The Code War (32 page)

Inferno

'I want the TRUTH,' Bezejel yelled at
Zhivkin, 'how did it happen?'

She was pinning Zhivkin against the wall
by his neck with her left hand while her right was drawn back in a
fist ready to strike him. Bezejel was slighter in stature than most
male demons, petite almost. But the Leader of Inferno had endowed
her with great strength and she had the ability to husk even the
mighty Zhivkin with a single blow. If Zhivkin had thought Bezejel
might be a pretty little plaything to spend some horizontal time
with after work one day, he had changed that view within the last
couple of minutes.

'Truth, ma'am, I give you truth,'
Zhivkin was looking directly into Bezejel's eyes. 'I watch the girl
all the time. How they change clocks I not know. No-one tell me to
look at clocks. Many things on plane. Why I look at clocks?'

It was true that Zhivkin had raised the
alarm with Kodrob. He hadn't hidden his mistake, he had reported it
straightaway. For that she couldn't fault him. But Bezejel was so
angry that she was minded to smash Zhivkin anyway. Just in time she
reminded herself that he was part of a team and if she husked him
without good reason she would lose the team's confidence.

She pulled her hand back and Zhivkin
dropped to the floor.

'There's something going on that we
haven't seen before,' Bezejel addressed Kodrob and the rest of the
squad who were standing to attention behind her. 'Somehow, an angel
got inside that airplane without being seen. Kodrob, you're in
charge of finding out how and of making sure it doesn't happen
again. Who's with Nancy now?'

'Lafarge is on watch, Madam Bezejel,'
replied Kodrob. 'He will be relieved by Holzman later.'

'I want every one of you to keep a log
when you're on Earth,' ordered Bezejel sternly. 'Report anything
unusual. Angels have a habit of upgrading their tricks and playing
new games. But we can catch them out and turn the tables on them if
we're vigilant. We've done it before. Sooner or later they'll get
complacent and then we'll pounce.' She looked down at the floor.
'Zhivkin, pick yourself up.'

The relieved demon got to his feet, glad
that he was not about to be reduced to an imp or worse.

'You've an opportunity to make
amends for your poor performance,' she announced sharply. See that
you take it, there won't be another warning.'

'Ma'am,' he muttered, rubbing his
neck.

Nancy's Apartment,
Eilat, Israel

'Oh, it's been such a lovely
day.
The water is warm and the people are
so friendly. How are you all? Have you had a good day
digging?'

Martin Pete and Andy looked at
Nancy in shock.

'Nancy, we were so worried about
you?' Scrawny Pete.

What's this about your aunt? we
didn't know if we should believe it.' Tawny Andy.

'We thought you'd been kidnapped.'
Brawny Martin.

Nancy put down her beach bag in the TV
room and slumped into a chair.

'I'm gasping for a cup of tea. Be
a love would you, Martin, and put the kettle on?'

'Not till you t
ell us where you've been,' replied the latter, almost
falling out of his chair. 'Was your aunt really sick?'

'Oh yes. It was all a false alarm,'
replied Nancy breezily. 'Lots of planes, trains and buses all for
nothing. She'll live another hundred years, I'm sure. I'll tell you
all about it over dinner. But it's very boring. Anyway, all behind
us now. I can get on and enjoy the rest of the holiday.'

Nancy could see they were all trying to
work out if she was hiding something.

'So tell me, how is the dig going?'

'It's very interesting,' said Martin
unconvincingly.

'
But
boring.' Pete.

'Lots of scratching away sand and
earth with small trowels while baking in the sun.' This from Andy.
Nancy noticed they took it in turns to speak. No-one liked to be
left out.

'Oh,' said Nancy.

'But that's why we're home early,'
continued Andy. 'It's too hot to work in the afternoon.'

'Well I think you should all get your
trunks on and go down to the beach. I'll come too. I only came back
here for my sun hat.'

'Sounds good,' said Pete. 'What do you
say guys?'

'Oh by the way,' interrupted Nancy.
'Andy here has kindly offered to drive me to see my great uncle.
Near Jerusalem. Andy, do you mind if we go tomorrow?'

