“It’s possible…” Liya was considering. “I mean, Akkadian was an Eastern Semitic language and Ge’ez is a Southern Semitic language, but it’s possible that there were Aksumite scholars at the time who might have had some kind of knowledge of this earlier language that we’ve lost.”
“I’m sure that’s what the Manichaeans were counting on,” Tenzin said. “The question is: Can you help us?”
Liya had moved from uncertainty to suspicion. “What do you want this scroll for?”
“We believe it belongs in a research library.” Ben took over. “There’s one in Italy that specializes in Near Eastern manuscripts. We’re not locking it away in some private collection or selling it.” He handed Liya a card. “I promise. You can check them out. Research the library. It’s private but open to scholars from around the world, and their focus is the Ancient Mediterranean, Near East, and Levant.”
Liya sat back in her seat, the food the server had brought to the table seemingly forgotten. “I’m going to check this out.”
“That’s all we’re asking.”
“And if they’re legitimately a research library, then… yes, I will help you. But only because you’ve said that other people are looking for this.”
“We have no interest in taking anything from the country that is part of Ethiopian heritage,” Tenzin said. “This is something entirely different, and it needs to be analyzed under very special conditions.”
Liya nodded. “I appreciate your honesty.” She started eating. “You know, if you’d just tried to bribe me with the dig money, I probably would have reported you.”
Tenzin looked at Ben. Was her expression smug? Maybe a little.
The woman looked up. “Do you guys want to order coffee or anything? We still have a lot to talk about, and coffee is usually a good idea.”
Tenzin nodded. She was really starting to love this country.
19
Tenzin squirmed like an unruly child. “I do not like wearing a pack on my back. I feel like a donkey.”
Ben glanced over his shoulder. “You don’t look like one, and it’s practical. Stop complaining.”
They were sitting on the same perch they’d chosen the night before that overlooked the back of the ambassador’s house at the British embassy. They were trying to provoke the dogs, but so far they weren’t having any luck.
“I’m starting to feel like it was a bad idea to leave Daniel at home,” Ben said. “If anyone could provoke a couple of canines, it would be him.”
They wanted the dogs to start barking so the guard would get annoyed with them and lock them in the kennel. So far, the dogs had been reluctant to leave the covered veranda that sheltered them from the rain.
“Are you sure Daniel didn’t follow us?” She looked over her shoulder to the woods beyond the embassy walls. “He was very intent on seeing that leopard.”
“I hear movement behind the wall, but I have no idea if it’s a vampire or hyenas.” He shook his head. “This storm is messing with my senses.”
“Electrical storms will do that.” Tenzin floated up and returned with something clutched in her hand. “Let’s see if this helps.” She showed him a handful of the small pods off the eucalyptus tree.
“Good thinking.”
Tenzin searched for a target and found a handy one on a metal trash can near the rear kitchen entrance. She flew over and aimed a pod at the cans.
Ping!
It wouldn’t have been loud enough for a human to hear, but the dogs perked up immediately. Tenzin pitched another one at the cans, and the dogs went crazy.
The two German shepherds flew off the verandah and across the muddy yard, barking their heads off in the direction of the trash cans. They barked until the guard came running and shushed them. He ordered them back to the verandah but didn’t lock them up.
Tenzin flew back to their tree. “They’re still loose?”
“I think this guard is a little more patient than the last one.” He held his hand out. “Let me try.”
Barking at trash cans was one thing, but waking up the house was another. Ben aimed the pod at a window that had been the last one in the house to go dark.
Ping!
The dogs lost their heads again, running around and jumping into the flower beds underneath the window, barking at the suspicious noise.
This time the guard railed at them, yelling at them until, cowed, they went back to the verandah. He herded them into the covered kennel, muttering at them and shaking his head. The rifle he carried was slung casually on one shoulder, and though he glanced into the woods, he didn’t walk out to examine the trees.
“Excellent.” Ben nodded. “Now we wait for the dogs to sleep and the guard to do one more round. Then we go in.”
“I found where the electricity cutoff switch is.”
Ben had decided that the number of times the power went out in Addis—particularly when it was storming—made a simple power outage the easiest way of breaching the house alarms. He figured at night, when everyone was sleeping, they’d have at least a half an hour before the guard noticed that anything was amiss.
Ben and Tenzin remained in the shelter of the trees, getting progressively more soaked as they waited for the house to go completely quiet. Ben could hear the dogs snoring, all the lights were out in the ambassador’s house, and the guard was nodding off near the front entrance when they finally decided to go in.
* * *
They flew down from their perch and shook off the damp as best they could under the verandah. Tenzin flew to the breaker box on the side of the house, and Ben could feel the nearly imperceptible shift in energy when the electricity went completely dead.
Using a set of lockpicks, he quickly opened the french doors leading to the dining room; then he waited for Tenzin to catch up. When she finally appeared, she looked like a cat that had fallen in a lake.
“I hate being wet.”
He smiled and tucked a wet chunk of hair behind her ear. “You look adorable though.”
“I want a warm bath when we get home. Maybe a steam bath.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” He nodded toward the darkened house. “Can we go steal some stuff now?”
She perked up. “Yes, please.”
They split up and went to work, checking each room for hidden safes, doors, or wardrobes. The dining room was a bust, as was the meeting room, library, and one room that looked wholly devoted to maps. There was also a room full of athletic equipment and a salon that held a grand piano and pretty much nothing else.
Ben was starting to fear they’d have to intrude on the residence side, which he had wanted to avoid, when Tenzin hit pay dirt in the billiard room.
There was a tall locked cabinet that seemed like it would be the perfect place to store cue sticks, but why would it be locked? Ben quickly picked the small lock and opened the cabinet to reveal exactly what he’d expected, cue sticks, frames, and various sets of billiard balls.
“Wait.” Tenzin moved him to the side and worked a single fingernail into the velvet edge of the frame holding the sticks. “It’s too deep for only this. There’s something behind it.”