The Key to Rebecca

by Ken Follett

  They showed their tickets and went out into the square. It was late afternoon, but here in the south the sun was still very hot. The square was lined with quite tall buildings, one of them called the Grand Hotel. Outside the station was a row of horse-drawn cabs. Elene looked around, half expecting a detachment of soldiery ready to arrest Wolff. There was no sign of Vandam. Wolff told the Arab boy: "Motor taxi, I want a motor taxi." There was one such car, an old Morris parked a few yards behind the horse cabs. The boy led them to it.

  "Get in the front," Wolff told Elene. He gave the boy a coin and got into the back of the car with Billy. The driver wore dark glasses and an Arab headdress to keep the sun off. "Go south, toward the convent," Wolff told the driver in Arabic.

  "Okay," the driver said.

  Elene's heart missed a beat. She knew that voice. She stared at the driver. It was Vandam.

  Vandam drove away from the station, thinking: So far, so good--except for the Arabic. It had not occurred to him that Wolff would speak to a taxi driver in Arabic. Vandam's knowledge of the language was rudimentary, but he was able to give--and therefore to understand--directions. He could reply in monosyllables, or grunts, or even in English, for those Arabs who spoke a little English were always keen to use it, even when addressed by a European in Arabic. He would be all right as long as Wolff did not want to discuss the weather and the crops.

  Captain Newman had come through with everything Vandam had asked for, including discretion. He had even loaned Vandam his revolver, a six-shot Enfield .380 which was now in the pocket of Vandam's trousers beneath his borrowed galabiya. While waiting for the train Vandam had studied Newman's map of Assyut and the surrounding area, so he had some idea of how to find the southbound road out of the city. He drove through the souk, honking his horn more or less continually in the Egyptian fashion, steering dangerously close to the great wooden wheels of the carts, nudging sheep out of the way with his fenders. From the buildings on either side shops, cafes and workshops spilled out into the street. The unpaved road was surfaced with dust, rubbish and dung. Glancing into his rear-view mirror Vandam saw that four or five children were riding his back bumper.

  Wolff said something, and this time Vandam did not understand. He pretended not to have heard. Wolff repeated it. Vandam caught the word for petrol. Wolff was pointing to a garage. Vandam tapped the gauge on the dashboard, which showed a full tank. "Kifaya," he said. "Enough." Wolff seemed to accept that.

  Pretending to adjust his mirror, Vandam stole a glance at Billy, wondering if he had recognized his father. Billy was staring at the back of Vandam's head with an expression of delight. Vandam thought: Don't give the game away, for God's sake!

  They left the town behind and headed south on a straight desert road. On their left were the irrigated fields and groves of trees; on their right, the wall of granite cliffs, colored beige by a layer of dusty sand. The atmosphere in the car was peculiar. Vandam could sense Elene's tension, Billy's euphoria and Wolff's impatience. He himself was very edgy. How much of all that was getting through to Wolff? The spy needed only to take one good look at the taxi driver to realize he was the man who had inspected papers on the train. Vandam hoped Wolff was preoccupied with thoughts of his radio.

  Wolff said: "Ruh alyaminak."

  Vandam knew this meant "Turn right." Up ahead he saw a turnoff which seemed to lead straight to the cliff. He slowed the car and took the turn, then saw that he was headed for a pass through the hills.

  Vandam was surprised. Farther along the southbound road there were some villages and the famous convent, according to Newman's map; but beyond these hills there was nothing but the Western Desert. If Wolff had buried the radio in the sand he would never find it again. Surely he knew better? Vandam hoped so, for if Wolff's plans were to collapse, so would his.

  The road began to climb, and the old car struggled to take the gradient. Vandam changed down once, then again. The car made the summit in second gear. Vandam looked out across an apparently endless desert. He wished he had a jeep. He wondered how far Wolff had to go. They had better get back to Assyut before nightfall. He could not ask Wolff questions for fear of revealing his ignorance of Arabic.

