Scorpia Rising

ahead of him. A couple of guards were standing there, smoking cigarettes, thinking their work was done.
    And then he saw Gunter on the far side of the yard. He was talking on his mobile phone with his back slightly toward the school as if he was afraid of being seen. It was too good an opportunity to miss. Alex was already wearing his sunglasses. He stepped back into the shadows and took out his water bottle. He pointed it in the right direction, and a second later he heard Gunter’s voice, so clearly that he could have been standing next to him.
    “The House of Gold. Yes, of course I know it.” There was a pause. “Five o’clock tomorrow. I’ll come alone . . . Do you think I’m an idiot? And if I’m satisfied, I’ll authorize the final payment.”
    Gunter hung up, then walked away, disappearing around the side of the building. Alex waited a minute, then darted toward the main gate. Suddenly, things seemed to be happening very quickly. The head of security must be on his way to some sort of secret meeting. A payment was involved. It had to be part of the conspiracy that MI6 was looking for. Alex had passed through the gate and realized he was standing in exactly the same spot where his picture had been taken. And it was then that he knew what was wrong.
    In the photograph that he had seen, he had been standing on his own . . . as he was now. But he had never once left the school on his own. He was sure of it. Simon or Craig walked home with him every day. If it wasn’t them, it was Andrew or one of the other Scottish boys. Always there were other kids around. Alex left at the same time as everyone else.
    So where had they gone? Had they all been airbrushed out? Or was he simply wrong? Had there been a moment when his image could have been captured with nobody else about?
    It didn’t matter. The House of Gold at five o’clock the next day. Wherever it was, Alex planned to be there, and in his hurry to get back to the apartment, he didn’t look around and didn’t see Gunter emerge from the side of the school to watch him, his lips stretched in a thin smile. Nor did he hear him make a second call.
    “He listened in on the conversation. He’s taken the bait. He’s clearly not quite as clever as he’s cracked up to be. He’ll be there tomorrow. I know what to do.”

13

    THE HOUSE OF GOLD

    ALEX FOUND IT EASILY enough on the Internet. The House of Gold turned out to be some sort of shopping center specializing in jewelry. Fine gems and all your gold & silver dreams. That was how it advertised itself on the website. Come and seek us for the best prices in Cairo. The name should have given it away, but it still seemed an unlikely destination for a man like Erik Gunter.
    “Perhaps he’s just going to buy a ring for his girl-friend . . . or his wife, if he has one,” Jack suggested.
    “He said he was going to authorize the final payment,” Alex said. “You don’t do that with a wedding ring.”
    “He doesn’t have to be meeting a jeweler. He could be meeting anyone.”
    “It’s a strange place to want to meet . . .”
    The two of them were sitting in the living room of their apartment. Jack had been waiting for Alex with two glasses of ice-cold lemonade and a plate of sandwiches. He was normally hungry when he got back from school. Outside, the swimming pool was crowded . . . There was a rough version of water polo going on, and Craig and Jodie had called out to Alex to join them as he passed. But he had gone straight to the computer. houseofgold.org . Then he had told Jack what had happened, what he had found inside Gunter’s office. It wasn’t a lot to go on, he realized. Not after two and a half weeks in Egypt.
    “He wasn’t buying jewelry,” Alex insisted. “He sounded . . . I don’t know . . . mysterious. As if he didn’t want to be overheard.”
    “You’re sure he wasn’t leading you on? Maybe he wants you to follow him.”
    Alex shook his head. “He couldn’t have known I was listening to him. I was a long way away, on the other side of the yard.”
    “What about the pictures you found in his desk?” Jack had Alex’s iPhone. She flicked through the images on the screen.
    “I don’t know. We’d better pass them on to Smithers. He can send them to MI6. Why would anyone take a shot of a hook on a wall? And what’s this building? Do you think it’s somewhere in Cairo?”
    Jack held up the iPhone. “Nice shot of you,” she said.
    “Yes. But if Gunter took it, then it