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She had thought that their love would endure forever. Soon after that first evening, Will's son had arrived and the four of them had bonded into an apparently inseparable unit. Until the "incident". Then life had changed forever.

Cheops sat in thought in the small courtyard, enjoying the morning sun that was heating the desert air, forcing her thoughts away from Will's threat and onto the itinerary for today. After the museum, they would return to Giza to see the pyramids there. Then there would be dinner that included a folk dancing show. She sighed; it was going to be a long day!

"I brought you some Turkish coffee," said a voice from beside her and Cheops jumped in surprise. She looked up to see Will standing quietly, a small cup in each hand. The classically beautiful face was still, emotionless, revealing nothing.

Cheops reached up taking hold of the small cup filled with the thick syrupy coffee.Her fingers brushed against the warrior's and both women's eyes came up in surprise at the intensity of the touch. Eyes locked, then both looked away.

"I hated you, you know, for leaving me to die and for taking my daughter's body," Cheops' confessed.

"I didn't leave you to die," Willy snarled.

"It was Ismail who found me and took care of me until medical aid arrived," stated Cheops, staring moodily into the dark depths of the coffee. "He said when he arrived you were carrying the children out."

"I know, what I was doing! It is etched on my mind forever!" snapped Willy." I put a tourniquet on and wrapped your leg. Didn't it heal right? You limp."

Cheops ignored the question, "Why did you leave?"

"I found my son," stated Willy looking blankly out at the garden.

"And my daughter," reminded Cheops angrily.

"I sent a message to the hospital that I'd buried them together," explained Willy, looking at Cheops suddenly. The blue eyes were burning with an intense light that seemed to come from within. They were, when she was angry, inhuman eyes.

"I didn't get it," responded Cheops meeting the stare with green eyes flashing with emotion.

"Not my fault. I did my duty."

"Duty! For Christ sakes, Will! They were our children!" Cheops exploded, tears welling in her eyes.

Will said nothing. The words too hard to say. She raised the cup to her lips and allowed the thick, bitter coffee to push down the rising lump in her throat. Her hand shook.

Cheops face turned from tense anger to confusion. "What's wrong with you, Will? Are you sick?" Cheops looked up with pleading eyes.

"No," came the cold response.

Cheops nodded and looked away. "Thank you for the coffee. Is this some sort of Special Services ritual, providing coffee and conversation before the kill?"

"It is important that you understand that I did not fail you," came the cold response.

Cheops hurled her cup across the lawn as she leapt to her feet. "Damn you!" she yelled brushing past Willy, tears streaming down her face. "Damn you to hell!"

After she had left, Will stood for a long time staring at nothing. I am already damned, Cheops, she thought. Then she went and retrieved the cup from the flower bed and carried the two of them back to the refreshment counter. Revenge, at a personal level, she was finding, was not sweet.

"I'm tellin ya, Abe, any guy who has all his gold buried with 'im ain't civilized. As soon as we get back to New York, we're going to the lawyer's. Ya hear! You're not taking it with ya!" said Betty slapping the arm of her long suffering husband playfully.

"Yes, Betty," Abe responded rolling his eyes and smiling. Behind all the toughness, his wife had a heart of gold and he knew it.

"Hey you, come here," Betty suddenly demanded over Abe's shoulder, as she beckoned with her hand. Abe felt a tall presence behind him that sent icy shivers down his back. He moved aside and saw the strange woman who had been lurking at the edge of their group all morning. Betty! What are ya doing now, he thought?!

"Look, Honey, I seen you on the bus rubbin' your head. You gotta headache? I said to Abe, she's one of those half starved models that die young from taking diet pills, didn't I, Abe?" rambled Betty as she dug deeply in her enormous purse.

"Ahh, Betty I don't think..." started Abe.

"Here! I picked up a banana off the breakfast table this morning," explained Betty proudly thrusting the item in question at the bemused warrior. "Ya eat that, okay? It's got stuff in it women need."

"Betty! Ya don't know if she's a model! Ya outta be mindin' your own business!" grumbled Abe.

