by Nick Hawkes
He lifted a finger to his lips. “Shh,” he said, and paused. “Feel it. Feel what I’m saying…in your spirit.”
Felicity furrowed her brow. What on earth…?
He looked at her calmly. Did she see a touch of fear, or was it hope in his eyes? Then she realized. It was entreaty. He was inviting her into his world, his Aboriginal world where things were different.
Felicity opened her mouth to protest, but said nothing. She just knew she would feel nothing. Her emotions were in turmoil. She wanted to feel Benjamin’s lips on her own, feel his arms around her. She wanted to give him warmth and tenderness. She wanted release—and she wanted it right now.
“Shhh,” Benjamin insisted. He breathed it out, almost like a sigh.
Your world. What…? Felicity reached out, took his hand, and closed her eyes. What was he inviting her into?
Over the next few seconds, her grip on his fingers relaxed. She felt him put his other hand over her entwined fingers, covering…owning…protecting. It was…delicious. Extraordinary. Something warm was rising up from within her. It was…
Thunk.
Felicity opened her eyes with a start as the waiter placed a plate of sizzling pecorino cheese in front of them. She looked down in an attempt to hide her embarrassment from the man serving them.
Benjamin removed his hands.
After the waiter left, he asked quietly, “Feel it?”
Felicity was silent for a while. “I…I think so,” she smiled. “It was…” How do I explain it? “…very nice.” She felt herself blushing. “You were very close.”
He nodded. “I always will be.”
Felicity wasn’t sure she understood. If this was romance, it was the strangest she’d ever experienced—but oddly, the deepest. She leaned back to allow the waiter to reach over and deposit two large plates in the center of the table. One of them held a dizzying array of seafood, the other had strips of charcoal-cooked lamb.
Benjamin looked at her, almost shyly. “Felicity, this…may take a bit to work out.” He paused. “I don’t want to hurt you with my woundedness. Fear of that has stopped me kissing you quite a few times recently.” He smiled, then became serious again. “I’m still not sure who I am. I’m part Aboriginal, but I don’t belong. I’m part whitefella, but I don’t…” He shook his head.
Felicity reached over and reclaimed his hand. “Benjamin, I am a divorced woman who’s had her dreams shattered.” She squeezed his hand. “I too am trying to find…” You. “…what I hope for.” She took her hand away to wipe a tear from her eye. “And,” she said with a sniff, “I still want a kiss. I’m a very western girl.”
“Felicity, I’ve known for the last three hours exactly where in this city I will kiss you.”
She gulped. “You have?”
“Yes,” he said, reaching over to drop a piece of baby octopus into her mouth.
“Where?” she choked.
“Under the archway at Bastioni di Saint Remy. We walked up the steps through it, remember?”
She couldn’t. There had been so many archways.
“When I knew I would kiss you tonight, I needed to find the right place.” He smiled. “It has fabulous views over the entire city and the harbor from there…not that I expect to see them.”
Benjamin watched Felicity and Archie covertly from across the road as he sought to play the role of a tourist. He lifted up his phone and took a photograph.
They looked totally convincing. Felicity was chatting to a stout Italian woman dressed in black. She was standing on the top step of the house that leaned against the elephant tower. Archie was standing well back, looking mildly bored. He was wearing an orange workman’s vest and carrying a lightweight collapsible ladder. The haversack on his back had a few ribbons trailing from under the top flap. Benjamin thought it was a nice touch.
He saw Felicity point to the bunches of ribbons on the door-knockers of the nearby houses and then point up to the elephant. The elderly woman standing on the top step peered up the street, shrugged, and beckoned for them to come in, pausing only to wag a finger at Archie.
Archie had the good sense to nod and hug the ladder to himself with both hands.
Soon, all three of them emerged on the rooftop balcony. Archie unfolded the ladder. A few seconds later, he was standing at the top of it, unhitching the scanner from his belt. With maddening slowness, he swept it back and forth over the side of the elephant.
The old woman pointed to Archie and spoke to Felicity.
