The Alexandria Connection Read Free Page B

Egypt, but he left for campaigns in Iraq and areas around the Khyber Pass before the first brick was laid. The city was built by Ptolemy I and his successors. In fact, Ptolemy and you might have had a lot in common.’
    ‘Ruggedly handsome, witty conversationalist, and exceptionally good in bed.’
    ‘I doubt historians have the slightest idea of Ptolemy’s expertise in bed,’ said Aleta, rolling her eyes, ‘but they do know that when Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, Ptolemy was not unlike an agent of the CIA. He stole the body before it reached Alexander’s birthplace of Macedonia and brought it back here where he built an opulent tomb for his former Pharaoh. Ptolemy I and his successors then set about building one of the greatest cities of the ancient world . . . temples, royal palaces, wide colonnaded streets and public baths. As you can see from this papyrus, much of the old city has slipped beneath the waves, but we know Ptolemy I founded a
mouseion
, what we might call it a museum. It housed laboratories and a medical school where they conducted dissections, which Greek culture outlawed in Athens, as well as lecture halls and rooms for visiting scholars like Archimedes and Euclid, and of course the library.’
    ‘And how do you know this map is accurate? I’m not doubting you,’ O’Connor added, sensing Aleta bristling at her academic professionalism being challenged. ‘I’m just playing Devil’s advocate.’
    ‘You’re right to question. As a scientist yourself, you will know that every good academic and scientist does, so perhaps we should get a second opinion from another of my colleagues, Professor Hassan Badawi, the director of the Cairo Museum.’
    ‘Didn’t they have a break-in there recently? He may not have time to see you.’
    ‘Yes, but that was during the riots in Tahrir Square. A bunch of amateurs looking for gold got in through a skylight, but it’s calm for the moment. I’m sure he’ll spare us half an hour.’
    ‘Well even if he can see you, showing him the papyrus with the map will start the hares and hounds running in all directions . . . buggering up a perfectly good diving holiday. Why don’t we take a photograph of the papyrus and show him that. That way no one will actually know we have the map, and we can be vague about where we discovered the photo – somewhere he can’t immediately check.’
    ‘Let’s split the difference. We can donate the Horus Papyrus to his museum, which will give him kudos – although once that becomes public, it will also spark furious debate, so we can ask that no announcement be made just yet.’
    ‘And you can tell him you discovered the photograph in a second-hand book . . . one you picked up in an obscure book fair.’
    ‘No wonder you’re back in the CIA, although I’m not sure I’m in favour of that,’ Aleta added, getting up and moving around behind O’Connor’s chair. ‘But I guess you’d never settle for a nine-to-five existence, would you,’ she said, moving her hands down O’Connor’s shirt front and stroking his hairy chest. He turned to look up at her and she bent down and kissed him, gently at first, and then more hungrily. ‘Take me to bed,’ she whispered.

2 Villa Jannat, Islamabad, Pakistan
    T he sun rose over the Margella Mountains, bathing the garden capital of Pakistan that was nestled in the foothills. In the 1950s, the government had decided to relocate the capital from Karachi to a more central location. The name ‘Jannat’ in Urdu meant ‘Paradise’, and Khan’s large patio, lined with potted palms, cacti and marijuana plants, overlooked the distant, well-planned capital with its wide streets and myriad parks and gardens.
    Lieutenant General Farid Khan, the sacked head of the ISI, Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence agency, adopted the prostrate position facing Mecca as he neared the end of his
Fajr,
the dawn prayer, the first of the five prayers for the day. He touched the old wooden