‘Whatever comes out of Egypt, we can control. It may even lead us to solve the questions posed by Carmichael’s research. But Carmichael himself is a problem. He isn’t one of us and he would resent any attempt to recruit him.’
‘He probably wouldn’t even understand it,’ said Audrey, ‘in his mental state.’
‘We can’t take a chance,’ said the professor.
‘I agree.’ This was Morris. And his word on the issue was final.
‘So what are you going to do?’ asked Audrey.
‘We need to send someone to deal with the problem.’
Morris’s mobile beeped. He took it out and cast a quick glance at the message.
Foreign Aid Bill vote 20 mins.
‘Sorry,’ said Senator Morris, ‘we’ll have to cut this short.’
‘Who are you going to send?’ asked Audrey hesitantly.
‘Someone whose loyalty is unwavering and whose talent for doing the work is unequalled.’
Audrey closed her eyes as she uttered the next word. ‘Goliath?’
Chapter 3
‘It’s a pity you didn’t find the rest,’ said Akil Mansoor in a quiet monotone.
‘Assuming there is a “rest”,’ Gabrielle replied.
‘Of course there’s a rest!’
They were in the lab at the University of Cairo that the Supreme Council of Antiquities used for examining ancient Egyptian artefacts. Mansoor was somewhat shorter than Gabrielle and was showing signs of a middle-aged paunch. But his white hair gave him a kind of patrician gravitas that made others around him instantly recognize his academic authority.
‘We branched out radially from the square where it was found,’ Gabrielle explained, ‘stopping at forty-nine square metres.’
The air conditioning had failed again and so Mansoor left three buttons undone on his check shirt and used a handkerchief to wipe the area between his chin and neck. The assembled fragments of stone looked like an incomplete jigsaw puzzle. Mansoor moved to his left, as if to get a better view of the engraved characters on the surface, brushing against Gabrielle in the process. She didn’t say anything, but moved away quietly to the other side of the workbench to give him room to view the stone fragments.