The Exodus Quest

TWENTY-EIGHT
I

The mobile continued to ring. 'Turn that off,' said Khaled. Then louder, a touch of panic in his voice: 'Turn it off.' Stafford reached slowly into his pocket, pulled out his mobile, turned it off. But it was too late. The damage was done. Or, more accurately, the ringing had made Khaled aware of a serious problem. Mobile phones emitted as well as received signals, even when they weren't being used. They just had to be switched on, as Stafford's clearly was.

If he disappeared now, it would be a simple matter for the police to trace their movements. They'd come straight here. He and his men would be their automatic chief suspects. Out would come the canes, the hosepipes, the water-boarding. And one of them would surely crack. Faisal, probably. There was something almost womanish about him.

Abdullah had been summoned from sentry-duty by the sound of gunfire. 'What going on?' he panted.

'What does it look like?' scowled Khaled, glaring at the foreigners. The tomb had seemed a gift from Allah. But now he saw it for what it truly was. A satanic trap. Five years in jail, if they were caught. Five years minimum. More likely ten or even more. And Khaled had seen the inside of Egypt's prisons. They were cramped and dirty places, filled with disease and brutality. He wasn't a weakling, but the prospect unnerved him.

'Why don't we just kill them, sir?' asked Nasser, ever the practical one. 'Dump them in the desert, like we did with the girl.'

'Yes,' scoffed Khaled. 'And that worked well, didn't it?'

'We have more time this time. We have all night.'

'All night?' snarled Khaled. 'Don't you know what's going to happen when these people don't appear wherever they're expected?' He pointed his gun at the woman Lily. 'Where are you expected?'

'Assiut,' she said, her face drained of colour. 'The Cleopatra Hotel.'

He turned back to Nasser. 'The moment they don't show up, their hotel will notify the authorities. Nothing terrifies them more than bad things happening to foreigners, especially to TV people. It jeopardizes their hotel investments, their precious tourist dollars. Believe me, by morning there'll be a manhunt like you've never seen! And the first place they'll come is here. And the first thing they'll do is follow all the tyre tracks in the sand out to this wonderful hiding place of yours.'

'Then let's dump them in the Nile.' Nasser made waves with his fingers to indicate a car vanishing beneath the surface.

Khaled shook his head. 'Without being spotted? And even if by some miracle we get away with it now, the police are sure to drag the river, or some fisherman will snag his net on the car. Anyway, it doesn't matter, their damned mobile phones are going to lead them straight to us.'

'Oh,' said Nasser gloomily. 'Then what are we going to do?'

'I'm trying to think,' scowled Khaled. 'Give me some quiet, will you?' He squatted, not wanting his men to see how baffled he was. Perhaps he could shift all the blame onto them. Make it look like a shakedown gone wrong. A gunfight erupting, leaving the three foreigners and all his men dead. But it was a desperate solution. Even a half-competent investigator would see straight through it. So maybe they should strike a deal. But while these foreigners were scared enough to agree to anything right now, that would all change the moment they were released.

'We should blame it on terrorists,' muttered Abdullah. 'They're always killing foreigners.'

'Excellent idea,' scoffed Khaled, seizing the opportunity to vent some anger. 'But, tell me, which terrorists, exactly?' He waved an arm around the desolate wadi. 'Show me these terrorists of yours and sure, we'll blame it on them.'

'It was only a suggestion, sir.'

'There aren't any terrorists around Amarna. Don't you know that? They're all down in Assiut and…' He broke off, a thought coming to him. Abdullah was absolutely right. In Egypt, only terrorists would dare take out foreigners like this. And it was a story the authorities would instinctively believe. The merest hint of terrorism made intelligent people behave like idiots. As far as anyone knew, these three were on their way to Assiut tonight. There'd been major unrest down there recently. He'd been watching it on TV. Riots. Demonstrations. Firebrand Muslims up in arms against the West because five of their brethren had been arrested for the rape and murder of two young Coptic girls. And, just like that, the idea came to him.

'Yes, sir,' asked Nasser, reading inspiration on his face. 'What is it?'

'One moment,' begged Khaled. He thought it through, its implications, the resources they'd need, the steps they'd have to take. It was crazy, yes, but then the situation was crazy and demanded crazy solutions.

'Please, sir,' pressed Nasser. 'Tell us.'

Khaled nodded twice, breathed deeply. 'Okay,' he said. 'This is what we're going to do.'