Benjamin held his breath.
Felicity spoke briefly…and the woman nodded.
By the time the dialogue was over, Archie had hooked a bunch of ribbons around the neck of the elephant and was coming down the ladder.
Four minutes later, the ladder had been left at the site of a building renovation, the orange vest was in a rubbish bin, and the three of them were seated among a bunch of tourists at a pavement café.
Felicity was looking pale. She hugged herself and leaned forward as the demons of anxiety caught up with her. Benjamin took her by the shoulders and held her to himself until he judged that her anxiety was beginning to dissipate. The top of her hair brushed his chin as he held her. He felt warmth from the soft pressures of her body…and he felt her trust. It was a giddy feeling. Memories of the previous night—the gentleness, the hunger, the unspoken questions, the answers, the delight—flooded back to him. He kissed the top of her head, partly to assure himself it wasn’t all a dream. He knew that reality and dreaming had untidy boundaries.
Felicity’s breathing gradually slowed down, and she unfolded herself from Benjamin’s arms.
He asked her, “What did you say to the woman when she pointed to Archie?”
Felicity, managed half a laugh. “I was going to so say, ‘Run for your life, Archie,’ but found myself saying to her, ‘He’s taking the opportunity to scan the elephant to ensure it hasn’t developed any cracks.’”
Archie was holding the scanner on the table in front of him, shielding the screen from the sun as he played back the images. “You did well, Flick,” he murmured. “Calm and resourceful.”
“Calm…yeah.” She leaned across to try and see the images. “But have we got anything? Let me see.”
Archie tilted the screen toward her. “Sorry, mate, it looks like we’ve drawn a blank. I’ve run through the film twice, and there is not a dickybird—no hint of a secret cavity inside. Nothing. Just marble.” He shrugged and gave a lopsided grin. “We’ve come a long way to get a decent cup of coffee, so we might as well have one.”
Benjamin could feel the disbelief, angst, and heavy responsibility of being so expensively wrong—flood into Felicity. The grief of it caused her small frame to tighten and shudder.
He spoke quietly. “We all agreed it was worth a shot, Felicity. It was our choice to chase it down, not just yours.” He took her by the shoulder and held her back against his chest. She twisted around, grabbed the lapel of his jacket, and began to sob against it. He continued. “We’ve discovered that the copy of the treaty is not in the elephant. That means, if it still exists, it has to be somewhere—probably in Cagliari.” He looked at his watch. “We’ve got twenty-eight hours to find it before we have to leave for the airport. So, where do we begin?”
“What are the options?” asked Archie.
Benjamin ticked them off on his fingers. “One: the treaty no longer exists. Two: it no longer exists in Cagliari. Three: it exists somewhere else in Cagliari.”
“Gee, mate, how many elephants can there be in Cagliari?” said Archie, taking off his knitted cap and rubbing his unruly hair.
Benjamin shrugged.
Felicity pushed herself up from his chest. “What did you say, Archie?”
“How many elephants…”
“Of course!” she said, slapping her forehead. She twisted around. “Archie, I need to go back up the hill to the Cittdella dei Musei and ask the staff there a question.”
Archie nodded. “How long do you thin
k that will take?”
Felicity shrugged. “Thirty minutes. Maybe forty.”
“Do you need anything to help you?”
“No.”
“Risks?”
“None.”
Archie scratched his beard. “Take Ben with you. He adds presence and gives good support.” He smiled. “Three’s a crowd, so I’ll stay here.” He pointed to a restaurant fifty meters up the road. “We rendezvous there in forty minutes. Call me if anything changes.” Archie leaned back and closed his eyes, giving every appearance of enjoying the sunshine.
Benjamin looked at the map and guided Felicity past the Cathedral of Santa Maria, up the hill until they came to a small square. Another grim medieval tower stood at the far side. He checked the map again. “The museum has to be through the archway, under that tower.” He turned to Felicity. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
She shrugged and looked very forlorn. “I have to try. We’ve come too far to stop now.”