Betty rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Tell him," she demanded of Willy.

Willy's amused eyes flickered from Betty to Abe. "I was just medically discharged from the R.A.F. Special Services Unit. I was captured by a terrorist group...it wasn't too pleasant," explained Willy although she was not sure why. Betty had sort of appealed to her with her rough kindness to a stranger. She held up the banana. "Thanks, I'll take it out and eat it on the bus," she promised and walked on.

"Model!" scoffed Abe giving his wife an affectionate poke.

"Well! She could have been! She's gorgeous!" Betty said in defense.

Cheops got herself under control and then went in search of her group. She found the couple from Salt Lake City and the father and son waiting dutifully in the allotted spot. "Hi, just the Laytons to wait for and we can be off!" she remarked.

"What about Wilhelminia Kyrtsakas?" grumbled the older gentleman. "You going to leave her behind?"

Cheops' insides jumped at hearing the name of her ex-lover. "You know, Willy?!" she asked in confusion.

"Nope, read her name tag," responded the wiryold man smugly.

Cheops laughed at her own stupidity. "That makes sense," she agreed. "Will knows this part of Egypt very well. She has lived here before. She can take care of herself," Cheops reassured the group. Aaron Scott was going to be a difficult old coot, Cheops thought. The son, Bob, too, by the way he was leering at her.

"She doesn't look too well," observed the rather prim wife from Salt Lake, her husband nodding his agreement..

Jean and Bill Bartlett, Cheops' mind registered. " Here are the Laytons now!" said Cheops happily, changing the subject as quickly as she could.

Betty came bustling up with Abe trailing behind. "Have you seen Will?" asked Aaron persistently.

"She's on the bus eating the banana I gave her," explained Betty. "She's English and she's been medically discharged from the R.A.F. because she was held prisoner by terrorists and tortured!" revealed Betty proudly. The group looked at her in surprise.

Abe explained proudly, "That's my Betty. She shoulda been an interrogator. She could get information from a corpse."

Several of the group giggled at this and Cheops used the moment to lead her group back to the bus. She hid how upset she was behind a stream of facts about some of the exhibits the tourists had seen, wondering on another level, why she should care that the woman who was going to try to kill her had been a prisoner of war.

Will's long legs were stretched out along the back seat of the bus and she had leaned her head against the window, her eyes closed. She looked exhausted. Cheops knew, however, that she was probably aware of everything happening around her. She was like that, observant, alert, and always on guard.

The group piled back into the mini-bus with a good deal of noise and confusion and then settled down for the ride back to Giza. Cheops stood at the front and leaned against the safety rail as she used the mike to give her group a little bit of background information on the Great Pyramids of Giza.

"The pyramids at Giza were built as royal tombs between 2700 B.C. and 1000 B.C. The largest one is Khufu which stands some 480 feet tall. It is made of 2.3 million blocks of stone each weighing about 2.5 metric tonnes! It is still, today, the largest single structure ever built by man."

"Wow! That's fantastic!" encouraged Bob, who had taken the seat directly across from Cheops.

"Do you ever know a lot about this stuff!"

Cheops laughed good-naturedly, "Well, I do have a doctorate in Egyptology. In fact, I grew up in Giza. My parents were both archaeologist. They worked on the remains of the City of the Dead that surrounds the great pyramids. They are the mastaba tombs of the pharaoh's family, officials and courtiers."

"What does mastaba mean?" asked Bob hanging on to every word that Cheops was saying. Willy sitting quietly at the back could feel the hairs at the back of her neck starting to rise in irritation.

"Mastaba means literally mud-brick bench. The Egyptians thought that these ancient tombs looked a lot like the sun-dried mud benches you see in front of local homes," explained Cheops.

"So are you saying we gonna see a graveyard?!" asked Betty loudly.

