The Quest: A Novel

companions, “We’re either celebrating something, or we need to drown our troubles in champagne.”
    “I like the way you think, Henry.”
    Vivian said, “Out of ninety-two photographs, there are only six circled locations that fit our criteria.” She listed the criteria: “Palm trees, and/or a glint, in a location that is not too close to the fortressor to the spa, or the road, or to any place that would not be a likely location of a hidden monastery.” She continued, “Only one photo has all three—palms, a glint, and a likely location.”
    Mercado suggested, “But we may have our criteria wrong.”
    “In fact,” said Purcell, “we may have talked ourselves into palms and glints, so we need to look at the photos with a fresh eye in the morning.”
    Mercado informed them, “I need to go to work tomorrow to justify our existence here.”
    Purcell reminded him, “You’re on the payroll. The rest of us are working for room and board.”
    They discussed photo analysis for a while, and their next recon flight over the area.
    Purcell looked at Vivian, then at Mercado. There had definitely been a new spring in Henry’s step since that morning. But interestingly, Vivian seemed the same. In fact, at breakfast on the morning of his flight with Signore Bocaccio, which would have been soon after Vivian had sex with Henry, she had seemed herself—as though she’d put the encounter in a file drawer and forgot about it.
    And then she’d invited Purcell to have sex with her.
    It was possible, however, that nothing of a penetrating nature had happened. He was certain he would not have been happy to see what did happen in Henry’s bedroom, but it might have fallen short of a legal definition of cheating on your boyfriend.
    Henry, however, seemed to be happy with whatever had happened, even if the object of his affection didn’t seem so moved by the experience.
    He looked again at Vivian, who was chatting happily with her old friend.
    In Vivian’s mind, all was now right with her world, and they could
all
be friends, and continue with their mission here, which to Vivian was far more important than two horny men. No doubt she loved Frank Purcell, and he loved her, so now he had to decide what to do about what she had done.
    Two waiters appeared with a wine bucket, fluted glasses, and a bottle of Moët & Chandon, which one of them displayed to Mercado.He pronounced the year
magnifique
, and told his companions, “This is on the newspaper.”
    Purcell suggested, “Tell them you entertained a member of the Derg.”
    “I always do.”
    The headwaiter popped the cork, which caused some heads to turn, then filled the flutes.
    Henry held up his glass and proposed, “To us, and to Sir Edmund, and to our journey.”
    They drank and Vivian said, “Ooh. I love it.”
    Mercado suggested, “We will take a bottle with us on the road, and pop it when we see the black monastery in the jungle.”
    Purcell warned him, “That might be the last alcohol you ever see.”
    “Nonsense. The monks drink wine.”
    They finished their glasses and Mercado refilled them.
    Purcell said, “Okay, one more flight to Gondar, and on the way we will check out whatever we’ve circled on the photographs. With any luck, we will be able to narrow the circles down to a few, or we will see something else that may be of interest. In any case, we will land in Gondar and go to the Goha Hotel. We’ll shop for provisions without attracting too much attention, then we will spend the night, then get in the Land Rover with the driver and security man, and tell them we are hiking. We’ll get dropped off near the spa, tell the driver to meet us there in six hours, and we are off on our quest. First stop is Shoan.”
    Mercado and Vivian processed all that, and Mercado said, “I think we should go first to the places in the photographs that are possibly what we’re looking for.”
    “I don’t want to traipse around the jungle for a week or two.” He reminded Mercado, “That is rough country, old man, and I don’t just mean the terrain. We want to minimize the walking, and not use up our provisions.”
    Mercado replied, “I’ve done this sort of thing before, Frank.”
    “Good. Then you agree.” He continued, “The Falashas may be more helpful than those photographs.”
    “They may be the opposite of helpful—or they may all be gone.”
    Vivian said, “Our first objective should be the spa.” She reminded them, “We said we’d bring back