King Solomon's Diamonds

27 Wet Desert

As Sam and Nina packed their Jeep for the trip to Tana Qirkos, Purdue had a word with Adjo about the Ethiopian locals who would escort them into the archaeological dig site behind Mount Yeha. Patrick soon joined them to iron out the details of their delivery, to be made with the least amount of racket.

“I will call Col. Yimenu to let him know when we will arrive at the site. He will just have to be satisfied with that,” Patrick said. “As long as he is there when the Holy Box is returned, I don’t see why we have to let him know which side we’re coming from.”

“Too right, Paddy,” Sam agreed. “Just remember, whatever Purdue and Adjo’s reputation, you represent the United Kingdom under command of the tribunal. Nobody is allowed to accost or attack anyone there to return the relic.”

“True,” Patrick agreed. “We have international exemption this time, as long as we abide by the conditions of the deal and even Yimenu has to adhere to that.”

“I do like the taste of that apple,” Purdue sighed as he helped Adjo and three of Patrick’s men lift the fake Ark into the military truck they prepared for its transport. “That veteran trigger-monger rubs me the wrong way every time I lay eyes on him.”

“Ah!” Nina exclaimed, pulling up her nose at Purdue. “Now I get it. You are sending me away from Aksum to keep me and Yimenu out of each other’s hair, hey? And you’re sending Sam to make sure I don’t get off my leash.”

Sam and Purdue stood side by side, choosing to keep quiet, but Adjo was chuckling and Patrick stepped in between her and the men to save the moment. “It really is best, Nina, don’t you think? I mean, we do need to get the remaining diamonds to the Egyptian Dragon people…”

Sam grimaced, trying not to laugh at Patrick misnaming the poor order of stargazers, but Purdue smiled openly. Patrick looked back at the men in reprimand before addressing the intimidating little historian again. “They need the stones urgently and with the delivery of the artifact…” he continued, trying to appease her. But Nina just held up her hand and shook her head. “Leave it, Patrick. Never mind. I’ll go steal something else from this poor country in the name of Britain just to steer clear of a diplomatic nightmare I’m bound to conjure up if I see that misogynistic imbecile again.”

“We have to go, Effendi,” Adjo told Purdue, thankfully breaking the looming tension with his sobering announcement. “If we take any longer we will not get there on time.”

“Yes! Better get going, all,” Purdue suggested. “Nina, you and Sam will meet up with us here in exactly twenty-four hours with the diamonds from the island monastery. Then we have to get back to Cairo in record time.”

“Call me a nitpicker,” Nina frowned, “but am I missing something? I thought those diamonds were to become the property of the Prof. Imru’s Egyptian Archaeological Society.”

“That was the deal, yes, but my brokers have received a list of stones from Prof. Imru’s people at the society, while Sam and I have been directly in touch with Master Penekal,” Purdue explained.

“Oh God, I smell a double cross,” she said, but Sam grasped her gently by the arm and pulled her away from Purdue with a hearty, “Cheerio, old man! Come, Dr. Gould. We have a crime to commit and very little time to do it in.”

“Geez, the rotten apples of my life,” she groaned as Purdue waved at her.

“Remember to watch the skies!” Purdue jested before he opened the passenger door of the idling old truck. In the back, the relic was being watched by Patrick and his men while Purdue rode shotgun with Adjo at the wheel. The Egyptian engineer was still the best guide to the region and Purdue thought if he drove the vehicle himself, he would not have to give directions.

Under cover of night, the group of men transported the Holy Box toward the dig site at Mount Yeha to return it as soon as possible with as little trouble from enraged Ethiopians as possible. The large mud-colored truck squeaked and roared along the potholed road, heading east toward the famous Aksum, reputed to be the resting place of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant.

Heading southwest, Sam and Nina raced to reach Lake Tana, which would take them no less than seven hours in the Jeep they were provided with.

“Are we doing the right thing, Sam?” she asked as she unwrapped a candy bar. “Or are we just chasing Purdue’s shadow?”

“I heard what you told him in the Hercules, love,” Sam replied. “We’re doing this because it is necessary.” He looked at her. “You did mean what you told him, aye? Or did you just want to make him feel less shitty?”

Nina was reluctant to answer, using her chewing as a stalling method.

“I just know one thing,” Sam shared, “and that is that Purdue was tortured by the Black Sun and left for dead… and that alone begs for all systems go for a bloodbath.”

After Nina swallowed down her candy she looked at the stars being born one by one over the unknown horizon they were heading into, wondering how many of those were potentially diabolical. “The nursery rhyme makes more sense now, you know? Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. How I wonder what you are.”

“Never thought about it that way, actually, but there is some mystery to it. You’re right. Also, wishing upon a falling star,” he added, looking at the beautiful Nina sucking at her fingertips to savor the chocolate. “It makes you think why a falling star would have the power to make your wishes come true, like a genie.”