"Basically, yes," Cheops affirmed. " Traditionally, the living of Egypt lived on the east side of the Nile, the side of the rising sun and the dead lived on the west side, the side of the setting sun. In Cairo, there is a huge City of the Dead. Families build houses there over where their dead are buried. There are streets and rich houses and poorer neighborhoods too. It looks from the hillside just like a sprawling suburb only everyone there is dead."

"Wow! What a great place for a D.&D. game!" suggested Bob.

"I wouldn't recommend it. Moslems take their beliefs very seriously," responded Cheops and then went on to change the subject. "I was named after the pharaoh Khufu. Cheops is the Greek word for Khufu." Cheops clicked off her mike and handed it back to the driver before slipping back into her seat.

Willy's eyes narrowed as Bob leaned over and continued to ask questions of Cheops. After a few minutes he slipped in beside her on the same bench. When his arm wrapped around the seat back, Willy was on her feet and walking unsteadily towards the front of the bus. She tapped Bob forcefully on the shoulder. "I need to talk to the guide," she stated bluntly and Bob, after a moment's hesitation, moved sulkily back to his seat.

Willy sat down beside Cheops and stared out the front window. What the hell did I do that for, she wondered? "Will?" Cheops asked softly leaning close to the agitated warrior.

"Hmmm," responded Willy looking down and catching the scent of desert flowers and sunlight that she remembered was the taste of the beautiful woman beside her.

Cheops reached out and covered Willy's hand. She felt the woman jump in revulsion but the hand did not move from where it lay beneath her own."Thanks."

"It's okay," she muttered disinterestedly.

"Betty told us about...what happened to you," Cheops confessed. The hand stiffened and shook slightly. Cheops wrapped her own around it. The hand was pulled away sharply.

"What the hell are you doing?!" hissed Willy.

"Caring," Cheops responded softly.

"Find someone else to mother!" Willy growled cruelly.

"There is a river of bad blood separating us, Will, but I can answer honestly that after you there could never be another. You were my soulmate." Willy got up and walked back to the back of the bus with out a word. Cheops sighed sadly and picked up her knapsack to place on the now empty seat to discourage Bob from returning. Then she looked moodily out the window.

In bed with the enemy, wasn't that the expression? She wasn't getting very far in breaking down Will's wall of hate but then she knew the odds were stacked in the warrior's favour in this contest of wills. Yet she had come to Cheops' rescue. There must be some fragment of what they once were deep inside. If Cheops could only find it.

They rode back to the hotel, and after a light lunch, walked through the gardens and up the hill to the pyramids. Arabs riding camels and wearing traditional dress offered to have their pictures taken with the tourists for a price and Abe insisted on Betty posing. The Barletts too were anxious to get their picture taken. Bob and Aaron walked on, after being told to meet at the Sphinx in an hour's time. That left Cheops once again with Will.

"I read you are still working on KV 5," Will observed kicking at the gravel with her sneaker.

"Yes, it's been...hard at times. I still can't make myself go near Hatshepsut's temple," confessed Cheops a lump forming in her throat. She swallowed with difficulty. "Would you like to see one of the mastaba my parents worked on?" she asked, more to change the dangerous subject than for any other reason.

"Sure," came the quick response.

Cheops looked up quickly. "You won't get a chance to kill me, Will. I'm not likely to take you anywhere where there are no witnesses."

Will smiled coldly. "There have been plenty of opportunities so far to off you, Cheops. But I'm in no hurry. I paid for the tour."

Cheops face drained of colour. Glacial-blue eyes seemed to reach in and freeze her soul. She forced herself to stand straighter and give Will a dirty look. "I'll make sure you get your money's worth, Major, as far as the tour goes. This way," she instructed carefully negotiating the loose hillside down into the City of the Dead that lies in the shadow of Khufu.

Will adjusted her pace and stayed close enough to grab Cheops if she should fall. There was definitely something wrong with her ankle. It didn't seem to bend.

They approached a Mastaba where several archaeologists and their assistants were surveying. A lean, dark haired woman with a row of gold studs in one ear smiled and got up from where she was pounding in a survey stake. "Cheops! Great to see you!" she exclaimed giving the petite woman a hug and leaving her arm over the woman's shoulder as she turned to face Will.

