The Seventh Scroll tes-2

by Wilbur Smith

Nicholas read the date at the top of one page.

  2nd of February 1902.

  A In camp on the Abbay river.

  11 day following the spoor of two large bull ele Phants- Unable to come

  up with the . Heat ve, intense- MY Men Played out Abandoned the chase

  small antelope grazing on the river-bank which I and returned to camp.

  On the return march lied a brought down with one shot from the little

  Rigby "and- On close examination it proved to be a member of the genus

  Madoqa. However, it was of a species that I had never seen before,

  larger than the common dik-dik and Possessing a striped body. I believe

  that this specimen may be new to science.

  He looked up from the diary. "Old great-grandpa Jonathan has given us

  the perfect excuse for going down into the Abbay gorge." He closed the

  book, and went on, "As you pointed out, to cater for our own expedition

  would require months of planning and organization, not to mention the

  expense. It would mean having to obtain approval and permission from the

  Ethiopian government. In Africa that can take months, if not Years."

  "I don't imagine that the Ethiopian government would be too cooperative

  if they suspected our real intentions," she agreed.

  "On the other hand, there are a number of legitimate hunting safari

  companies operating throughout the country. They have all the necessary

  permits, governmental contacts, vehicles, camping equipment and logistic

  back, up necessary to travel and stay in even the remotest areas.

  The authorities are quite accustomed to foreign hunters arriving and

  leaving with these companies, whereas a couple of ferengi nosing around

  on their own would have the local military and everybody else down on

  them like a herd of angry buffalo., ( So we are going to travel as a

  pair of dik-dik hunters?"

  "I have already made the booking with a safari operator in Addis Ababa,

  the capital. MY Plan is to look upon the whole of our project in three

  distinct and separate stages.

  The first stage will be this reconnaissance. If we find the lead we are

  hoping for, then we will go back again with our own men and equipment.

  That will be stage two. Stage three, of course, will be getting the

  booty out of Ethiopia, and that I assure you from past experience will

  not be the easiest part of the operation."

  "How will you do that-' she began, but he held up his hands.

  "Don't ask, because at this stage I don't have even the vaguest idea how

  we will do it. One stage at a time."

  "When do we leave?"

  "Before I tell you when, let me ask you one more question. Your

  interpretation of the Taita riddle - did you explain that in the notes

  that were stolen from you at the oasis?"

  "Yes, everything was either in those notes or on the microfilm. I am

  sorry."

  So the uglies will have it all neatly laid out for them, just the way

  you laid it out for me."

  "I am afraid they will, yes."

  "Then to reply to your question as to when, the answer is tout de suite,

  and the tooter the sweeter! We must get into the Abbay gorge before the

  competition beats us to it.

  They have had your conclusions and suppositions for almost a month. For

  all we know they are on their way already!

  "When?" she repeated eagerly.

  "I have booked two seats on the British Airways flight to Nairobi this

  Saturday - that is, in two days' time. We will connect there with an Air

  Kenya flight to Addis that will get us in on Monday at around midday. We

  will drive down to London this evening and stay over at my digs there.

  Are your yellow fever and hepatitis shots up to date?"

  "Yes, but I have no equipment and hardly any clothing with me., I left

  Cairo in rather a hurry."

  We will. see to that in London. Trouble with Ethiopia is it's cold

  enough to emasculate a brass monkey in the highlands, and like a sauna

  bath down in the gorge."

  He crossed to the board and began to check off the items on his list.

  "We will both start malarial prophylactics immediately. We are going

  into an area of chloroquineresistant . falciparum mosquitoes, so I will

  put you on Mefloquine "He worked swiftly through the list.

  "Of course all your travel documents are in order, or you wouldn't be

  here. We will both need visas for Ethiopia, but I have a contact who can

  arrange that in twenty-four hours."

  As soon as he completed the list he sent her up to her room to pack the

  few personal items she had brought with her from Cairo.

  By the time they were ready to leave Quenton Hall it was dark outside,

  but still he stopped for an hour at the York Minster Hospital to allow

  her to say goodbye to her mother. He waited in the Red Lion pub across

  the road, and he smelt of Theakston's Old Peculier when she climbed back

  into the Range Rover beside him. It was a Pleasant, yeasty aroma, and

  she felt so much at ease in his company that she lay back in the seat

  and fell asleep.

  His London house was in Knightsbridge, but despite the fashionable

  address it was much less grand than Quenton Hall, and she felt IF more

  at home there, even if it was only for two days.

  During that time she saw little of Nicholas, for he was busy with all

  the last-minute arrangements, which included a number of visits to

  government offices in Whitehall. He returned with wads of letters -of

  introduction to high officials and British Embassies and High

  Commissions throughout East Africa.

  "Ask any Englishman," she smiled to herself "There is no such thing as

  upper-class privilege any longer, nor is there an old-boy network that

  runs the country."

