Here Be Monsters

'And the Iranians too, presumably?' Audley was quite matter-of-fact.

'And them too!' The Arab completed his scrutiny, and grinned at Audley. 'You have your cross to bear - and I have my crescent. The irony of which is that I shall go to Paradise, while you will find yourself rubbing shoulders with them in Hell.'

'But you'll put in a good word for me? For old time's sake?'

'I will not.' The Arab had already observed Elizabeth surreptitiously, but now he studied her with frank curiosity. 'Until you remember your manners, David.'

General who? Elizabeth racked her brains. Audley had once been a Middle Eastern expert, as well as the author of a scholarly work on the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, until he had blotted his copybook. And he was still very thick with the Israelis. But that somehow made this friendship more unlikely.

'I beg your pardon, Miss Loftus.' Audley sounded slightly distant. 'May I present my old and dear friend, General Muhammed Razzak, late of the Egyptian army?'

Razzak, of course! She had once heard David say, a propos the Sadat assassination, it wouldn't have happend if old Razzak hadn't been in Washington at the time.

' Enchante, Miss Loftus,' The General carried her hand to his lips with what was left of his hand - there was no index finger at all, and the palm was dreadfully scarred. 'But of course!

You are the daughter of the gallant naval captain who once sank all those German torpedo-boats when his own ship was itself sinking -I remember reading of his death in The Times.

You have my sympathy, Mademoiselle, for your loss.'

Thank you, General.' In spite of the hand, and the fact that he was just beginning to run to fat and was also old enough to be her father, he was an attractive man still, Elizabeth decided. But why should he remember a three-year-old Times obituary?

'Belated sympathy,' murmured Audley dryly. But then David also knew the real score, dummy2

which lay between herself and Father.

'Belated only because I have not had the pleasure of meeting Miss Loftus until now.' The General held her hand just a second too long, as though he derived information from it.

'And he was an historian also - a most distinguished naval historian.'

'That's what good intelligence is all about, Elizabeth,' said Audley. 'He didn't really need an introduction - any more than he's a real Egyptian. He's really an Albanian-Turk - one of Mehemet Ali's imports, by descent… And definitely not to be trusted with the week's housekeeping money.'

General Razzak cocked an eye at Audley. 'Just as Audley is… what is it? Anglo-Norman?

And would that be Norseman?" And are the Norsemen not the sea-raiders who burned all the Christian churches and monasteries - and nunneries, and made free with the holy ladies therein?' He smiled at Elizabeth. 'You would not have to trust the housekeeping money to such terrorists, Miss Loftus - they would also take it from you.' He nodded. 'And as for your gallant and distinguished father, as it happens I have read his account of Admiral Lord Nelson's campaign, which ended with the Battle of the Nile. General Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition is my hobby, and I hope to publish my researches one day… Did you assist your father with his researches, Mademoiselle?'

'What he means, Elizabeth,' said Audley quickly, 'is, are you helping me with my researches now? And what I meant, when I said he was an "old and dear" friend, was that we've known each other for a few years, and we've both cost each other dear. And I've paid more than he has.'

Elizabeth blanked out her memories of transcribing Father's anti-Nelson prose, word for word, not daring to object to it while suspecting that Father's severity with Nelson's human frailities were due either to his knowledge of his own defects or to his blindness to them - even now she could not decide which.

'I did, General.' She wasn't attractive enough to coquette with General Muhammed Razzak, so it had to be an intellectual, blue-stocking, response. 'If you'd like to see Father's notes…

will you be in London long?'

He shook his head. 'Alas no, Mademoiselle.' He didn't look at Audley. 'As I'm sure you both know, I have business with Xenophon. Although I am not a businessman.'

'You're here because Barrie didn't fly out this morning?' Audley looked quickly towards the red time-fingers over the revolving Xenophon globe. 'And so he's screwed up all your security precautions? So you're here to sort things out with his Head of Security?'

dummy2

General Razzak spread his amusement between them, with a wicked glint for Audley and pretended regret for Elizabeth, as though he knew quite well what they were about. 'And if I said "yes" to that - ' He zeroed in on Audley ' - would you answer me truthfully in return?' He shifted his glance to Elizabeth, but then swung away from them both, towards the reappearing receptionist who had brushed past the cascade of foliage to hover on the edge of their game. 'Madame?'

'General… please forgive me for interrupting you.' This time the reception-smile illustrated a confusion of unreconciled priorities with which Elizabeth could readily sympathize: did the Egyptian general, who was booked in with Xenophon's security chief, rate above the horrible Dr Audley, who behaved as though he out-ranked Saint Peter himself, whose special lift still gaped open?

'Dr Audley - ' Faced with an absolute decision, the woman came to it bravely ' - Sir Peter is asking for you. And I really cannot put him off any longer, Dr Audley.'

'No?' Anglo-Normans, secure in the Battle of Hastings, lacked the grace of Mehemet Ali's Albanian-Turks. 'Oh, very well, then - tell him we're just coming.' Audley cold-shouldered her, coming back to General Muhammed Razzak. 'And if I assured you on my honour that this has got nothing to do with you, as far as I know - that it's purely domestic? Would you believe that?'

'On your honour - I would.' Razzak nodded. 'And it would make me happier, too.'

'Then we can both be happier.' Audley returned the nod, and then transferred it to the receptionist, and finally gave it to Elizabeth. 'Let's try the left-hand lift then, Miss Loftus - '

He spread an arm and a hand for her, to shepherd her towards the open lift-doors. ' -

Razzak, I'll phone you tomorrow evening maybe - okay?'

'You can phone me. But you won't get me.'

'Okay.' Audley shrugged. 'I'll just give Jake Shapiro your kind regards.' The hand urged her irritably.

'Of course!' Razzak bowed to her. 'Another time, Miss Loftus? I am particularly interested in the landing of the British army in 1799 - relatively speaking, as an opposed landing, it was remarkably efficient - I would be very grateful for anything you have on that, from contemporary records and diaries - ' He bowed again ' - Miss Loftus-'

'For Christ's sake! Come on, Elizabeth!' Audley grimaced at her as he started to move. 'The only really smart thing we ever did in Egypt was when Disraeli borrowed the money from Rothschild's to buy those Suez Canal shares. But then we should have handed the bloody dummy2

place over to the Australians in 1918 - they were the only Anglo-Saxons the Egyptians ever respected - Come on, Elizabeth!'

Elizabeth came on, towards the left-hand lift, with its welcoming open doors, not daring to look farewell at General Razzak after that.

'David - who is Sir Peter? Sir Peter Barrie?' She entered the lift, and swivelled towards him.

'What has he got to do with Squadron Leader Thomas?'

He made a face. 'Don't keep calling him "Squadron Leader", for God's sake, woman!'

'Why not?'

'How much do you know about him?' Audley searched the lift for controls. 'You know… I wonder which floor we want - ?'