Nelson Demille - The Quest

Gann said, “I can tell you that you’d be good to make a kilometer an hour in this terrain. So if we assume a ten-hour-a-day march, from somewhere along this eastern bank of Lake Tana, we can reckon thirty kilometers in three days, perhaps, less if this patrol was moving cautiously, which I’m certain they did.”

Gann took a notebook from his pocket and a pen, which caused the monk to say, “No!”

Gann said to Mercado, “Tell him I’m not going to mark his map.”

Mercado spoke to the monk, and Gann measured the kilometers from the map legend on a piece of notepaper that he marked with his pen, then held the paper against the map and said, “This is ten K. But to find the ambush site, we would need to know where this man’s battalion made camp along the lakeshore-which as you can see is about eighty kilometers long-then draw a ten-K radius from there, and somewhere along that radius would be the ambush site. But we don’t know where on the lakeshore to start.”

Mercado said, “And then they wandered around for several more days to find the black wall and tower-the monastery.” Mercado said, “We’ve narrowed it down a bit, but that is still a lot of square kilometers of jungle to be walking through.”

Gann said, “That is why aerial recon would be helpful.”

They studied the terrain map and recomputed their numbers, based on different points along the shore of Lake Tana and different traveling times through the terrain, as well as trying to guess what Father Armano meant by “several days” from the ambush site to the black monastery. They then approached the problem the other way-from the fixed location of the fortress to the monastery, though Father Armano never said how long his march was from the monastery to the fortress. And what they thought was the fortress could be something else, though “ incognita ” was about five kilometers east of the spa-a night’s march.

Mercado and Purcell tried to recall if Father Armano had said anything else that could be a clue, and Purcell pointed out to Mercado that the priest had spoken Italian and that Mercado and Vivian had translated, so Purcell may not have gotten the entire story, or gotten an accurate translation.

Mercado said, “Perhaps Vivian will recall some further details.”

Purcell said to Gann, “This man did say something about a rock, a stream, and a tree.”

“No rocks on this map, I’m afraid, and I’m not sure which of the million trees he was referring to, but here is a small, intermittent stream… and another here, and a larger one here, all flowing downhill to Lake Tana.” He suggested, “Remember this when you are on the ground. But it’s of no help here.”

Purcell asked, “Where is this Falasha village?”

Gann replied, “Not on this map…” He pulled another map toward him and said, “Here, on the south adjoining map… the village of Shoan.” He put the maps together and said, “About forty K west and south of the suspected fortress.”

Purcell reminded Gann, “They might know the location of the monastery.”

Gann replied, “They know where they meet the monks. But they’re not going to take us along for company.”

They again looked at the maps, trying to transfer what little they knew to what was spread out in front of them.

Gann pointed out, “The Italian aerial cartographers saw this unknown structure, and noted it, but they apparently didn’t see what we are looking for or they’d have noted that as well.”

Mercado informed him, “Our friend said it was in a deep jungle valley, with trees that went right up to the walls.”

“I see… Well, it could have been missed from the air.”

Purcell added, “He said the area within the walls had trees, gardens, and I think a pond.”

Gann nodded. “This whole area was photographed and transferred to a map, and the thing we are looking for was on one of those photographs, but the cartographers missed it when they made these maps.” He further informed them, “Most aerial photography was done in black and white, so things-man-made and natural-are missed in black, white, and shades of gray that would be more apparent in color.” He added, “What we’re seeing here is what the cartographer thought he saw in black-and-white photographs, and there was little field checking. We can also assume the cartographers were a bit sloppy and perhaps overworked and under pressure to get these military maps to Il Duce’s army.”

Purcell said, “Maybe we’ll have better luck when we fly over this area ourselves.”

Gann agreed, but advised, “Don’t do too much flying, old boy, or you’ll attract attention.” He asked, “Do I understand that you have an aircraft and pilot?”

Purcell replied, “We’re working on that.” He confessed, “I’m the pilot.”

“I see. Well, good luck.”

“I thought you were coming with us.”

“I will try my best.”

Purcell said to Gann, “We are going to do this, Colonel. And we will find what we are looking for.”

“I believe you will.” He added, “That may be the easy part.”

Henry stood and moved to the antique maps, and Purcell said, “Henry, you will not find what we’re looking for there.”

Gann agreed. “Those maps are more fantasy than accurate representations of reality, old boy. Dragons and all that.”

Mercado ignored them and unrolled a few parchments on which were hand-colored maps of sorts, showing lakes, mountains, and hand-drawn churches. Mercado said, “This is written in Geez.”

No one replied.

He said, “I think this one is showing Axum. I see a crown, and here is a drawing of what looks like the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments.”

Purcell said, “Well, that proves it.”

“And here, to the southeast of this lake that looks like Tana… with the Blue Nile… is a drawing…” He slid the map toward them and they saw a nice drawing of a golden cup, next to which was a black cross, surrounded by well-drawn palm trees that Gann said would be about a half kilometer tall if they were drawn to scale.

Purcell said, “We should have started with this map, Henry.”

Gann suggested, “Offer this monk fellow ten pounds for it.”

Mercado was not enjoying the jokes, and he said, “Well, this may not be very detailed or accurate, but it is significant that it shows… or possibly shows what we are looking for.” He added, “Cross and cup. Monastery and Grail.”

“We get it.”

Gann said, “But it does show it southeast of Lake Tana… so that may actually be a clue on a real map, and on the ground.”

The monk said something in Italian, and Mercado said, “Our hour is fini.”

They found Vivian sitting on a bench outside the Ethiopian College, and she informed them, “I was asked to leave the reading room.”

Mercado seemed surprised. “Why?”

“No explanation except that the archive materials had been out too long, and the reading room was needed by others.”

Purcell said to Mercado, “You have been abusing your library privileges, Henry.”

“This is not funny.”

Purcell pointed out, “You said we were done.”

“We were, but…” He looked at Vivian. “Where is my notebook?”

“In my bag.” She gave it to him.

Purcell said to Mercado, “If I were paranoid, I’d say you should not leave that notebook in your office.”

Mercado nodded.

It was late afternoon, the sky was overcast, and Henry said he had a bottle of Strega in his office to lift their spirits.

On the way, Vivian asked, “How did you make out?”

Mercado replied, “We’ve narrowed it down.”

Gann asked Mercado, “Is it possible to get back in there?”