The Amulet of Power - Mike Resnick [14]
“Probably no one did,” said Lara. “I get the feeling that they were checking out each boat as it passed by.”
“You should have stayed in the cabin like I told you,” said Mason sternly.
“And I told you to stop giving me orders,” replied Lara. “Besides, those were just two men. If there are hundreds or thousands of them searching up and down the Nile, we couldn’t have remained hidden for long anyway. I think it’s reasonable to assume they’ll have men boarding or at least inspecting each boat as it stops. There are locks at Edfu, and we’ll have to let passengers out at Aswan, so that gives them at least two more cracks at us.” She stared at him. “Perhaps you’d better tell me exactly where this boat is going.”
“South.”
“How far south?”
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“On how much more I pay the captain,” said Mason. “I gave him enough to take us halfway through the Sudan. I suppose he’ll take us all the way to Uganda if I give him enough money.”
“At the rate this boat travels, that’s weeks off,” said Lara. “I think I’d better tend to a more immediate problem.”
She leaned over the railing and put another half-dozen shots into the floor of the felluca. Water began rushing in, and the little fishing boat began sinking, along with its human cargo.
“That’s that,” she announced, staring at a pair of bearded faces that appeared at the back of the boat until they vanished back into the restaurant, then spinning the pistols back into their holsters.
“They won’t stay hidden forever,” said Mason. “Sooner or later those bodies are going to turn up.”
“They won’t be the first dead bodies to show up in the Nile,” said Lara. “Or the thousandth, or probably even the millionth. By the time they’re found and identified, either we’ll have this business solved, or . . .” She let the sentence linger, unfinished.
“Or what?”
“Or we’ll have joined them,” answered Lara.
6
“How long before we reach Aswan?” asked Lara as the late-afternoon sun cast long shadows on the deck.
“My guess is that it’ll be two or three in the morning,” answered Mason.
She nodded. “That gives us plenty of time to get off.”
“Get off?” he repeated incredulously. “I paid our fare into the Sudan! We’ll never make it there on foot.”
“Oh, we’ll take the Amenhotep to the Sudan,” said Lara. “But we won’t be on it when it reaches Aswan. Too many probing eyes.”
“If you have some plan in mind, I wish you’d share it with me.”
“I saw a pair of lifeboats hanging over the side, just before the stern. We’ll borrow one after dark, row past the High Dam south of Aswan, and come back aboard tomorrow morning when the Amenhotep has gone through one of those channels to the west of the dam and emerged onto Lake Nasser.”
Mason considered it. “It might work,” he admitted. “It all depends on you.”
“On me?”
“We’ll be paddling upriver, against the current. Forty-eight hours ago I didn’t even know if you’d still be alive today. Are you up to it?”
“If inspectors or police come aboard at Aswan, what are our chances of hiding from them?” she asked.
“Zero.”
“Then what choice do we have?”
“None,” he admitted.
She looked up at the sky. “The sun doesn’t just set in Africa,” she noted. “It plummets. I’d say it’ll be dark in ninety minutes.”
“All right,” replied Mason. “I’ll meet you here in, shall we say, two hours?”
She shook her head. “You will meet me here in, shall we say, seven hours.”
It was his turn to frown. “Seven? Are you sure?”
“Well, you can show up in two hours if you want, but we won’t lower the lifeboat for seven.”
“Why not?”
“Why row for miles if we don’t have to?” said Lara. “We’ll be passing Elephantine Island a couple of miles before the Old Dam at Aswan. When we see it, we’ll know it’s time to get into the lifeboat.”
“It makes sense at that,” he admitted.
“It may even afford us an easier way of getting past Aswan,” she continued. “Elephantine Island is a tourist attraction that houses a beautifully kept botanical garden. There just might be a motorboat or two parked there that we can borrow.”
“There might also be an armed guard or three,