Free Shooting the Sphinx by Avram Noble Ludwig

comprehension, beyond his limited ability to trust his own senses at that moment. But the box was still on the back of the truck. The police noticed Ari. He drifted toward them, some kind of objection stirring in his throat. They banged on the cab of the truck and hopped up onto the running boards. The driver started the engine and pulled away.
    Ari stood and watched the blue box police truck as it drove its catch of the day all along the road around the Necropolis past the Mena House hotel.

 
    Chapter 15
    Back in his hotel room, Ari immediately Skyped Beth. Staring at his computer, he watched as it rang and rang. He knew he was waking her up. A dim image popped on the screen. Her hand, her face, her white breasts and tousled hair, and beyond, lying next to her, Ari could see the naked fat belly of Beth’s husband, Glenn.
    â€œHoney?” mumbled Glenn. “What the hell?”
    â€œI’ve got a unit in Cairo,” said Beth. She rubbed her eyes. “Must be something wrong. Go back to sleep, Glenn.”
    Then she noticed her husband’s nakedness on the screen. Wincing, she hit a button. Her image and Glenn’s disappeared. Ari could hear the thumping slap of her feet on the floor as she carried her computer through to some distant corner of her home. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, thought Ari. What a mistake. I should never have called her this early. You idiot! he berated himself.
    â€œWhat is it, Ari? What’s the matter?”
    â€œNothing.” Ari couldn’t even picture her face. He was stuck with the latent image of Glenn’s fat white belly.
    â€œDid you get the cash from Charley and Don?” Beth guessed at a potential problem.
    â€œYes, yes, thank you, I did.”
    â€œDid you get your SpaceCam?”
    This was what Ari knew he had to tell her, but not yet. “Darling, please, could you turn on your camera?”
    â€œKeep it professional, Ari.” She was very tense. “This thing’s on speaker. I’ll take that as a no. No SpaceCam.”
    â€œNot yet.”
    â€œWhat’s your plan B?”
    Ari bristled. “I get the shot.”
    â€œBut if you don’t?”
    â€œI get the shot.” Ari repeated the words slower, forcefully, deliberately.
    â€œI told the studio, Ari.”
    Now he was shaken. “When?”
    â€œYesterday, after we spoke.”
    â€œBut why?”
    â€œAri.”
    â€œI thought we had agreed not to tell them until … this morning? Today, morning your time?”
    â€œBad news is radioactive. Best to get rid of it before it rubs off on you.”
    â€œOn you, you mean.” Ari’s ire rose. “So I can’t trust you? My own—”
    â€œAri, please!”
    What was he going to say? Girlfriend, lover, boss? He didn’t even know. She had been naked. Glenn had been naked. The thought revolted him. “Throwing me under the bus like that?”
    Beth turned on her webcam. They could see each other again. She had tossed on a thin silk kimono that was not entirely closed. “They’re not stupid, Ari. If you had waited until today, they would have figured out you were sitting on information. I did you a favor.”
    â€œAre they worried?” asked Ari.
    â€œNot yet, but we’re paying Charley and Don two grand a day to take a vacation?”
    â€œI asked the guys to cut their rate when we don’t fly.”
    â€œThank you.” She softened.
    â€œIn half.”
    â€œVery nice.” She seemed pleased and leaned back; her kimono fell open. She didn’t adjust it. “Did you really ride a camel?”
    â€œTomorrow. Open your e-mail. When would I have had time to do that?” He was hostile, offended. He never thought of Glenn, as if he didn’t exist. On other nights Ari knew how to keep the boundaries that would never intersect with married life.
    â€œHow’s the food over there?” she asked, another question to keep