"This is Dr. Sophia Polinski, Will. Soph, this is Major Wilhelminia Kyrtsakas."

She seemed relaxed and comfortable under the archaeologist's arm. Were they lovers? Will could feel her anger fighting to break free. This was stupid! Why should I care? she wondered.

"Glad to meet a past friend of Cheops," the wiry woman said pointedly, grasping Willy's hand in a strong handshake.

Will squeezed until she saw the flash of pain cross Sophia's face, then let go. "Doctor," Will acknowledged. "Let's go Cheops," she said impatiently.

Cheops turned to Sophia. "Is it okay if we check out tomb KP 326?" she asked.

"Sure Hon, go ahead." Sophia smiled and stepped aside after giving Cheops' shoulder one last squeeze.

Cheops led the way down into the tomb with Will moodily following behind. The tomb was cool and dark after the intense afternoon sun. For a minute, they stood close together letting their eyes adjust.

"I thought I was your soulmate, and there could never be another," remarked Will with bitter sarcasm.

"I'm not having an affair with Sophia," responded Cheops calmly.

"She'd like to," snarled Will.

"Yes, she would."

"Do you find her appealing?"

"Physically, yes," Cheops admitted honestly.

Will nodded and walked farther in to the tomb. The walls were covered in rows of black hieroglyphic on orange plastered walls. The barrel roof was painted navy and covered in stylized stars in yellow.

"What does it mean?" asked Will, looking around, hands on hips, and a thunderous expression on her face.

"It's the text from the Egyptian Book of the Dead," explained Cheops looking at the walls with interest.

Will's laugh burst out. "You've got guts Cheops! I'll give you that! You'd better read your prayers, while you have the time."

Alright," the small archaeologist responded. "The eastern wall over here has the morning prayers on it. It reads, 'Worship the sun god when he rises on the eastern horizon of heaven.' Then here it says, 'Sun god, you rise and shine honouring your mother, Nut, who made all the gods.' Over here on the western side it says, "Receive in the west our sun god, content and safe in the righteousness of your nations. May the sun god give us splendour and power.'"

"You'd be better to put your trust in yourself, instead of a stupid god," said Will bitterly.

"I do. But more than that, I put my trust in you," replied Cheops coming to stand in front of Will, and looking up at her sincerely.

"Don't," Will shot back and pushed past Cheops to climb out of the tomb.

"But I do. My life depends on it," whispered Cheops, and awkwardly made her way back out of the tomb.

The sun blinded her for a minute, then, looking around, she saw Will storming off in the distance. Sophia came up to stand beside her. "Listen, when you finally decide to let go, let me help kiss it better." Cheops gave her a dirty look and limped off.

She found the group dutifully waiting for her by the Sphinx and pasted on a happy smile for them. "Legend has it that Oedipus was able to kill the Sphinx by knowing the answer to this riddle, First on four legs, then on two, lastly, on three legs. Do you know the answer? No? It's baby crawls, man walks, old man with a cane."

"I don't use a cane," grumbled Aaron.

Cheops grit her teeth put laughed politely, "That's because you are young of heart and still handsome too," Cheops flattered him. The old man beamed and poked his son, Bob, in the ribs. The group laughed and Cheops went on. "The Sphinx is actually a lion with the face of the pharaoh. It was common to make sphinxes and we'll see lots of them. But this one is unique because of its gigantic size. Carved from a natural outcrop of rock, it is 66 feet high and 240 feet long!"

" It's really hot out here now. I bet you are all ready to head back to the hotel and have a cool drink by the pool. I'll see you at dinner at 8:00 p.m. This way, we'll take the back door out," concluded Cheops walking slowly around the far side of the Great pyramid. She didn't want to over tax Aaron although the old man seemed in remarkably good shape. Her keen sight had noticed, too, that Will looked exhausted and her movements were again stiff and shaky.

