I wonder what happened to the ring? Will pushed the thoughts out of her mind. She could feel her thoughts getting slow and sluggish. Maybe she would just lie down for a few minutes before lunch.

Part 3

The woman called Cheops Malone had taken her and her brother to the street market. At first, Amand was afraid that she would leave them as indentured labour with some merchant. To her surprise and delight, the blond woman bought them beautiful clothes instead. Each of them got four outfits, two Egyptian and two European. Amand had been very proud of and impressed with Cheops Malone. She drove a hard bargain and got good prices for their clothes. She was known in the market place and people treated her with great respect and kindness. It made Amand and Zahi feel proud. No one had ever treated their parents with such honour.

Here too, she had learned from a shop keeper, while Cheops was busy picking out clothes for Zahi, that the woman limped because she had an artificial foot. Her real foot had been cut off, the shopkeeper had said, during the terrorist attack at Deir el-Bahari. Perhaps that was why the blond woman was helping them; maybe she had known their parents.

"Why are you being so kind?" Amand had asked at Zahi's insistence.

"Will Kyrtsakas wishes that you have these things. We will see that you are found a good home and that you get the chance to go to school," explained Cheops.

"Will Kyrtsakas and you are very kind. My brother and I pray for you and thank you a thousand times. Always we will be grateful."

Cheops smiled and gave the serious child a quick hug. "Don't you worry, sweetheart, everything will be fine. I'm going to see to that."

Back on the boat the two excited children waited impatiently for Will to wake to thank her for her kindness and show off what Cheops had bought them. Amand explained at great length, to the puzzled soldier, the pride she had for Cheops. Will turned to Cheops for an explanation, realizing by the girl's gestures that she was talking about the archaeologist.

Cheops blushed. "She wants you to know that I drive a hard bargain and that many people know me in the market."

Will's eyes traveled over the small, blond woman. dressed in the green gallabeeya. "Tell her that I have seen you bargain."

But before Cheops could translate, Amand responded. "She is good so much. But you send her. I thank you. My brother thank you."

Will smiled and stroked Zahi's hair as he stood close to the tall woman's leg. "You and your brother are very welcome, Amand.

Cheops supervised the two children changing into their new clothes. Then once again as a family, they left their cabins to meet the group for the afternoon tour. The others were delighted with the two clean and well dressed children who now waited quietly behind Will's tall legs. Cheops saw Will reach down with pride and rub each dark head reassuringly and a lump formed in her throat. Oh Will, no, don't get attached to these children, she prayed.

With a smile, she didn't feel, Cheops led her small group down the gang plank and up the worn stone stairs of the embankment to the waiting bus. Much to Cheops' surprise Will came up beside her and took her elbow, steadying her as she laboriously lifted her artificial foot up each step. She hesitated and looked up at Will. "You said as a family," the soldier explained coldly and Cheops, nodded not sure at all about what was going on in Will's head.

The tour group followed Cheops through the courts and ruined temples of Karnak with their mouths open in wonder. Fields of pillars towered over their heads. The bases of the columns alone were as tall as Cheops. The cross lintels of these massive structures were mounted on smaller blocks at the top of the column giving the feeling that the ceiling was floating. The underside of these huge, stone beams, protected from wind and sun, still had the remains of colourful, mysterious murals. They were ghostly images of the activities of this lost civilization.

The delicate hieroglyphics were like musical scores, as they flowed in rhythmic patterns across walls and columns. Cheops showed them the vast sacred pool, the inner temple with its sacrificial alter, and the hidden obelisks. Then, she gave them some free time to wander.

Will had followed, with the children, keeping to the family role with grim determination. She listened intently to what Cheops said and amused the children with hide and seek games or pointed out interesting scenes of animals in the frescoes.

Cheops watched her group dissipate then turned to Will. "You want to let the children run a bit behind the temple?"

Will nodded her head. "Good idea, Malone. They've been good. Let them burn off some energy."

Cheops pulled a small rubber ball, that she had picked up at the market that day, from her knapsack and gave it to the delighted children. In Egyptian, she gave them instructions about where to play safely. Amand smiled happily, took her little brother's hand and led him over to the edge of the huge archaeological site to play.

Cheops took Will by the arm and led her through the nearby rubble to show her the ruins of the harem. Will found herself wrapping an arm around Cheops to help her along. On flat surfaces, Cheops' limp was barely noticeable but on uneven terrain she had great difficulty. Will wondered how she managed on archaeological sites.

"Do you see the beauty of these walls, Will? Isn't it amazing?!" enthused Cheops, her eyes dancing with delight.

Will smiled despite herself. Cheops was beautiful. Her hair was golden firelight in the sun and her cute face was lit with animation. The woman still has the power to excite me to the core of my being, Will acknowledged to herself. The smile faded. She'd have to be careful not to let Cheops use her desire to try to seduce her from her mission.

