of yours still airworthy? This job should be a lark. What's more, the
money is good. Call me at the flat in the UK. No hurry. Yesterday, or
the' day before, will do just fine.'
Royan rang the doorbell a minute after he finished the last call, and he
ran down the stairs.
'Your timing is impeccable,' he told her as she came in with the end of
her nose pink with cold, shaking the raindrops off the coat he had lent
her. 'Did you get the films developed?'
She pulled the yellow packet out of the coat pocket and brandished it
triumphantly.
'You are a master photographer,' she told him. 'They have turned out
perfectly. I can read every character on the stele with the naked eye.
We are back in Taita's game again.'
They spread the glossy photographs across his desktop and gloated over
them.
'You have had duplicates made? A set for each of us.
Excellent,' Nicholas approved. 'The negatives will go into the safe
deposit box at my bank. We won't take a chance on losing them the second
time around.'
Using his large magnifying glass, Royan studied each of the prints in
turn, and she picked out the clearest shot of each of the four sides of
the stele.
'These will be our working copies. I don't think we are really going to
miss the rubbings that we lifted from the stone. These should suffice.'
She read aloud a snippet from one of the blocks of hieroglyphics. ''The
cobra uncoils and lifts his jewelled hood. The stars of morning shine
within his eyes. Three times his black and slippery tongue kisses the
air.'' She was flushed with excitement. 'I wonder what Taita is telling
us with that verse. Oh, Nicky, it's so exciting to be unravelling the
mysteries again!'
'Leave it alone now he ordered sternly. 'I know you.
Once you start, we'll be here all night. Let's get the Range Rover
packed up. It's a long, hard haul up to York, and there is an AA warning
of black ice on the motorway. A bit of a change from the weather in the
Abbay gorge.'
She straightened up and shuffled the prints into a neat pile. 'You are
right. Sometimes I do tend to get carried away.' She stood up. 'Before
we go, may I make a phone call home?'
'By home, I take it that you mean Cairo?'
'Sorry. Yes, to Cairo. Duraid's farnily7-'
'Please! No need to explain. There is the phone. Help yourself I'll be
waiting downstairs in the kitchen when you are finished. We both need a
cup of tea before we get going.'
She came down into the kitchen half an hour later looking guilty, and
told him directly, 'I am afraid that I am going to be a nuisance again.
I have a confession to make.'
'Spit it out, he invited.
'I have to go back home - to Cairo,' she said, and he looked at her
startled. 'Just for a few days,' she qualified hurriedly. 'I was
