The Exodus Quest Read online

  It went up with a violent whoomp like a great orange balloon launching into the night sky. But after its first furious blaze, it burned itself out, leaving soft flames licking at the Jeep’s undercarriage; and though the fabric of the ripped seats was smouldering with a rich black choking smoke, much of it was escaping through the broken windows, sucking the fresh air back in.

  Peterson scowled. Even should Knox asphyxiate, he’d still need to retrieve his phone. He knelt once more on the buckled bonnet, poked his head inside, braving the intense heat. The seat belt was still jammed. He worked furiously at the release, tugging, jiggling and pushing until finally it came free. He gave himself a momentary respite from the fierce heat and smoke, then went back in, grabbed Knox’s collar, hauled him forwards while reaching for his pocket and—

  ‘Hey!’

  Peterson guiltily let go of Knox, jumped backwards. Two men in fluorescent yellow bibs were standing on top of the ditch, spotlighting him with their torches. The taller scrambled down, the name Shareef emblazoned in a Highways Maintenance badge upon his chest. He said something in Arabic.

  Peterson shook his head blankly. ‘I’m American,’ he said.

  Shareef switched to English. ‘What happened?’

  ‘I found them like this,’ said Peterson. He nodded at Knox. ‘This one’s still alive. I was trying to get him out before the smoke gets to him.’

  Shareef nodded. ‘I help you, yes?’

  ‘Thank you.’ They hauled Knox out through the windscreen, over to the bank, laid him gently down. The second highway maintenance man was carrying on a fraught conversation on his mobile. ‘What’s going on?’ asked Peterson.

  ‘Big crash in Hannoville,’ explained Shareef. ‘No ambulances. The hospital ask can we bring them in ourselves.’ He nodded at his own vehicle, just a cab with a crane on the back, then at Peterson’s Toyota, still parked by the bridge. ‘We take yours, yes?’

  Peterson nodded, trapped. Argue now, he’d only raise suspicions. ‘Where’s the hospital?’ he asked.

  ‘Follow us,’ said Shareef, stooping to pick Knox up once more. ‘We show you.’

  FOURTEEN

  I

  The evening meal was cleared away, coffee brought in its place. Gaille clasped her hands beneath the table and wondered how quickly she could excuse herself. Perhaps Lily sensed her restlessness, for she leaned forwards into the candlelight. ‘I was fascinated by the talatat Gaille showed me earlier. She hinted you might have something interesting to share with us.’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Fatima. She turned to Gaille. ‘You don’t need to be here for this, my dear. Perhaps you should update our Digging Diary.’

  Gaille felt a prick of shame. ‘I can do it tomorrow,’ she said.

  ‘Please,’ said Fatima. ‘It doesn’t pay to fall behind.’

  Gaille nodded and stood. ‘Goodnight, then,’ she said, touching Fatima’s shoulder in gratitude as she passed.

  ‘Are we all set for the morning?’ asked Lily. ‘Only we really need to film the sun rising over Amarna.’

  ‘You may not find that possible,’ said Fatima, answering for Gaille. ‘The ferry won’t start running until dawn. You should film from the west bank anyway. That’s how Akhenaten first saw it.’

  ‘We’ll need to leave by a quarter to five,’ said Gaille. ‘That should give us plenty of time.’ She nodded goodnight, trying not to let any resentment show as she closed the door.

  It reopened almost immediately, however, and Lily came out. ‘I’m really sorry about this, Gaille,’ she said.

  ‘Sorry about what?’

  ‘About manoeuvring you into coming with us tomorrow.’

  ‘It’s okay.’

  ‘It’s not okay. I’ve used your good nature against you, we all have, don’t think we don’t know it. And I just wanted to say sorry. I hate doing things like that to good people. If anyone tried it on me …’

  Gaille laughed. ‘It’s fine,’ she said; and suddenly it was.

  Lily gave a rueful yet charming smile. ‘This is my first overseas assignment. I don’t want it to be my last.’

  ‘You’re doing great.’

  She threw a glance at the door. ‘That’s not what he thinks.’

  ‘Don’t worry about him. I’ve worked with his kind before. He’ll think himself wonderful and everyone else awful no matter what happens. The only thing you can do is not let it get to you.’

  ‘I won’t. And thanks again.’