"You know what they found here, Will? Hundreds of covers of poetry books. They had titles like, 'To My True Love', or 'To My Absent Love'. But only one small phrase survived of the pages inside. One small glimpse of the beautiful souls of those ancient people."

"What was the fragment?" asked Will softly, pulling Cheops into the shadows well away from prying eyes.

Cheops ran her hands up Will's chest, only stopping when her hands lay softly on the tall woman's shoulders. "For I have loved you, as the strong, river wind embraces the fragile reed," Cheops coached.

Will leaned down, hesitated and then whispered, "For I have loved you, Malone, as the strong river wind embraces the fragile reed." They kissed, Will pushing Cheops against the wall in her hunger. Cheops raised her chin and exposed her soft neck to Will's kisses.

"You don't want to kill me, Will. You still can love. Please try to find that warm spot inside your soul. Give up the hate before you do something that you will regret for the rest of your life."

Will stopped; her arms dropped away from Cheops' body. She stood looking down at the small archaeologist, who was half lost in shadows. There was confusion in Will's eyes for a second, then they hardened in determination. "Desire is not love. You killed our children," she growled and then stormed off.

Cheops watched her go, anger ripping across her own face. Why should she bother trying to save Will's soul? She owed this woman nothing! Tonight, she should have an e-mail waiting for her at her apartment, and if she was advised to hand Will over to the authorities, that was exactly what she was going to do before she hurt either her or the children.

"Amand, Zahi, it is time to go," she called out in Egyptian. Then she waited for the children to run over so that they could help her keep her balance on the rough terrain.

Amand looked with worried eyes at the beautiful blond woman and then off in the distance to where the strange dark woman stood in the shadows of a temple. They did not seem to like each other and yet they did everything together. It did not make sense. She and Zahi had talked, and they did not understand why the two women were helping them or what they wanted to do with them. Part of her was very grateful but the other part was very afraid. Were they going to be made slaves? She looked at the blue and red ball with the band of white that Zahi held tightly in his hand. For a while, they could be happy. This was good. But she had learned in her short but hard life, that every kindness had a price.

The day had gone well and the group chatted happily over dinner. Even the Scotts were more sociable than usual. Cheops had arranged that evening that she would take them back to Karnak to see the Sound and Light show. As the show was a guided walk through the site, Cheops wasn't needed once she had got their tickets and shown them where to meet the bus for the ride home. She had got her group organized, she said her good nights and used the opportunity of a free evening to slip back to her apartment. These tours helped meet the expenses but Cheops was an archaeologist first and she was anxious to learn about her dig, now tantalizingly close just the other side of the river.

The encounter with Will, that afternoon, had left her feeling bitter and short tempered. It was hard to have to live with the memories of Deir el-Bahari and with the losses. So many losses; her daughter, Will's son, her lower leg and Will's love. Too many loses for one person to absorb with out very deep wounds and Will insisted on rubbing salt into them.

Now there was the extra worry of the children. Will had to be using them. She knew Will, knew how focused she was when she was on an assignment. The woman would have worked out her plot in detail, how, when, where and she would have escape plans too. It was unlikely that the children were an impulse decision. They had to have a part in Will's plans, but how?

Cheops walked up the dusty street greeting those she knew along the way. She wore a galabeeya, the long, hooded robe of the Arab nations. This was Cheops' eastern world. The other side of her existence. Cheops had been born in Egypt of British parents and enjoyed the privilege of dual citizenship. Having spent so much of her life in sites along the Nile, and at her parent's small home in Giza, she was just as Egyptian as she was English in her outlook. Will too had been the child of two cultures.

That summer, they had rented a sailboat and taken the children fishing down the Nile. Will had cleaned the fish they had caught, and Cheops had cooked them on a small charcoal brazier. In the afternoon, the two children had cooled off with a swim, while the adults watched on.

"How did you come by your Greek name?" Cheops had asked, absently stroking Will's hand, that rested near her own, with a finger tip.

"My father was a Greek resistance fighter and my mother was an English WAC stationed in liberated Greece at the end of the war. My father always said that Hitler he could resist, but mom, he couldn't! It was love at first sight, so they told me."

Cheops had gathered her courage and responded softly, "I know that feeling."

Those sky-blue eyes had turned to her. "Yes, so do I. I love you Cheops," Will had responded giving Cheops far more than she had expected.

Cheops had smiled broadly. Her green eyes sparkling like emeralds. "I love you too, Will."

Cheops shook the memory from her thoughts as she entered the government owned apartment building and took the elevator up to the sixth floor. The apartment she entered was basic. It was, officially, the apartment given to the chief archaeologist working at site KV5. The walls were cinder block and there were only three rooms; basic bathroom, a small bedroom, and the main room which was used for storage and research. Three make shift tables filled the space. Two were loaded down with the trappings of an archaeology lab, the other was Cheops' computer station.

Cheops didn't bother turning on a light. She walked over, and taking a seat, she clicked her computer on and waited for it to load. Then she went to her e-mail, clicking on the Leeds' response.