CHAPTER XVII
Ismail ben Adhem
Rick awoke with the setting sun in his eyes. He yawned luxuriously andturned over to look at the clock, then sat upright in bed at the sightof Scotty and a stranger.
The stranger was young, with a friendly smile. He was relaxed as he satin a comfortable chair, but it was the same kind of relaxation one seesin a panther or another of the great cats. Rick knew, without evenasking, that this lean, bronzed, good-looking Egyptian was a policeofficer and that he probably was a very good one. He _looked_ like ahunter.
"Thought you were going to sleep till tomorrow," Scotty said. "Rick,this is Inspector Ismail ben Adhem of the Cairo Police."
The inspector held out a brown hand. Rick sensed the strength in it,although the handshake was normal. "I'm glad you're here," the boy saidfrankly. "Between Youssef and Kemel Moustafa, we're sort of in a jam."
The inspector smiled. "Well see if we can get you out of it. Suppose youcall me Ben, just to make things easy. Now, Scotty has given me adetailed report of your activities up to the time you left the projectyesterday. Suppose we pick up from there?"
"Okay. Can I order breakfast first?"
"Of course. Forgive my impatience. We can talk at leisure over coffee."
Rick placed the order, then launched into a recital of yesterday'sevents, including his night in the desert and rescue by Kemel Moustafa.He concluded, "We came back to the hotel. Hassan opened the car, and thecat was gone. Of course I had no idea what had happened to it. Moustafaturned black with rage. He said I had a clear choice of getting the catback and turning it over to him, or having something unpleasant happen.He'll be back at seven. He wasn't joking."
"No," Ben agreed. "I know this man, and he does not joke. What then?"
"I sent Hassan home to get some rest, and I came up to the room andcalled the project. Scotty answered. He told me Felix was safe, so Iknew he had the cat, and he told me the police had been called in. Ijust fell into bed and went to sleep. That's it."
"It's enough," the inspector said. "Of course neither of you had any wayof knowing what was going on. You had merely undertaken to do a favorfor an acquaintance. I just wish some kind wind had whispered to you theidea of reporting to us after that first day in El Mouski."
"I guess we were wrong," Rick admitted. "At first it didn't seem like amatter for the police. Later, we just didn't think of it."
"I understand. But it doesn't pay to be too independent in a strangeland, I assure you. Ask Steve Ames."
The boys stared in amazement. Steve Ames was a close friend, and theircontact in JANIG, one of the top American government securityorganizations.
"How do you know Steve?" Rick asked in astonishment.
"He and I went through the FBI Academy together. We keep in touch. Also,the International Police Organization, which is called Interpol, keepsus up to date on developments. I know that your scientific group worksclosely with Steve."
So Ismail ben Adhem was an FBI graduate! Rick looked at him with newrespect. "I guess we should have reported to you," he said. "We justdidn't know."
"No matter. It will all work out, anyway. In fact, your delay incontacting us may even make things simpler."
"How?" Scotty asked.
Ben shrugged. "We will see. This cat of yours has many interestingpossibilities."
"Do you know why the cat is important?" Rick demanded.
"I have an idea. But please do not press me for details. It is betterfor everything to go on normally while I do a little useful work. So, Isuggest you two continue on as before, with only one difference. Youwill use a different taxi to travel back and forth to Sahara Wells."
"But Hassan is our dragoman," Rick protested. "What's more, he's afriend. We can't switch now, after we engaged him for the duration ofour stay."
Ben smiled warmly. "Your loyalty to Hassan does you credit. But don'tworry. He will be taken care of. You and I will trade transportation. Iwill use Hassan, and you will use my taxi."
"I don't get it," Scotty said.
"It's simple. Both of you are able to testify to criminal actions on thepart of Youssef. Also, if this works out as I hope, you will havetestimony to give on the actions of Kemel Moustafa. Now, if you knewthere was evidence against you, and you were completely ruthless, whatwould you do?"
"Remove the evidence," Rick said slowly. His eyes met Scotty's.
"Exactly. So, Hassan stays with me, and your taxi driver will be one ofmy best officers. He will stay with you at all times. While you are inthe hotel, another of my men will be your hall porter."
"Do you really think we're in any danger?" Scotty asked.
"Don't ever doubt it, Scotty. Be on guard at all times."
"It's because the cat is very important," Rick stated. "And the cat isimportant because of something inside of it. You know what thatsomething is."
"An excellent deduction," Ben agreed with a grin. "All but the laststatement. I do not know what it is. I merely suspect. My evidence iscircumstantial. I'll tell you this much, though. I know a great dealabout certain interests of the Moustafa brothers, and I was informed byInterpol that there is an interesting gentleman of great wealth in SanFrancisco who talks too much."
Rick thought over the statement. It didn't help at all. He couldn't seewhat a talkative man in California had to do with the Egyptian cat."That's not very informative," he objected.
Ben laughed. "I'm sure it isn't. But I'll make you a promise. Before youleave Egypt, we will perform a small operation on the cat and remove itsappendix--or whatever else it may have inside."
"We'll hold you to that," Scotty told him.
