The Quest: A Novel

you will.” She also assured them, “Edmund will be your guide in the jungle. Please be his guide in the ways of God.”
    Henry and Vivian said they would.
    They left Colonel Gann to say his own good-bye to his lady, and they went through a back door and into a flower garden.
    They had as much food with them as they could carry, which consisted mostly of boiled eggs, bread, dates, and dried meat, all of which Gann assured them was high in nutrition, and would last a week. They each carried two canteens; one of water, one of the purple juice, which Purcell had come to enjoy. Henry had his Moët, of course, and Vivian had her camera. Purcell was in charge of the maps.
    Colonel Gann came out into the garden, and it was obvious that his parting had been difficult. Purcell had never known that feelinghimself, or if he had, the sense of loss was always made easier by a larger sense of relief.
    Purcell looked at Vivian in the dawn light and saw she was looking at him, and probably thinking the same thing: How will we part? Hopefully, as friends.
    Colonel Gann gave everyone a five-minute lesson on the Uzi, which indeed was a simple weapon to load and fire. Gann then led them through a fruit orchard and across a pasture toward the thick rain forest that surrounded the fields and village of Shoan.
    He knew his way, and within fifteen minutes he’d found the head of a trail that none of them could have found, even in full sunlight. They entered the rain forest, going from human habitation to a world of flora and fauna that had barely been disturbed since the beginning of time.
    The trail was narrow, and the jungle growth encroached on all sides. They walked silently, single file, and crouched most of the way. Gann had a machete with him, but he didn’t want to use it and leave evidence that the trail had been traveled.
    Their first stop, after about ten minutes, was a huge gnarled tree that was mostly dead, and which Gann said was a baobab. A few paces from the tree was the shortwave radio, wrapped in plastic and covered with palm fronds.
    Gann had hoped that the Royalist partisans had delivered new batteries, but the radio was still dead.
    He said in a whisper, “This trail will take us to the spa. The road would be faster, but we’re more likely to come upon someone on the road—a vehicle, an army patrol, or Gallas on horseback.” He also told them, “I know some of these trails, but so do others. We need to remain silent, and we need to listen to the jungle. I will take the point, and Mr. Purcell will take the rear. If anyone hears anything, you will quickly and silently alert everyone, and point to where you’ve heard the sound. We will then take cover off the trail.” He asked, “Any questions?”
    “Can I smoke?”
    “No.”
    They continued on, and the trail became more overgrown. They were heading generally north, paralleling the narrow road that they had driven in September. Purcell hadn’t much enjoyed driving thecreepy road through the dark jungle, and he wasn’t enjoying walking through that jungle now.
    The ribbon of sky above the narrow trail was getting lighter, and somewhere out there, the sun was shining.
    Vivian was walking ahead of Purcell, and now and then she glanced back and gave him a smile, which he returned. It was hard to stay angry when each step could be your last, and when you were just hours or days away from the greatest religious discovery since Moses found the Ten Commandments—which, as it turned out, were in Axum, inside the Ark of the Covenant.
    Purcell still didn’t believe in any of this, but he would be happy to be proven wrong.
    After about an hour, Gann stopped and motioned everyone to the right side of the trail where an outcropping of black obsidian lay among the ground growth between towering trees. They sat on the rock and took a break. Gann and Purcell looked at one of the maps and estimated where they were. Gann said quietly, “The spa will be another two or three hours.”
    They both studied the map and agreed that their next objective after the spa would be Prince Theodore’s fortress, which was about five or six kilometers east of the spa.
    Gann said, “The map does not show a trail between the fortress and the spa, and if we can’t find one on the ground, and if there is thick underbrush between the trees, as there is here, we will have to cut a trail.” He informed them, “That could take more than a day to travel that five kilometers.”
    Vivian