The Seventh Scroll tes-2

by Wilbur Smith

  yet for hundreds of years it served the purpose of uniting the community

  of monks and drawing Christians from all over this land. Now that it is

  gone, the very existence of the monastery is threatened.

  They have lost their reason for continuing."

  "So you are tempting them with a false promiseP Royan was still angry.

  "The body of Mamose is every bit as authentic as the one they lost. What

  does it matter if it is the body of an ancient Egyptian rather than that

  of an ancient Christian, just as long as it serves as a focus for the

  faith and if it is the means by which the monastery might survive for

  another five hundred years?"

  "I think Mek is making sense." Nicholas gave his opinion.

  "Since when have you been an expert in Christianity?

  You are an atheist," Royan flashed at him, and he held up his hands as

  if to ward off a blow.

  "You are right. What do I know about it anyway?

  You argue it out with Mek. I am going to discuss the theory of

  dam-building with Sapper Webb." He sauntered up to the head of the file

  of men and fell in beside his engineer.

  From time to time he heard heated voices raised behind him, and he

  grinned. He knew Mek, but he was also beginning to understand the lady.

  It would be fascinating to see who would win this argument.

  They reached the head of the chasm in the middle of the afternoon, and

  while Mek 6.. searched out a campsite Nicholas took Sapper immediately

  to the narrow neck of the river just above where it plunged over the

  waterfall. While Sapper set up the theodolite, Nicholas took the

  graduated levelling staff.

  Sapper ordered him up and down the face of the cliff with peremptory

  hand signals, all the while peering into the lens of the theodolite,

  while Nicholas teetered on insecure footing and tried to keep the staff

  upright for Sapper to take his sightings.

  "Okay!" Sapper bellowed, after taking his twentieth shot. "Now I want

  you on the other side of the river."

  Tine!" Nicholas bellowed back. "Do you want me to fly or swim?"

  Nicholas hiked three miles upstream to the ford where the trail crossed

  the Dandera river, and then fought his way back through the tangled

  river in undergrowth to the point on the bank opposite which Sapper lay

  in the shade smoking a soothing cigarette.

  "Don't rupture yourself, will you?" Nicholas yelled across the water at

  him.

  It was almost dark before Sapper had made all the shots he wanted, and

  Nicholas was still faced with the long return trip over the ford. He

  covered the last mile in almost total darkness, guided only by the

  flicker of the campfires.

  Wearily he stumbled into the camp and flung down the levelling staff.

  "You had beer tell me that it was worth it," he tt growled at Sapper,

  who did not look up from his slide rule.

  He was working over his revised drawings by the glaring light of a small

  butane lantern.

  Most Populiir VPIL

  "You weren't too far out in your estimates," he congratulated Nicholas.

  "The river is forty'one yards wide at the critical point above the

  falls, where I want to site the structure."

  "All I want to know is if you will be able to throw a dam across it."

  Sapper grinned and laid his finger down the side of his nose, "You get

  me my ruddy front-ender, and I'll dam the bleeding Nile itself."

  had eaten their dinner - another of the packs - Royan glanced across

  the fire at cholas. -When she caught his eye she inclined her head in

  invitation. Then she stood up and casually drifted out of camp, looking

  back once to make sure he was following her. Nicholas lighted the path

  with his torch as they picked their way back to the dam site and found a

  boulder overlooking the water on which to sit.

  He switched off the torch and they were silent for a while as their eyes

  adjusted to the starlight, and then Royan whispered, "There were times

  that I thought we would never return here - that it was all a dream, and

  that Taita's pool never existed."

  "For us perhaps it never will, without the help of the monks from the

  monastery." There was a note of enquiry in his voice.

  "You and Mek Nimmur win," she chuckled softly. "Of course we have to

  accept their help. Mek's arguments were very convincing."

  "So you agree that their reward should be the mummy of Mamose?"

  "I agree that they may take whatever mummy we discover, if we discover

  one at all," she qualified. "For all we know, the true mummy of Mamose

  may be the one that Nogo stole."

  Quite naturally he slipped his arm around her shoulders, and after a

  moment she relaxed against him. -oh, Nicky, I am afraid and excited.

  Afraid that all our hopes are vain, and excited that we might have found

  the key to Taita's game." She turned her face to his, and he felt her

  breath on his lips.

  He kissed her, tenderly. Then he drew back with the warmth of her

  lingering on his lips and studied her face in the starlight. She made no

  movement to pull away from stead she swayed towards him, and kissed him

  back., him. In At first it was a staid sisterly kiss, with her mouth

  tightly losed. He brought his right hand up behind her head and weaved

  his fingers into her hair, holding her face to his.

  He opened his mouth over hers, and she made a little sound of dissent

  through her closed lips.