  While he was away, she went off with the shopping list he had given her.

  Even walking the streets of the safest Capital city in the world she

  found herself looking back over her shoulder, and ducking in and out of

  ladies' rooms and tube stations to make certain that she was not being

  followed.

  "You are acting like a terrified child without its daddy," she scolded

  herself.

  However, she felt a quite disproportionate sense of relief each evening

  when she heard his key in the street door of the empty house where she

  waited, and she had to control herself so as not to rush down the stairs

  to welcome him.

  On Saturday morning, when a taxi cab deposited them at the departures

  level of Heathrow MNIJ Terminal Four, Nicholas surveyed their combined

  luggage with approval. She had only a single soft canvas bag, no larger

  than his, and her sling bag over her shoulder. His hunting rifle was

  cased in travel-worn leather, with his initials embossed on the lid. A

  hundred rounds of ammunition was packed in a separate brass'bound

  magazine and he carried a leather briefcase that looked like a Victorian

  antique.

  "Travelling light is one of the great virtues. Lord save us from women

  with mountains of luggage,5 he told her, refusing the services of a

  porter and throwing it all on to a trolley, which he pushed himself.

  She had to step out to keep up with him as he strode through the crowded

  departures hall.
Miraculously the throng opened before him. He tilted

  the brim of his panama hat over one eye and grinned at the girl at the

  check'in counter, so that she came over all girlish and flustered.

  It was the same once they were aboard the aircraft.

  The two stewardesses giggled at everything he said, plied him with

  champagne and fussed over him outrageously, to the obvious irritation of

  the other passengers, including Royan herself. But she ignored him and

  them and settled back to enjoy the unaccustomed luxury of the reclining

  first-class seat and her own miniature video screen. She tried to

  concentrate on the screen images of Richard Gere, but found her

  attention wandering to other images of wild canyons and ancient stelae.

  Only when Nicholas nudged her did she look around at him a little

  haughtily. He had set up a tiny travelling chessboard on the arm of the

  seat between them, and now he lifted an eyebrow at her and inclined his

  head in invitation.

  When they landed at Jomo Kenyatta airport in Kenya they were still

  locked in combat. They were level at two games each, but she was a

  bishop and two pawns up in the final deciding game. She felt quite

  pleased with herself.

  At the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi he had booked a pair of garden

  bungalows, one for each of them. Within ten minutes of her flopping down

  on the bed, he called her from next door on the house phone.

  "We are going to dinner with the British High Commissioner tonight. He

  is an old chum. Dress informal. Can you be ready at eight?"

  One did not have to rough it too onerously when travelling around the

  world in this man's company, she thought.

  It was a relatively short haul from Nairobi up to Addis Ababa, and the

  landscape below them unfolded in fascinating sequences that kept her

  glued to the cabin window of the Air Kenya flight. The hoary summit of

  Mount Kenya was for once free of cloud, and the snow-clad double peaks

  glistened in the high sunlight.

  The bleak brown deserts of the Northern Frontier District were relieved

  only by the green hills that surrounded the oasis of Marsabit and, far

  out on the port side, the dashing waters of Lake Turkana, formerly Lake

  Rudolf.

  The desert finally gave way to the highlands of the great central

  plateau of the ancient land of Ethiopia.

  "In Africa only the Egyptians go back further than this civilization,'

  Nicholas remarked as they watched it together. "They were a cultured

  race when we peoples of northern climes were still dressing in untanned

  skins and living in caves. They were Christians when Europeans were

  still pagans, worshipping the old gods, Pan and Diana."

  "They were a civilized people when Taita passed this way nearly four

  thousand years ago," she agreed. "In his Scrolls he writes of them as

  almost his cultural equals which was rare for him. He disparaged all the

  other nations of the old world as his inferiors in every way."

  From the air Addis was like so many other African cities, a mixture of

  the old and the new, of traditional and exotic architectural styles,

  thatched roofs alongside galvanized iron and baked tiles. The rounded

  walls of the old tukuls built with mud and wattle contrasted with the

  rectangular shapes and geometrical planes of the brick built

  multi-storeyed buildings, the blocks of flats and the villas of the

  affluent, the government buildings and the grandiose, flag-bedecked

  headquarters of the Organization of African Unity.

  The distinguishing features of the surrounding countryside were the

  plantations of tall eucalyptus trees, the ubiquitous blue gums that

  provided firewood. It was the only fuel available to so many in this

  poor and war-torn land, which over the centuries had been ravaged by

  marauding armies and, more recently, by alien political doctrines.

  After Nairobi the high-altitude air was cool and sweet when Royan and

  Nicholas left the aircraft and walked across the tarmac to the terminal

  building. As they entered, before they had even approached the row of

  waiting immigration officers someone called his name.

