The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur (бесплатные онлайн книги читаем полные .txt) 📗
They flew over the battlefield of El Alamein, and even from. twenty
thousand feet they could pick out the twin monuments to the Allied and
German dead. Then the blue of the sea stretched ahead of them.
Nicholas waited until the Egyptian coast receded behind them and then he
let out a long, soft sigh.
", ye of little faith," he accused them, "'hen did I ever let you down?
Everybody gets paid in full., They all stared at him long and hard, and
then Jannie voiced their doubts. "How?" he asked.
"Give me a hand, Sapper," Nicholas invited, and started down the
staircase. Jannie could not control his curiosity and handed over the
controls to Fred. He followed the two Englishmen down to the lavatory on
the main deck.
Sapper and Jannie watched from the doorway as Nicholas took the
Leatherman tool from his pocket and lifted the cover of the chemical
toilet. Jannie grinned as Nicholas started to work on the screws,
holding the hidden panel in place. Big Dolly was a smugglers' aircraft,
and these little modifications were evidence of the pains that Jannie
and Fred had taken to adapt her to that role. There were a number of
these hidey-holes cunningly uilt into the engine housings and other
parts of the fuselage.
lj When they had flown back from Libya, the Hannibal bronzes had reposed
in the secret compartment behind this panel. The location of the panel
in the back of the toilet made it highly unlikely that any follower of
Islam would want to investigate such an unclean area.
"So that's what you were doing in here for so long," Jannie laughed as
Nicholas lifted out the panel. His grin faded as Nicholas reached into
the space beyond and carefully drew out an extraordinary object. "My
God, what is that?"
"The blue war crown of ancient Egypt," said Nicholas.
He handed it to Sapper. "Lay it on the bunk, but treat it carefully."
He reached into the compartment again, "And this is the Nemes crown." He
handed it to Jannie.
"And this is the red and white crown of the two kingdoms. And this is
the death-mask of Pharaoh Mamose.
Last but not least, this is the ushabd of the scribe Taita." The relics
lay on the fold-down bunk, and they stood and stared at them reverently.
"I have helped you bring out stone friezes and little bronze statues,'
said Jannie softly. "But notlTing like this before."
"But," Sapper shook his head, "the ammunition crates the Gyppos
offloaded at Aswan? What was in them?"
"Five one'gallon bottles of chemical for the toilet," said Nicholas,
"Plus half a dozen spare oxygen cylinders, just to make up weight."
"You switched them." Sapper beamed at him. "But how the hell did you
know that Royan was going to scupper us?"
"She was right when she said I must have known she was no thief. The
whole lark was out of character for her.
She is," he searched for the correct description, ( much too upright and
honest. Not at all like the present company."
"Thanks for the compliment," said Jannie drily, "but she must have given
you more reason than that to make you suspicious."
"Yes, of course." Nicholas turned to him. "The first real inkling I had
was when we came back from Ethiopia the first time, and she immediately
pushed off to Cairo. I guessed she was up to something. But I was
absolutely certain only when I learned that she had passed a message,
through Tessay, to the Egyptian Embassy in Addis. It was clear then that
she had alerted them to our return flight."
"The perfidious little bitch,'Jannie guffawed.
"Careful there!" said Nicholas stiffly. "She is a decent, honest and
patriotic young woman, warm-hearted and-' "Well, well!" Jannie winked at
Sapper. "Please excuse my slip."
nly two of the great crowns of ancient Egypt were set out on the
polished walnut conference table. Nicholas had placed them on the heads
of two genuine Roman marble busts that he had borrowed from a dealer
with whom he did regular business here in Zurich. He had drawn the
blinds over the tenth story windows, and arranged the lighting to show
the crowns to the best effect. The private conference room that he had
hired for the occasion was in the Bank Leu building on Bahnhofstrasse.
FT
While he waited alone for the arrival of his invited guest, he reviewed
his preparations and could find no fault with them. He went to the
full-length mirror on one wall and tightened the knot of his old
Sandhurst tie. The stitches had been removed from his chin. Mek Nimmur
had done a first-rate . oh, and the scar was neat and clean.
His suit had been made by his tailor in Savile Row, so it was in a muted
chalk stripe and had been worn enough to have acquired just the right
degree of casual bagginess. The only shiny items of his dress were the
hand-made shoes from Lobb of St. James's Street.
The intercom buzzed softly and Nicholas lifted the handset.
"There is a Mr Walsh to see you, Sir Nicholas," said the receptionist at
the desk in the bank lobby downstairs.
"Please ask him to come up."
Nicholas opened the door at the first ring and Walsh glowered at him
from the threshold.
"I hope you are not wasting my time, Harper. I have flown all the way
from Fort Worth." It was only thirty hours since Nicholas had telephoned
him at his ranch in Texas.
Walsh must have jumped into his executive jet almost immediately to have
got here so soon.
"Not Harper. Quenton-Harper,'said Nicholas.
"Okay then, Quenton-Harper. But cut the crap,'Walsh said angrily. "What
have you got for me?"
"I am also delighted to see you again, Mr Walsh." Nicholas stood aside.
"Do come in."
Walsh strode into the room. He was tall and roundshouldered, his jowls
drooping and wrinkled and his nose beaky. With his hands clasped behind
his back.he looked like a buzzard on a fence pole. Forbes magazine
listed his net worth at 1.7 billion dollars.
Two men followed him into the room, and Nicholas recognized both of
them. The antiquarian world was very small and incestuous. One of them
was the professor of
ancient history at Dallas University. Walsh had endowed the chair. The
other was one of the most respected and knowledgeable antiques dealers
in the United States.
Walsh stopped so suddenly that they both ran into him from behind, but
he did not seem to notice.
"Son of a gun!" he said softly, and his eyes lit with the flames of
fanaticism. "Are those fakes?"
"As fake as the Hannibal bronzes and the Hammurabi has-relief you bought
from me," said Nicholas.
Walsh approached the exhibits as though they were the cathedral
communion plate and he the archbishop.
"These must be fresh," he whispered. "Otherwise I would have known about
them."
"Fresh out of the ground," Nicholas confirmed. "You are the first one to
have seen them."
"Mamose!" Walsh read the cartouche on the uraeus of the Nemes crown.
"Then the rumours are true. You have opened a new tomb."
"If you can call nearly four thousand years old new." Walsh and his
advisers gathered around the table, pale and speechless with shock.
