Michael Pearce - The Donkey-Vous

“He had it!” Georgiades appealed to the two agents by his side. “He was bloody carrying it, wasn’t he?”

The agents were standing thunderstruck.

“He couldn’t have given it to anyone. We’ve been watching all the time!”

“You’ve cocked it up. Again!”

Georgiades swallowed.

“He couldn’t have met anyone,” he said obstinately. “We’d have seen it.”

“Where the hell’s the bag, then?”

The thin figure reached the end of the wall and turned away again.

One of the agents looked at Owen.

“Yes,” he said resignedly. “You’d better.”

The agent slipped off in pursuit.

Again! It had happened again! Owen felt sick, furious. They had fooled him the first time. Now, they had done it again. And it wasn’t even properly Zawia! Just some slip of a boy from the Tsakatellis household, told what to do, no doubt, by Zawia but quite capable on his own of pulling the wool over Georgiades’s eyes. Georgiades! Christ, Owen had always thought he was good, about the only good one he had got. Two agents, too! All three of them, hoodwinked. Before their very eyes!

Before their very eyes. Just as it had been on the terrace when Moulin and Colthorpe Hartley had disappeared. Zawia seemed to make a specialty of it. They didn’t want just to trick you, they had to do it in a way which would humiliate you. Well, they had certainly succeeded. He felt humiliated and he didn’t like it.

“Christ!” said Georgiades. “Christ!”

The thin figure had all but disappeared into the darkness. A great wave of fury swept over Owen. They were not going to get away with this.

“Get after him!” he said savagely. “Get after him! If you don’t know what he’s done with the bag, he bloody does. And he’s going to tell me. Christ, he’s going to tell me!” The figure, clearly unfamiliar with the ground, came to a pile of huge blocks of demolished masonry and began to skirt around it. Georgiades, like Owen beside himself with fury, ran across to cut him off, moving with surprising speed for a bulky man. The two agents, coming up behind the thin figure, began to close in on it. They must have made a noise, for the thin figure looked back and then began to run. It disappeared behind some huge stones and Owen could hear it stumbling desperately on the loose rubble. Then it emerged again and ran around behind a rock-straight into Georgiades’s hands. Rosa screamed.

" Rosa!”

The girl stayed for a moment in Georgiades’s hands, then pulled herself away.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded fiercely.

“What are you doing here?” countered Owen.

“I told you to stay away!”

“This is not a place for someone like you,” said Georgiades.

“I told you to stay away. Why have you come?”

“We did not expect to find it was you.”

“It makes no difference. I told you to leave us alone. Why do you keep persecuting us?”

“I have no wish to persecute you,” said Owen.

“Then go! Go quickly!”

“Tell me first why you are here.”

“Why do you think?” She faced him defiantly. “They want more money. They want all she has. And then they say they will release him. Tonight. Please go!”

“What have you done with the money?”

“Left it. Left it where they told me.”

“Where was that?”

She stayed silent.

“You had the bag with you,” said Georgiades. “Or was that deceit?”

“Deceit?” She looked surprised. “I left it where they told me. They told me to put it down under a rock in a special place and then to walk around while they counted.”

“You spoke to them?”

“No. This was in the message.”

“You were to leave the bag and then walk around?”

“For half an hour. I have my watch.” She showed it to them, almost proudly. “Then I was to go back. And then I would find my father.”

She began to weep.

Owen could see Georgiades looking at him in the darkness. “We have no wish to hurt you or your family,” he said gently, “nor to stop your father being released.”

“Then you will go? Please go, in case they see you. Go now.”

Owen hesitated. He could not make up his mind. He felt unusually at a loss.

“Why do you not go?”

“Is there no servant with you?”

“No. I came on my own. We were to tell no one. How did you find out?”

“Why did not your mother come?” asked Georgiades.

“I would not let her. She-she is not strong enough.”

“Have you done it before?”

“No. We used Abou.”

“Why did not you use Abou this time?”

“We were to tell no one. It was too important.”

“Yet you knew your way.”

“I came here this morning. In the light so that I could see.”

“You should not be in a place like this,” said Georgiades again. Owen realized suddenly that where the family was concerned Georgiades was still very much a traditional Greek.

“You must go!” Rosa began to cry again. “You will ruin everything!”

Owen made up his mind.

“Continue on your walk,” he said to her roughly. “Keep to the time they set. Call out if you need help.”

“You-you will not stop me?”

“No. Do as they told you. But we will be near.”

Rosa turned obediently and started to walk away. Then she stopped.

“You will not interfere?” she demanded.

“We will be near. You may need help to take your father home.”

“You do not think-?” she whispered.

“No. But he may be weak. It has been a long time.”

“Very well,” said Rosa. “But do not let them see you.”

“I shall be near,” said Georgiades.

Rosa considered him.

“I quite like that,” she said softly. Then left.

“Follow her,” Owen said to one of the trackers. “See that she does not come to harm.”

The tracker came running back.

“I have seen Abbas,” he gasped excitedly.

“You were told to stay with the girl.”

“Yes, but I saw Abbas.”

“He was the one who was with the donkey-boy,” said Georgiades. “They were looking for that camel.”

“I thought you would like to know,” said the tracker, crestfallen.

“Well, yes, thank you. But keep with the girl.”

“Where was Abbas?” asked Georgiades.

“By the liwan. He made signs that he would speak with me. But I came straight back to you,” said the tracker, with an air of hard-done-by virtue, “that I might not leave the girl for long.”

“Go back to her now. You have done well.”

Appeased, the tracker sloped off.

“We’d better find Abbas. We don’t want him breaking in on things.”

Abbas had had enough sense to stay where he was. They found him and the donkey-boy sheltering among the pillars. “Allah be praised!” said Abbas. “You are here!”

“We are here,” said Owen, “but how do you come to be here?”

“I was looking for the camel,” said the donkey-boy, “as you bid me. And, effendi, I have found it. I saw the track and I said, By God, that is the track of the camel I seek. So I followed the track and it brought me here.”

“Where is the camel?”

“Over there, hidden among the stones.” The donkey-boy pointed. “Effendi, there are three good riding camels with it. It came into my mind that those you hunt may be intending to flee. I felt, therefore, that you should know at once. But this man-” he looked pointedly at Abbas’s direction- “would not go for you.”

“How could I go?” objected Abbas. “I was bidden to stay with you.”

“One of us had to go,” said the donkey-boy, “and it could not be me, for if the camels moved, only I could follow.”

“It could not be me,” said Abbas, “for the effendi told me to stay with you and not leave you.”