Tomb of the Golden Bird - Elizabeth Peters [88]
Something told him the subject was not one he could safely raise.
“You said you had taken steps to clear up the—er—mess,” he ventured. “Was that true, or were you only trying to keep Margaret quiet?”
Still brooding, Sethos continued to stare at his clasped hands. Then he said, “What about him?” and gestured at the boatman.
“He doesn’t understand much English, and wouldn’t know what we were talking about if he did. Are you going to come clean, or must I drag Father into this?”
“Good God, no. That’s the last thing I want. The truth is that I have entered into negotiations.”
“With them? How? When?”
Sethos turned to face him. “I had intended to tell you, sooner or later.”
“I’m flattered by your confidence.”
“My dear fellow, it’s a question of common sense. One doesn’t deal with such people without someone to back one up. You are the logical candidate, for the reasons I have mentioned.”
And because I’m more expendable, Ramses thought wryly. His parents, the children, Nefret meant more to Sethos than he did. He had no quarrel with that.
“I received a communication a few days ago,” Sethos said. “Delivered directly to me by the gatekeeper, as he had been instructed to do.”
“Not another invitation to a secret meeting, I trust.”
“They know I’m not that stupid. I was directed to reply to what you might call a poste restante. My correspondent was refreshingly candid. As he pointed out, it wouldn’t do them any good to murder me; they have concluded that I wouldn’t carry the document on my person. He proposed an exchange. If I return the document, he and his lot will leave us alone.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Ramses exclaimed. “How do they know we haven’t made copies?”
“Which you have done?”
“Yes. I’ve been working from one of them, since the original is somewhat fragile.”
“The offer was disingenuous,” Sethos agreed. “One may draw certain reasonable conclusions from it, however. They know we haven’t deciphered the message, for the simple reason that we haven’t acted upon it. One may also hypothesize that there is a time element involved. After a certain date the message loses its importance.”
“That’s obvious,” Ramses said impatiently. “It will become irrelevant because the event referred to has occurred, or the information has been disclosed.”
“If it was so damned obvious, why didn’t you mention it earlier?”
“Nobody asked me,” Ramses said, and grinned in the darkness as he heard Sethos’s teeth grind together. He really oughtn’t be baiting his uncle when the situation was so serious, but it was a rare pleasure to see Sethos lose his temper.
“So what did you tell them?” Ramses asked.
“I agreed to their terms.”
“Ah. But you don’t intend to return it just yet, do you?”
Sethos pushed his windblown hair back from his face. “You’ve thought of that too?” he asked sourly. “I don’t know why I bother explaining when you know everything already.”
“It didn’t occur to me until just now,” Ramses said. “If they’re so keen on having the original back, is there something about it that would not be present in a copy, however accurate?”
“Is there?”
“I didn’t see anything. But you may be sure I’ll have another look.”
Ramses and Sethos returned earlier than I had expected, without Margaret. In answer to our questions Sethos snapped, “She refused to come,” and went off, declaring his intention of going straight to bed. Ramses announced that he had work to do, and would have followed Sethos, but of course I had no intention of allowing that.
“So our deductions were correct,” I said. “She was at the hotel. Which one?”
Ramses sat down, resigned to answering our questions. Even his father was listening interestedly.
“The Winter Palace. She managed to get a room by invoking you.”
“I hope she didn’t claim to be my younger sister.” This was a dig at Emerson, who had once asked if I was sure Papa had not misbehaved in his later years.