Pharaoh by Valerio Massimo Manfredi Read Free Book Online

You’re not going to tell me that at El Qurna you found the heirs of Mustafa Mahmoud—’
    ‘I did, as a matter of fact. Even better than that.’
    ‘Better?’
    ‘Photographic evidence. Partial, dark, but extremely significant.’
    Both men were quiet, the Arab scholar watching the thin line of smoke that rose from the butt of his cigarette, his guest turning the empty coffee cup over and over in his hands. The whine of a police siren echoed distantly between the glass walls of the skyscrapers, travelling through the curtain of snow all the way to the room where they were sitting, like a disturbing, alien wail.
    ‘Continue,’ said Husseini.
    ‘I knew I was playing for high stakes. Looking for a document which may lie at the very basis of thousands of years of tradition means running enormous risks – a short circuit at best, but a catastrophe at the worst. I knew I had to move cautiously and I was careful not to expose myself directly. I took one of my students, Selim Kaddoumi, along.’
    Husseini indicated with a nod that he knew him.
    Blake went on, ‘He’s a smart kid, working on his PhD with me, on a grant from the Egyptian government. He’s completely bilingual and he made all my contacts for me. He talked with the old fellahin of El Qurna, distributed a little money here and there where it counted, obviously keeping a small percentage for himself, until he really chanced upon some important information. An old collection dating back to the golden age had turned up and the underground antiquities smugglers were said to have a number of pieces ready to sell. So at this point I stepped in. Italian designer suit, drove up in a rented luxury car and made an appointment, passing myself off as a possible fence.’
    ‘Why?’ asked Husseini.
    ‘Selim had seen a Polaroid of one of the pieces that was up for sale and he sketched it for me. I thought I recognized one of the finds described by Breasted in the folder that I’d seen in Minneapolis: a gilded bronze bracelet set with amber, hematite and carnelian. What’s more, there were also papyri in the lot. It was reasonable to suppose that the papyrus I was looking for could have been one of them, since there’d been no word of it since Breasted’s times. My gut feeling told me that I’d had a stroke of luck that I would never even have dreamed of. Anyway, it was worth a try.’
    Husseini shook his head. ‘I don’t get it, Blake. A piece suddenly shows up after some eighty years just while you’re looking for it. Didn’t that make you suspicious?’
    ‘Well, that’s not exactly how it was. There was no way I could be sure that the papyrus I was looking for was in the lot. I wasn’t even sure that the bracelet Selim had drawn from a photo was the same one that Breasted had described.’
    Hussein looked at him, confused. ‘But then—’
    ‘The plot thickens, servant of Allah,’ interrupted Blake, ‘true to script. But to tell you the rest I need something stronger to drink. Too much to ask?’
    ‘Afraid so. But I can give you another cigarette. A little nicotine will keep you going.’
    So Blake took a deep drag on the cigarette and continued. ‘I had met an official from our embassy in Cairo. Olsen had introduced us, in case I needed a hand in contacting the Egyptian authorities or the Minister of Antiquities. One evening he called me at the Oriental Institute’s guest facilities to set up an appointment at the Cairo Marriot. It was his favourite hangout, because they serve hamburgers, steaks and French fries. Waiters in cowboy hats, you get the picture.
    ‘He told me to watch out because he knew there were other people – powerful, dangerous people – trying to get their hands on that lot. He wouldn’t say who they were, but he did say they were people who didn’t take kindly to competition. He was warning me as a sort of a favour, like saying, “Watch it. That stuff’s too hot, so stay away.” But for me it was a fantastic confirmation