Cheops spent the late afternoon seeing to the various needs of her clients. Aaron wanted his room changed so that he was next to his son. Betty needed to know if the ice was made from bottled water and the Bartletts needed their return flight times verified. She had only enough time to slip home and change into her gallabeeya and return for dinner.

All eyes were on her when she entered the dinning room in the navy blue flowing robes decorated in intricate geometric patterns of gold braid. "Honey," said Betty, "You'd charm the devil himself in that get up!"

"It's beautiful!" admired Jean. "Bill, I must get one while I'm here. What is this Arab dress called again?"

"It's a gallabeeya," Cheops repeated patiently for the fifth time.

"Ain't it hot?" asked Aaron.

"Well, this one is for evening wear and it is pretty heavy. The desert, as I'm sure you have noticed, gets chilly at night. The day time ones are usually a light cotton so they are quite airy and cool. Having grown up in Egypt, I feel just as comfortable in Arab dress as I do in European."

The waiter arrived with their menus then and conversation turned to other subjects. Cheops was disappointed that Will had not shown up. She had wanted the woman to see her in this outfit. There was a time...it was perhaps better not to think of those heady days of love before the incident. The floor show started and Cheops forced her mind onto the here and now, clapping with the others during the folk dances and watching the bellydancer with approval.

When it was politely possible, Cheops took her leave and walked slowly back through the hotel gardens to catch the trail that would take her behind the City of the Dead and down to her own backyard. Her mind wandered again to happier times. Will used to put on Arabic music and insist that Cheops belly dance for her. It always led to other activities together that lasted long into the night.

Lost in thought, Cheops did not hear the steps behind her until she was caught around the middle in a pair of lanky arms. "Bet you can belly dance real nice too," Bob whispered in her ear.

"Let go, Mr. Scott," Cheops said firmly, pushing at him. The arms tightened and Cheops realized that she was in trouble. "Back off!" she ordered. Bob's breath, heavy with whiskey, laughed softly as he spun her around for a kiss. Cheops lost her balance on her one good foot and fell, pulling Bob down with her. Oh god! She thought.

She struggled to push Bob off as he laughed with drunken delight. Then to her relief he was up off her, held by the scruff of his neck by a warrior who looked only a hair's breadth away from murder. "Get out of here! And don't ever come near her again!" Will ordered as she shook the terrified drunk until his teeth rattled. She gave him a good push in the right direction and he stumbled off into the darkness whining that it was all a mistake.

Will reached down and pulled Cheops to her feet. She toppled forward and the warrior caught her in her arms. "You okay?"

Cheops did not miss the opportunity. She rested her head under Will's chin and nodded, her head buried in the soft material of the taller woman's shirt. It smelt of freshly ironed cotton and the spicy scent that was uniquely Will's.

Will stepped back. "I'll walk you home."

Cheops laughed shakily. "Saved from an amorous drunk to be walked home by my killer. I'm not having a good night!

Will looked uncomfortable. "I told you, I want my money's worth. You're safe enough tonight."

Cheops looked deep into Will's eyes. She could see the doubt. I'm winning you back, Will. You just don't know it yet, she thought. Out loud she said, "Thanks."

The two of them walked side by side along the stony path back to Cheops' home. In the backyard Will stopped and looked around, the pain and strain showing on her face. Cheops licked her lips nervously and took the chance. "Sometimes, I can still hear them playing out here," she said softly and Will nodded swallowing hard. "I never would have..."

"I know," cut in Willy quickly. "I don't want to talk about it."

Cheops nodded. "You didn't come to dinner," she observed.

Will looked uncomfortable and shuffled the dry gravel around with a foot. "I don't do so well in those sort of settings. I don't like noise and crowds."

"Would you let me fix you a snack? It is the least I could do for you saving my honour."

"You could have handled him. He was just a stupid drunk. You're not too good on that foot now, huh?" Will observed.

Cheops swallowed, she was going to have to tell Will the truth and she had better do so now even though she was very much afraid that it would end any chance they had of ever being together again. She had seen the look of revulsion on people's faces before, when they saw her foot was artificial. "My foot and ankle were amputated Will. I wear a prosthesis." The body next to hers started and then went very still.

