Tomb of the Golden Bird - Elizabeth Peters [42]
“The name would mean nothing to you. He stays out of the public eye, and not many people know that he is a kind of deus ex machina, a player behind the scenes. I had to take the damned thing rather than copy it, because it was in code and my time was limited.”
“If it was in code, how did you know it was worth stealing?”
“Because it was in code,” Sethos said with exaggerated patience. “And in a locked file that required all my talents to open. One doesn’t go to all that trouble with linen lists.”
“Go on,” Ramses said between his teeth.
“I knew its absence would be noted. In fact,” Sethos admitted, “my departure from the scene was not without incident. So I wasn’t surprised when I ran into a spot of trouble at the railway station the following day. What did surprise me was that I recognized the drunken coffee seller who tried to push me under the train. He works for the department that used to be headed by your old friend Cartwright.”
“British intelligence!” Ramses exclaimed. “Why would they try to kill you?”
“Precisely what I asked myself. I had, like a loyal little spy, intended to take the damned thing back to Cairo and hand it over. That incident put a damper on my zeal. It was obvious I had been under surveillance the whole time, or they wouldn’t have been able to get on my trail so quickly.”
“That’s a standard technique,” Ramses said, his lip curling. “They don’t trust anybody.”
“I am well aware of that. Still, their assumption that I might put the confounded thing up for sale rather than turn it in struck me as a trifle unkind. Instead of taking the Cairo train, I slipped out and returned later, in time to catch a train to Damascus. It was there that the second attack occurred, and I barely got away from three ugly fellows with long knives, who were almost certainly not hired by our lot.”
“You might have been followed from Baghdad,” I suggested.
“Not by our chap.” Sethos’s smile was not pretty. “I left him under the train.”
Nefret put her hand to her mouth. Sethos’s smile vanished. “I didn’t set out to kill him, Nefret. He’d have pitched me onto the track if I hadn’t slipped out of his grasp. It put him off balance, and…well. To make a long story short, after several further incidents I was forced to the conclusion that I had become an object of interest to a number of different groups. I made it to Egypt, but I didn’t dare go near headquarters. They might be after me too; or there might be a traitor in the organization. I thought I’d got everyone off my trail by the time I reached Luxor, and then I heard of Ramses and Emerson’s encounter at the greengrocer’s. So I went off again, as far as Aswan, and wandered conspicuously round town until I attracted attention. That’s when I got this.” He touched his arm. “Since then I’ve been moving rapidly, doubling back on my trail and keeping a wary eye out. For the past few days I’ve been holed up in the cellar of a ruined shack in Sebu al Karim; felt this coming on last night, and decided to come here.”
“That’s very touching,” Ramses said. “That you should seek out your loved ones.”
Nefret frowned at him. Sethos said coolly, “I had a more practical reason. I can’t make plans, I can’t trust anyone, until I know what’s in that document. You’re good at codes and ciphers.” Ramses remained silent. Watching him, Sethos went on, “I hadn’t intended to come to the house. That’s the truth, whether you believe it or not. I was about to communicate with you indirectly and ask for a meeting in a neutral spot when I fell ill. I don’t believe I was followed here, but…well, the damage is done. Whatever this document contains, some people want it very badly—badly enough to come after you again if they can’t find me.”
I cleared my throat. “If you will forgive me for saying so, that is the most preposterous story I have ever heard.”
Sethos’s haggard face broadened in a grin. “I take that as a compliment, Amelia. You have heard a good many preposterous stories over the years.”
“But really,” I exclaimed. “This one is straight out of sensational fiction. Secret societies,