"Smith, Wilbur - Egyptian 02 - Seventh Scroll" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Wilbur)

So, I have been over the list of possible sponsors again, and have
narrowed it down to four. There is the Getty Museum of course, but I
never like to work with a big impersonal institution. I prefer to have a
single man to answer to.

Decisions are always easier to reach."None of this was new to her, but
she listened dutifully.

"Then there is Herr von Schiller. He has the money and the interest in
the subject, but I do not know him well enough to trust him entirely."
He paused, and Royan had listened to these musings so often before that
she could anticipate him.

"What about the American? He is a famous collector," she forestalled
him.

"Peter Walsh is a difficult man to work with. His passion to accumulate
makes him unscrupulous. He frightens me a little."

"So who does that leave?" she asked.

He did not reply, for they both knew the answer to her question.
Instead, he turned his attention back to the material that littered the
work table.

"It looks so innocent, so mundane. An old papyrus scroll, a few
photographs and notebooks, a computer printout. It is difficult to
believe how dangerous these might be in the wrong hands." He sighed
again. "You might almost say that they are deadly dangerous."

Then he laughed. "I am being fanciful. Perhaps it is the late hour.
Shall we get back to work? We can worry about these other matters once
we have worked out all the conundrums set for us by this old rogue,
Taita, and completed the translation."

He picked up the top photograph from the pile in front of him. It was an
extract from the central section of the scroll. "It is the worst luck
that the damaged piece of papyrus falls where it does." He picked up his
reading glasses and placed them on his nose before he read aloud.

"'There are many steps to ascend on the staircase to the abode of Hapi.
With much hardship and endeavour we reached the second step and
proceeded no further, for it was here that the prince received a divine
revelation. In a dream his father, the dead god pharaoh, visited him and
commanded him, "I have travelled far and I am grown weary. It is here
that I will rest for all eternity."" Duraid removed his glasses and
looked across at Royan, "'The second step". It is a very precise
description for once. Taita is not being his usual devious self."