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my dear other self, and your much-avowed distrust of some men, you have learned little of the
species as a whole."
"Maybe I just never learned that much about politicians."
"Well, I have, and, like it or not, a man of Andy's wealth and influence is a politician whether
he holds a scepter or not. He is too understanding, too accommodating, too helpful, too
forgiving, too good."
"Yes, but I've heard it's like that sometimes when you find the right guy. Happily married
friends of mine have told me they couldn't believe how understanding, helpful,
accommodating, and forgiving of their faults the right person was once they found him or
her."
'Hmm, yes, but were their right people spending billions to impress them? Not that I think less
of him for it, mind you, but I suspect our Andy's exemplary behavior is motivated by
something other than our womanly charms, scholarly erudition, and delightful if somewhat
dramatic company. Both my Caesar and Marc Antony loved me and usually did what they
could to please me, but I never lost sight of the fact that had I not been Egypt, the richest
country in the known world, my charms, if no less thrilling, would have been less amply
rewarded."
'You sure know how to spoil a good time," Leda grumbled, punching her pillow. "He's just a
nice nerdy billionaire who acquired a romantic streak late in life and appreciates a girl with
the same qualities. Now let's get some sleep."
Abdul Mohammed's plan should have worked. It was simple, took care of two problems,
would cause the person he wished to harm great damage that would ruin her career and
possibly land her in prison, where she could no longer annoy his benefactors. In fact, while
she was in prison if the benefactor wished to have her killed, he could then easily do so.
He had thought himself a model of flexibility to have conceived of the plan so brilliantly. He
had sent back a team to finish the job started by Amir Marid ibn Yasin Abu Kadar, but his
operatives found the compound deserted. Although the place had been watched, and no one
had seen anyone coming or going, only the sand and the wind remained. At first he was angry
and ordered the place looted (as if it were necessary to give such an order), but then he had an
even better thought. He had on his hands a most inconvenient mummy, supposedly that of
Queen Cleopatra. He'd ordered it stolen thinking to have a ransomable treasure, but so far
such an item was much too hot to be marketed, and to publicly destroy it, which was the way
for its destruction to make the most impact, could possibly have left a trail leading back to
him. It was more amusing to use the mummy to destroy one of its discoverers, thus
implicating her in the museum's attempted sabotage and robbery. He had friends among the
police who had already suggested to their colleagues that it might be an inside job and that
there was only one museum staff member in place the night of the attack.
So he planted the mummy and waited for the police to return to the compound to look for
Faruk and question her again, whereupon they would find the archaeologist missing and the
mummy in her bed. The illogic of an expert who had dedicated her life to preserving
antiquities treating such a valuable one in such a careless manner did not trouble him. It
would be suggested that perhaps the woman had a drug habit acquired on those trips she often
took to her wealthy relative in Greece.
But for some reason, his informants and the police officials they were to notify were not
available after he had the mummy planted. Finally, he managed to locate one of them at the
museum, of all places, where they were ingesting donuts with an American television crew.
His people seemed to have forgotten that they were not actually good policemen and had been
enjoying regaling the foreigners with stories of their more colorful cases, including the
invasion and robbery of the museum.
By the time these worthless devils convinced their friends of the need to search the Faruk
compound again, it was well into the next day. While the police found the site of the looting,
they found no mummy. In fact, his informants said, they felt that their original suspicions of
Dr. Faruk had been mistaken. Clearly, from the damage to her home, she might have been a
target of the attack on her workplace as well. They expressed concern about her, since she had
disappeared from the museum without anyone seeing her leave. But then, later in the day,
they got word from museum officials that Dr. Faruk was simply on a business trip to Cairo
and various sites along the Nile.
This little favor for a friend was turning into a great inconvenience. Abdul Mohammed
telephoned the amir and informed him that since he had lost so many men in the explosion
following the aborted bombing of the museum, he simply did not have the manpower to
follow Faruk up the Nile. He reported to his patron what had been done, and the amir agreed
it had been a brilliant plan, had it not been a failure. But now, Abdul Mohammed said, his
attempts to avenge the honor of his friend had cost him a valuable piece of property. No one
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