The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [60]
‘Yes.’
If they could make it to Cairo, they had several options, including going to their respective embassies and asking them to liaise with the Egyptian authorities – even if it meant Daniel being returned to the UK and arrested. But what they really wanted was to have a look at the papyrus from the tomb of Ay that Mansoor had told them about – the one at the Cairo Museum. Daniel was hoping that it was the one that Harrison had mentioned – the one that described the resurgence of the plague. It might hold the key to why Harrison was killed and why someone had locked them in the tomb.
‘You know there is no toilet on boat, yes?’
‘We understand,’ Gabrielle confirmed, giving Daniel a dirty look as if to say: Why are you forcing me to go through this?
‘Okay, you have American dollars?’
‘No, only sterling or Egyptian pounds.’
‘Okay, give me twelve hundred pounds.’
He meant Egyptian pounds. But that was still too much – even allowing for the fact that it would take them about five or six days to make it to Cairo.
‘I’ll give you five hundred,’ said Gabrielle.
Daniel smiled; it was obvious that she knew how to haggle a lot better than he.
‘Five hundred?!’ The mock-indignation in Walid’s tone was almost theatrical. ‘For one person I do for five hundred. Give me thousand, I take you all the way to Cairo.’
‘A thousand? Look, we’re not first-timers. This is my fifth trip and my husband’s third. I’ll give you six hundred.’
‘Okay, give me eight hundred,’ he said with a smile. ‘I do for you for eight hundred.’
‘Seven hundred,’ she replied, matching smile for smile.
‘Why you do this to me? Where else you find beautiful boat like mine?’
That was not exactly the way she would have described it; ramshackle old dinghy might have qualified. But she had to be careful not to overplay her hand. Most of the feluccas operated south of the Esna lock, between Luxor and Aswan. They wanted to get to Cairo and there were very few feluccas trying to compete with the cruise ships on that northern stretch of the Nile. So it was a case of beggars can’t be choosers. But the competitive streak in her made her decide to have one last try.
‘Seven hundred,’ she said firmly.
‘Seven fifty.’
‘Okay,’ she said. If he had stuck at eight hundred, she would have said seven fifty herself. Still, it was better this way. It was always better to let the man name the final figure and then agree to it.
After the money had changed hands, they boarded the boat and within minutes were drifting downriver. Sails were useless in this environment as the prevailing wind was almost always southerly, taking the boats upstream. Hence the rule of the Nile: sails upstream, current downstream.
All of this made for a very energy-efficient, and gentle mode of transport along the Nile. The vessel had no engine, no ‘indoors’ and no shower or toilet. It was this, as much as the Western preference for comfort, that made most tourists prefer the luxury cruises on offer from the numerous tourist companies, to the Spartan austerity of a felucca.
Walid insisted on making a pot of strong Turkish coffee for them. Having these interesting foreigners on his boat was something of a social occasion, and it was clear that he wanted to get the most out of it. As they drank the coffee, they were content to let Walid tell them about his beautiful fat wife and five wonderful daughters. He was sad that he only had one son, but if that was Allah’s will then he must accept it.
Listening to this man, well past his prime, talk with loving affection about his family, Daniel felt safe for the first time in several hours. It was unlikely that a felucca owner eking out his living on the Nile would sit with his ears glued to the radio to hear the news. To Walid, the things that mattered most were the weather and the exchange rate.
‘So what you do here?’ asked Walid in English, addressing Daniel.
‘Well, my wife is a professor of Egyptology and she has to come here often because of her work. I’m a businessman myself. I don’t really have time for all this academic