  "Sir Nicholas!" They both turned to the tall young woman who glided

  towards them with all the grace of a features lit by a welcoming dancer,

  her dark and delicate smile. She wore full'length tradition al skirts

  which enhanced her movements.

  "Welcome to my country of Ethiopia. I am Woizero Tessay." She looked at

  Royan with interest, "And you must be Woizero Royan." She held out her

  hand to her and liked each other Nicholas saw that the two women

  immediately.

  I will see to the "If you will let me have your passports. There is a

  formalities while you relax in the VIP lounge.

  from your British Embassy waiting there to greet you, man Sir Nicholas.

  I don't know how he knew that you were arriving."

  the VIP lounge.

  There was only one person waiting i He was dressed in a well-cut

  tropical suit and wore the orange, yellow and blue diagonally striped

  old Sandhurst tie. He stood up and came to greet Nicholas immediately,

  Nor, ? it's good to see you again Must be all

  "Nicky, how are yo of twelve years, isn't it?"

  "Hello, Geoffrey. I had no idea they had stuck you out here."

  "Military attache. His Excellency sent me down to meet you as soon as he

  heard that you and I had been at Sandhurst together." Geoffrey looked at

  Royan with marked interest, and with a resigned air Nicholas introduced

  them.

  "Geoffrey Tennant. Be careful of him. Biggest ram I safe within half a

  mile of north of the equator. No girl him."

  "I say,. steady on,, Geoffrey protested, looking pleased with the

  reference that Nicholas had given him. "Please don't believe a word the

  man says, Dr Al Simma. Notorious prevaricator."

  Geoffrey drew Nicholas aside and quickly gave him a r6sum6 of conditions

  in the country, particularly in the outlying areas. "HE is a little

  worried. He doesn't like the idea of you swarming around out there on

  your own. Lots of nasty men down there in the Goiam. I told him that you

  knew how to look after yourself.)

  In a remarkably short time Woizero Tessay was back.

  "I have cleared all your luggage, including the firearm and ammunition.

  This is your temporary permit. You must keep it with you at all times

  whilst you are in Ethiopia. Here are your passports - the visas are

  stamped and in order. Our flight to Lake Tana leaves in an hour, so we

  have plenty of time to check in."

  "Any time you need a job, come and see me,'Nicholas commended her

  efficiency.

  Geoffrey Tennant walked with them as far as the departures gate, where

  he shook hands, "Anything I can do, it goes without saying. "Serve to

  Lead", Nicky."

  "'Serve to lead"T Royan asked, as they walked out to the waiting

  aircraft.

  "Sandhurst's motto the explained.

  "How nice, Nicky, she murmered.

  "I have always considered Nicholas to be more dignified and

  appropriate he said.

  "Yes, but Nicky is so sweet."

  the high, thin air the Twin Otter aircraft that
took them on the last,

  northern, leg pitched and yawed in the updraughts; from the mountains

  below.

  Although they were at fifteen thousand feet above sea level, the ground

  was close enough for them to make out the, villages and the sparse areas

  of cultivation around them. Subjected for so many centuries to primitive

  agricultural methods and to the uncontrolled grazing of domestic herds,

  the land had a thin, impoverished look, and the bones of rock showed

  through the thin red fleshing of earth.

  Abruptly ahead of them the plateau over which they were flying was rent

  through by a monstrous chasm. It was as though the earth had received a

  mighty sword-stroke that struck through to her very bowels.

  "The Abbay river!" Tessay leaned forward in her seat to tap Royan's

  shoulder.

  The rim of the gorge was Clear-cut, and then the slope dropped away at

  an angle of over thirty degrees. The bare plains of the plateau gave way

  immediately to the heavily forested walls of the gorge. They could make

  out the candelabra shapes of giant euphorbia rising above the dense

  jungle. In places the walls had collapsed in scree slopes of loose rock,

  and in others they were up-thrust into bluffs and needles that erosion

  had sculpted with a monstrous artistry into the figures of towering

  humanoids and other fantastic creatures of stone.

  Down and down it plunged, and they winged out over the void until they

  could look directly down, a mile and more, on to the glittering snake of

  the river in the depths.

  The funnel shape of the upper walls formed a secondary rim as they

  reached the sheer cliffs of the sub-gorge five hundred feet above the

  Nile water. Deep down there between its terrible cliffs the river gouged

  dark pools and long slithering runs through the red sandstone. In places

  the gorge was forty miles across, in others it narrowed to under ten,

  but through all its length the grandeur and the desolation were infinite

  and eternal. Man had made no impression upon it.

  "You will soon be down there," Tessay told them in a voice so awed that

  it was almost a whisper, and they were both silent. Words seemed

  superfluous in the face of such raw and savage nature.

  .. Almost with relief they watched the northern wall rise to meet them,

  and the high mountains of the Choke range stood up against the tall blue

  African sky, higher than their fragile little craft was flying.