CHAPTER VIII
The Midnight Call
Rick and Scotty left the ground simultaneously in a dive for the legscharging toward them. They connected, and the impact sent the attackersto the ground. Rick recovered from the dive and tensed for a swing, buthe never made it. Arms locked around his chest, pinioning his own armsto his side. He struggled violently, but the grip never yielded.
From the corner of his eye he saw Scotty get in one driving punch thatsent the Sudanese down to one knee, then Scotty was pinioned frombehind, too.
The big man and the Sudanese swung into action fast. Hands slappedRick's clothes in a fast but thorough search. Next to him Scotty wasgetting the same treatment.
The big man spoke sharply in Arabic and both boys were suddenly hurledsideways, landing together in a heap. They jumped to their feet and sawonly four retreating backs. Even the peddler had scuttled away, leavingthe spilled nuts on the ground. It was senseless to pursue the men. Theboys looked at each other grimly, then suddenly Scotty smiled.
"I don't know who they are," he stated, "but I'll tell you this. They'rereal professionals. I haven't been taken like that in a long, longtime."
Rick had to agree. The two-team operation had been swift and efficient.Neither boy had been hurt, or even roughed up particularly. That wasn'tthe purpose. "So they won't get us in a public place, huh? Well, ifthey'd wanted to do damage, they could have." He added, "And we couldn'thave done a thing. But all they wanted was the cat."
Scotty nodded agreement. He brushed dust off his trousers. "Might aswell go back to the hotel. I'm hungry. Anyway, they know now that youdon't have the cat on you--and that I don't, either. So what will theythink?"
"Either that it's at the hotel or the project, or that we've put itsomewhere for safekeeping. They searched the hotel room. Suppose they'lltry the project?"
"It's possible, I suppose. Anyway, if they want us they can get us.Notice that no one saw the ruckus? The timing was perfect. A few feetsooner and we'd have been within sight of the museum's ticket office. Afew feet later and we'd have been on the street. As it was, shrubsshielded them. Pretty good operating, I'd say."
Rick thought so, too, and it worried him. "I have an unhappy ideabuzzing around. If I were the big boss, and really determined to get thecat, I'd pick us up and make us talk."
"The language is a little mixed, but the thought is clear as air. We'dbetter keep our guard up at all times."
"Meanwhile, what do we know about anything? Nothing. If only we knew whythe cat is valuable!"
"If it wasn't before, it is now," Scotty replied. "It's a genuine museumpiece. But if the cat is gone, we have three lovely kittens."
Rick chuckled. "What's the problem everyone has with kittens? It'sfinding a home for them. I wish we'd had one of the kittens a fewminutes ago. There would have been one less homeless orphan."
"The kittens' turns will come. And it's our turn to eat. My stomach isquivering in Morse code. 'Send food. Send food.'"
Rick pointed to the hotel, just ahead. "Okay, chow hound. Lunch ahead.And lay off that hot-pepper stuff or that stomach of yours will besending distress signals."
"I hear you talking," Scotty said feelingly. One dish, served at dinnerthe previous night, had required enough water to put out a three-alarmfire before the burning sensation stopped.
Hassan was waiting after lunch. He drove the boys to the project, wherethey looked into the control room long enough to let the scientists knowthey had arrived, then went at once to look at the kittens. Threeidentical statues, almost perfect replicas of the original, were sittingin the sunshine.
"Except for being a little rougher, they're our own dear littlemysterious pet," Rick said. "Are they dry yet?"
Hassan passed the question on in Arabic to the workmen who had helpedmake the kittens. He reported, "They okay. You can take now."
"Ask him if we can give him a present for helping us," Scotty requested.
Hassan did so, then shook his head. He grinned, his teeth white in hispleasant black face. "He say making statues fun, not work. He help youyesterday, so he not have to fix plaster. All even."
The boys laughed at the explanation and shook hands with the workman.
"Now," Scotty asked, "what do we do with the children?"
