“Like I said” —Doug gestured to the screen— “it’s a huge place and very spread out. Pool, houses, stables, and playing fields. There’s even a golf course and a private medical center.”
Giovanni tapped his chin. “But despite that, they mainly depend on perimeter security?”
“Yes, and it’s not good.” Doug flipped to a series of pictures. “The embassy is set on a hill above the city, and the mountain behind it is covered in forest. There’s a gravel path beyond the back wall that local people use to cross the hill between this creek” —he flipped to another picture— “and the road. I don’t think it’s pertinent to you two” —Doug looked at Ben and Tenzin— “but at night there’s a pack of hyenas that hunt all along this trail. That’s going to keep most humans away.”
Tenzin perked up. “They hunt people?”
Doug grimaced. “Hyenas will take dogs and children if they’re hungry, but they’re mainly scavengers. If these guys don’t get enough garbage from the human population in the forest, they might go after serval cats in the forest. Monkeys. That sort of thing.” He flipped to another picture. “The forest at the back of the embassy and then extending beyond the wall is pretty dense. Mainly eucalyptus trees. Some cedar. Now, there are reports of a couple of leopards in that area, but again, I don’t think that will be an issue for you two.”
Daniel raised his hand. “Can I be part of this break-in? Please?”
Giovanni glanced at Daniel. “Isn’t this your embassy?”
Daniel waved a hand. “Listen, we all know the sins of my fathers. You’ll get no excuses for England from me. I just really want to see the leopard. And the servals.” He tapped a busy foot. “Maybe the monkeys. I like monkeys.”
“Go on safari,” Ben said. “You’re staying put for this. We have to come from the air if we’re going in without being spotted, and we don’t need extra baggage.” Ben nodded. “The trees in back. That’s the best entry. We can drop in and no one will see us.”
“I agree with Ben.” Doug flipped back to the embassy diagram. “If you wait for a nice stormy night with some fog up there on the hills, you’ll be well camouflaged from the air. And don’t worry about sensors or lasers or anything like that. Security is not that advanced.” He raised a finger. “Now, you may have to deal with electronic alarms on the ambassador’s house, which is where we believe the private safe is mostly likely to be, but you’ll be able to deal with that…” Doug shrugged. “…in whatever way you two normally deal with those things; I don’t ask questions.”
“And what are you looking for again?” Daniel asked. “Sorry, the information I received before I took off was vague at best.”
The lights in the house suddenly switched off.
“Power outage?” Giovanni asked.
“The generator will switch on in a minute,” Doug said. “It’s pretty common, especially during the rainy season.”
Ben turned to Daniel. “We’re searching for a fourth-century Aksumite gold crown that we’ve been told is held in the private safe here in the embassy. Apparently it was acquired on the black market several years ago.”
“Naughty, naughty Nigel,” Daniel muttered. “Or whatever the current ambassador’s name is. Why haven’t you turned that one in to the proper authorities, hmm?”
Doug said, “We suspect that most of the European governments keep stashes of Ethiopian antiquities they’ve received as bribes or taken as spoils during conflict. They turn them over to the Ethiopian antiquities authority whenever they need a good splash of PR or are trying to cover up an embarrassing story.”
The lights in the room suddenly switched on again, and Doug set about rebooting the computer, which had blinked off.
“The British aren’t even that coy about it,” Ben said. “I’ve seen pictures of the officers’ club and the chancery. They have their goods on display.”
“But not the really valuable stuff.” Doug had the computer on again and turned to a new slide. “That’s in the residence.” He pointed to a diagram of a large rectangular house with two distinct branches. “Okay, the house is built around two courtyards that extend from the main hall and the formal dining room that’s used for parties and that sort of thing. The west side is the residence, and the east side used to be offices, but it was converted to entertaining space after the chancery building was finished. Library, meeting rooms, billiard room, things like that.”
Tenzin leaned closer to the screen. “It’s only one story?”
“At various points it’s actually four, but you’re going to focus on the ground floor and the basements, which are where the private treasury is.”
Ben crossed his arms over his chest. “And we know for certain—”
Doug cut Ben off. “We don’t know anything for certain, but let’s just say I am fairly sure that these rooms” —he pointed to two rooms on the east side— “are where you’re going to find your safe.”
Daniel raised his hand again. “And once you get this crown, you’re going to give it back?”
Tenzin pursed her lips. “Eventually. That is the long-term plan, yes.”
Daniel scratched his chin and frowned. “So… you’re going to do what these blokes have been doing? Trade valuable cultural antiquities for good public relations with the vampire in charge of Addis?”
Tenzin turned to Ben. “He was the only option?”
He reached over and took her hand. “He was the best one, yes.”
Tenzin stared at Daniel until the earth vampire began to squirm.
“Fuck, my father was not exaggerating about that stare,” he muttered. “I’m just saying…” He cleared his throat. “It’s clearly an effective strategy and an excellent plan. Well done, you.”
Giovanni smiled. “At the end of all this, Daniel, a mother will have her daughter’s crown returned to her, along with her personal devotional book, and we will have safeguarded an incredibly dangerous immortal artifact that is in no way native to this country.”
“Good.” Daniel’s voice was back to chirpy. “Excellent.” He glanced at Tenzin. “That all sounds… very good.”
Ben and Tenzin watched the ambassador’s house through the trees. They were perched in a stand of eucalyptus, staring at four canines barking at them from the ground.
“Dogs.” Ben grimaced. “He didn’t think to check for dogs?”
“An ancient and still-effective alarm,” Tenzin said. “It’s good we came; let’s see how they react.”
A voice in Amharic called from the back of the ambassador’s residence. The dogs didn’t listen at first, but there was a sharp whistle, and they retreated.
“See?” Tenzin smiled. “They don’t pay attention to the dogs. I suspected as much. The dogs are probably constantly barking at the hyenas beyond the gate.”
“And it looks like they’re going into a kennel.” Ben craned his neck and peered through the misty night. A light rain was falling, and the clouds hovered close to the ground. “So they’re not in the house at all.”