  The road became a track. Vandam drove across the desert, going as fast as he dared, waiting for instructions from Wolff. Directly ahead, the sun rolled down the edge of the sky. After an hour they passed a small flock of sheep grazing on tufty, sparse camel thorn, guarded by a man and a boy. Wolff sat up in his seat and began to look about him. Soon afterward the road intersected a wadi. Cautiously Vandam let the car roll down the bank of the dried-up river.

  Wolff said: "Ruh ashshimalak."

  Vandam turned left. The going was firm. He was astonished to see groups of people, tents and animals in the wadi. It was like a secret community. A mile farther on they saw the explanation: a wellhead.

  The mouth of the well was marked by a low circular wall of mud brick. Four roughly dressed tree trunks leaned together over the hole, supporting a crude winding mechanism. Four or five men hauled water continuously, emptying the buckets into four radiating troughs around the wellhead. Camels and women crowded around the troughs.

  Vandam drove close to the well. Wolff said: "Andak." Vandam stopped the car. The desert people were incurious, although it must have been rare for them to see a motor vehicle: perhaps, Vandam thought, their hard lives left them no time to investigate oddities. Wolff was asking questions of one of the men in rapid Arabic. There was a short exchange. The man pointed ahead. Wolff said to Vandam: "Dughri." Vandam drove on.

  At last they came to a large encampment where Wolff made Vandam stop. There were several tents in a cluster, some penned sheep, several hobbled camels and a couple of cooking fires. With a sudden quick movement Wolff reached into the front of the car, switched off the engine and pulled out the key. Without a word he got out.

  Ishmael was sitting by the fire, making tea. He looked up and said: "Peace be with you," as casually as if Wolff had dropped in from the tent next door.

  "And with you be health and God's mercy and blessing," Wolff replied formally.

  "How is thy health?"

  "God bless thee; I am well, thank God." Wolff squatted in the sand

  Ishmael handed him a cup. "Take it."

  "God increase thy good fortune," Wolff said.

  "And thy good fortune also."

  Wolff drank the tea. It was hot, sweet and very strong. He remembered how this drink had fortified him during his trek through the desert ... was it only two months ago?

  When Wolff had drunk, Ishmael raised his hand to his head and said: "May it agree with thee, sir."

  "God grant it may agree with thee."

  The formalities were done. Ishmael said: "What of your friends?" He nodded toward the taxi, parked in the middle of the wadi, incongruous among the tents and camels.

  "They are not friends," Wolff said.

  Ishmael nodded. He was incurious. For all the polite inquiries about one's health, Wolff thought, the nomads were not really interested in what city people did: their lives were so different as to be incomprehensible.

  Wolff said: "You still have my box?"

  "Yes."

  Ishmael would say yes, whether he had it or not, Wolff thought; that was the Arab way. Ishmael made no move to fetch the suitcase. He was incapable of hurrying. "Quickly" meant "within the next few days"; "immediately" meant "tomorrow."

  Wolff said: "I must return to the city today."

  "But you will sleep in my tent."

  "Alas, no."

  "Then you will join us in eating."

  "Twice alas. Already the sun is low, and I must be back in the city before night falls."

  Ishmael shook his head sadly, with the look of one who contemplates a hopeless case. "You have come for your box."

  "Yes. Please fetch it, my cousin."

  Ishmael spoke to a man standing behind him, who spoke to a younger man, who told a child to fetch the case. Ishmael offered Wolff a cigarette.
Wolff took it out of politeness. Ishmael lit the cigarettes with a twig from the fire. Wolff wondered where the cigarettes had come from. The child brought the case and offered it to Ishmael. Ishmael pointed to Wolff.

  Wolff took the case and opened it. A great sense of relief flooded over him as he looked at the radio, the book arid the key to the code. On the long and tedious train journey his euphoria had vanished, but now it came back, and he felt intoxicated with the sense of power and imminent victory. Once again he knew he was going to win the war. He closed the lid of the case. His hands were unsteady.

  Ishmael was looking at him through narrowed eyes. "This is very important to you, this box."

  "It's important to the world."

  Ishmael said: "The sun rises, and the sun sets. Sometimes it rains. We live, then we die." He shrugged.

