by Adam Palmer
‘That’s bullshit. You’re academically ambitious.’
‘Well, thanks for that vote of confidence. But Charlotte thought ambition was something I lacked.’
‘What planet was she living on?’
‘I guess it’s a question of how you define success, not how you measure it.’
‘Are we talking academic success or social success?’
‘Both. Charlotte measured success by how high you rise through the relevant hierarchy.’
‘Is there another way?’
‘I prefer to live by the motto of my old grammar school: “Rather use than fame”.’
‘Rather use than fame? That’s kind of clever.’
‘It was the quality of my ambition rather than the quantity that set me apart from Charlotte.’
‘Now why don’t I believe that?’ asked Gabrielle, rolling over on to her back and looking up at the stars.
‘You tell me… Miss Sceptic.’
‘The fact that you had virtually nothing in common. It wasn’t just your ambition. It was everything. You love the academic life. She liked the high life. Your world is the ivory tower. Hers was the salon. You’re at your happiest when you’re pushing forward the frontiers of knowledge and driving back the boundaries of ignorance. I got the impression that Charlotte was never happy except when she was shopping at Harrods or Bloomingdales.’
‘You’re making it sound as if she was spend, spend, spend and I’m all work and no play.’
‘No, you know how to enjoy yourself. But you find pleasure in doing interesting things. I remember once seeing you teaching your nephews how to make a radio out of household items, using information you downloaded from the Internet.’
Daniel was thinking about this. Gabrielle’s assessment had been remarkably incisive. He got his pleasure from the simple things in life and that was something that Charlotte never understood.
‘I guess it was the perennial conflict between the two modes of living: the Having Mode and the Doing Mode. Charlotte found happiness in luxury possessions and the company of well-bred but shallow people.’
There was silence for a while. Then Gabrielle turned back to Daniel and quietly said one word: ‘Sorry.’
‘For what?’
‘I didn’t mean to open up an old wound.’
Daniel was silent for a while. Finally he spoke.
‘You know what the irony is? It was at a university function that we first met.’
‘What sort of function?’
‘I think one of her friends had made a big donation and was unveiling a plaque.’
‘So it was one of those awkward meeting points between academia and philanthropy, when scholarship and mammon pay mutual homage to one another, with a mixture of envy and guilt.’
‘You really are a cynic, aren’t you, Gaby?’ he said with a smile.
But she didn’t answer. Sleep had finally engulfed her.
Gabrielle looked around her. They were closing in on her… closing in on all sides. The tracks, the scoop, the rumbling sound.
Bulldozers!
The bulldozers were closing in on her: north, south, east and west…
They had all points of the compass covered.
There was nowhere to run. It was too late. She was going to die. She was going to die today: crushed by these bulldozers that surrounded her.
‘No!’ she screamed.
It was dark. She was in a cold sweat. She looked around struggling to gain her bearings.
Daniel too was awake and staring at her.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked.
‘I guess. I think I was having a bad dream.’
Chapter 62
‘I’m telling you she’s dangerous.’
The professor had asked to meet Senator Morris in private. The senator had been unsure why but had agreed to fit this meeting into his busy schedule.
‘Why? She’s always supported us in the past.’
‘Never without voicing dissent.’
‘She’s cautious; that’s just her nature. But she’s always supported us. She just tempers her loyalty with caution – that’s what women do.’
‘There are too many things going wrong for Goliath. First at the hospital when he didn’t get the clothing sample from that boy, and then he botched the attempt to get the clothes from Klein and Gusack and they even got out alive.’
‘What are you saying? That she’s making things go wrong from thousands of miles away?’
‘I think she may have told someone.’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ said the senator. ‘The boy from the dig died of the plague and Goliath drew attention to himself at the hospital by talking to a nurse. He might not have got the clothes anyway. They probably had them incinerated as a precaution.’
‘And what about the gasoline bomb attack on Goliath in the jeep?’
‘Could it be the work of Islamic terrorists?’
‘I thought you said the embassy told you that a Western woman had been arrested for the attack?’
‘That’s right, an Irish woman. And I’ve since been told that she escaped.’
‘Well, that doesn’t sound much like an Islamic terrorist to me.’
‘The IRA worked with the Libyans. Maybe they’re doing the same for the Muslim Brotherhood – possibly in return for being allowed to train in the al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.’
‘I thought the IRA had given up on terrorism.’
‘There’s always fringe movements and breakaway factions.’
‘Why would they hire a woman from a fringe faction of the IRA to do their dirty work? Instead of using a local who knows the terrain?’
‘Perhaps because she’d be less likely to arouse suspicion.’
‘But why would they target a foreigner driving peacefully on the road at night?’
‘To harm the tourist industry?’ the senator suggested. ‘To damage the regime perhaps?’
‘If they wanted to damage the tourist trade they’d do something more spectacular than attack one man in a car. They’d plant a bomb at a hotel or something.’
