The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 72

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there, while he crabbed sideways across the current towards the bank.

There was no resistance from Boris, but Mek kept his head submerged for

the rest of that long tortuous swim across the Nile.

"How do you kill a monster?" he thought grimly. "I should bury him at a

crossroads with a stake through his heart." But instead he drowned him

fifty times over, and at the next bend of the river they were washed

into the bank.

Mek's men were waiting for him there. They supported him when his legs

sagged under him, and they helped him up the bank. When they started to

drag Boris's corpse out of the river, Mek stopped them abruptly.

him for the crocodiles. After what he has done

"Leave to our country and our people, he deserves nothing better." But

even in his anger and his hatred he did not want Tessay to have to look

at that mutilated head. She had been unable to keep pace with the men,

but she was coming along the bank towards him now.

One of his men pushed Boris's corpse back into the current, and as it

floated away he unstung his AK rifle from his shoulder and let off a

burst of automatic fire. The bullets chopped up the surface around

Boris's head, and socked heavily into his back. They tore holes in his

wet shirt and kicked out lumps of raw flesh. The other men on the bank

shouted with laughter and joined in the fusillade, emptying their

magazines into the lifeless body. Mek did them. Some of their close

relatives not attempt to prevent had died most horribly under the

Russian's care. The corpse rolled over in a pink cloud of its own blood,

and for a moment Boris's pate bulging eyes stared at the sky. Then he

sank away beneath the surface.

Mek stood up slowly and went to meet Tessay. He took her in his arms,

and as he held her to his chest he whispered to her softly.

"It's all right. He won't ever hurt you again. It's all over. You are my

woman now - for ever!'

Since -Boris and Tessay had left the camp there was no longer any reason

to maintain security, and Nicholas -and Royan were no longer obliged to

skulk in Royan's hut when they discussed their search for the tomb.

Nicholas transferred their headquarters into the dining hut, and had the

camp staff build another large table on which they could spread the

satellite photographs and all the other maps and material that they had

accumulated.

The chef sent a steady supply of coffee from the kitchen, while they

pored over the papers and discussed their discoveries in Taita's pool

and every theory that either of them dreamed up, no matter how

far-fetched.

"We will never be certain if that shaft was made by Taita, or whether it

was a natural sink-hole, until we can get back in there with the right

equipment."

"What type of equipment are you talking about?" she wanted to know.

"Scuba, not oxygen rebreathers. Although the navy rebreathing outfits

are much lighter and more compact, you cannot use them below a'depth of

thirty-three feet, the equivalent of one atmosphere of water. After that

pure oxygen becomes lethal. Have you ever used an aqualung?"

She nodded. "When Dutaid and I were on honeymoon at a resort on the Red

Sea. I had a few lessons and made three or four open-water dives, but

let me hasten to add that I am no expert."

"I promise not to send you down there," he smiled, "but I think we can

safely say that we have found enough evidence both in Tanus's tomb and

Taita's pool to make it imperative that we mount the second phase of

this operation."

She nodded agreement. "We will have to return with a much more extensive

range of equipment, and some expert help. But you are not going to be

able to pose as a- tourist Sportsman next time around. What possible

excuse are we going to find for returning that will not set off all the

alarm bells in the minds of Ethiopian bureaucracy?"

"You are speaking to the man who has paid unofficial and uninvited

visits to both those charming lads Gadaffi and Saddam. Ethiopia should

be a Sunday-school picnic in comparison."

"When do the big rains start up in the mountains?" she asked suddenly.

"Yes!" His expression became serious. That is the jackpot question. You

only have to look at the high-water mark on the walls of Taita's pool to

have some idea what it must be like in there when the river is in full

flood." He flipped over the pages of his pocket diary. "Luckily, we

still have a bit of time - not a great deal, but'enough. We will need to

move pretty smartly. We have to get back home before I can start work on

planning phase two."

"We should pack up right away, then."

"Yes, we should. But it seems a damned shame not to take full advantage

of every moment we are here, having come all this way. I think we can

spare just a few more days to sound out some ideas that I have about

Taita's pool and the sink-hole, to try to arrive at some sort of

informed guess about what we will need when we return."

"You are the boss."

"My word, how pleasant to hear a lady say that." She smiled sweetly.

"Enjoy the moment," she counselled him, "it may never happen again." And

then she became serious again. "What are these ideas that you have?

"What goes up must come down, what goes in must come out," he said

mysteriously. "The water going into the sink'hole under such pressure

must be going somewhere.

Unless it joins a subterranean water system and makes its way into the

Nile that way, then it should come to the surface where we can find it."

"Go on," she invited.

40the thing is certain. Nobody is going to get into the sink-hole from

the pool. The pressure is lethal. But if we can find the outlet, we may

be able to explore it from the other end."

"That's a fascinating possibility." She looked impressed, and turned to

the satellite photograph. Nicholas had identified the monastery and

ringed it on the photograph.

He had marked in the approximate course of the river through the chasm,

although the gorge itself was too narrow and covered with bush to show

up on the smallscale picture, even under the high-powered magnifying

lens.

"Here is the point where the river enters the chasm." She pointed it out

to him. "And here is the side valley down which the trail detours.

Okay?"

"Okay," he nodded. "What are you driving at?"

"On our approach march, we remarked that this valley might at one time

have been the original course of the Dandera river, and that it seemed

to have cut a new bed for itself through the chasm."

"That's right,'Nicholas agreed. "I am still listening."

"The fall of the land towards the Nile is very steep at this point,

isn't it? Well, do you recall we crossed another smaller, but still

pretty substantial, stream on our way down the dry valley? That stream

seemed to emerge from somewhere on the eastern side of the valley."

All right, I am with you now. You are suggesting that this may be the

overflow from the sinkholes Clever little devil, aren't you?"

"Just capitalizing on your genius." She cast down her eyes modestly, and

looked up at him from under her lashes.

She was clowning, but her lashes were long and dense and curling, and

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