  He would never understand, Wolff thought; but others would. He stood up. "I thank you, my cousin."

  "Go in safety."

  "May God protect thee."

  Wolff turned around and walked toward the taxi.

  Elene saw Wolff walk away from the fire with a suitcase in his hand. "He's coming back," she said. "What now?"

  "He'll want to go back to Assyut," Vandam said, not looking at her. "Those radios have no batteries, they have to be plugged in, he has to go somewhere where there's electricity, and that means Assyut."

  Billy said: "Can I come in the front?"

  "No," Vandam said. "Quiet, now. Not much longer."

  "I'm scared of him."

  "So am I."

  Elene shuddered. Wolff got into the car. "Assyut," he said. Vandam held out his hand, palm upward, and Wolff dropped the key in it. Vandam started the car and turned it around.

  They went along the wadi, past the well, and turned onto the road. Elene was thinking about the case Wolff held on his knees. It contained the radio, the book and the key to the Rebecca code: how absurd it was that so much should hang on the question of who held that case in his hands, that she should have risked her life for it, that Vandam should have jeopardized his son for it. She felt very tired. The sun was low behind them now, and the smallest objects--boulders, bushes, tufts of grass----cast long shadows. Evening clouds were gathering over the hills ahead.

  "Go faster," Wolff said in Arabic. "It's getting dark."

  Vandam seemed to understand, for he increased speed. The car bounced and swayed on the unmade road. After a couple of minutes Billy said: "I feel sick."

  Elene turned around to look at him. His face was pale and tense, and he was sitting bolt upright. "Go slower," she said to Vandam, then she repeated it in Arabic, as if she had just recalled that he did not speak English.

  Vandam slowed down for a moment, but Wolff said: "Go faster." He said to Elene: "Forget about the child."

  Vandam went faster.

  Elene looked at Billy again. He was as white as a sheet, and seemed to be on the brink of tears. "You bastard," she said to Wolff.

  "Stop the car," Billy said.

  Wolff ignored him, and Vandam had to pretend not to understand English.

  There was a low hump in the road. Breasting it at speed, the car rose a few inches into the air, and came down again with a bump. Billy yelled: "Dad, stop the car! Dad!"

  Vandam slammed on the brakes.

  Elene braced herself against the dashboard and turned her head to look at Wolff.

  For a split second he was stunned with shock. His eyes went to Vandam, then to Billy, then back to Vandam; and she saw in his expression first incomprehension, then astonishment, then fear. She knew he was thinking about the incident on the train, and the Arab boy at the railway station, and the kaffiyeh that covered the taxi driver's face; and then she saw that he knew, he had understood it all in a flash.

  The car was screeching to a halt, throwing the passengers forward. Wolff regained his balance. With a rapid movement he threw his left arm around Billy and pulled the boy to him. Elene saw his hand go inside his shirt, and then he pulled out the knife.

  The car stopped.

  Vandam looked around. At the same moment, Elene saw, his hand went to the side slit of his galabiya--and froze there as he looked into the backseat. Elene turned too.

  Wolff held the knife an inch from the soft skin of Billy's throat. Billy was wild-eyed with fear. Vandam looked stricken. At the corners of Wolff's mouth there was the hint of a mad smile.

  "Damn it," Wolff said. "You almost had me."

  They all stared at him in silence.

  "Take off that foolish hat," he said to Vandam.

  Vandam removed the kaffiyeh.

  "Let me guess," said Wolff. "Major Vandam." He seemed to be enjoying the moment. "What a good thing I took your son for insur ance."

  "It's finished, Wolff," said Vandam. "Half the British Army is on your trail. You can let me take you alive, or let them kill you."

  "I don't believe you're telling the truth," Wolff said. "You wouldn't have brought the Army to look for your son. You'd be afraid those cowboys would shoot the wrong people. I don't think your superiors even know where you are."

  Elene felt sure Wolff was right, and she was gripped by despair. She had no idea what Wolff would do now, but she felt sure Vandam had lost the battle. She looked at Vandam, and saw defeat in his eyes.