The senator realized that the professor’s rationale made sense. It was suspicious that a young Irish woman had attacked Goliath with a Molotov cocktail on the road in the Nile Valley. But he was a long way from drawing any firm conclusions about the loyalties of Audrey Milne.
‘You may have a point. Look, I’ll keep her out of the loop for the time being and we’ll see how this plays out. Just don’t say anything to her to give her the slightest impression that she’s under suspicion.’
The professor nodded. The senator was about to say more when his cell phone rang.
‘Hallo.’
‘Senator Morris.’
‘Yes?’
‘It’s John Pryor here from the embassy in Cairo. Listen, I don’t know any easy way to break this to you but I’m afraid I have some bad news about your daughter—’
‘No!’ screamed the senator, before the ambassador could even finish the sentence.
He flung the cell phone across the room and sank to his knees, sobbing into his open hands with grief.
Chapter 63
It had taken three days on camels instead of the eight hours on a bus that it had taken Sarit, but when Daniel and Gabrielle arrived in Taba in the early morning of their fourth day of travel, the dawn was breaking over the Gulf of Aqaba.
Daniel had wanted them to make their way to a hotel right away, but Gabrielle had told him that there was no point. Nothing would be open and in any case, she wanted to watch the sun rise over the sea. So after they took off their Bedouin robes and changed into Western clothes, he indulged her whim and stood there next to her, while she ooed and aahed, gushing like a lovesick schoolgirl. Daniel realized, with some regret, that the love was for the view, not for his presence.
Ahead of them and far to the right was Eilat where construction work seemed to be forever in progress, building new hotels to accommodate the ever growing tourist industry.
In some ways it spoiled the view to see cranes and cement mixers and bulldozers in the distance.
The bulldozer kept coming… It wouldn’t stop…
Move! Don’t just stand there!
He can’t see you!
HE CAN’T SEE YOU.
Get out of the way!
STOP!!!! PLEASE!!!!
She’s just a—
‘Gaby? Are you okay?’
‘Wha… what?’
‘You’re shivering.’
He took off his light jacket and put it round her, noticing as he did so that she was not shivering. She was trembling.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asked gently.
‘Nothing… I was… remembering…’
He looked at her, trying to figure out if she wanted to say more.
‘Remembering what?’ he asked, making sure his tone did not sound too pushy.
‘Nothing.’
He took that as his cue to drop the matter, at least for now. In any case, they had more important things to do than reminisce about personal matters.
Realizing that it was still too early to implement his plan, their first port of call was a hotel restaurant, where they had breakfast, explaining that they were not guests there, but didn’t like their own hotel’s food and wanted to try this one. Sixty Egyptian pounds covered the cost for the two of them and they drew it out for as long as they could, realizing that they had nowhere else to go just yet.
Incredibly, the shops in the hotel arcade were open by eight o’clock, enabling them to buy swimwear, and a snorkel for Gabrielle. She explained to Daniel that it would make her seem more like a tourist, and he approved of her logic, buying a straw hat for himself to add to the camouflage. After changing into their new gear in the beachside toilets, to make sure they looked the part, the third stop was the marina. Hiring a boat meant they had to show their passports. But it was only to verify their ID, there was no attempt to check their names against a list of wanted criminals. The only hair-raising moment was when they were asked for a credit card for a deposit. They were told that they could pay for the boat hire by cash, but a credit or debit card would have to be scanned for a security deposit. No money would be taken off the card, they were assured, unless they failed to return the boat within twenty-four hours.
Gabrielle handed over her card, on the assumption that if the police had tried to set up alerts for tracing them via card transactions, they would have needed the co-operation of the authorities in the countries where they lived. And Austria, which had until recently allowed anonymous pass-book accounts at banks, was probably a little bit more bureaucratic than the UK, so it would have been that much harder to set up such a trace in her case. In the event, the scan went through with no obvious alarms being set off, and minutes later they were climbing into the boat and casting off from the jetty.
The boat was a fast little mover, with an inboard motor, and once out of the marina and into the open waters of the Gulf, they lost no time in heading straight for Eilat. The area they were covering was not large. From the shores of Taba it was possible to see Eilat and Aqaba. As they neared Israeli territorial waters, they noticed an Egyptian navy boat speeding out towards them and trying to signal them. It was clear that they were not seen as a threat, merely as careless tourists. But Daniel knew that this would change if he failed to comply. Compliance, however, was the last thing on his mind. Instead, he opened up the throttle and headed full tilt for Israeli waters.
It was at that moment that his actions aroused the attention of the Israeli navy. This was because he was heading towards them and both countries were more on the lookout for terrorist incursions than for escapees. Neither country had closed borders to the world and criminals trying to escape from one to the other was therefore not a common or everyday threat. But terrorism was something else – both sides had to be constantly on the lookout for that – and a powerboat speeding from one to the territorial waters of the other was a warning sign that something dangerous was about to happen.
So it came as no surprise to Daniel when he saw an Israeli Super Dvora Mk III-class patrol boat in the distance speeding to intercept him, closely followed by a helicopter rising into the sky above Eilat in the distance.