  Slowly, voluptuously, he worked her lips apart, and her protests died

  away as he probed her mouth deely with his tongue. She was making a

  contented little mewling sound now, like a kitten nursing on the teat,

  and her arms went around him. She kneaded his back with strong supple

  fingers, her mouth wide open to his kiss, her tongue sinuous and

  slippery as it twined around his.

  He slid his other hand up between their bodies and unhooked the buttons

  of her shirt down as low as her belt.

  She leaned back slightly in his embrace to make it easier for him. With

  a delicious shock he discovered that her breasts were naked under the

  thin cotton shirt. He cupped one of them in his hand: it was small and

  firm, only just filling his hand. When he pinched the nipple gently , it

  stiffened between his fingers like a tiny ripe strawberry.

  He broke off the kiss and bowed his head to her bosom.

  She moaned softly, and with one hand guided him down.

  When he sucked her nipple into his mouth she gasped and hooked the nails

  of her other hand into his back, like a cat responding to a caress. Her

  whole body undulated in his embrace, and after a while she pulled his

  mouth away. He thought for a moment that she was rejecting him, but then

  she moved his head across and placed her other nipple in his mouth. Once

  again she gasped as he sucked it in.

  Her movements became mote abandoned, keeping pace with his own arousal.

  He could restrain himself no longer and he reached up under her khaki

  culottes and laid his hand on the plump mound of her sex. Then with one

  swift lithe movement she broke away and sprang to her feet. She stood

  back from him, smoothing down her culottes and buttoning her shirt with
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  fingers that trembled

  "I am so sorry, Nicky. I want to, oh God, you will never know how much I

  want to. But-' she shook her head and she was panting wildly, "not yet.

  Please, Nicky, forgive me. I am caught between two worlds. One half of

  me wants this so very much but the other half will not allow me He stood

  up and kissed her chastely. "There is no hurry. Good things are worth

  waiting for," he told her with his mouth just touching hers. "Come! I

  will take you home now."

  while it was still dark the next morning, the first levy of priests that

  Mai Metemma had promised came filing up the valley. Their chanting awoke

  the camp, and everyone came sleepily out of their thatched lean-to

  shelters to welcome the Ion column of holy men.

  "Sweet heavens," Nicholas yawned, "it looks as though we have started

  another crusade. They must have left the monastery in the middle of the

  night to get here at this hour." He went to find Tessay, and when he did

  he told her, "You are hereby appointed official translator. Sapper

  speaks not a word of either Arabic or Amharic. Stick close to him."

  As soon as it was fully light, Mek and Nicholas left camp to reconnoitr

  the drop site. By noon they had agreed that there was only one

  possibility: they would have to use the valley itself Compared to the

  rocky ridges that surrounded them, the floor of the valley was level and

  fairly free of obstructions. It was imperative that the drop should take

  place as close to the dam site as possible, for every mile that the

  stores must be manhandled would add immeasurably to the time and effort

  needed for the work.

  "Time is the major factor," Nicholas told Mek as they stood in the

  chosen drop zone the following morning.

  "Every day counts from now until the rains break."

  Mek looked up at the sky. "Pray God for late rains." They marked out

  their drop site a mile down from the river, along the stretch where the

  valley was widest and there was a clear approach through a gap in the

  hills.

  Jannie would need to fly straight and level for five miles under full

  flap and with the loading ramp down.

  "Cutting it fine," Mek remarked, as they surveyed the rugged slopes and

  frowning peaks that surrounded them.

  "Can your fat friend fly?"

  "Fly? He is half-bird,'Nicholas told him.

  They moved down the valley to check the placement of the flares and the

  markers, The markers consisted of crosses of quartz stones laid out down

  the centre of the valley floor, and they would be highly visible from

  the air.

  Sapper was up at the head of the valley. They could see him there on the

  skyline as he moved around, setting out his smoke flares to mark the

  approach to the drop zone.

  When Nicholas turned around and looked in the opposite direction, he

  could see the two women sitting on a rock together at the far end of the

  valley. Sapper had already helped them to set up their flares. These

  would mark the far limit of the zone, and give Jannie a mark for his

  climb out of the valley.

  Nicholas then turned his attention back to Mek's men as they finished

  laying out the stark white quartz markers.

  Once these were all in place, Mek ordered the area to be cleared. Then,

  lugging the radio, they climbed up to join Sapper on the high ground at

  the head of the valley. Mek helped Nicholas string out the aerial. Then

  Nicholas switched on and adjusted the gain carefully before he thumbed

  the microphone.

  "Big Dolly. Come in, Big Dolly!'Nicholas invited, but the static hummed

  and whined.

  "They must be running late." Nicholas tried not to let his disquiet

  show. Jannie will be coming straight in from Malta on this run. After

  the first drop he will go back to your base at Roseires and pick up the

  second load. With luck, both loads should all be dropped before noon

  tomorrow.

  "If the fat man comes at all," Mek remarked.

  Jannie is a pro," Nicholas grunted. "He will come." He held the

  microphone to his lips, "Big Dolly. Do you read?