  Gaille found herself in an unexpectedly good mood as she reached her room, humming a half-remembered tune as she turned on her laptop and connected to the Internet. Their Digging Diary did need an update, though it wasn’t exactly urgent, especially considering the precious little traffic the site got. But Fatima liked keeping it fresh. Anything to spread the word. She posted a summary of recent finds, added a photograph, her mind wandering back to the dinner table, wondering what Fatima was telling Lily and Stafford about the talatat they’d found.

  Akhenaten had routinely been portrayed with breasts in sculptures and paintings. Some said it was the prevailing artistic style; others attributed it to disease. But one statue showed him completely naked, and not only did he have breasts but he had a perfectly smooth groin too, no hint of genitalia. In some cultures this might have been prudery, but Eighteenth Dynasty artists had been anything but coy. Some had argued that Akhenaten must therefore have been a woman, like Hatshepsut, who’d disguised her sex to ascend the throne. Others had even claimed Akhenaten an hermaphrodite. But then it had been pointed out that the statue had been designed to wear a kilt in antiquity, so that drawing such extravagant conclusions from it was completely unsafe. Yet their cache of talatat threatened to revive the controversy, for Gaille had assembled a plausible portrait of Akhenaten, naked, with pronounced breasts, yet without genitalia. And that was what Fatima was telling Stafford and Lily right now.

  Her update finished, Gaille yawned, eager for bed. But she checked her hotmail account just in case. Her heart gave a little jolt when she saw she had an email from Knox. She opened it up.

  Took the attached at poss Therapeutae site! Light terrible. Can you help? All speed appreciated!

  I miss you.

  Daniel.

  She reached out and touched the screen, fingertips tingling with static. She’d had many reasons for accepting Fatima’s invitation to join her team for a month’s work, but the strongest had been her growing certainty that having Knox’s friendship wasn’t going to be enough for her. She’d needed his respect as well.

  I miss you.

  Suddenly she felt wide-awake again, vibrant. She began downloading his photographs to her hard disk, eager to get to work on them.

  II

  Peterson never cursed out loud, but there were moments during the drive to the hospital when he came precious close. It was partly because he’d not had an opportunity to retrieve Knox’s phone, for Shareef was in the back of the Toyota ministering to him and Tawfiq. But mostly it was from trying to keep up with Shareef’s colleague in the Highway Agency cab. The man was crazy, driving recklessly fast, pumping his horn and flashing his lights as he wove through thickening traffic, road signs and markings whistling by like tracer fire.

  He roared past an articulated lorry, braked sharply for the off-ramp, up through the gears again, speedometer needle whipping around the dial. They emerged from an underpass, took such a sharp right that Peterson had to wrench the Toyota’s steering wheel with his whole body, bumping down a potholed road, a barrier ahead being raised even as they approached, then racing into the hospital grounds, past the cement mixer and two pyramids of sand being used for ongoing building works, screeching to a halt outside the hospital front doors.

  The place was already abuzz with emergency staff from the Hannoville crash. A medic and two porters hurried out. The back of the Toyota flew up. The medic clamped masks over Omar’s and Knox’s mouths; had them put onto trolleys. Peterson got out, running alongside Knox as he was wheeled inside, his hand
resting by his left hip, eyes on the bulge in Knox’s pocket. He glanced around. Everyone was frantic, calling out orders, no one watching him. He reached for the—

  They crashed hard into swing doors, the surprise forcing Peterson to drop back. By the time he caught up again, Knox had been turned onto his side, his shirt off, blackened skin beneath. A nurse took off his shoes, unbuckled and pulled down his jeans. Peterson tried to grab them from her. ‘My friend,’ he said.

  But the nurse yanked them from him and pointed emphatically back at the swing doors. He turned to see Shareef standing there with a policeman, a bull of a man with small piercing eyes and a bitter line to his upper lip. Peterson forced a smile, made his way to join them.

  ‘This is Detective Inspector Farooq,’ said Shareef. ‘He was here for that other crash.’

  ‘A long night for you,’ said Peterson.

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Farooq tersely. ‘And you are?’

  ‘Peterson. The Reverend Ernest Peterson.’

  ‘And you found these two, yes?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You want to tell me about it?’

