The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [61]
He looked around at the scenery to emphasize the point.
‘What business you do?’ asked Walid.
‘Computer software,’ said Daniel. He figured it would sound suitably Western and wouldn’t prompt too many questions.
‘Ah, Microsoft,’ said Walid.
‘They’re our competitors,’ Daniel replied, laughing. ‘They’re much bigger than us.’
‘I have an X-box,’ said Na’if, obviously anxious to add something to the conversation.
‘This is goooood!’ said Daniel, as he sampled the lamb stew that Walid had prepared for lunch. Walid looked relieved by his reaction. He had apologized for the fact that it wasn’t as good as his wife’s lamb stew. He explained that his wife made the best stew in the world and Daniel and his wife should visit them in Cairo sometime and taste it. He also explained that when he wasn’t taking people on his boat, he usually existed off fish, caught in the river and grilled over an open flame in the metal bucket and grill rack that doubled as a barbecue.
After lunch, Walid and the crew took a siesta on deck, leaving Daniel in charge of the helm.
‘We should have turned ourselves in when we had the chance,’ said Daniel. ‘We might have been able to sort this out if we hadn’t run away.’
Gabrielle’s Nordic face held a cold, implacable look. ‘You seem to be forgetting one thing: they didn’t give us the chance. They started shooting before we could say a word.’
‘I guess they must have panicked because of that story about us carrying some disease. That message on Mansoor’s phone said that you infected that curator at the British Museum.’
‘I know, but that doesn’t make any sense. I haven’t got any symptoms.’
‘Maybe it only affects men.’
‘But Mansoor said it affected the volunteers.’
‘Only a few. They put them all in quarantine, but not all of them were infected – and he didn’t say anything about the gender of those who were.’
‘And what about you? And Mansoor? Neither of you have shown any symptoms and you’ve had at least as much exposure as the curator in London.’
‘Okay, but some people evidently are getting ill. And your uncle did say something about it when I went to see him on the morning I flew out here, just before he was…’
‘That’s the other thing, Daniel. Too many bad things seem to be happening at once. People are getting killed. First Uncle Harrison and the maid. Then the guardian of the tomb. And of course whoever did that also tried to kill us – and Mansoor. I’m just wondering if they’re connected.’
‘We don’t actually know who they were trying to kill. It might have been any one of us.’
‘The question is, Daniel… what are we going to do?’
Chapter 46
‘Can you hear me?’
The big man on the bed didn’t want to hear him. He didn’t want to do anything. All he wanted to do was sleep. But he couldn’t sleep any longer; the time for sleeping was over.
Goliath opened his eyes. There were maybe half a dozen people in the room. Two of them were nurses. The rest…
They were in white.
Doctors? Policemen?
At the back of his mind, he remembered seeing Egyptian policemen in their white summer uniform.
‘Mr Carter? Can you talk?’
He felt the bandages upon him. Where was he? Hospital. He remembered what had happened to him. Fire… driving …woman… she threw something…
‘Yes,’ he muttered.
Through blurred vision, he fancied that he saw one of the nurses smiling. Was she happy because he could talk? Or was she cunning and scheming, like most women?
‘Do you know what day it is?’ asked one of the men in white coats.
What day is it?
He couldn’t think. How long had he been here? He had been slipping in and out of consciousness.
‘Mr Carter…’
Goliath turned his head and tried to sit up, but he couldn’t.
‘We need to ask you about the car you were driving… the car