“What do you want to ask the staff?”
“There is a chance that the elephant has been replaced. The one we saw had a couple of broken tusks and the odd pock mark, probably caused by bullets…but I think it looked a bit too pristine to be the original one from the fourteenth century.”
“You’re going to ask if it’s been replaced—preferably without arousing too much curiosity?”
Felicity nodded.
“Then hold my hand. It’s what tourists do.”
“Hmm. Then I suspect we’re going to do a great deal of sightseeing.”
They walked through the archway, across a square to a modern-looking building. Old stone artifacts could be seen on display through its glass windows. Felicity pushed through the door and began heading for the information desk. Benjamin steered her aside, where he made a pretense of studying an ancient Roman plinth. “Take your time, Felicity. You’re a tourist.” He let his gaze sweep over the two people behind the information desk. “Go to the older man on the left. He’s kinder, knows more, and has time.”
She jerked his arm and demanded, “How do you…?”
“I watch.” He smiled. “Ready?”
She nodded.
He murmured in her ear. “Speak Italian but badly. Make it clear you’re making an effort to speak their language but are Australian.”
They ambled over to the desk. Felicity smiled at the older man and spoke to him.
Benjamin didn’t understand the conversation but was impressed with Felicity. She was friendly but didn’t overdo it. He watched her point to a photograph of the elephant in a collage of pictures behind the information desk.
More conversation. Felicity laughed easily. Brilliant. Her face showed incredulity, then doubt, then interest.
The old man smiled condescendingly, confident in his knowledge and pleased at having the chance to share it. He pulled a map out from under the counter, circled a section of it with a pen, and handed it to Felicity. She reached for her purse, but the old man held up a hand. It was a gift. He bowed when Felicity waved her thanks. She turned, smiled at Benjamin, and made for the door.
Once they had walked outside and around the corner, Felicity collapsed into Benjamin’s arms. He held her until the tension in her body began to ease. She placed her fists against his chest. After a moment, she lifted up her head and began to beat her fists lightly against his chest. “I know where it is,” she said. “There is an original elephant…and it’s embedded in the end of a retaining wall where they are excavating the remains of that old church near our hotel.”
She looked up at him with shining eyes. “It was replaced after Sards from the north occupied the city in 1795. They were revolting against feudalism. Evidently, they shot up the old elephant so badly that it was barely recognizable. It was pulled down and cemented into a retaining wall. Can you believe that?” She shook her head. “That’s pretty much what happened to the Rosetta stone.”
“What’s that?”
“Oh, it was a piece of rock used as a building stone in Egypt. A French soldier found it during the Napoleonic wars. It was actually an ancient stele from 200 BC which had a royal inscription on it written in three languages. Archaeologists used it to decode Egyptian hieroglyphics.”
“Wow!”
“Wow indeed.” Felicity grabbed his hand. “Let’s go find our stone.”
Chapter 15
Benjamin, Felicity, and Archie looked through the cyclone fence cordoning off the renovation site. Two young men and a woman were on their knees with tiny trowels and brushes, scraping away the debris covering a stone floor.
“I can see it from here,” said Felicity, bobbing up and down. “See, it’s the big stone on the bottom of the buttress of the retaining wall—right where the curator said it would be.”
Benjamin put out a hand to steady her. “Umm. It might be good if you could appear a little more chilled.”
Felicity stopped bouncing, gripped the cyclone fence, and whispered, “But we won’t be able to get in.”
Benjamin could hear the desperation in her voice. He turned to Archie and raised a questioning eyebrow.
Archie murmured, “We probably can.” He turned away and asked conversationally, “Ben, which of those guys on the floor is the boss?”
Benjamin flicked his eyes over them and turned casually back. “None of them. They’re laughing occasionally and two are flirting—they’re big kids out on an excursion.”
“Then we need to act now, before the boss comes back.”
Benjamin nodded. “Can we pretend we’re sweeping the retaining wall to ensure that there are no old water pipes that may cause problems?”
