Free Egypt by Nick Drake Page A

twitching of the thin blue veins in the wrinkled skin around his beady eyes.
    â€˜That kind of talk will cost you more than you know,’ he said, staring coldly at me.
    â€˜I’ve nothing left to lose,’ I added. ‘What is it about me that alarms you so badly that you’ve spent the last years stripping me of everything that’s rightfully mine?’
    â€˜It’s because you think you’re so fucking special, Rahotep. You seem to think you operate by some code of honour that exalts you far above the rest of us. But you know something? You’re not special. Your honour’s a sham. You’re a failure. I didn’t have to do anything. I just had to watch you turn your own career into a joke. I’ve enjoyed the spectacle. But now I’m bored with you; and when you start making accusations against me, then that’s the day you’ve gone too far,’ Nebamun snarled.
    â€˜Just try me,’ I said deliberately.
    He raised his stubby finger at me.
    â€˜You think you’ve still got it, don’t you? The truth is, no one cares. You’re on your own. Some partner you must have been; you’ve been doing nothing, and yet here he was doing the real work, and he ends up like this?’ And he jerked his head back at Khety’s remains.
    I only realized what I’d done when he staggered backwards, dabbing at the blood on his lip. The other officers trotted over, stupid as goats, exclaiming at my crazy action. Nebamun waved them away, but I saw to my intense satisfaction he was furious.
    â€˜Hitting a superior officer is grounds for immediate dismissal. So don’t bother coming back to headquarters now, or ever. Just fuck off !’
    He turned away, and then, as an afterthought, called back.
    â€˜Oh, I forgot. There is one last thing you can do. Tell Khety’s wife .’ And he laughed.

9
    When Kiya saw me standing there, her smile instantly died. She half-closed the door, murmuring, ‘No no no no no,’ over and over. When she stopped, I stood listening to the terrible silence on the other side of the door. I called her name quietly.
    â€˜I can’t let you in. If I let you in, it’ll be true,’ she said, eventually. ‘Please go away.’
    â€˜I can’t. I’ll wait here until you’re ready,’ I replied, through the door.
    As I stood there, waiting quietly, the people going about their daily business in the street seemed small and irrelevant. How little they knew, I thought, of the darkness of death behind and beneath and inside everything in their lives. How little they understood their own mortality, as they went unknowingly through each day in the enchantment of new clothes, and appetites fulfilled, and amusing love affairs. They had forgotten that at any moment all we hold dear, all we take for granted, all we cherish and prize, can be torn away from us.
    Eventually, the door opened silently. I sat with Kiya in the small room at the front of the house. Khety and I had rarely socialized together; and although I knew where he lived, I had never visited him at home. Now I saw this other side of his life: the ornaments and trinkets, the little divine statuettes, the average-quality furniture, the efforts to make the place look better than it was. A pair of his house sandals waited by the door for his return.
    I told Kiya the simple facts. I heard myself swearing and promising I would track down Khety’s killer, and bring him to justice. But the words were meaningless to her. She just stared right through me. Nothing I could do would redeem what had been lost, for ever.
    Suddenly her focus seemed to swim up from the black depths of despair.
    â€˜You were his best friend. He was never as happy as when he was working with you.’
    I had to turn my face away. Outside, the noises of the street continued. Somewhere a girl was singing lightly, casually, a phrase of a love song.
    â€˜I have to ask you