The Rosetta Key

“I’m sorry,” I said inadequately.

“That is war. War and fate. And now Bonaparte may come this way.” She shuddered. “Is this secret you seek, will it help?”

“Help what?”

“Stop all the killing and violence. Make this city holy again.” Well, that was the question, wasn’t it? Astiza and her allies had never been certain whether they could use this mysterious Book of Thoth for good or must simply ensure it didn’t fall into the wrong hands for evil.

“I only know it will hurt if that bastard who shot at us gets it first.” And with that, I decided to kiss her.

It was a stolen kiss that took advantage of our emotional turmoil, and yet she didn’t immediately pull away, even though I was hard against her thigh. I couldn’t help my arousal, the action and intimacy had excited me, and the way she kissed back I knew it was recip-rocated, at least a little. When she did pull away it was with a little gasp.

To keep me from pressing against her again, she looked from my eyes to my temple. “You’re bleeding.” It was a way to not talk of what we’d just done.

Indeed, the side of my head was wet and warm, and I had the t h e

r o s e t t a k e y

5 7

damndest headache. “It’s a scratch,” I said, more bravely than I felt.

“Let’s go talk to your brother.”

¤

¤

¤

We’d better finish this rifle of yours,” Jericho said when I told him our story.

“Capital idea. I might get you to forge me a tomahawk, too. Ouch! ” Miriam was dressing my wound. It stung a little, but her strong fingers were wonderfully gentle as she wrapped my head. The pistol ball had only grazed me, but it shakes a man to come that close. Truth to tell, I also enjoyed being nursed. The woman and I had touched more in the last hour than the previous four months. “There’s nothing more useful than those hatchets, and I lost mine. We’re going to need every advantage we can get.”

“We’ll need to stand watch in case these ruffians come around.

Miriam, you’re not to leave this house.” She opened her mouth, then closed it.

Jericho was pacing. “I have an idea to improve the gun, if the rifle is as accurate as you claim. You said it is difficult to focus on targets at its farthest range, correct?”

“Once I aimed at an enemy and hit his camel.”

“I’ve noticed you peer around the city with your spyglass. What if we used it to help you aim?”

“But how?”

“By attaching it to the barrel.”

Well, that was a perfectly ridiculous idea. It would add to the weight, make the gun clumsier, and get in the way of loading. It must be a bad idea because no one had done it before. And yet what if it would really help to see distant targets up close? “Could that work?” Franklin, I knew, would have been intrigued by this kind of tinkering.

The unknown, which frightens most men, lured him like a siren.

“We can try. And we need allies if that gang of men is still in the city. You think you killed one?”

“Stabbed him. Who knows? I shot their leader in France, and here 5 8

w i l l i a m d i e t r i c h

he is, big as life. I seem to have a hard time finishing people off.” I thought of Silano and Achmed bin Sadr in Egypt, who both kept coming at me after various wounds. I not only needed that rifle, I needed practice with it.

“I’m going to send word to Sir Sidney,” Jericho said. “The French agents here may be important enough for the British to send help.

And Miriam said all this has something to do with that treasure you keep promising. What’s really going on?” It was past time to bring them into my confidence. “There may be something buried here in Jerusalem that could affect the course of the entire war. We hunted for it in Egypt, but decided in the end that it must have come to Israel. Yet every time I find a stair or a ladder leading downward, I come to a dead end. The city is a rubble heap.

My quest may be impossible. Now the French are here, undoubtedly after the same thing.”

“They asked about you,” Miriam reminded.

“Yes, and did they just discover my presence or hear of it from afar?

Jericho, could the people who asked about Astiza in Egypt have let slip my own existence?”

“They weren’t supposed to . . . but wait. Find what, exactly? What is this treasure you seek?”

I took a breath. “The Book of Thoth.”