The Last Gospel

IMU.’

‘So what’s with the shorts?’ she whispered.

‘Ah.’ Jack looked at Hiebermeyer’s backside, and struggled with his expression. ‘Genuine German Afrika Corps, circa 1940. Seemed appropriate, when he first went to Egypt and needed kit. I gave them to him as a graduation present. He gave me my British Eighth Army khaki bag. I always have it with me too.’ Jack patted the battered bag hanging against his side. ‘My fault. Sorry.’

‘Some suspenders would help,’ Maria whispered. ‘You know, lederhosen.’

‘What Jack’s saying,’ Costas said with a twinkle in his eye, ‘is that Maurice grows on you.’

‘He’s developed quite a lot since you knew him at Cambridge,’ Jack said.

‘Just as long as he doesn’t expect me to treat him like a god,’ Maria whispered, then she stood back and spoke normally. ‘Anyway, now I see what it’s like to be in Jack Howard’s shoes. I just hope I haven’t taken the steam out of your sails.’

‘We haven’t exactly been sunbathing on the foredeck,’ Costas said. ‘Wait until you hear what we found yesterday.’

Hiebermeyer looked increasingly exasperated, raising his eyes and bunching his fist in the air, then suddenly he listened intently on the phone and flashed a look of relief. He nodded towards Maria, then snapped the phone shut and walked over, shaking hands quickly with Jack and Costas. ‘I thought I’d be wasting your time.’ His voice was slightly hoarse with stress, his German accent more pronounced. ‘I couldn’t believe it. All I did was step out yesterday to call you. They weren’t going to let us back in.’

‘Can you finger anyone?’ Jack said. ‘I might be able to exert some pressure in the archaeological superintendency.’

‘It’s not the archaeologists who are the problem, it’s the site guards and whoever is topping up their wages. Whoever it is also pulls the strings at the top of the archaeological superintendency. They’re always apprehensive, clamped down, even some old colleagues I know personally, and sometimes there’s real fear in their eyes. I’ve never seen anything like it. I feel as if we’re walking on very thin ground.’

‘Everyone ready?’ Maria said, slinging her pack and clipping on her waist strap, then turning back up the ramp. ‘Maurice and I have learned the hard way that when you get the go-ahead in this place, you go-ahead pronto. It’s about two hundred yards due west from here, but we have to go out of the site and down some back alleys. We’ll be met at the entrance.’ She eyed Costas’ camera bag. ‘And watch your valuables, right? Remember where we are.’