Aaron Elkins - Fellowship Of Fear

"Gideon, don’t look at me when I’m not wearing any clothes," she said. "I look fat from behind."

"You don’t look fat," he said with sincerity. "You look beautiful."

"No, I don’t. My hips are fat." She ducked into the bathroom and got into the shower.

Gideon got up and came to the bathroom door. "But that’s not any old fat. That’s good, luscious, female adipose tissue, the kind of fat you can get a handful of, the kind of fat-"

"Gideon…!

"No, I’m serious," he shouted above the sound of the water. "Anatomically speaking, all the things that look so great on women are fat, if you come right down to it-"

"Could we please talk about something else?" she shouted from behind the curtain.

"Okay, but I intend to look at your rear end a lot-every chance I get. And I want you to know how beautiful you are down there. There isn’t a man in the world who wouldn’t think so. You’re so solid, so-"

"Thank you very much. Do you think we’ll have nice weather today?"

"The thing is, women try to look slim-hipped like men, and they can’t. Not if they have any female hormones. The very thing that makes a woman so lovely is exactly what you have: a big, beautiful trochanteric subcutaneous adipose tissue deposit."

Janet put her head out between the shower curtains. "Do all anthropologists talk like you? It’s like listening to Elizabethan love poetry."

Through the parted curtains Gideon could see the water glistening on Janet’s breasts and on one long, supple thigh.

"Hey," he said. "If we’re short on time, why don’t I jump in? Be faster if we shower together."

"Okay," said Janet, "but no fooling around."

Gideon practically leaped into the shower and pulled Janet’s slippery body to him. "Would I fool around with a fat lady?"

"Ooh, you rat!" Janet cried, and pummeled his sides. Laughing, they wrestled for a few moments, but then Gideon pinned her to the tile wall and kissed her wet mouth. They slid slowly down the wall, mouths pressed urgently together, not noticing the spray that drenched their hair.

They were late leaving her room, of course, and were out the BOQ’s front door before Gideon remembered that he still hadn’t registered.

"Well, make it as fast as you can," Janet said. "We’re supposed to be meeting them right now."

Gideon hurriedly showed his TDY orders to the clerk, signed in, took the sealed brown envelope that was handed to him, and shoved it into his pocket. Then he ran back out the door, hand in hand with Janet.

Most of the staff members were congregated in the parking lot at USOC headquarters, awaiting the bus that would take them to Rudesheim. Dr. Rufus, all rosy cheeks and high spirits, came over to them at once.

"Ah, I see you’ve convinced him to come along," he said to Janet. "Wonderful. It should be a glorious day; Bacharach, St. Goarshausen, the Lorelei, Rheinfels…"

Janet’s attention was engaged by someone else, and Dr. Rufus took Gideon’s elbow, moving him to a more private place.

"My boy," he said, puffing out his cheeks, "I can’t tell you how relieved I am to have you back in one piece." He mopped his brow with a handkerchief and grasped Gideon’s elbow more tightly. "Warmer than I’d hoped, but there’ll be breezes on the river." He smiled fondly at Gideon.

"I imagine you know what happened there, sir?" Gideon said.

"Well, I heard something about some people being killed…"

"Dr. Rufus, Hilaire Delvaux told me-well, implied to me-that you’ve been working more closely with NSD than you told me."

Dr. Rufus’s voice dropped. "Well, it’s not the sort of thing one goes around talking about, my boy. Sort of, er, defeats the point of espionage, don’t you think?"

" Are you an agent?"

The handkerchief came out again and blotted the moisture from Dr. Rufus’s throat. "Gideon, you’re putting me in a delicate position…"

"I don’t mean to do that, sir. But my radio was stolen last night. I think NSDhad something to do with it, and-"

"Why on earth would you think that?"

"Because it happened to be taken during the time that NSD told me to stay away from my room. I doubt that it was a coincidence."

Dr. Rufus frowned at the ground, silent.

"Dr. Rufus, you do know about the theft, don’t you?"

"Gideon," Dr. Rufus said, "I’m not very good at dissembling. I…well, I was informed of it, but…well, I can’t tell you any more than that…except that I can assure you… unqualifiedly assure you… that NSD had absolutely nothing to do with it. When I heard about it last night, they… that is, we…were as puzzled as you. I really can’t say any more… I hope you understand my position… Ah, Bruce," he cried with relief, "come and say hello to our world traveler."

"Well, well," said Bruce Danzig with a prunelike smile. "The peripatetic professor, put in from his peregrinations."

Dr. Rufus roared with laughter. "Wonderful, Bruce! How do you do that sort of thing?"

"I prepare ahead of time," Danzig said.

Gideon didn’t doubt it. "Alliterative archivists always alienate," he said, rather pleased with himself.

"Touche," Danzig said with some surprise. Then, after a pause during which Dr. Rufus continued to chuckle, "Are those the books you borrowed last week? I have to go back inside for a moment; I can take them in for you."

"Actually, I brought them along hoping I could browse through them on the cruise. But I’m really only interested in one of them; you can have the other."

Danzig looked at the title of the book Gideon handed him. "Campbell, Human Evolution, " he read aloud. "So you’re keeping the Weidenreich?"

"Just for a couple of days. I’m impressed; do you usually know your lent-out books by heart?"

"No," said Danzig evenly, "It’s just that there’s a rush request on that one, and I said it would be available Monday."

"I’ll bring it in on Monday."

"Aren’t you going to Izmir Monday?"

"All right, I’ll drop it off tomorrow. It’s not overdue, is it? What’s the hurry?"

"Now, now," said Dr. Rufus uncomfortably, "let’s not quibble. This is a big day."

"I thought I was the only one teaching anthro," Gideon said, studying Danzig. "Why would anyone else be interested in The Skull of Sinanthropus Pekinensis? "

"No, no, no, no," Dr. Rufus said. "Absolutely not. No arguing permitted today." He took them both by the arm. "The bus is here, and I’m getting on it with our alliterative archivist. You, sir," he said to Gideon, giving him a friendly shove in Janet’s direction, "have the good fortune of being the object of that lovely lady’s impatience."

He thumped Gideon on the back with robust good humor. " Really delighted you’re back safe," he said, and marched off, pulling an annoyed-looking Bruce Danzig with him.

At Janet’s suggestion, the four of them drove north via the Bergstrasse. Gideon was delighted with the road. Never more than a mile or two from the hectic autobahn and its dreary landscape, the Bergstrasse took them through a lovely world of ancient villages with names like Heppenheim and Zwingenberg and Bickenbach: little towns with crooked, half-timbered houses, and cobblestoned streets. Between the villages were neat little orchards that, according to Janet, were famous for blooming ten days before those anywhere else in Germany.

For a while they enjoyed the peace of the countryside, chatting casually and only occasionally. Gideon, who was expecting a sultry Chinese beauty, found Marti Lau a surprise. A gangling, coltish twenty-five-year-old with big hands and feet, whose maiden name had been Goldenberg, she was given to ejaculations like "yuckers" and "wowiezowie." She had a frank, pretty face that dimpled engagingly when she smiled, which was every time they spoke to her, or looked at her, or looked as if they might look at her.