The Moses Legacy

Chapter 43

‘It’s just a flesh wound,’ said Gabrielle with a smile, tying her headscarf around her shoulder.

Harsh as the situation was, Daniel couldn’t fail to see the humour in it.

‘You’ve been watching too many Clint Eastwood movies. We’ve got to get you to a doctor.’

‘With those guys trying to kill us? Are you crazy?’

They were moving in the shadows, avoiding the pools of light thrown by the street lamps. They weren’t sure if they were still being followed, but it was clear that the cops – if indeed they were cops – were in no mood to listen to them.

‘So what do you suggest, Gaby? You’re bleeding.’

‘It’s Gabrielle to you.’

‘Oh, cut it out! You’ll always be Gaby to me.’

‘Whatever! Anyway it’s not bleeding.’

‘So what’s that then?’

He pointed to the blood on the scarf.

‘It’s congealed blood.’

‘Covering quite an area. And blood doesn’t coagulate that quickly.’

‘It was never bleeding in the first place. It was a scraping injury, the bullet just grazed me. There was blood but no bleeding. It’s like when you scrape a limb on a rough surface.’

‘It must hurt like hell.’

‘I’m a woman. We’re biologically programmed to pass an infant’s fifteen-centimetre cranium through a ten-centimetre passage. Do you think a little scraping on my upper arm is going to bother me?’

‘If it was me I wouldn’t be so stoic.’

‘I guess you’re handicapped by what you’ve got between your legs.’

Daniel smiled. ‘I take it back, what I said about Clint Eastwood. It’s too many reruns of Xena: Warrior Princess.’ If she could keep this up, in the face of what must have been at least moderately painful, then at least he didn’t have to worry about her any more. ‘So what happened to that frightened little girl from the tomb back there?’

‘It’s not the pain that bothers me. It’s not being in control. I guess I can take danger, I just can’t take confinement.’

Daniel nodded, approving of the logic. ‘The thing I don’t understand is why they were shooting at us.’ He looked at her expectantly. She said nothing. He had another go. ‘You said something about them not wanting to come into contact…’

Gabrielle held out Mansoor’s phone. ‘There’s a message. You might like to listen to it.’

He took the phone and held it to his ear.

‘Hallo Professor Mansoor, this is the Minister of Health, Farooq Mahdi. We have a little problem on our hands. We understand that you are travelling in the company of a British man called Daniel Klein and a woman called Gabrielle Gusack. Please be very wary of them. There is an arrest warrant out for Daniel Klein after he jumped bail on a murder charge. We believe that he could be very dangerous. There is also evidence that they are both carrying the same contagious disease as the volunteers at the dig. The Gusack woman is known to have been in contact with a curator at the British Museum and he later succumbed to the same disease. Please get away from them as soon as possible and contact us.’

Now he realized why Gabrielle had been so determined to get him to run. As far as the cops were concerned, they were a dangerous health hazard and the police didn’t want to go anywhere near them – even if shooting them was the only alternative. The fact that Daniel was also suspected of being a murderer on the run, made it easier for them to take that shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach. Daniel knew that in these circumstances, there was no point trying to reason with them.

But why on earth should anyone think they were carrying a disease? They weren’t showing any symptoms themselves. This had to be some sort of mix-up. But there evidently was an outbreak and there had had to be some cause.

However, until such time as they could approach the authorities without getting themselves shot, they’d have to keep a low profile. They needed breathing room… time to unravel the mystery and work out a plan.

‘We’ve got to get out of here,’ said Daniel.