  Over."

  Every ten minutes he called -out into the empty echoing silence. Each

  time his call went unanswered he had visions of Sudanese MiG

  interceptors racing in with their missiles cocked and locked, and the

  old Hercules plunging earthwards in flames.

  "Come in, Big Dolly!" he pleaded, and at last a thin, scratchy voice

  floated into his headset. "Pharaoh. This is Big Dolly. ETA forty-five

  minutes. Standing by." Jannie's transmission was terse. He was too much

  of an old hand at the smuggling game to give a hostile listener time to

  fix his position.

  "Big Dolly. Understand four five. Pharaoh standing by." Nicholas grinned

  at Mek. "Looks like we are in business after all."

  Mek heard it first. His ear was battle-tuned. In this i land, if you

  wanted to go on living it paid to pick up any aircraft long before it

  arrived. Nicholas was out of training, so it was almost five minutes

  later that he picked up the distinctive drone of the multi-props echoing

  weirdly off the Cliffs of the gorge. It was impossible to be certain of

  the direction, but they shaded their eyes and stared into the west.

  "There she is." Nicholas redeemed himself as he spotted the tiny dark

  speck, so low as almost to blend into the background of the escarpment

  wall. He nodded at Sapper.

  Sapper ran out to his flares and fussed over them briefly. When he

  backed away they bloomed into clouds of dense marigold-yellow smoke that

  drifted out sluggishly on the light breeze. The smoke would give Jannie

  the strength and direction of the wind, as well as his orientation for

  the drop zone.

  Nicholas lifted his binoculars and gazed towards the other end of the

  narrow valley. He saw that Royan and Tessay were busy with their flares.

  Suddenly crimson smoke billowed from them, and the women ran back to

  their original position and stood staring up at the sky.

  Nicholas called softly into the microphone. "Big Dolly.

  Smoke is up. Do you have it visual?"

  "Affirmative. You are visual. For what you are about to receive may you

  be truly thankful." Jannie's South African accent was unmistakable as he

  uttered the cheerful blasphemy.

  They watched the aircraft grow in size until its wings seemed to fill

  half the sky, and then its profile altered as the great wing flaps

  dropped and the ramp below its belly drooped open. Big Dolly slowed her

  flight so dramatically that she seemed to hang suspended on an invisible

  thread from the high African sun. Slowly she came around, banking

  steeply as Jannie tined her up on the smoke flares, dropping lower and

  still lower, headed directly at where they stood.

  With a savage roar that made all three of them duck, she passed so low

  over their heads that it seemed she would wipe them off the crest.

  Nicholas had a glimpse of Jannie upwarliov peering down at him from the

  cockpit, a fat smile on his face and one hand raised in a laconic wave,

  and then he was past.

  Nicholas straightened up and watched B
ig Dolly sweep majestica Ily down

  the centre of the valley. The first pallet dropped out of her and

  plunged earthwards, until at the last moment its parachutes burst open

  like a bride's bouuet. The fall of the heavy container was arrested

  abruptly.

  It. dangled and swung, and seconds later struck the floor of the valley

  in a cloud of yellow dust and with a crash they could hear up on the

  ridge. Then two more loads dropped from her, and they too hung for a

  moment on their chutes before they slammed in.

  Big Dolly's engines howled under full throttle and her nose lifted as

  she bored for height while she passed over the crimson smoke clouds, and

  then climbed out of the deadly trap of the valley. She came round in

  another wide turn and lined up for the second run. Once again the

  pallets dropped out of her as she roared over the quartz markers and

  then climbed out over the end wall of the valley, skimming the rocky

  spikes that would have clawed her down.

  Six times Jannie repeated the dangerous manoeuvre, and each time he

  dropped three of the heavy rectangular loads. They lay strewn down the

  length of the valley, shrouded by the tumbled white silk of their own

  parachutes.

  As Jannie climbed away from the last pass, his voice echoed in

  Nicholas's earphones. "Don't go away, Pharaoh!

  I will be back." Then Big Dolly lifted her belly ramp like an old lady

  hoisting her knickers and headed away westwards.

  Nicholas and Mek ran down into the valley, where the monks were already

  jabbering and laughing. around the pallets. Quickly the two of them took

  control, sorting the men into gangs and directing them as they broke

  down the loads and carried them away.

  Nicholas and Sapper had planned that the pallets should be dropped in

  the order that their contents would be needed. The first pallet

  contained canned and dried food, all their personal effects and camping

  equipment, along with those other little creature comforts that Nicholas

  had allowed, including mosquito nets and a case of malt whisky. He was

  relieved to see that there was no leakage from the precious case: not

  one of the bottles had been broken in the drop.

  Sapper took charge of the building material and heavy equipment. With

  Tessay relaying his orders, it was dragged and manhandled away to the

  ancient quarry where it would be packed and stored until needed on site.