  Wolff said: "Underneath his galabiya, Major Vandam is wearing a pair of khaki trousers. In one of the pockets of the trousers, or possibly in the waistband, you will find a gun. Take it out."

  Elene reached through the side slit of Vandam's galabiya and found the gun in his pocket. She thought: How did Wolff know? and then: He guessed. She took the gun out.

  She looked at Wolff. He could not take the gun from her without releasing Billy, and if he released Billy, even for a moment, Vandam would do something.

  But Wolff had thought of that. "Break the back of the gun, so that the barrel falls forward. Be careful not to pull the trigger by mistake."

  She fiddled with the gun.

  Wolff said: "You'll probably find a catch alongside the cylinder."

  She found the catch and opened the gun.

  "Take out the cartridges and drop them outside the car."

  She did so.

  "Put the gun on the floor of the car."

  She put it down.

  Wolff seemed relieved. Now, once again, the only weapon in the picture was his knife. He spoke to Vandam. "Get out of the car."

  Vandam sat motionless.

  "Get out," Wolff repeated. With a sudden precise movement he nicked the lobe of Billy's ear with the knife. A drop of blood welled out.

  Vandam got out of the car.

  Wolff said to Elene: "Get into the driving seat."

  She climbed over the gear stick.

  Vandam had left the car door open. Wolff said: "Close the door." Elene closed the door. Vandam stood beside the car, staring in.

  "Drive," Wolff said.

  The car had stalled. Elene put the gearshift into neutral and turned the key. The engine coughed and died. She hoped it would not go. She turned the key again; again the starter failed.

  Wolff said: "Touch the accelerator pedal as you turn the key."

  She did what he said. The engine caught and roared.

  "Drive," Wolff said.

  She pulled away.

  "Faster."

  She changed up.

  Looking in the mirror she saw Wolff put the knife away and release Billy. Behind the car, already fifty yards away, Vandam stood on the desert road, his silhouette black against the sunset. He was quite still.

  Elene said: "He's got no water!"

  "No," Wolff replied.

  Then Billy went berserk.

  Elene heard him scream: "You can't leave him behind!" She turned around, forgetting about the road. Billy had leaped on Wolff like an enraged wildcat, punching and scratching and, somehow, kicking; yelling incoherently, his face a mask of childish rage, his body jerking convulsively like one in a fit. Wolff, who had relaxed, thinking the crisis was over, was momen
tarily powerless to resist. In the confined space, with Billy so close to him, he was unable to strike a proper blow, so he raised his arms to protect himself, and pushed against the boy.

  Elene looked back to the road. While she was turning around, the car had gone off course, and now the left-hand front wheel was plowing through the sandy scrub beside the road. She struggled to turn the steering wheel but it seemed to have a will of its own. She stamped on the brake, and the rear of the car began to slide sideways. Too late, she saw a deep rut running across the road immediately in front. The skidding car hit the rut broadside with an impact that jarred her bones. It seemed to bounce upward. Elene came up off the seat momentarily, and when she came down again she unintentionally trod on the accelerator pedal. The car shot forward and began to skid in the other direction. Out of the comer of her eye she saw that Wolff and Billy were being tossed about helplessly, still fighting. The car went off the road into the soft sand. It slowed abruptly, and Elene banged her forehead on the rim of the steering wheel. The whole of the car tilted sideways and seemed to be flying. She saw the desert fall away beside her, and realized the car was in fact rolling. She thought it would go over and over. She fell sideways, grabbing at the wheel and the gear stick. The car did not turn turtle, but perched on its side like a coin dropped edgeways into the sand. The gear shift came off in her hand. She slumped against the door, banging her head again. The car was still.

  She got to her hands and knees, still holding the broken-off gear stick, and looked into the rear of the car. Wolff and Billy had fallen in a heap with Wolff on top. As she looked, Wolff moved.

  She had hoped he was dead.

  She had one knee on the car door and the other on the window. On her right the roof of the car stood up vertically. On her left was the seat. She was looking through the gap between the top of the seat back and the roof.