'Oh is that still on? Fantastic.'

The others showed no surprise at
this. Clearly Andy had boasted that he would get to meet a famous
archaeologist if he drove her
to her
relative.

'Yeah
,
that'll be fine,' he added. 'I've already spoken to Professor
Aaronovitch about it. He said I can have a day off. But where's the
car Nancy? Have you arranged a hire car?'

'It's all in hand.' Nancy flashed
her eyes at Pete. 'There's a car hire company only two streets from
here that has what we want. You simply walk to the top of our lane,
turn right, then
take the second left and
walk to the end of the road and there it is.' She hoped her
directions were clear enough for Pete to follow.

'They're open from 8 till 6,' she added,
not looking at anyone in particular.

'Well, that's great,' said Andy. 'We'll
have an early start in the morning so we can be there when it
opens. What kind of car have you hired?'

'Oh, I think you'll like it,' said
Nancy smugly after a moment's thought. 'It's a nice car. So, shall
we all go down to the beach?'

'Sure,' said Andy and Martin
together.

'Er..I'll join you all later,' put in
Pete hesitantly. 'I want to do some souvenir shopping. And I don't
want to leave it too late. So, er..I'll see you on the beach in
about an hour.'

Pete made eye contact with Nancy.
Their clandestine agreement was still in place. Good. Otherwise
she'd be in trouble.

'Though I think you should know...'

Trouble.

'…that we've experienced a
shocking outburst of truth-telling while you've been
away.'

All three were now looking at Nancy. All
three wore smug grins.

'Go on.'

'I'm poor,' said Andy, the tawny
one.

'And I'm rich,' said Pete, the
scrawny one.

There was a long pause while they
looked around at each other, pleased with themselves. Finally the
other two looked at Martin and waited.

'And I'm gay,' said the
rugby-playing brawny one.

Kibbutz Ramat Rachel,
near Jerusalem

Andy turned the wheel gently and
the supercat's engine almost purred with pleasure as it entered the
kibbutz gates. A scruffy teenager in dusty trainers watched them
suspiciously while continuing to bite on the chicken wing between
his fingers. The sub-machine gun slung over his shoulder was like
an extension of his body. He could bring it to bear in an instant
if he sensed trouble, Nancy had no doubt.

'I wonder how many Jags they've
seen in here before,' Andy remarked.

'None so beautifully driven,' replied
Nancy. 'You could always be a chauffeur if digging up broken pieces
of pottery ever gets you down.'

Andy was not going to be
diminished. 'Every shard tells a story. Every bone is a life
rediscovered. Stories and lives. Tha
t's
what archaeology is all about.'

Andy noticed the signs pointing to the
kibbutz car park. He kept the 12 cylinder engine to a 5 mph
crawl.

'Very poetic,' agreed Nancy. 'If
you had spoken to me romantically like that the other
da
y you wouldn't have had to work so hard
to get me into bed.'

'I didn't have to work hard Nancy.
You were practically there before me,' he replied drily.

'Funny how men remember everything
differently from how it really happened.' She leaned forward to
direct the air conditioning vent at her face. 'But anyway, wasn't
it good that Martin came out? He must be so relieved.'

'Yes, but it's not like it was a
secret.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, we all knew. Pete and I knew
anyway.'

'How?'

'Well, there are only so many times that
a guy can say 'no, she's not my type' at a disco before you start
to realise that no girl is going to be his type.'

'So what did you think when I called him
into the bedroom with me?'

Andy laughed.
'Pete and I just looked at each other and smiled. We knew
it wasn't going to happen. It was just a matter of time before it
all came out.'

Andy checked his mirrors as he reversed
the big saloon into a tiny space.

He turned to Nancy. 'Well, we're here at
the kibbutz. What now?'

'Let's go and find out.'

Twenty minutes later, after asking
directions, Nancy and Andy walked into an apartment block on the
kibbutz campus. They sat down on a sofa in the communal day room on
the ground floor and waited.

