What happened to that wondrous thirst?
Right. It's got me in its grip.
Joe drank. He turned his head and coughed.
My God that's strong stuff, Stern. But it helps a printing press think more clearly, you say?
Stern laughed.
Ahmad was very fond of his old printing press and he always claimed arak was the best solvent for cleaning counterfeit type.
And I don't doubt it for a moment, said Joe. It's a first-rate solvent for all kinds of things, brains being one and Balkan reality another. But aren't you the tricky one now? Imagine just sneaking in here through a secret passageway like a regular tomb robber on the prowl.
Stern took a drink from the bottle. He lit a cigarette and a smoke ring floated up over the sarcophagus.
I was afraid the front entrance might be watched. It seemed wiser to come in the back way.
Tricky, all right. Has that secret passageway always been there? From the time when the tomb was built, I mean?
No, Menelik had it put in as an emergency exit. But from the looks of it, I don't think he or anyone else has ever used it.
Right, dusty as dusty and the very past itself. It's just that I didn't know there was another exit of any kind down here, and that's what scared me.
Stern moved, shifting his weight.
But isn't there always another exit, Joe, if you look for it hard enough?
Joe whistled softly. He pretended to make a face.
And there you go, Stern, starting up first thing. You are tricky, you know that? As long as I can remember you've been saying things that arrive or leave more ways than one. It's not that you're ambiguous really, it's more a matter of searching out different paths in your quiet undercover way. That and keeping your eye all the while on more than one lodestar up there in the unfathomable deep. I suppose it must be a habit you picked up in the business you keep.
Stern's dusty face softened.
And which business is that, Joe?
Right you are, and that's exactly what I meant. Which business among the many and how's a body to know which one is being referred to?
Joe laughed happily, more relaxed than he had been in weeks despite the circumstances. They drank and talked about the past, passing the bottle back and forth, recalling the years since they had seen one another in Jerusalem. There had been letters back and forth during those years, but inevitably much that had been left unsaid by both of them. On Stern's part, because so many of his concerns could never be committed to paper, and for Joe, because many of his experiences in Arizona weren't of the kind that could be readily described in letters. The conversation could have gone on much longer and Stern seemed reluctant to have it end, but there was so much Joe wanted to know he finally interrupted their talk by standing and sitting down again. He took a drink from the bottle.
Stern? Can you spare one of those awful Arab cigarettes you carry?
Stern handed him the packet. Joe lit one and coughed.
Wretched, same as always. Tears the lungs right out of a man. They always were the worst.
Stern watched him. Joe glanced at Stern's scarred thumb and looked away.
What is it? asked Stern.
I was thinking about last night at the Hotel Babylon, and this morning at Cohen's Optiks. I assume you know all about that.
Stern shifted his weight. He spoke slowly, haltingly, and there was a calmness in his manner that bothered Joe.
You mean Ahmad?. . Yes, I know about that, and I know about David. .
Stern moved again, a ponderous motion.
I wanted to see Anna, he said quietly, but I knew I couldn't. David was such a wonderful young man, so much the way his father used to be. He always reminded me of his father. And Ahmad, well, we go back a long way. Ahmad was one of the first people I met in Cairo, along with Belle and Alice and David's father. They were all Menelik's friends to begin with. .
Stern was gazing at the sarcophagus in front of them, thoughtful, somber. Joe waited for him to continue but he didn't.
Silence, thought Joe. Dead whispers as he slips. Better a roar of outrage than that, better anything than deafening quiet. He's just too cool and calm by half and I don't like it. Silence is the enemy here tonight.
Ahmad and David were Bletchley's doing, I take it, said Joe.
Stern nodded.
So what's next then? asked Joe.
Stern moved, hesitated. He looked at Joe for a long moment and when at last he spoke his voice was matter-of-fact.
Next? Well let's see. How much do you know?
Most of it, I think. About Enigma anyway.
Well that's most of it now. At least it's the part that counts.
So?
So Bletchley will do what it's right for him to do. He's fighting evil, after all, the Nazi madness in the human soul
And so?
And so I'm next, said Stern.
Joe looked at him. Too calm, he thought. Too calm by half.
And that's all? Just like that?
Stern shrugged.
Yes, I guess so. Sadly, even good purposes conflict. Good and evil just aren't as simple as we'd like them to be. We try hard to pretend otherwise, but it's never really true.
Stern smiled again, a peculiar smile that Joe remembered.
But tell me, Joe, why did you ever allow yourself to get drawn into all of this? So often I used to envy you over there in Arizona. It seemed like such a good life, exactly the kind of thing a man should do with his days, not at all what I've done with the years. And even after you did come here you could have pulled back, given Bletchley something and then. . Bletchley probably expected it, in fact. Why didn't you, Joe? You must have sensed where things were heading.
More or less, I suppose.
Well?
Well I didn't pull back, that's all.
But why?
I don't know really. How can we ever give a true answer to something like that? Because I wanted to see it through to the end. Because it seemed right to do that.
I'm afraid it doesn't surprise me, said Stern. From the time I saw you on the street near Maud's, I'm afraid it's what I thought you'd do.
Why afraid?
That's obvious, isn't it?
I guess. But did you know I was in Cairo then? Before you saw me on the street that evening?
No, I had no idea, it was a shock. But the moment I did see you I knew why you were here and who'd arranged it and what the circumstances had to be. I'd realized all along that eventually someone might find out some facts about that trip of mine to Poland and look into it, as Bletchley did, and then start something like this. I didn't imagine they'd go so far afield as to look you up, but then, it makes sense when you think about it, doesn't it?
I suppose it does, Stern, at least as much sense as anything else. And then the first time we did come face-to-face, there you were playing the beggar, sitting in the dust in those rags with your hand out, and I took pity and gave you money. And you, you shameless rascal, you even took my money.
Stern laughed.
I was hungry. I just don't have much pride anymore.
Well that's not true but we'll let it pass, the same way I passed you by then. But why didn't you get in touch with me after that?
I thought about it but I was hoping you'd find out enough to give Bletchley some satisfaction, and then quit before you got in all the way. I didn't expect it to happen, but there was always a chance.
Joe reached for the bottle.
So where does that leave us now, Stern? Just a couple of losers having a last glass together on a park bench underground? Just mulling it over and trying to get a grip on before we go topside and get run down by a lorry or take a tumble off a roof?
Stern opened his hands and looked at them.
Maybe. Probably. It's the danger in living among people, isn't it? In the desert you can run out of food or water but it's not all that easy to do, really. You can get by on very little and it takes longer to die. Men, civilization, speed things up.