monastery have been killed in the shufta raid and in the blasting
accident.
As soon as we get back to Addis I will make a full statement to the
authorities."
"I do hope that you don't think any blame attaches Nogo started, but
Nicholas cut him short.
"Of course not. Not your fault at all. You warned us about the danger of
shufta in the gorge. You were not present, so what could you have done
to prevent any of this? I would say that you have done your duty in the
most exemplary fashion."
Nogo looked relieved. "You are most gracious to say so, Sir
Quenton-Harper."
Nicholas studied him for a moment longer. He seemed the most amiable of
young men behind the metal-rimmed spectacles, so concerned and eager to
please. For a moment Nicholas almost believed that he had been mistaken,
and that it had been somebody else that he had seen in the jet Ranger,
hovering over the avalanche site like a vulture searching for their dead
bodies.
Nicholas forced himself to smile in his most friendly manner. "I would
be most grateful if you could do me a favour, Colonel."
"Of course,'Nogo agreed readily. "Anything at all."
"I left a bag and one of my hunting trophies in the cavern under the
Dandera waterfall. The bag contains our passports and travellers'
cheques. Very grateful if you could send one of your men down to bring
it up for me."
While giving Nogo directions on how to find his possessions, he derived
a perverse enjoyment from sending his would-be assassin on such a
trivial errand. Then he turned back to his friend so that Nogo would not
pick up the vindictive glint in his eyes. "How did you get here,
Geoffrey?"
"Light plane to Debra Maryam. There is an emergency landing field there.
Colonel Nogo met us, and brought us -the rest of the way by army jeep,"
Geoffrey explained. "The pilot and the aircraft are waiting for us at
Debra Maryam."
Geoffrey broke off and spoke to the camp staff in execrable Amharic,
before turning back to Nicholas. "I have just arranged a hot bath for
you and Dr Al Simma.
After that, a meal and a good night's sleep should work wonders.
Tomorrow we can fly back to Addis. No reason why we shouldn't be there
by tomorrow evening at the latest."
He patted Royan's shoulder, disguising his carnal interest in her behind
a benign avuncular smile. "I must say I am rather pleased not to have to
go traipsing down into the Abbay gorge looking for the pair of you. I
hear that it's a pretty beastly part of the world."
explained to chase the goats off the emergency airfield at Debra Maryam.
In the meantime Nicholas was stuffing the roll of dik-dik skin under the
rear passenger seat. One of Nogo's sergeants you mind, Dr Al Simma, if
I sit in front?
Terribly rude of me, but I am inclined to suffer from malde air. Ha ha!"
Geoffrey Royan as they waited for three small boys to had made a night
descent of the escarpment, and had delivered both his bag and the skin
while they were breakfasting that morning.
Nogo gave them a smart salute as they taxied out in a cloud of dust.
Nicholas waved and smiled at him through the side window, murmuring,
"Screw you, Nogo, screw you very much indeed."
When at last the pilot lifted the little Cessna 260 off the rough grass
strip, the horizon over the Abbay gorge resembled a field of cosmic
mushrooms, vast thunderheads reaching up into the stratosphere. The air
beneath them i was turbulent as a storm sea and they were thrown about
mercilessly in the rear seats. Up in front Geoffrey seemed to be faring
no better. He was very quiet and took no interest in their conversation.
There had been no opportunity for them to talk privately the previous
evening, what with either Geoffrey or Nogo hovering within earshot at
all times. Now with their heads close together, the engine beat covering
their voices and Geoffrey occupied with his own queasy thoughts, they
were able to concoct their story.
Geoffrey had made it clear that the British Ambassador in Addis was less
than delighted with the inconvenience they had caused him. Apparently
there had been a string of faxes from Whitehall since they had been
reported missing. Added to that, the Ethiopian Commissioner of Police
was anxious to question them. They had to make sure that they did not
implicate Mek Nimmur in the killing of Boris Brusilov, and at the same
time they must not alert or alarm Pegasus in any way. They realized that
the reaction from that quarter would be swift and probably lethal if
they gave the least suspicion that they knew who the other players were
in Taita's game.
Most of all they must avoid antagonizing the Ethiopian authorities, or
give them any cause to cancel their visas and declare them to be
undesirable immigrants. They agreed to feign ignorance and play the role
of innocents caught up in affairs which they had not precipitated and
which they did not understand.
By the time that they landed at Addis Ababa they had prepared their
story and rehearsed it thoroughly. As soon as the Cessna pulled on to
the hardstand in front of the airport buildings and the pilot cut the
engine, Geoffrey came back to life again, only a little green around the
gills, and handed Royan down the aircraft steps with a flourish.
"Of course, you will stay at the residence," he told them. "The hotels
in town are too dreadful to contemplate, and HE has a half-decent chef
and a passable wine cellar. I will rustle up some togs for both of you.
My missus is about the same size as you, Dr Al Simma, and Nicky will fit
into my gear at a pinch. Thank God, I have a spare dinner jacket. HE is
a bit of a stickler for form."
The British Ambassador's residence had been built during the reign of
the old Emperor, Haile Selassie, before Mussolini's invasion in the
1930s. Set on the outskirts of the town, it was an example of the better
colonial architecture, with a thatched roof and wide verandas. The
lawns, tended by. a host of gardeners, were wide and green, contrasting
with the brilliant crimson of the poinsettia. The mansion had survived
both the revolution and the war of liberation that followed.
At the front entrance Geoffrey handed them over to an Ethiopian butler
in a long, spotlessly white shamnw, who showed them to adjoining
bedrooms on the second floor. Nicholas heard the bathwater running in
Royan's suite next door as he lay in his own brimming bath, sipping a
whisky and soda and twiddling the taps with his big toe.
Then there was the murmur of the doctor's voice from next door as he
attended to Royan's knee.
Geoffrey's dinner jacket was loose round his waist and too short in the
arms and legs, and his shoes pinched, added to which Nicholas was in
need of a haircut, he realized, as he surveyed himself in the mirror.
"No help for it, now, he decided with resignation, and went to knock on
Royan's door.
"I say!" he exclaimed as she opened it. Sylvia Tennant had loaned her a
lime'green cocktail dress that set off Royan's olive skin marvellously
well, Royan had washed her hair and left it loose on her shoulders. He
felt his pulse accelerate like a teenager on his first date, and laughed