'I'm a little nervous,' Nancy whispered
to Andy. 'If truth be told.'

A vigorous shuffling could be
heard approaching from the corridor outside. Then a figure appeared
at the door and peered in. Nancy looked at him uncertainly. He was
a short man of about eighty years, wearing a dressing gown and
carrying a Hebrew language newspaper.

The man looked at Nancy and broke
into a huge smile. His hands flew up in the air and he started to
run towards her. 'Nancy,' he shouted in accented English. 'Nancy, I
am so pleased to meet you at last.'

'Great U
ncle Shai.' And Nancy found she couldn't move and waited
for the old man to reach her. When he grasped her in his arms she
was already crying.

'Oh, Great U
ncle Shai…'

'Just call me Shai. I haven't got
time left for great uncle. I might die before you get my name out
again.'
Accented but perfect
English.

Nancy laughed through her tears.
'Shai. OK then. Oh, I didn't know I'd get so emotional. Oh my
goodness. Till now I didn't really believe I had a living
relative.'

'You got lots of them. But after
your parents died everyone lost touch. Half of them went to
California. The other half went to Brazil. Or Argentina.' He looked
up pensively. 'Who cares? It was South Africa
somewhere.'

Nancy noticed Andy looking
perplexed, wanting to step in. 'Great Uncle…I mean Shai, this is my
friend Andy. He drove me here. From Eilat.'

'He drove you? You don't drive
yourself?'

'No.' He waited stubbornly for her
answer. 'Well if you must know, a traffic warden stepped off the
kerb one day and my wheel went over his foot. I got the blame. It
was all so unfair. I haven't wanted to drive since
then.'

'Oh, so they took away your
licence? And you got hit by a bottle of gin before the nice traffic
warden, who you didn't fall out with beforehand, put his foot in
your way?'

Nancy was alarmed at
how much Shai was finding out about her so
quickly.

'Vodka.'

'Well, well.' But Shai had already
moved on. He stepped back, looking Nancy up and down. 'You're a
fine looking young woman. If I wasn't eighty and if I wasn't your
relative I'd punch this guy on the nose and take you off
somewhere.' He put his fists up playfully to Andy who reacted, but
rather late. By the time Andy had his fists in front of him Shai
had his arm around Nancy and was leading her to a table.

'Sit yourself down, young man,' he
called over his shoulder. 'I need to talk to Nancy. My great
niece.' He laughed loudly.

Nancy sat down and Shai pulled up
a chair and sat close
, looking directly
into her eyes.

'Later, we'll all get some lunch
together. But you're probably wondering why I asked you to come
visit. So let's do that part first.'

'Of course. But first, Shai, I
promised Andy I would try and get him a meeting with the former
Head of Israeli Antiquities. Is that really your previous job?
Andy's an archaeology student. Do you think you could
help?'

'Are you trying to make a
connection between me and some old Jewish ruins? Wherever did you
learn your manners?' He laughed again but this time Nancy saw pain
in his eyes.

'It's nothing,' said the old man
who appeared not to miss anything. 'Just a space
invader.'

'Space invader?'

'Cancer. But I'll kill it. Or at the
very least I'll make sure it doesn't outlive me. Promise you.'

Nancy squeezed his hand and his
energetic smile bounced back and lit up his face.

'Sure, you can tell your friend
I'll dig out some bumbling old idiot who can bore him senseless
about bones. And shards. But they're the stuff of stories, you
know?'

'And lives,' said Nancy, surprised at
herself.

'That's very true,' said Shai looking up
at her with a note of respect in his eyes. 'Stories and lives.
What's more important than that?'

They continued looking at each
other
for several seconds, like friends
who had found each other too late. Eventually Shai looked
down.

'So, where do I begin?' he said
thoughtfully. 'At the end of course. 'Cause the present is
over-rated and the past is gone so there's no time like the future.
The thing is, Nancy,' he paused for a moment, squeezing her hand
back, 'you're heading into danger. Don't ask me how I know that, I
just do.
It's all about your roots, and I
don't mean your hair.'