"You've got an artificial foot?!"

"Yes," responded Cheops looking at the ground, afraid to look into Will's eyes and see the revulsion.

She was taken completely by surprise when Will wrapped her in a strong embrace. "I didn't know," she whispered into Cheops' hair.

"It's okay. Thanks for caring." Cheops looked up and met Willy's eyes. " Listen, seeing as we have a truce tonight, would you like to come in, and I'll make you something to eat?"

Will drew back and let her arms fall to her sides. For a minute they stood looking at each other in silence while Will fought her demons. "No," Will finally said and turned and disappeared into the night.

Cheops limped to her door and let herself in. Mechanically, she went through the process of packing and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow, they would visit Sakkara and then take the 300 mile flight up the Nile to Luxor. She was anxious to see the progress that had been made at KV 5 and talk to Inge, her field archaeologist.

Sleep was a long time coming. At Luxor, Will was going to have to relive that awful day, as Cheops had many times, in working each season in the Valley of the Kings. If she could not reach Will soon, she didn't think she had too much time left. Will would have a plan, she was sure of that. She'd have a place and a time and a weapon and there was little Cheops could do but hope that there was a grain of the woman she loved still inside the tortured soul.

What had happened to Will, anyway? She could, now that the passing months had healed some of the raw emotion, understand why Will wanted nothing more to do with her. And if what Will had said was true, that she had given her first aid and notified the hospital of where she had buried her daughter, then some of the resentment that she had held against Will was not fair. Will had not wanted to kill her then, why now? It was only in the blood red dawn that Cheops finally fell asleep.

Part 2

The dream was always the same. It recalled the nauseating feeling of drug-induced disorientation, as body and mind tried to function efficiently in a cotton wool existence. The dream brought back the memories of how the hot spots of pain became a positive, reminding her that she was still alive and part of a physical world. The pain was, on days when she was too weak and drugged to open her eyes, her only link with reality.

She woke with a started, the sweat dripping and her heart pounding. The dream faded and her mind shifted to those long days of recovery. When she was able to communicate rationally again, the doctor had asked her how she had survived the torture. How had she not broken? It was so easy, all I did was focus on the one thing I had left undone, she thought. The only thing left to live for - revenge. I couldn’t die you see, not until I got revenge. Once I knew this, survival was easy. I would never talk because to do so would have resulted in immediate execution. I didn’t break and I didn’t die and now I’ve earned my revenge.

But she didn’t say this. The doctor would have said she was still medically unfit if she had. No, instead she had responded that she tried to do her duty and not betray her fellow soldiers. For this, they had given her a medal for valor. She never wore it on her regimentals. It would be a lie.

Her head shifted and she looked out the window. The sun was just starting to bring colour to the night sky. ‘Worship the sun god when he rises on the eastern horizon of heaven.’ Where the hell had that come from? Cheops. She had read it off the walls in that mastaba. What had she said? - that it was verses from the Book of the Dead.

There it was again, the light knocking on her door. It was Cheops. Years ago, they had decided on a signal knock, two short, one long, so that Willy would know who was there and not over react. Willy rolled out of bed and walked over to the door, opening it without concern. Cheops stood there holding a breakfast tray.

"It is still dark so I’m safe under the banner of truce, right?"

Willy nodded too weak and confused from her drug induced dreams to think straight. Cheops slipped into the room placing the tray on the vanity. Then she came back and took the doorknob out from under Willy’s hand and closed the door. "Hey, are you sick? You have a fever. You’re all sweaty. Come and lie down again, okay," she whispered, gently leading the warrior over to the bed, as a mother would lead a child.

Willy allowed herself to be pushed down on the bed. She felt like she was watching from far away as Cheops fluffed the pillow and helped her settle back. She disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a damp, cool cloth to wipe Willy’s face. "There. Is that better? What is it, Will? You know that you can trust me to keep your secret. What happened?"

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14