Neither of these things concerned him. What worried him instead was the fact that the machine gun on the Israeli boat was manned and the gun was trained squarely at him. A man on the boat standing next to the gunner was standing with a megaphone, shouting a warning in English. Daniel couldn’t hear the words above the sound of his own engine, but he knew perfectly well what he was being told. They wanted him to cut the engine and/or turn back.
But he couldn’t be sure that they were yet in Israeli waters. A quick backward glance told him that the Egyptian navy patrol boat was still on his tail. He knew that they wouldn’t be safe against being returned to Egypt until they made it to the Israeli side.
He tried calling out, ‘We’re British!’ in the hope that these magic words would calm them down. But before he could say anything more, the shooting started.
Chapter 64
Goliath was beginning to regret leaving the hospital. The burns on his flesh were no longer as painful as they had been, but they still troubled him. He had come so near and yet lost everything when that evil woman – whoever she was – had thrown that gasoline bomb into the jeep.
He had left that message for Daniel Klein, but so far received no reply. Was it because Klein was suspicious? Or was it because he hadn’t received the message?
Realizing that Senator Morris didn’t have his new number, he phoned the senator, ignoring the time difference.
‘Where the fuck have you been?’
‘I left the hospital and got a new phone. My old phone got destroyed when the jeep went up in flames.’
‘Are you being followed?’
‘No. I was careful.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes! I was careful.’
‘I hope so. You’re not the sort of man who can hide in a crowd.’
‘You got me out. Thank you.’
‘I had to call in a lot of favours when I heard the news about the attack on the road. You did the right thing calling the embassy, but I can’t afford to get involved openly.’
‘I’m sorry. I just wanted to let you know where I am, and to apologize for screwing up. They got out of the tomb… and someone attacked me on the road—’
‘I know all that! I watch the news.’
‘So you know I lost them. I’m sorry.’
‘This isn’t a time for regret. This is a time for action! Those Jewish scumbags have cost me the most precious thing in the world.’
Goliath heard crying on the other end of the line.
‘What… what happened?’
The senator told him about his daughter. In the past it had been Senator Morris who had comforted Goliath. This time, it was Goliath’s turn to play the comforter.
‘She will be avenged. I will do anything you ask of me.’
The strength came back to the senator’s voice.
‘I think it is time I told you my whole plan. If you are going to risk everything, then you must know everything.’
Over the next few minutes, the senator told Goliath exactly what he was planning to do and what Goliath had to do to help him achieve it. At the end, Goliath spoke.
‘But they will not trust me. Why would they share such precious ancient knowledge with me?’
‘They won’t. That is why you need to find Daniel Klein. They will trust him. You must use him to get them to show you where to go. Once they have shown you the exact location, you will not need Klein any more. You will not need any of them any more.’
‘I left a message for Klein, posing as a friend. But he has not answered.’
‘Keep trying.’
As soon as they had ended the call, Goliath called Daniel’s number again, not sure if it would be worth leaving another message.
‘Hallo?’
It was a
voice! A human being, not a message. Someone had answered.
‘Hallo. Is that Mr Klein?’
There was silence on the other end of the line. Silence? Or hesitation?
‘No. This wrong number.’
The English was poor. This was obviously a local who spoke only rudimentary English. But the person did not hang up. Why not? That was normally what people did if someone called them in error. Or maybe the person at the other end was waiting for him to hang up.
‘Wait. Is that…’ He recited the number out loud. Again there was hesitation.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Wait a minute. Is that Daniel Klein’s phone?’
Goliath didn’t know what mental agonizing was going on at the other end of the phone.
‘He left phone in boat. We’re waiting for him to come and collect it.’
‘Wait… look… is Mr Klein coming to collect the phone? I need to talk to him.’
‘He must come back to get phone.’
‘Does he know you’ve got it? The phone, I mean?’
‘We can’t call him. But he left it on boat.’
‘We?’
The man on the other end said nothing.
‘What boat?’
‘My father and me take him on felucca.’
That explained the ‘we’. Goliath had pretty much twigged it at this point. This person – probably no more than a boy – wanted to keep the phone. But he wasn’t a thief. Then Goliath thought about the local culture and had an idea.
‘Look, I’m a friend of his and I need to contact him. I can also help you give the phone back to him. In fact…’ he paused for effect, ‘there’s a reward for finding the phone. Baksheesh.’
‘Yes?’
‘If we can meet and you can tell me where you last saw Daniel Klein, I can give you two hundred dollars and make sure that he gets the phone back.’
‘Okay. Where you want to meet?’
‘I don’t know. You know Cairo better than I do.’
‘Yes, but where is easy for you to finding?’
Goliath realized how helpful the boy was being. He wanted to choose a place that Goliath could find easily. ‘Okay, how about the Sphinx?’ Goliath could see Giza from his hotel window. A taxi ride would take no time at all. ‘I can be there in half an hour.’