"One goes in my pocket," Rick replied. "I feel lost without a friendlylittle feline weighing down one side of my coat. We can leave the othershere in a safe place, maybe inside one of the control cabinets."
"Good idea. Going to tell Winston and the others about this morning?"
"Sure. Only I don't think we'll mention where the mama cat is hidingout. No use bogging them down with useless information. We'll tellWinston."
Scotty quirked an eyebrow. "Not suspicious of the others?"
Rick wasn't, and said so flatly. "Only the more people who knowsomething, the more others are apt to find it out."
The scientists, however, were not even remotely interested. Their wholeattention was given to the problem of getting the big radio telescopeworking.
Hakim Farid joined the boys long enough to say, "We've about decided thestrange signals are not originating within the system. Now we're lookingat the possibility that some local source is giving us interference. Wethought we'd eliminated all outside noise, but perhaps something newcame up after we finished checking."
Rick pointed to Cairo, visible through the control-room window. "Theremust be lots of stuff down there that puts out radio-frequency signals,even electric shavers and heating pads. How can you eliminate all ofit?"
"We can't, in the sense of really cutting it out. But the antennaconstruction takes local interference into account. It's a tight beamdesign that should prevent overriding of the main signal by any randomside effects. That's what Kerama and Winston are checking now. There'snot a great deal for you to do until they're through. In a half hourwe'll start to swing the antenna to see if we get an increase in thesignal by a change in direction. Until then, why not take it easy?"
"We will." Rick took the opportunity to tell Farid of the incident atthe museum that morning. He described briefly how they had beenfollowed, then attacked on the museum path.
Farid frowned. "I'm sorry to hear it. Cairo is pretty law-abiding,compared to what it used to be. But we still have crime, just as you doin your big cities. You didn't lose your wallets or anything valuable?"
"Nothing. We think they were after the cat."
"They didn't get it?"
"No. I didn't have it on me."
"That was fortunate." Farid frowned. "But why would anyone want thecat?"
Rick did not have an answer for that, and said so. The scientist smiled."A cat isn't exactly big game for thieves, is it? On the other hand, themuseum itself was robbed several weeks ago in spite of the guards.Thieves got away with a necklace supposed to have belonged to Kefren,who built the middle pyramid over there."
"Was it valuable?" Scotty asked.
"More than valuable. It is irreplaceable. In terms of cash, however, thevalue is around a quarter of a million dollars."
Rick whistled. "No wonder the guards watched us this morning."
Dr. Kerama called, "Hakim, can you help with these tracings, please?"
Farid joined the other scientists, leaving the boys to their owndevices. Rick hunted until he found a space under an amplifier that wasbig enough for the two extra kittens. The space was covered by an accessdoor. The kittens would be safe there. It would be no real loss if theywere stolen, anyway.
Later, the boys helped check circuits while the radio telescope swungthrough a variety of arcs, with Farid at the controls. The strangesignal came while the telescope was pointing only in one direction.
Rick asked Winston, "Could it really be coming from a single source inouter space?"
Winston shrugged. "We've thought of that. If the source remained fixed,we'd accept it as the most logical explanation. But since Kerama andFarid first noticed the signal it has shifted its apparent location bymany degrees. That's why
we think it must have some local explanation."
Rick understood. The sources in space studied by the radio telescopeswere fixed, in the same sense that the stars themselves were fixed. Ofcourse everything in the galaxy--even in the universe--was in motion,but in spite of the enormous velocities, the change in location wouldnot be particularly apparent in a short time, or even in a lifetime.
A short distance away was a wonderful example of this kind of motion. Inthe great pyramid of Khufu, Rick had read, a channel had been left sothe light of the North Star could shine on the altar of Isis. Thechannel was still there. But in over three thousand years the slight,slow wobbling of the earth on its axis had caused a shift. What was thenthe North Star was now Thuban, in the constellation of Draco the Dragon.The present North Star, Polaris, which is not exactly at the celestialnorth pole, did not shine on the altar. Nor would the next star tobecome the northern marker--bright Vega. But if the pyramids were stillstanding after twenty-seven thousand years had passed, the cycle ofmovement would be complete, and Thuban would again shine through thechannel to the altar of a forgotten Egyptian goddess.
