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"Only a message at the front desk asking me to have dinner with him this evening."
"And you still think he was just a passing good Samaritan," Yerli persisted.
Eva ignored him and looked at Hopper. "Pitt told me he was in Egypt for an archaeological survey of the Nile River for the National Underwater and Marine Agency. I have little reason to doubt him."
Hopper turned to Yerli. "That should be easy enough to check out."
Yerli nodded. "I'll call a friend who's a marine biologist with NUMA."
"The question is still why?" muttered Hopper almost absently.
Yerli shrugged. "If Eva's attempted murder was a conspiracy, it may well have been part of a plot to instill fear and force us to cancel our mission."
"Yes, but we have five separate research teams of six members each heading for the southern desert. They'll be spread across five nations from Sudan to Mauritania. No one forced us on them. Their governments asked the United Nations for help in finding an answer to the strange sickness sweeping their lands. We are invited guests, certainly not unwanted enemies."
Yerli stared at Hopper. "You're forgetting, Frank. There was one government who wanted no part of us."
Hopper nodded grimly. "You're right. I overlooked President Tahir of Mali. He was very reluctant to allow us inside his borders."
"More likely General Kazim," said Yerli. "Tahir is a puppet head of state. Zateb Kazim is the true power behind the Malian government."
"What's he got against harmless biologists trying to save lives?" asked Eva.
Yerli turned up his palms. "We may never know."
"It does seem a timely coincidence," said Hopper softly, "that people, especially Europeans, have been vanishing with some regularity in the great emptiness of northern Mali during the past year."
"Like the tourist safari that's making the headlines," said Eva.
"Their whereabouts and fate are still a mystery," added Yerli quietly.
"I can't believe there's a connection between that tragedy and Eva's attack," said Hopper.
"But if we assume that General Kazim is the villain in Eva's case, it would stand to reason his spies ferreted out the yet that she was a member of the Malian biological studies gram. With that knowledge in hand, he ordered her assassination as a warning for the rest of us to stay clear of his camel park."
Eva laughed. "With your fertile imagination, Ismail, you'd make a great Hollywood screenwriter."
Yerli's thick eyebrows pinched together. "I think we should play safe and keep the Mali team in Cairo until this matter can be fully investigated and resolved."
"You're overreacting," Hopper said to Yerli. "How do you vote, Eva? Cancel the mission or go?"
"I'll risk it," said Eva. "But I can't speak for the other team members."
Hopper stared at the floor, nodding his head. "Then we'll ask for volunteers. I won't cancel the Mali mission, not with hundreds, maybe thousands, of people dying out there from something nobody can explain. I'll lead the team myself."
"No, Frank!" snapped Eva. "What if the worst happens? You're too valuable to lose."
"It's our duty to report this affair to the police before you run off half-cocked," Yerli persisted.
"Get serious, Ismail," said Hopper impatiently. "Go to the local police and they're liable to-hold us up and delay the entire mission. We could be bound in red tape for a month. I'll not walk into the clutches of Middle East bureaucracy."
"My contacts can cut the red tape," pleaded Yerli.
"No," Hopper said adamantly. "I want all teams on board our chartered aircraft and in the air toward their designated locations as scheduled."
"Then we're on for tomorrow morning," said Eva.
Hopper nodded. "No hang-ups, no rainchecks. We're going to put our show on the road first thing in the morning."
