The Quest: A Novel Part 44

Vivian reminded them, "There is a famine out there. Get some perspective, please."

Purcell admitted, "I hate eating in restaurants when there's a famine."

Mercado admonished, "That is insensitive."

"Sorry." He reminded Mercado, "I almost starved to death in that Khmer Rouge prison camp. So I can make famine jokes." He asked, "What do you call an Ethiopian having a bowel movement? A show-off."

"Frank. Really," said Vivian. "That is not funny."

"Sorry." He said to Mercado, "You can use that as a Gulag joke."

Purcell lit a cigarette and said, "This famine is mostly man-made by a stupid, corrupt government that has inst.i.tuted stupid policies." He continued, "Half the famine relief food coming in is stolen by the government and sold on the black market. The birr is worthless and you can't buy food at any price unless you have hard currency. The UN relief workers are being hara.s.sed, and the military uses all the available transportation to move soldiers around instead of food." He told Mercado, "That's my next article for L'Osservatore Romano."

"You can write it, Frank, but it will not run. And if it does, you will be lucky if you only get expelled."

"The truth will set us free, Henry."

"Not in Ethiopia. Save it for when we are out of here."

"What is worse-me not demonstrating the proper guilt about eating during the famine, or you not letting me write the truth about it?"

Mercado stayed silent awhile, then replied, "Your point is made, and well taken." He smiled, "Someday you will make a good journalist."

Vivian asked, "Is the p.i.s.sing match over?"

Purcell said, "Pa.s.s the bread."

The wine came and they drank as they flipped through the photographs.

Purcell looked around the restaurant, which, if it could talk, would have some stories to tell. The clientele was mostly Western European emba.s.sy staff, though he spotted four Russians in bad suits at a table. Vesuvio, unlike the Hilton and other hotels, was not in a position to demand only hard currency, but the proprietor and staff did not go out of their way to welcome the Russians or Cubans who paid in birr.

This country was in bad shape, Purcell thought, and the worst was yet to come. The old Ethiopia was dead, and the new Ethiopia should never have been born.

Vivian said, "I a.s.sume there was no message from Colonel Gann at the hotel."

Mercado replied, "None."

"Do you think something has happened to him?"

Mercado replied, "If he's been arrested, and being held in Addis, someone in the press community would have heard through sources." He added, "But if he's been killed in the hinterlands, we may never know."

Purcell said, "We will hear from him."

Vivian reminded Purcell, "You were going to tell us what a glint is."

"It is what you see in my eyes when you walk into a room."

Purcell thought that was funny, but Vivian did not, though she might have if Henry was not at the table. Clearly she was still uncomfortable with the situation, but no more so than he was. Henry, too, was not amused, though he smiled for the record.

Purcell said, "A glint is what it sounds like-a quick reflection of light off a shiny surface. Pilots in combat look for the glint of an enemy aircraft, or the glint of a metal target on the ground." He picked up his winegla.s.s. "Gla.s.s, too, can give off a type of glint. Gla.s.s roofs, even if opaque, may give off a glint." He drank his wine.

Mercado was nodding, and Vivian was flipping through the photographs again, looking for a glint.

Purcell continued, "Obviously, the sun has to strike the object, and the object has to be reflective enough to produce a glint."

Mercado nodded again, and Purcell continued, "Father Armano said he thought the roof could have been alabaster, and he said it let in the sunlight and bathed the church in a glow that made his head swim and hurt his eyes." He speculated, "It could also have been quartz, or, despite what the priest thought, it could have been a type of stained gla.s.s that was rippled and mostly clear, and that might account for the strange light." He concluded, "In any case, this substance did not let all the sunlight in, and that means it had to reflect some sunlight back."

Mercado asked, "So do we now believe in palm trees and glints?"

Purcell replied, "I can make a stronger case for that than I can for the existence of the Holy Grail."

Mercado did not respond to that, but said, "If we see a glint coming through palm trees, then I think we've found the black monastery."

Vivian said, "I see palm trees, but I'm not seeing any glints."

Purcell said, "We'll have the photographs done again in a high-gloss finish, and we'll go over them inch by inch in our rooms."

Vivian informed them, "The Reuters photo lab guy is very taken with me, but if I ask him to reprint ninety-two photographs in a different finish, I'll have to have a drink with him."

"Have several," Purcell suggested.

She smiled, then said, "He also asked me why I was taking aerial photos of jungle."

Mercado said, "He is not supposed to ask questions. What did you tell him?"

"I told him I was trying to find the right green for my drapes."

Mercado asked, "Is Father Armano's mention of this roof the unintended clue he gave us as to the location of the monastery?"

Purcell replied, "It is an unintended clue, but there is something else. Something keeps nagging at my mind, and it will come to me."

Vivian poured him more wine. "This might help."

"Can't hurt."

Their lunch came and Purcell said, "Buon appet.i.to."

Chapter 41.

They laid the photos out on the bed in Mercado's room. Each photograph was now in matte and gloss finish, and Vivian had also borrowed two lighted magnifiers from the smitten lab tech.

The drapes were open and they knelt around the bed, studying the photographs. Purcell was at the foot of the bed, and Vivian and Mercado on opposite sides. Vivian looked up to say something to Mercado and saw him looking at her across the bed that they'd shared a few days before. She met his gaze for a second, then looked down at the photograph in front of her.

