on other work. Duraid and I flew into Libya from there with Jannie on
our little jaunt to the Tibesti Massif.
Jannie will be taking us down to the Abbay.'
'Nicky, I don't want to be a killjoy, but you and I are now undesirable
immigrants to Ethiopia. Had you over looked that little fact? How do you
propose to get back in there?'
'Through the back door,' Nicholas grinned, 'and my old pal Mek Nimmur is
the gatekeeper.'
'You have been in contact with Mek?'
'With Tessay. It seems that she is now his go'between.
I imagine it's very convenient for Mek to have her on board. She has all
the right connections, and she can slip in and out of Khartoum or Addis
or places where it might be awkward or even dangerous for him to be
seen.'
'Well, well!' Royan looked impressed. 'You have been busy.'
'Not all of us can afford a holiday in Cairo whenever the fancy takes
us,' he told her tartly.
'One more little question.' She ignored the jibe, although she realized
that despite his easy smile her absence must have irked him. 'Does Mek
know about Taita's game?'
'Not in detail.' Nicholas shook his head. 'But he has some suspicions,
and anyway I know I can rely on him.' He hesitated, and then went on.
'Tessay was very cagey when I spoke to her on the phone, but it seems
that there has been some sort of attack on St. Frumentius monastery. Jah
Hora. and thirty or forty of his monks were massacred, and most of the
sacred relics from the church were stolen.'
'Oh, dear God, no!' Royan looked stricken. 'Who would do a thing like
that?'
'The same people who murdered Duraid, and made three attempts to wipe
you out.'
'Pegasus.'
'Von Schiller,' he agreed.
'Then we are directly responsible,' Royan whispered.
'We led them to the monastery. The Polaroids they captured from us when
they raided our camp would have shown them the stele and the tomb of
Tanus. Von Schiller wouldn't have to be a clairvoyant to guess where we
had taken them. Now there is more blood on our hands.'
'Hell, Royan, how can you take responsibility for von Schiller's
madness? I am not going to let you punish yourself for that.' Nicholas's
tone was sharp and angry.
'We started this whole thing.'
'I don't agree with that, but I admit that von, Schiller is the one who
must have cleaned out the maqdas of St. Frumentius and that the stele
and the coffin are now almost certainly part of his collection.'
'Oh, Nicky, I feel so guilty. I never realized what a danger we were to
those simple devout Christians.'
'Do you want to call off the whole thing?' he asked cruelly.
She thought about it seriously for a while, then shook her head.
'No. Perhaps when we go back we will be able to compensate the monks for