It gave Rick a shiver to think about it. Even now, the pyramids were oldenough to have seen a change of north stars. They looked good foranother three thousand years or more. It would take a lot of time toerode away that much massive stone.
Then he stopped thinking about it, because the telescope was in motionagain, and there was work to be done.
It was late night before the scientists were satisfied. The boys rodeback with Hassan, very thoughtful about the day's events. Now they hadboth the little statue and the even greater mystery of the space signalsto think about.
Clearly, the strange signal was not of local origin. The scientistsrejected the idea that it came from trouble in the circuit. But it wasno natural heavenly object. What was it?
Tomorrow, Winston had said, they would decide on the next step. Rightnow all hands were too tired to think clearly. The boys agreed that thestatement applied to them.
"Shall we eat?" Rick asked as they approached the hotel.
"Let's have a sandwich sent up," Scotty suggested. "I don't feel likewaiting in a dining room, even if one is open this late."
"Good idea." Rick leaned forward and told Hassan, "Just drop us off,then go on home and get some rest."
"Not tired," Hassan said cheerfully. "You work, I rest."
They certainly were not working Hassan very hard, Rick agreed. But hewas pleasant to have around. They bade him good night in front of thehotel and went for their room key. The clerk handed Rick an envelopealong with it. It was addressed to Mr. R. Brant, care of the hotel, andthe return address was in Arabic.
Rick waited until they were in their room to open it. A quick glanceshowed that the room had not been searched, or if it had, with greatercare than the last time. He ripped open the envelope and took out asheet of paper, the letterhead printed in Arabic except for the nameFuad Moustafa.
"Fuad Moustafa," he said aloud. "Any relation to Ali, I wonder?"
"Read it," Scotty urged.
Rick did so. "'Dear Sir: You have brought to Cairo, I believe, a plasticreplica of a cat, which was given to you by Mr. Bartouki for delivery tomy brother, Ali. I deeply regret the inconvenience caused by yourfailure to find my brother in his shop. Only today did I learn that hischief clerk, an officious person, had attempted to take delivery of thecat by pretending to be my brother. The clerk shall be discharged forthis offensive behavior.
"'Since my brother is absent from the city, on business to Beirut, whichwas the reason for his absence from the shop, I shall be delighted toserve in his stead. If you will call me, I shall come at yourconvenience. Or, if you will do me the honor of breaking bread at myhome, I shall be at your service. Since my home is also my office, anytime that is convenient for you will be my pleasure. Sincerely, FuadMoustafa.'"
Rick jumped for the phone and called the desk, "See if Hassan is stillaround, please. Tell him to wait, if he is."
The clerk asked him to wait and Rick put his hand over the mouthpieceand turned to Scotty. "The first sensible suggestion we've had. Let's gocall on Fuad Moustafa. If there are lights, we'll pay him a visit. Ifnot, we'll come back. I'm anxious to get this settled."
"So am I," Scotty agreed, then added, "Only let's be sure this isn't atrap."
The clerk came back on the line. "Hassan is here. He will wait."
"Thank you. Now, can you tell me anything about a Mr. Fuad Moustafa? Doyou know him?"
"Indeed, sir. He is a lawyer, from a well-known family. He has twobrothers who are also well known. One is Ali, who has a shop in ElMouski, and the other is Kemel, who is a textile importer."
Rick thanked him and hung up. "It's our boy," he said. He repeated whatthe clerk had told him.
"Sounds like pay dirt," Scotty agreed. "Only we'll still be careful.Let's go."
Rick echoed him. "Let's go! If this is on the level, we can get the catin the morning and deliver it." At last, the secret of the Egyptian catmight be unraveled!