“And you know how evil those fuckers really are, right? If you base your desires on the supernatural, you are bound to get your ass kicked, I reckon. You’re not supposed to use the fallen angels, or demons, whatever the hell people sum them up as, to feed your greed. That is why anyone using…” She went quiet. “Sam, is that the rule you and Purdue are applying to Prof. Imru or to Karsten?”

“What rule? There is no rule,” he defended blandly, his eyes fixed on the difficult road in the growing darkness.

“That Karsten’s greed would be his downfall, perhaps, using the Magician and King Solomon’s diamonds to rid the world of him?” she guessed, sounding awfully certain of herself. It was time for Sam to come clean. The feisty historian was no fool, and above that, she was part of their team, so she deserved to know what was going on between Purdue and Sam and let in on what they were hoping to achieve.

Nina napped for about three hours straight. Sam did not complain, even though he was totally knackered and fighting to stay awake on the monotonous road that looked like a crater with bad acne, at best. By eleven o’clock, the stars stood out in pristine glamour against the untainted skies, but Sam was too busy admiring the wetlands flanking the dirt road they were driving toward the lake.

“Nina?” he said, rousing her as gently as possible.

“We th—, we there yet?” she murmured in a daze.

“Almost,” he replied, “but I need you to see something.”

“Sam, I am in no mood for your juvenile sexual advances right now,” she frowned, still croaking like an animated mummy.

“No, I’m serious,” he persisted. “Look. Just have a look out your window and tell me if you see what I see.”

Laboriously she obliged. “I see darkness. It’s the middle of the night.”

“The moon is full, so it is not completely dark. Tell me what you notice about the landscape,” he pressed urgently. Sam sounded confused and upset at the same time, something quite uncharacteristic about him, so Nina knew it had to be important. She looked more keenly, trying to see what he was referring to. It was not until she remembered that Ethiopia was mainly an arid and desert landscape that she realized what he meant.

“We are driving through water?” she asked carefully. Then the full punch of the oddity hit her and she exclaimed, “Sam, why are we driving through water?”

The Jeep’s tires were wet, although the road was not flooded. On both sides of the gravel road, the moon illuminated the creeping shallows that rippled in the mild wind. Since the road was slightly elevated above the surrounding harsh ground, it had not yet been immersed as much as the rest of the vicinity.

“We’re not supposed to be,” Sam replied, shrugging. “As far as I know, this country is known for drought and the landscape is supposed to be bone dry.”

“Wait,” she said, flicking on the roof light to check the map Adjo gave them. “Let me see, where are we now?”

“Just passed Gondar about fifteen minutes ago,” he answered. “We should be close to Addis Zemen now, which is another fifteen minutes or so to Wereta, our destination before we boat on the lake.”

“Sam, this road is about seventeen kilometers away from the lake!” she gasped after measuring the distance between the road and the nearest water body. “There is no way that this could be the lake’s water. Could it?”

“Nope,” Sam agreed. “But what gets me is that, according to Adjo and Purdue’s preliminary research for this two-day scavenge, this region has not had any rain in over two months! So I would like to know, where the hell the lake got the extra water to floor this fucking road.”

“This is,” she shook her head, unable to figure it out, “un… natural.”

“You do know what this means, right?” Sam sighed. “We’ll have to get to the monastery entirely by water.”

Nina did not seem too unhappy about the new developments “I think it’s a good thing. Moving entirely in the water has its perks — it will be less conspicuous than doing the tourist thing.”

“How do you mean?”

“I propose we procure a canoe in Wereta and make a whole trip of it from there,” she suggested. “No changing of transport. No meeting with locals to do so either, see? We get a canoe, slap on some robes and bring the Word to our diamond-hoarding brothers.”

Sam smiled in the pale roof light.

“What?” she asked, equally amused.

“Oh, nothing. I just like your new found criminal integrity, Dr. Gould. We must be wary not to lose you to the Dark Side completely.” He chuckled.

“Oh, fuck off,” she said, smiling. “I’m here to get the job done. Besides, you know how I detest religion. Anyway, what the fuck are these monks harboring diamonds for anyway?”

“Good point,” Sam conceded. “Can’t wait to raid a bunch of humble, gentle people of the last wealth their world has.” As he feared, Nina did not care for his sarcasm and she answered with an even toned, “Aye.”

“By the way, who is going to give us a canoe at one in the morning, Dr. Gould?” Sam asked.

“Nobody, I suppose. We’ll just have to borrow one. It will be a good five hours before they rise to notice that it’s gone. By that time we will be picking off the monks, right?” she ventured.

“Godless,” he smiled, bringing the Jeep down a gear to navigate the tricky potholes obscured by the strange tide of water. “Absolutely godless, you are.”