Nile Shadows

necessary? Well the answer to that is anytime, anywhere. And I'd have you killed and I'd kill myself for the same reason, if it were necessary. I detest the Nazis and I'd do anything to see them defeated.

Bletchley's eye was huge, bulging, overwhelming in its nakedness.

Do you hear me, Joe? Anything. I believe in life and the Nazis wear the death's- head and they are death. So don't play with things here. It's not a game we're in.

Joe nodded.

You're right and I deserved that. The question was out of line. I'm sorry. . . . So that barren cave of a bar and a man named Stern and a stray grenade in the night aside, some things got out of hand during the last few days, I take it? A matter of somebody, Whatley say, pursuing his righteous course in the name of God and goodness? Is that why there were those other killings?

There was a serious misunderstanding, said Bletchley. Mistakes were made but I'm in command at the Monastery, so the responsibility is mine. Nobody else's.

True enough, said Joe. It always does work that way when you're in charge, and Stern could manage that and you can, but I never could. Well, there's nothing more to say about that I guess, but do you think you could tell me what you did have in mind when you decided to get me over here?

Of course, that's easy enough. Some new information had turned up about Stern and it worried me.

By new information, you mean some facts having to do with Stern's Polish story?

Yes.

Can you tell me how that new information happened to turn up?

Bletchley looked at him.

No I can't. And anyway, Joe, the man who came to Cairo to find out about Stern died in a fire in the Hotel Babylon, and his interest died with him.

And so it did, said Joe. A fire decided it in the end. . . . And so this new information came your way and then what?

And it worried me, said Bletchley. I knew Stern wasn't well and I was afraid he was beginning to say things to those who were close to him. I didn't know what might happen and I thought someone from the outside might be able to help, someone who had known Stern in another context, from the past. So I went through his file and your name turned up.

Bletchley looked down at the river and a sad, empty expression came over his face.

If I'd told you more in the beginning it might not have turned out the way it did. But that . . . well, that's not how it was.

How it was, murmured Joe. How it was. . . .

Joe squinted, gazing out over the river.

Bletchley?

Yes.

Listen to me. Don't take so much of this on yourself. You came into this in the middle of things, just like the rest of us. Like me, like Liffy, like David and Ahmad and everybody else. You didn't start it and you did the best you could with what was in front of you, so let up on yourself a little. . . .

Joe paused.

Anyway, he added, I know who told you Stern's Polish story.

Bletchley's head jerked back and he raised his hands, stopping Joe almost pleading with him.

No names, he whispered. For God's sake, Joe, no names. We haven't spoken of this.

Joe nodded.

No, we haven't spoken of it and there'll be no names. I'm merely referring to persons unknown and to their haunting elegy that's half as old as time, an allusive recitation to the stars and a hymn as anonymous as the night. So no names, then, but I want you to know you're not alone here, because I know who told you, and I know why they told you.

Bletchley sat perfectly still, unable to look at Joe. Again Joe paused, looking out at the water. He spoke in a very quiet voice.

Yes, they loved him, and they loved him too much to see him coming apart like that. They just couldn't bear to see it happen because Stern was special for them. You could see it in his eyes, they said, and you could hear it in his laughter. . . . Hope, they said. For he was a man who stood by the river and saw great things, and his eyes shone at the splendor of the gift, like a hungry man brought to a great table.

Precious, they said. Always to be so, they said.

But then they saw him coming apart like the world itself, and he was too precious to them to be destroyed like that, too beautiful by far, so they took his burden from him and spoke to you. . . . We would do anything for him, they said to me. But there's nothing we can do for him now but weep, and so we do that . . . for Stern our son.

***

Joe felt Bletchley move beside him. He looked down and saw that Bletchley had taken something out of his pocket and was holding it in his good hand, slowly turning it over and over.

That looks like an old Morse-code key, said Joe. Worn and smooth with a soft sheen to it, the way things get with a lot of handling. . . . Tell me, what happens to old Menelik's crypt now?

Nothing, said Bletchley. It will stay the way it is . . . locked. The way it was left.

Good. That's something at least.

Slowly, Bletchley turned the worn Morse-code key over and over in his good hand.

I also ought to mention, he said, that someone checked through your room before the fire. All that was found were some clothes and your small valise. The valise had a faded red wool hat in it and a khaki blanket from the Crimean War. Was there anything else?

No, that was it, said Joe. They went the way of the fire, did they?

Bletchley nodded. Joe shook his head.

That must be Liffy's Third Law, said Joe. I guess he didn't have time to mention it. Only the things you care about go up in smoke.

He took another drink from the flask and they both fell silent, gazing out at the river.

***

What were you thinking about just now? asked Joe.

The front. El Alamein.

Will it hold, the way you see it?

I hope so. In any case it has to. The tide has to turn and it has to turn now or people will lose hope.

Yes. And in the meantime, what will you be doing with that good-luck charm in your hand, do you think?

I'll carry it with me for a while, said Bletchley, and someday, if things work out that way, I'll give it to someone.

Who?

Bletchley glanced at him and looked away.

Did you know there was a child, Joe?

Whose child? What do you mean?

Eleni and Stern. Did you know they had a child?

Joe was stunned.

What? Is that true?

Yes.

Are you sure?

Yes. Stern told me about her. She's a young woman now.

Joe whistled softly.

But that's just astonishing. Who is she? Where is she? Oh my God.

She's Greek, said Bletchley. She was born in Smyrna but later on she grew up in Crete. Eleni's uncle, Sivi, had relatives in Crete. His father came from there, from a little village up in the mountains.

I know that.