The Cairo Codex Read Online Free Page B

ancient Renault. “Today it could take a couple of hours to get downtown. Five million more people since you were here last, and I swear, they all have a car!” She handed Justine a bottle of warm Evian.
    Justine couldn’t help smiling at Nadia’s capacity to be tolerant and exasperated at the same time. “Where does the British accent come from?” she asked.
    “I attended a British school as a child. Even though the revolution was ten years old, my mother insisted: ‘You can never tell when those British colonists will come back and reclaim our land. Be prepared.’ That was 1962.”
    “Prepare for all eventualities. Sounds like my parents, although each of them had their own notions of preparedness. My father is American and my mother’s Egyptian. Turned out to be an unworkable combination.”
    “Your parents are celebrities of a sort here. Your father’s digs are as notorious as your mother’s beauty.” Nadia stopped at a booth to pay the airport fee, then jammed the Renault into gear, causing it to lurch forward.
    Justine reached down for a seat belt that wasn’t there. “Notorious? That sounds romantic, but a bit ominous.”
    “Well, some of your father’s discoveries have been controversial—like the dig at Darshur. I understand that a few questions remain within the Ministry of Antiquities and among the expats. I believe I was working with the Education Ministry at the time.” Nadia paid close attention to the traffic, her head swiveling back and forth, as she turned out of the airport and onto Sharia Al Uruba Boulevard, a street lined with symmetrical, towering palms.
    “What have you heard? About Darshur.” Justine leaned forward and reached back to pull her damp silk blouse loose from her skin. Suburban Cairo gave way to the City of the Sun, Heliopolis. Polished chrome storefronts housed glitzy shoe stores and boutiques facing east toward giant hotels.
    “I really don’t know the details, but it’s rumored that the Darshur find may have challenged exactly how the biblical exodus happened. As you can imagine, anti-Semitism is still strong enough here that some people savor any suggestion of fraud around the Jews’ favorite story. It raised quite a row for a while.”
    “Dad told me the evidence wasn’t strong enough to claim validity. He likes to make sure everything is on the up-and-up. Personally, I think it’s a non-story.”
    Nadia tilted her head slightly and pursed her thin lips. Justine couldn’t tell whether she believed her or not. She suspected not. “And my mother? What made her notorious?”
    “Her beauty. Her flamboyance. Her ability to gather fascinating people around her. Your mother’s parties attracted royalty and important government officials. I gather that your father would have preferred to stay out of the limelight.”
    “Sounds like Dad. He doesn’t like to mix business and pleasure. And he doesn’t consider himself socially suave—but I think he’s wrong there. Women seem to find him dashing. But how could you possibly know so much about my parents?”
    “Cairo’s a small town. Nearly eighteen million souls and yet we all know each other’s business, especially English-speaking professionals. Sort of a class by ourselves, huddling together for reassurance and inspiration and gossip. We love gossip.” Nadia was still grinning when her cell phone rang. “Okay.
Shukran
. This afternoon across from the Shepheard.” She hung up and slipped the phone back into her skirt pocket.
    Justine was mulling over Nadia’s notions about her parents and Cairo culture when she noticed the Baron’s Palace set back a few hundred yards from the street. “I vividly remember the night of the ambassador’s ball at that palace,” she said, pointing toward the ornate, Gaudí-like building. “I was only ten, but they let me tag along in my long blue dress. I was awestruck. But now you can hardly make out the elaborate exterior of Buddhas, elephants. Serpents too, I