  ‘Perhaps I should move my car first,’ said Peterson. ‘It’s blocking the entrance.’ He nodded to them both, walked out through the front doors, thinking furiously about what story to give. The policeman had a look about him, the kind who distrusted everyone, who automatically assumed all witnesses were lying to him, until he could establish otherwise. He started up the Toyota, headed into the parking area. Stick to the truth. That was the key in such situations. Or, at least, stick as close to the truth as you could.

  III

  Gaille smiled as she opened the first of Knox’s photographs. He hadn’t been kidding about the light. The screen was almost completely black, except for a yellow tint of moonlight top left. But she was good at this, and soon she’d coaxed from it a dark but clear picture of a partially exhumed grave. She saved it and moved on. A few of the pictures proved beyond her skills, but most responded well. In fact, once she’d worked out which adjustments to make, it became almost repetitive. The content of the pictures kept her rapt, however. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Catacombs, human remains, oil lamps, murals. But the most striking photograph was of a mosaic: a figure sitting inside a seven-pointed star, surrounded by clusters of Greek letters. Gaille frowned. She’d seen other such clusters recently, she was sure of it. But she couldn’t think where.

  She finished the photograph, saved it and moved on. When she’d completed the last photograph, she composed a reply to Knox, attaching all the images she’d been able to enhance. Then she checked the time with a heartfelt groan. She was supposed to be setting off for Amarna in just a few hours. She hurried to get ready for bed to grab what little sleep she could.

  FIFTEEN

  I

  Farooq watched from the hospital’s front doors as Peterson parked his Toyota 4x4 in an empty bay. ‘Maybe I was just imagining things,’ murmured Shareef. ‘Maybe it was nothing.’

  ‘Maybe,’ agreed Farooq.

  ‘It was just … I kept getting this impression. That we were in his way, you know. That he was looking for something. And I wasn’t imagining what I told you about the seat belt.’

  ‘Foreigners,’ muttered Farooq, spitting a fleck of tobacco from his lip. He loathed them all, but the English and Americans most. The way they behaved: they thought it was still the old days.

  ‘You need me any longer?’ asked Shareef.

  Farooq shook his head. ‘I’ll call if I have any questions.’

  ‘Not before morning, okay? I need my sleep.’

  ‘Don’t we all?’ He threw down his cigarette as Peterson arrived back at the hospital’s front doors, then led him to the makeshift office he’d been given, motioned for him to take a chair, turned over a fresh sheet on his notepad. ‘Go on, then,’ he grunted. ‘What happened?’

  Peterson nodded. ‘You should know first that I’m an archaeologist,’ he said, spreading his hands wide, giving what he no doubt imagined was a sincere and candid smile. ‘I’m here on excavation in Borg el-Arab. Earlier today, yesterday now, I suppose, we had a visit from Doctor Omar Tawfiq, he’s head of the SCA in Alexandria, you know, and a man called Daniel Knox, a British archaeologist.’

  Farooq grunted. ‘You’re not going to tell me one of those two men you brought in is head of the SCA in Alexandria?’

  ‘I’m afraid so.’

  ‘Hell!’

  ‘We spoke for a while. We informally arranged a full site tour. Then they left. I thought no more of it. But then, after dark, we had an intruder.’

  ‘An intruder?’

  ‘It’s not uncommon,’ sighed Peterson. ‘The local Bedouin farmers are all convinced we’re finding great treasures. Why else would we be digging, after all? We’re not, of course. But they won’t take our word for it.’

  ‘So this intruder … ?’

  ‘Yes. We chased him off the site. He got into a car. Someone else was driving.’

  ‘And you went after them?’

  ‘You can’t just let people run over your site. They’ll contaminate important data. I wanted to give them a piece of my mind. I thought it might deter others. I was way behind them though. Then I saw flames.’ He shrugged. ‘I got there as quick as I could. It was awful. One of them, the man Knox, was still inside. I was worried he’d asphyxiate. I managed to release his seat belt. That’s when the Highway Maintenance men arrived, thank heavens.’

  A tired-looking doctor knocked and entered. ‘Bad news,’ he said. ‘The man from Borg. The Egyptian one.’

  ‘Dead?’ asked Farooq gloomily.

  The doctor nodded. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘And the other?’

  ‘Grade three or four concussion, smoke inhalation, moderate burns. The smoke and burns should both be manageable. The concussion is more problematic. You can never be sure, not this soon. It depends on impact damage, how the intracranial pressure builds, how the—’

  ‘When will I be able to talk to him?’

