The Amulet of Power - Mike Resnick [63]
She waited until he began running after her, and then she turned and ran to the edge of the roof and jumped the five-foot gap to the next roof.
She landed on the brick border, and raced along it, following its right angle at the corner. When she was halfway down the length of it, she turned to see her pursuer. He was just leaping from the first roof to the second and he had built up such momentum that he didn’t stop at the border but began running across the wooden roof at an angle, trying to cut off her line of retreat.
And suddenly there was a crash as the roof gave way and, with a scream, the man fell heavily to the ground floor.
Lara walked gingerly across the roof to the hole he had made and looked down. He lay on his back, staring up at nothing, his arms and legs at impossible angles.
“Lots of dry rot in this climate,” said Lara. “Three-hundred-pounders really shouldn’t be running across rooftops.”
A moment later she leaped lightly to the alley and reentered the library. She sought out Hassam and told him what had happened.
“I think it’s time to return to the Arak,” he said.
“So much for the theory that the Mahdists will leave me alone now.”
“There are obviously rogue elements among the Mahdists,” said Hassam as they walked out the main entrance. “What happened was my fault. I should never have left your side. I must report myself to Omar.”
“I won’t tell him if you don’t,” said Lara.
“I would be no better than our enemies if I lied to my leader.”
“Nonsense,” said Lara. “Our enemies want to rule the world. We just want to save it.”
“Sometimes I think we will never find the Amulet,” said Hassam morbidly.
“We’ll find it,” said Lara.
“Then you did learn something today?”
“Almost certainly,” she replied. “Now I just have to figure out what it was.”
22
They returned to the hotel, and Lara went up to her suite, where she gratefully threw off her robes and reveled in her newfound freedom of motion. After walking around for a moment she turned to Hassam.
“Go down to the lobby and have one of Omar’s cousins visit either the main library or a local branch and take out half a dozen books on Gordon.”
“Are there any particular titles?”
“No, not really. I’ve got to start somewhere. Eventually I’ll read them all.”
“All?” asked Hassam.
“Don’t look so surprised. You don’t search for treasure in a vacuum. If you’re going to be successful, you do your research first.”
“I will go downstairs as soon as Omar returns.”
“He might not get back until dinnertime,” said Lara. “Do it now, before the libraries close. The sooner we find it, the sooner everyone will stop trying to kill me. There’s no sense wasting a night.”
“I can’t leave you alone.”
She drew her pistols as fast as Doc Holliday or Johnny Ringo could have done more than a century earlier. “I’m not alone,” she said. “I have these.”
He looked hesitant. “I don’t know. . . .”
“What’s more important to you?” she asked. “Finding the Amulet, or taking a chance that someone will get past all your friends and relations in broad daylight, make his way up to the suite, and sneak up on me before I can shoot him?”
Hassam sighed in defeat. “When you put it that way . . .”
“I do.”
He walked to the door. “At least promise to lock it behind me.”
“All right.”
“I will knock three times when I return.”
“Everybody knocks three times,” said Lara. “Why don’t you just take the key with you? You ought to be back in less than ten minutes.”
“What if Omar or Dr. Mason shows up first?”
“Then they’ll have to wait in the corridor until you return,” said Lara, tossing him the key. “The sooner you go, the sooner you can get back.”
Hassam walked into the hallway, closed and locked the door behind him, and went off to find someone he trusted to get what Lara needed from the library. As soon as she was sure he was gone, she pulled one of the Black Demons and pointed it toward the heavy draperies that were gathered to the side of a set of French doors that led out to a small balcony.