heavy packs on to Nicholas directed them to they had cut for
that purpose. Five the carrying poles that men on each end of the long
poles, with the bundle of the boat stung in the centre, made light of
the load They se off at a cracking pace down the trail, and as soon as
one was ready to take over. They made the team tired the nex exchange
without even stopping, the new porters slipping their shoulders under
the pole on the run while the exhausted team dropped out.
proof and water Nicholas carried the radio in its shock uch a precious
reglass case. He would not trust proof fib He and Royan trotted
instrument to one of the porters.
behind the caravan, joining in the chorus of the along work chant that
the porters sang as they carried their loads down to the monastery.
Mai Metemma was waiting on the terrace outside the church of St.
Frumentius to welcome them. He led them down the staircase hewn out of