Children of the Storm - Elizabeth Peters [182]
“You mean a fight?” Cyrus asked. “I sure would like one, but has anybody figured out what we’re actually going to do if—when—we catch up with them?”
“Run them aground,” Selim said. It had taken a direct order from me to remove him from his engines. He allowed me to take his pulse and feel his brow for signs of fever, but refused to let me do more; and indeed there was not much more I could do. Black smears of oil stained his clothes, from his turban to the hem of his galabeeyah, but so far as I could tell he was holding up well.
Daoud scooped up a portion of chicken and vegetables with a bit of folded bread and popped the whole thing neatly into his mouth. He nodded in agreement.
“Let’s see where we stand,” Sethos said. He had finished eating. Now he reached for the map Nasir had pushed aside when he served us. “The Isis was seen at Tukh yesterday afternoon. Reis Hassan swears she didn’t pass Qena today. If we take his word, and I gather you are all inclined to do so, there are only two possibilities. She has changed her name and her appearance, or she is lying low somewhere between here and Tukh.”
“Why?” The question came from Ramses, who was standing at the window, looking out, his hands clasped behind him. He swung round. “Why should they delay? What are they after? Would they have collected all of us, one by one, if Father hadn’t spoiled their plans? Or did he? Goddamn it, we’re sitting here studying maps and timetables, and Cyrus is the only one who’s asked a sensible question. Supposing we do catch her up. Then what? Fire a cannon across her bows? That would be entertaining, if we had a cannon. Board her, with cutlasses between our teeth?”
He broke off, breathing hard. I went to him and slipped my arm through his. “That has always struck me as an impractical procedure,” I said. “One would have to have extremely hard teeth and strong jaw muscles, and even then an involuntary movement might easily result in the loss of teeth and jaw.”
For a moment I feared my attempt at a little joke had been misplaced. His black eyes blazed with anger. I said, “I too am very worried.”
The hard lines around his mouth softened. He bowed his head. “I’m sorry, Mother. It’s selfish of me to be glad that Father is with her, but . . .”
“I am also glad of it,” I said. It was partly true. “I don’t know what it was that made Emerson realize Nefret might be in trouble, but it is just like him to go rushing to the rescue all by himself. One good thing has come of his impetuosity. The villains know we will be hot on their trail. Whether it was their original intention or not, they will not . . . they will keep them as hostages.”
Walter coughed. “I have been thinking,” he said.
“Yes, Walter?” I gave him an encouraging smile. He was so anxious to be of use, poor man, but he had only succeeded in getting in everyone’s way. Selim had politely but firmly rejected his further assistance after he burned his arm on the heated metal of the engine, and his attempt to use the sounding stick had almost got us run onto an invisible sandbar.
“I’m not good for much else, you see,” Walter explained matter-of-factly. He adjusted his eyeglasses. “We have been operating on the assumption that revenge is the motive for this.”
“What other motive could there be?” I asked.
“The Isis is an expensive operation,” Walter said. “And revenge loses its force after so many years. They are after something more rewarding. What else could it be but the princesses’ treasure? And if that is the case,” he went on, raising his voice a trifle to be heard over Cyrus’s oaths, “it alters our entire strategy. Let us say that M. Lacau finishes loading the artifacts today. If he is in sufficient haste, he will try to get a few miles downstream before nightfall. I think the Isis, under a new name, will intercept the steamer tonight, under cover of darkness.”
“Suppose Lacau doesn’t leave until tomorrow morning?” David asked.
“Then they will strike tomorrow night. The point is—” Walter raised an admonitory forefinger—“that they don’t know his schedule either. They