Heather Graham by Arabian Nights Read Free Book Online Page B

fortune to join her on this odyssey, but it was precisely for the reasons he had just mentioned. As long as they both knew she was the boss.
    Outside the tiny terminal a bus did indeed arrive. She and Raj were forced to split up to find seats. She found herself situated between an old veiled woman with a chicken on her lap and a youth of about ten, who smelled worse than the chickens. Gritting her teeth, she sank against the seat.
    The trip to the mainland was mercifully brief. With a few short questions to the driver, Raj learned where to find the government offices and the sheikh’s residence. It was strange to enter the modern buildings with their wooden ceiling fans and encounter the Arab officials working in their desert robes. Alex hovered nervously in a corner while Raj and an official spoke rapidly in Arabic; then she came forward as Raj addressed her in English with a polite, “Dr. Randall? The sergeant would speak with you.”
    It was stranger still to hear the young official speak in perfectly enunciated King’s English while he stared at her in her alien dress.
    It was not alien dress here. The Western world was alien in this land, she reminded herself. Throughout Cairo many wore the costume of their ancestry, but just as many had adopted Western customs and wore Western dress.
    But here it was different. The sudden onslaught of riches had forced these people into awareness of other customs, and they had made certain concessions to the foreign interests that worked the oil fields. But they had chosen to retain some of their old life-styles.
    The young man who spoke with her now at the offices of the legislature informed her politely that Sheikh Sheriff was not in town; neither was he expected back for several weeks. As the man at the airport had informed her, this almond-eyed official also warned, “I doubt, miss, that even should you find the oasis in the hills, Ali Sheriff will see you.”
    Alex glanced at Raj, but now he was standing in the background. Alex persisted politely. “I must find him, and I believe that he will see me. Can you tell me how I might go about looking for him?”
    The young official glanced at her skeptically for a moment, saw the blaze of determination in her eyes and sighed. He pulled a map out of his desk drawer and spread it across his desk. “Sheriff’s oasis is in a little valley in a cluster of hills just before the mountain range. You will note that you must travel inland, and I’m afraid there are no roads as of now into that sector of the country. You must go by what we call desert taxi—camel.”
    Alex hated camels. Ever since her first trip to Egypt, when she had been about six years old and been bitten by one of the obstinate beasts, she had despised them. But there were still places in Egypt that could only be reached by such crude transportation, and she was a staunch believer in accepting the inevitable.
    She swallowed and blinked rapidly, eyeing the young man levelly. “How long will it take?”
    “Oh, almost a full day’s ride.”
    A day on a camel. Oh, Dad, she wondered, how could you have done this to me?
    “How can we go about renting a camel?”
    The young Arabian stared at her again, obviously uncomfortable. “Miss, I don’t think you understand the situation. There are miles of desert between here and the oasis. Very rough terrain, and … a certain rough element. We are a religious and honorable people, but you must bear in mind that we are just making our way into the twentieth century.” He grimaced and continued softly. “Our laws are very different from yours; I would not feel safe about your going, being a woman.”
    Alex stared at him in return, then said with quiet force, “I must reach Sheriff—a man’s life is at stake.”
    “And I must warn you that you are a rarity in our country. Your eyes are so very blue … your face so fair. You must be blond. The color of your hair would make you a valuable prize—a unique addition to a