Archie nodded. “Perfect. But we need props.” He turned to Felicity. “Flick, there’s a stationery shop around the corner which has printing facilities. Can you print off a sheet headed ‘Cagliari Water Authority’ and put it on a clipboard? You’ll be able to buy one there.”
Felicity’s mouth dropped open. Benjamin prompted her gently, “Time is probably of the essence.”
Felicity nodded, squared her shoulders, and walked off.
“Archie, we need to talk.” Benjamin pointed to a low stone parapet beside some steps. After they sat down on it, he said, “I’m not too sure of the right course of action if we discover there’s a hidden cavity in that rock. Felicity intends to tell the local authorities about it…and hope they will extract the treaty from the old elephant and make it available for the public to see.” He shrugged. “The trouble is, I don’t have faith that bureaucrats will be that accommodating. It’s too uncertain. We could do all this sleuthing and still not end up with a document that would stop Khayef pursuing their ambitions and their killing.”
Archie swung the backpack off his shoulders and pulled out the scanner. “You aren’t suggesting we should engage in anything scurrilous are you?” He grinned. “Because if you are, you’re starting to take to this cloak and dagger stuff rather too well.”
Benjamin didn’t smile. “What are our options? I can tell you now, Felicity won’t countenance anything dodgy.”
Archie sniffed. “Yeah, I know. But the reality is, this isn’t just an archaeological adventure. As you say, lives are at stake—yours in particular. If you’re going to survive this business, you’re going to have to use tactics that are appropriate against people who kill.” He looked at Benjamin candidly with his pale blue eyes. “That can take you into some pretty gray areas.”
Benjamin nodded. “Options?”
“Only one. If we find the treaty, we take it. We don’t tell the authorities. We’ll give it to the Italian government eventually when all this is over. The reality is, we need it now. They don’t.” Archie swung the backpack back over his shoulders and hooked the scanner onto his belt. “We just need to work out how to get in there.”
Benjamin gazed up at the picturesque balconies under the shuttered windows along the laneway. “I don’t want Felicity to get involved in…um…anything gray. She found the elephant, but now it’s just you
and me.” He paused. “So, when do we get in there and investigate it?”
Archie rubbed his grizzled beard and was silent for a while. “Their siesta is between twelve and four o’clock. That’s our window of opportunity.” He turned to Ben. “You’re the handyman. If I had to drill up the arse of a marble elephant, extract something, and put back a plug of stone so that no one would know, what would I need?”
Benjamin thought quickly. He had to get this right. Nothing must be allowed to reflect back on Felicity. He clenched his hand into a fist. As long as he lived, no one else he loved would ever be hurt again. “You would need a cordless drill, two battery packs, gray masonry adhesive, a concrete hole saw, and barbecue tongs.”
“Barbecue tongs?”
“To pull it out with.”
Archie nodded. “Presumably, the masonry adhesive is for gluing the stone plug back in place afterward.”
“Yeah.” He paused. “There’s a hardware place on the main road by the docks.”
They were silent for a while.
“Archie, I’m happy to do this. I’m used to operating drills.”
“No, mate. This is where I pull rank. You need to take care of Felicity. Take her for a nice long walk this afternoon.” He pointed to a pile of hessian bundled up in the corner of the excavation site. I’ll throw that hessian over that spare piece of cyclone fencing and pull it in front of the buttress. No one will see what I’m doing behind it.”
“The locked gate?”
“No problem.”
“If you’re caught?”
He grinned. “They’d need to run bloody fast.”
Benjamin looked up as Felicity came walking toward them clutching a clipboard. He watched the feminine sway of her hips and the movement of her hair. She looked fantastic. He smiled to himself, knowing that she was completely unaware of the impact she was making.
She showed him the headed page on the clipboard. “Well done,” he said hugging her briefly around the shoulders. He turned and outlined his plan. “We go in and tell them we’re scanning for old water pipes behind the retaining wall that might burst and ruin their renovation work.”
