gender he or she adopts at any particular moment. Throughout the scrolls
Taita uses Hapi as an alternative name for the river.'
'So if we put the seventh scroll and the 'inscription from the Queen's
tomb together, what then is your full interpretation?' he insisted.
'Simply this: Tanus is buried within sight of, or very close to, the
river at the second waterfall. There is a stone monument or inscription
on, or in, his tomb that points the way to the tomb of Pharaoh.'
He exhaled through his teeth. 'I am exhausted from all this jumping to
conclusions. What other clues have you ferreted out for me?'
'That's it,' she said, and he looked at her with disbelief.
'That's it? Nothing else?' he demanded, and she shook her head.
'Just suppose that you are correct so far. Let us suppose that the river
is recognizably the same in shape and configuration as it was nearly
four thousand years ago. Let us further suppose that Taita was indeed
pointing us towards the second waterfall at the Dandera river. just what
do we look for when we get there? If there is a rock inscription, will
it still be intact or will it be eroded away by weather and the action
of the river?'
'Howard Carter had an equally slender lead to the tomb of Tutankhamen,'
she pointed out mildly. 'A single piece of papyrus, of dubious
authenticity.'
'Howard Carter had only the area of the Valley of the Kings to search.
It still took him ten years,' he replied. 'You have given me Ethiopia, a
country twice the size of France.
How long will that take us, do you think?'
She stood up abruptly, 'Excuse me, I think I should go and visit my
mother in hospital. It's fairly obvious that I am wasting my time here.'
'It is not yet visiting hours,' he told her.
'She has a private room.' Royan made for the door.
'I will drive you to the hospital,' he offered.
'Don't bother. I will call a taxi,' she replied in a tone that crackled
with ice.
'A taxi will take an hour to get here,' he warned, and she relented just
enough to let him lead her to the Range Rover. They drove in silence for
fifteen minutes, before he spoke.
'I am not very good at apologies. Not much practice, I am afraid, but I
am sorry. I was abrupt. I didn't mean to be.
Carried away by the excitement of the moment She did not reply, and
after a minute added,'You will have to talk to me, unless we are to
correspond only by note. It will be a bit awkward down in the Abbay
gorge.'
'I had the distinct impression that you were no longer interested in
going down there.' She stared ahead through the windscreen.
am a brute,' he agreedi and she glanced sideways at him. It was her
undoing. His grin was irresistible, and she laughed.
'I Suppose I will just have to come to terms with that fact. You are a
brute.'
'Still partners?' he asked.
'At the moment you are the only brute I have.
suppose that I am stuck with you.'
