“Yes, sir.”
“Put the boy on.”
He turned to his captive and asked, “Would you like to speak to your son?”
Akhmim shook with fear. “No!” he begged. “Please, no!”
Ahmed smiled. “We have your wife and children. If you don’t tell me where to find the infidels, your children will die. I shall allow you to hear them die, one at a time, over this phone. Then, my men will entertain your wife. Do you understand?”
Akhmim hung his head, his will broken.
“I delivered the Americans to eastern Cairo,” he said quietly.
“When?”
“Yesterday. Sunset.”
“Where are they now?”
“I don’t know.”
Ahmed shook his head. He raised the phone to his lips and said, “Kill the baby.”
“No!” Akhmim screamed. “I swear on my life, I don’t know where they are. They took a speedboat to Giza. They mentioned going farther west, to Rasheed, maybe to Alexandria, but I don’t know!”
“Speedboat?”
“Two smugglers, mere boys, with a fast little boat, a white skiff painted with racing stripes. They took the Americans to Giza, maybe farther. That’s all I know. I swear on my family, that’s all I know!”
Ahmed nodded thoughtfully, finished his cigarette, and said, “I believe you.” He lifted the Ruger SR9 from his pocket, pointed it at the prisoner’s head, and squeezed the trigger.
Over the phone, he could hear Akhmim’s family screaming. Sheik Ahmed put the speaker close to his ear and listened to their terror.
“Kill the family,” he told his aide. “All of them. Bury the bodies in the desert.”
As he issued these orders, Lieutenant Barakah shrank back. Ahmed noticed but kept silent.
“As I suspected,” Ahmed thought. “Barakah is weak. He lacks the strength for what must be done. He is unfit to serve the master.”
In the predawn light, Ava woke from a nightmare. It took a few moments to recall where she was. Then she panicked, realizing the two ancient artifacts were sitting in the motorboat, concealed by nothing more than canvas. She couldn’t believe the risks they’d taken. Wandering bandits could easily steal the jars. The boys hadn’t obtained anyone’s permission to camp here. What if a farmer reported them? She and Paul might be arrested for smuggling antiquities, and if Simon’s hitmen found them…
She resolved to check on the jars. She sat up and reached for her clothes. They were gone. Nervous, she looked left and right but saw nothing. Ava glanced at Paul. He was snoring away in blissful ignorance. She gathered the sleeping bag around her and peered around the tent. Nothing!
Just then, Paul stirred. He saw that Ava was up and assumed he’d overslept.
“What time is it?” he said, yawning, and out of habit glanced at his wrist. “It doesn’t look like the sun’s up.”
“Paul?”
“Yes?”
“Where are my clothes?”
“They were damp and nasty, so I hung them by the fire to dry.”
“I’d like to get dressed.”
“Cool.”
“Will you get them for me, please?”
Paul was annoyed. He didn’t want to get up from his warm sleeping bag. Why had she awakened him so early? He still had time to sleep.
“Get them yourself,” he muttered, covering his head with a blanket. “They’re right by the campfire.”
Holding the sleeping bag tightly, Ava sat motionless, looked directly at him, and said nothing for several seconds.
Then it dawned on him. He started to laugh. “Wait, are you buck naked under there?”
Ava felt a wave of anger rise from her stomach. She suppressed the urge to punch him in the face.
“Paul,” she said, slowly and deliberately, “Go… get… my… clothes.”
He knew better than to argue. “I’ll be right back.”
The black Mercedes sped north on Highway 21 toward Cairo. For several minutes the passengers rode in silence. Ahmed lit a cigarette and said, “You objected when I had our men kill the prisoner’s family, didn’t you Barakah?”
“I follow your orders, sir. I always have.”
“Indeed, but you avoid answering my question. Do you feel the decision to kill them was a mistake?”
“I obey you in all things, and I never question your judgment.”
Ahmed grew frustrated by his subordinate’s circumlocutions. He brightened the limo’s interior lights and looked pointedly at his underling.
“Tell me, would you have killed them?”
Barakah knew better than to lie. “No. The prisoner gave us the information we needed. I would have freed the woman and her children.”
Ahmed nodded, satisfied to hear the truth. On the surface, Barakah was a decorated Central Security Force officer assigned to the Egyptian National Police. Secretly, he’d joined Ahmed’s organization and risen through the hierarchy. Intelligent, competent, and thorough, Barakah followed every order to the letter. But the sheik maintained reservations about this ostensibly dutiful soldier. Ahmed suspected that Barakah lacked the courage of his convictions. In the eternal struggle, a mind clouded by mercy and compassion was a severe liability.
“If we allowed those children to live, they would have sworn a blood oath of vengeance against us and our cause. As adults, they would have fought tirelessly to defeat and kill us. A blood enemy is a true enemy, Barakah. A blood enemy cannot be bribed or dissuaded. He must be killed, exterminated. I choose to exterminate my enemies now, while I still can.”
“But the woman? We could have left her.”
Ahmed laughed. “Women are far more dangerous than men. To defeat a woman I must defeat not only her but also all her family. A woman’s father, husband, brothers, and sons will sacrifice their lives to avenge wrongs done to her. Her sisters and daughters will never forgive or forget. Women are cunning and patient, willing to achieve vengeance through stealth and treachery. Remember the story of Shamshoum [Sampson]. They can bewitch honest soldiers, fill our minds with poison and confusion. Women live to deceive. They will turn brother against brother, musahib. Never underestimate them.”
At dawn the travelers packed up camp, refueled the skiff, and resumed their journey. Despite the uncomfortable robes, Paul and Ava were again disguised as pilgrims. As the boat navigated a bewildering variety of canals, forks, locks, and side streams, Ava wondered how the boys managed without getting lost. Could they possibly have the intricate route memorized? Then she noticed that from time to time Ammon consulted a small gray box mounted on the stern. Curious, she eased her way aft and found that it was a GPS navigation device, specifically a Lowrance LMS-52 °C, of which the boys were immensely proud. Sefu insisted on showing Ava all its functions. It featured a five-inch, 480-pixel display; could ascertain their exact position on a satellite map; could sound a channel’s depth up to ninety meters; and was waterproof. Before they left Cairo, Ammon had plotted their course and saved it into the device’s memory.
Ava was impressed, but she knew such high-tech gadgets were expensive. The GPS must have run several hundred dollars. Was ferrying tourists around Cairo really that lucrative?
Occasionally the boys reduced speed and traversed shallower zones invaded by the fetid species of alga they’d endured upriver. Near Shubra Khit they encountered a particularly thick bloom.
“It reeks,” said Paul, disgusted. “This stuff is gross.”
“Oh, it’s worse than gross. It’s ecotoxic,” Ava said.
“It’s poisonous?”
“To the planet. The Aswan Dam project, which formed Lake Nasser, caused all kinds of environmental damage. Not enough water flows down. Consequently, the valley soil gets too salty, requiring more artificial fertilizer. Fertilizer runoff creates huge algal blooms, which block sunlight, harbor bacteria, and kill the fish. Nutrient discharge into the Mediterranean has declined drastically, weakening offshore sardine and shrimp fisheries.”