high. He steered for it, kicking and hauling Mek's body around with the
last of his strength.
They flew down the slope of racing water with the rock slab waiting for
them at the end like a lurking seamonster. Boris continued to wrestle
with Mek, until he had turned him into a position ahead of him. He
planned to steer him into a head-on collision with the rock and use
Mek's body to cushion his own impact.
At the very last moment before they struck Mek dragged his head out from
the surface, and as he grabbed a precious lungful of air he saw the rock
and realized the danger. With a single violent effort he ducked forward
below the surface again and rolle over head-first. It was so powerful
and unexpected that Boris was unable to resist.
Instinctively he maintained his lock around Mek's neck and was carried
forward over his back until their positions were reversed. Now Mek had
managed to interpose Boris between himself and the rock, so that when
they slammed into it it was the Russian who bore the full brunt of the
impact.
Boris's right shoulder crunched like a walnut in the jaws of a steel
cracker. Although his head was still under water he screamed at the
brutal agony of it, and his lungs filled with water. He relinquished his
grip and was flung clear of Mek. When he came to the surface he was
floundering like a drowned insect, his tight arm shattered in two
places, his good arm flailing weakly, and his sodden lungs wheezing and
pumping.
Mek exploded through the surface only a few yards behind him. Looking
around quickly as he strained for air, he spotted Boris's bobbing head
almost immediately and with a few powerful overarm strokes came up
behind him.
Boris was so far gone that he was not aware of Mek's intentions until he
seized his shirt collar from behind and twisted it like a strangler's
garotte. With his other hand, below the surface, Mek secured a grip on
the back of Boris's wide leather belt and used it like the helm of a
rudder to steer him towards the next reef of rocks that was boiling the
water ahead of them.
Through his waterlogged lungs Boris was trying to shout invective at
him. "Bastard! Black swine! Filthy-' But his voice was barely audible
above the rush of the waters and the growl of the rocky spur that lay
across their path. Mek rode him head-first into the rock and he felt the
impact transferred through Boris's skull to jolt the straining muscles
of his forearms. Instantly Boris went slack in his grip, his head lolled
and his limbs became as limp and soft as strands of kelp washing in the
surf.
As they tumbled into the next run of open water, Mek used his grip on
the back of Boris's collar to lift the Russian's face above the surface.
For a moment even he was struck with horror at the injury that he had
inflicted.
Boris's forehead was staved in. The skin was unbroken, but there was a
deep indentation in his skull into which Mek could have thrust his
thumb. And Boris's eyes bulged, pushed out of their sockets like those
of a battered doll.
Mek swung the inert carcass around in the water, and stared at the
broken head from a distance of only a few inches. He reached up and
touched the depressed area of the skull with his fingertips, and felt
the shards of splintered , bone grate and give beneath the skin.
Once again he thrust the shattered head below the surface and held it
there, while he crabbed sideways across the current towards the bank.
There was no resistance from Boris, but Mek kept his head submerged for
the rest of that long tortuous swim across the Nile.
"How do you kill a monster?" he thought grimly. "I should bury him at a
crossroads with a stake through his heart." But instead he drowned him
fifty times over, and at the next bend of the river they were washed
into the bank.
Mek's men were waiting for him there. They supported him when his legs
sagged under him, and they helped him up the bank. When they started to
drag Boris's corpse out of the river, Mek stopped them abruptly.
him for the crocodiles. After what he has done
"Leave to our country and our people, he deserves nothing better." But
even in his anger and his hatred he did not want Tessay to have to look
at that mutilated head. She had been unable to keep pace with the men,
but she was coming along the bank towards him now.
One of his men pushed Boris's corpse back into the current, and as it
floated away he unstung his AK rifle from his shoulder and let off a
burst of automatic fire. The bullets chopped up the surface around
Boris's head, and socked heavily into his back. They tore holes in his
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