  ‘Give it two or three days and he should be—’

  ‘He may be responsible for the other man’s death,’ said Farooq tightly.

  ‘Ah,’ said the doctor, scratching his cheek. ‘I’ll take him off the morphine. With luck, he’ll be awake by morning. Don’t expect too much though. He’ll probably suffer retrograde and anterograde amnesia.’

  ‘Do I look like a doctor?’ scowled Farooq.

  ‘Sorry. He’s highly unlikely to remember anything from immediately before or after the crash.’

  ‘All the same,’ said Farooq. ‘I need to speak to him.’

  ‘As you wish.’ He nodded and withdrew.

  ‘What terrible news,’ sighed Peterson, when Farooq had translated the gist for him. ‘I only wish I could have done something more.’

  ‘You did what you could.’

  ‘Yes. Is there anything else?’

  ‘Your contact details.’

  ‘Of course.’ Peterson turned the pad to face him, jotted down a phone number, directions to the site. Then he got to his feet, nodded and left.

  Farooq watched him out. Something wasn’t right, but his brain was too tired right now, he needed sleep. He yawned heavily, got up. Just one more thing to take care of. If Knox was truly to blame for the death of Alexandria’s senior archaeologist, he needed to be kept under watch: his own room, a man outside his door. Then he’d come back tomorrow and find out just exactly what the hell was going on.

  II

  Gaille was drifting to sleep when suddenly she jolted awake, sat up, turned on her light. Stafford’s two books were on her bedside table. She grabbed the one about Solomon’s lost treasures, flipped through the pages to a photograph of the Copper Scroll, most mysterious of the Dead Sea Scrolls: a treasure map written in Hebrew, but containing an anomaly that no one had ever satisfactorily explained: seven clusters of Greek letters.

  KεΝ XAΓ HN Θε ΔΙ ΤP ΣΚ

  She took the book over to her lapto
p, turned it on, brought up Knox’s photograph of the mosaic. A thrill shivered her as she saw that the clusters were identical, though arranged in a different order. But the figure in the mosaic was pointing at the KεΝ; and the line that made up the seven-pointed star went past the other six clusters in the exact same sequence as in the Copper Scroll.

  She sat back in her chair, astounded, confused, electrified. The Copper Scroll had been an Essene document, and thus linked to Knox’s Therapeutae site. But even so. …

  She grabbed her phone. Knox would want to hear this at once, whatever the time. But he wasn’t answering. She left messages instead, telling him to call at once. Then she sat there, reading Stafford’s book and studying the photographs, brooding on what it might mean, her mind fizzing with the excitement of the chase.

  III

  Peterson moved his Toyota to the far shadows of the car park, then sat there watching the hospital’s front doors, for he dared not leave without first taking care of Knox’s camera-phone.

  It felt like an age before Farooq finally came out, lit a cigarette, walked wearily over to his car, drove away. Peterson gave it ten more minutes to be safe, then headed back inside. First things first. His face and hands were smeared with oil and soot. If anyone saw him that way, he was bound to be challenged. He found a men’s room, stripped down, washed himself vigorously, wiped himself dry with paper towels. Not perfect, but it would have to do. He checked his watch. He needed to get busy.

  A family was squabbling in strained, hushed voices in reception. An obese woman was stretched out on a bench. Peterson pushed through swing doors into a dimly lit corridor. Signs in Arabic and English. Oncology and Paediatrics. Not what he was looking for. He took the back stairs, emerged into a corridor. A doctor scurried between trauma patients on trolleys, the adrenaline long-since worn off, leaving him merely exhausted. Peterson hurried past, pushed through double doors into a small room crammed with six beds. He walked the aisle, scanned faces. No sign of Knox. Back along the corridor, into the next ward. Six people here, too, none of them Knox. He continued checking rooms without success, out into a stairwell, up another floor, through swing doors into an identical corridor. A policeman was snoozing on a hard wooden chair outside the nearest room, his head tilted back against the wall. Damn Farooq! But the man was asleep and there was no one else in sight. Peterson approached stealthily, listening intently for any change in the rhythm of his gentle snoring. God was with him and he reached the door without alarm. He opened it quietly, rested it closed behind him.