Rick's breakfast arrived, and over _cafe au lait_ and Egyptian rollsIsmail ben Adhem questioned Rick until he was sure he had extracted allthe information the two boys had.
It suddenly occurred to Rick that he had asked no questions himself."Where's the cat?" he demanded.
"At the project," Scotty replied. "I was going to turn it over to Ben,but he said to leave it there."
"It might be uncomfortable at the station," Ben added with a twinkle."After all, it's a well-cared-for pet."
Rick grinned. "We've grown fond of it," he admitted. "Second question:can't you just pick up Youssef on a kidnapping charge?"
"We could, if we knew where to find him. But Youssef is a hard man tolocate when he goes underground. We've been trying to get something onhim for years, and we know him well. This time he's over-played his handand we've got him. It's only a question of time."
"How about Moustafa?" Rick asked. "Is he guilty of anything?"
The police officer finished his coffee and rose. "Not yet," he said."But he will be. Now, stay together at all times. Ride with the taxidriver who will be waiting for you in the hall. Otherwise, go about yourbusiness as usual, and have a good time."
Scotty saw him to the door, then turned to Rick. "Moustafa isn't guiltyof anything yet, but he will be. That's interesting."
Rick thought so, too. "Isn't it pretty careless, leaving the cat at theproject?"
"Seems so," Scotty agreed. "But I think Ben knows what he's doing."
"I guess you're right," Rick said soberly.
After more coffee and a shower, he felt like himself again. There waswork to do at the project, so the two boys picked up the police driver,who was keeping an eye on their door, and rode to the project.
The scientists greeted Rick happily. "We were pretty worried for awhile," Winston said, and the Egyptians echoed him.
"We don't usually treat tourists this way," Farid said jokingly, butbehind the smile Rick sensed that the Egyptian scientist was embarrassedby what had happened to a guest.
"I got myself into it," Rick pointed out. "If we had gone to the policeabout the Egyptian cat that first day, there would have been notrouble."
Dr. Kerama put a hand on his shoulder. "It is very kind of you to try tosave our feelings. But we were so involved in this fascinating problemthat we simply didn't pay enough attention. Otherwise, we could
haveadvised you to see the police."
"How is it going?" Rick asked.
"Very well," Farid said. "We're exchanging reports constantly with theother radio telescopes and it's clear that we have somethingextraordinary. We're trying to agree on the precise location of thisspace object. The next step will be to examine the signals more closelyto see if a pattern can be found or if they're simply random."
"If you and Scotty feel up to it," Winston added, "we'd like you toduplicate the audio tapes for us. We want to send a set right away toGreen Bank. They started audio recording, too, yesterday, but they don'thave the hours when the object was in sight of our telescope but nottheirs. They're duplicating the signals we didn't get after the objectdropped below our horizon. That way we'll both have a complete recordfor analysis."
"What is the space object?" Rick asked.
Winston shook his head. "We don't know. It's too early even to speculatemuch. Can you make the duplicates?"
It was early evening. "We can get sandwiches at the Mena House and workuntil we're finished," Rick replied. "That will get us home beforemidnight. There can't be more than a few hours to record."
"Fine. You'll be alone, but since the inspector put a police guard onyou, I'm sure it will be all right."
Farid had arranged the technical setup, using another unit borrowed fromthe government radio station for the purpose. All they would need to dowas feed tape into the machines and watch the recording level.
One of the Egyptian technicians drove to the Mena House and brought backsandwiches and cokes. The scientists departed, to have a quick dinnerand then resume work at a different location where a computer wasavailable to do the complicated mathematics required for analysis of thedata.
Rick and Scotty started work right away. The police driver sat in achair and watched them. He spoke English, but wasn't much of aconversationalist. After a while the boys forgot he was there.
Listening to the space signal was strange. As the tape ran through, Rickwas certain his ear detected a kind of pattern in the sounds. There wasa continuous hiss; that was normal hydrogen on the 21-centimeter wavelength. Then there were sharper hisses, as though some strange creaturewas trying to send a coded message through the noisy hydrogenbackground.
"It's a message of some kind," Rick stated. "I'll bet on it."
"Who sends messages from space?" Scotty asked with a grin. "Ghouls,ghosties, or long-legged beasties?"
"Don't laugh," Rick said impatiently. "Didn't you ever hear of ProjectOzma?"
Scotty hadn't. "The wizard of Ozma?"
"The name comes from Princess Ozma of Oz, I guess, but it was the firstproject to use the Green Bank telescope to try to locate intelligentsignals from space. Stuff exactly like this."
"You're kidding!"
"Nope. On the level."
Scotty listened to the continuous signal, his face thoughtful. "Maybethere is intelligence behind it. And maybe not. I don't get much of apattern out of the sounds."
"Maybe the seven-eyed men of the planet Glup don't have rhythm," Rickbegan. "Anyway ..."
He never finished the sentence. The control-room door slammed open.Arabs crashed through, bringing the police guard to his feet with abound. He snatched a pistol from a shoulder holster and got off twoshots before an answering shot caught him and spun him around with theimpact. The police guard slid slowly to the floor!
The Egyptian Cat Mystery: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story Page 17