The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [81]
‘Wait. Is that…’ He recited the number out loud. Again there was hesitation.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Wait a minute. Is that Daniel Klein’s phone?’
Goliath didn’t know what mental agonizing was going on at the other end of the phone.
‘He left phone in boat. We’re waiting for him to come and collect it.’
‘Wait… look… is Mr Klein coming to collect the phone? I need to talk to him.’
‘He must come back to get phone.’
‘Does he know you’ve got it? The phone, I mean?’
‘We can’t call him. But he left it on boat.’
‘We?’
The man on the other end said nothing.
‘What boat?’
‘My father and me take him on felucca.’
That explained the ‘we’. Goliath had pretty much twigged it at this point. This person – probably no more than a boy – wanted to keep the phone. But he wasn’t a thief. Then Goliath thought about the local culture and had an idea.
‘Look, I’m a friend of his and I need to contact him. I can also help you give the phone back to him. In fact…’ he paused for effect, ‘there’s a reward for finding the phone. Baksheesh.’
‘Yes?’
‘If we can meet and you can tell me where you last saw Daniel Klein, I can give you two hundred dollars and make sure that he gets the phone back.’
‘Okay. Where you want to meet?’
‘I don’t know. You know Cairo better than I do.’
‘Yes, but where is easy for you to finding?’
Goliath realized how helpful the boy was being. He wanted to choose a place that Goliath could find easily. ‘Okay, how about the Sphinx?’ Goliath could see Giza from his hotel window. A taxi ride would take no time at all. ‘I can be there in half an hour.’
‘How I know what you look like?’
‘I’m very tall. And I have some bandages on me. I was injured in a fire.’
‘Okay. I see you in half hour. I bring the phone.’
‘Wait a minute! What’s your name?’
‘Na’if.’
The boy rang off before he could reply.
Na’if… it sounded like naïve. How appropriate.
Chapter 65
A trail of bullets from the Israeli patrol boat raked the water in front of them. Daniel realized that by this stage even turning back would be regarded by the Israelis as aggression, or at least non-compliance. So he cut the engine and let the boat carry on coasting forward. To further indicate his surrender, he raised his hand and stood up slowly.
Gabrielle did likewise, but then looked back, prompting Daniel to follow suit. What he saw was the Egyptian navy boat approaching at speed. At the same time, the Israeli boat had also stopped. Daniel realized what this meant. They had not yet entered Israeli territorial waters and were possibly still inside Egyptian waters. That meant that they could be taken back to Egypt.
No, the Israelis would not have fired into Egyptian waters… but might have fired on a vessel in international waters if it was deemed to pose a threat. They might have thought that the boat was packed with explosives and that he was a suicide bomber. Under those circumstances, they would have fired rather than attempt to board.
In fact he was no more than a fugitive from Egypt for trying to leave evading border control, but the Israelis didn’t know that. It occurred to him that maybe the Israelis knew who he was. They might have heard those absurd stories about the infectious disease and believed that he and Gabrielle were walking biological weapons.
‘What’s happening?’ asked Gabrielle.
‘I think we’re still in international waters.’
‘So neither of them can take us against our will.’
Daniel was irritated by her legal naivety. ‘Actually, they both can.’
‘Well, let’s hope it’s the Israelis.’
Looking at the approaching Egyptian boat and the stationary Israeli one, Daniel realized that her hope was in vain. ‘I don’t think it’s going to be.’
Gabrielle put on her snorkel. ‘Do you know what free diving is?’ she asked.
‘Free diving?’
‘It means swimming underwater, holding your breath for as long as you can.’
‘You mean we trade in getting shot for drowning?’
Her face hardened. ‘This is it, Daniel – our Butch and Sundance moment.’
And with that