They each had a grease marker that they used to circle palm cl.u.s.ters. Next, they looked closely for a glint, or a reflection of light, or anything that could be an anomalous source of light.

Purcell advised them, "Consider the position of the sun when looking for a glint or sparkle, and consider the direction we are looking at."

They also had the terrain maps spread out so they could match the photos with the maps, but this turned out to be difficult unless there was an identifying feature in the photo that was represented on the map. Real aerial photographers, Purcell knew, had methods of printing grid coordinates on their photos, but he, Vivian, and Mercado were trying to match the photo to the maps, then mark the maps, which they would use on the ground.

Mercado said, "This is more difficult than I thought it would be."

"It was never going to be easy or fun."

Vivian found what she thought was a glint close to the destroyed fortress, and they all took a look at it.

Mercado said, "It is definitely a reflection of some sort, but there are no palms around it."

Purcell added, "It's also too close to the fortress-maybe five hundred meters."

Vivian agreed that the monastery would not be that close to the fortress.

Mercado said, "It could be a pond, or one of the streams that run through the area. We will check it out when we get there."

Vivian pointed out the sulphur pool of the spa and said, "That is what a body of water looks like in these photographs. It is more reflective than... glinting."

Purcell agreed. "We are looking for something that... if we saw it from the air, we'd say something sparkled down there. Or maybe flashed. The problem with still photography is that you need to capture the glint at the moment it happens. And even then, it might not register on the film."

Vivian said, "I used both high- and low-speed film, but I'm not sure which would be better for capturing a quick glint of light." She added, "The matte finish actually seems better for showing a light anomaly."

Purcell also pointed out, "It was a mostly sunny day, but there are a few cloud shadows on these photographs, and when the sun is blocked, you won't get reflected or refracted sunlight."

Mercado said, "We will pray for clear skies on our next flight."

Purcell replied, "Remind G.o.d that we are chosen."

"We are being tested."

"Right. But tell him clouds are not fair."

They continued to study the photographs.

After half an hour, Purcell said, "I'm going blind and nuts." He stood and retrieved the photographs that Vivian had taken in Gondar for her bogus photographic essay.

He sat in a chair and flipped through the photos. One was an artistic shot of a palace garden with a reflecting pool, and the plants around the pool were reflected in the water of the pool, which was the idea. He thought a moment, then said, "Depending on what that church roof was made of, it might reflect what is above and around it." He suggested, "Look for a palm frond or maybe a tree branch that has an exact mirror image."

Vivian looked up at him, "All right... would you like to join us?"

"I'm just the pilot. Also, you have the only two magnifiers."

Vivian smiled. "I can get another one from the lab guy, but it will cost me."

"Go for it."

Vivian and Mercado continued to study the photos, then Mercado stood and said, "I need a break."

"I'm surprised your old eyes lasted this long." Purcell stood and took Mercado's place at the side of the bed, and Mercado sat and looked at Vivian's pictures of Gondar.

Vivian said, "I have three possible... glints. But I could be looking at ground water, or even moisture on leaves or palm fronds."

"That is another problem with photographs. They are two-dimensional, and depth of field can only be interpreted from what we know of the image." He added, "This is not an exact science."

"Thank you, Frank."

"Anytime."

He moved a photograph to the side and noticed something on the bedspread. He looked closer and saw that it was a long, straight jet black hair, and he didn't need the magnifier to tell whose it was.

He looked up at Vivian, who was bent closely over the magnifier. He glanced at Mercado, who was looking at the Gondar photos. He tried to remember if Vivian had knelt at this side of the bed, but he knew she hadn't. Not today, anyway.

He had two choices: pick up the hair and bring it to everyone's attention-or forget it.

He looked again at Vivian. If he asked her what happened here, she would tell him the truth. But he already knew the truth. Or did he? It would not be unlike her to make herself comfortable on a male friend's bed and chat away while the poor guy was trying to talk his d.i.c.k down.

On the other hand... but why would she have s.e.x with Henry Mercado? He thought he knew, and thinking back to Henry's changed demeanor since that morning, he could imagine what Vivian's purpose was.

Or was he misinterpreting all those images the way he might misinterpret a photograph?

Vivian said excitedly, "I think I see a double image. Two palm fronds that are the mirror image of each other." She put a circle on the photograph and flipped it to him.

He looked at the circled image under the magnifier and said, "These are not exact doubles. These are two very similar palm fronds."

"Are you sure?"

"I am sure."

"d.a.m.n it."

He said to her, "Things are not always what they seem."

She looked at him, then some instinct, or prior experience, made her look at where his hand was resting on the light yellow bedsheet. She looked up at him again and said, "Sometimes things are what they seem."

He nodded and went back to his magnifier and the photograph in front of him.

At 5 P.M., Mercado determined that there was nothing else to look at, and he suggested a c.o.c.ktail in the lounge.

They stopped at the front desk for messages, and the desk clerk gave them a hand-delivered letter-sized envelope addressed to "Mercado, Purcell, Smith, L'Osservatore Romano, Hilton Hotel." The handwriting was different from the writing on the manila envelope that had contained the maps, but they had no doubt who this was from.

Purcell carried the envelope into the lounge and they sat at a table.

Vivian said, "He's alive and well."