Chapter 47
Russians
"My, but isn't the world of Archaeology a small one," the tall, Russian woman said through a pretentious, almost reptilian smile; pronouncing 'world' as 'vordld'.
"Apparently too small Yelena," Jones deadpanned and returned her leer with an affected grin of his own, and a shake of his head.
"May we join you?" Yelena Badonov asked with exaggerated politeness, but had in fact already sat down in one of the unoccupied chairs at Jones and Vadoma's table.
Yelena Badonov, former White Russian Countess, pseudo archaeologist, antiquities smuggler, Soviet agent? ...Jones wasn't too sure what she was at any particular time. He only knew that if history proved correct, she was bad news.
"Sit down Yuri!" The woman nearly shouted at her graying, balding, and scholarly looking companion. She shot him an intimidating glare for the briefest of moments from beneath the wide brim of her Bandino hat, before turning back to Jones and reassuming her saurian smile.
With a subtle, obsequious nod of his head, the Russian archaeologist Yuri Ivanovitch took a seat.
"Hello Yuri," Indiana Jones gave a nod to the man and then spoke up, "Look, we're trying to eat our breakfast here and..."
The woman ignored him as if he wasn't even speaking, and spoke right over his words of protest, "What a pleasant surprise it is to see you again Doctor Jones," she said, "and what a fortunate coincidence it is that you and I seem to have ended up on the same boat traveling up the Nile."
Indiana Jones paused as he considered the woman with a steely expression, then screwed up his face in a sardonic, wry half smile, "Gosh Yelena, the only reason you'd be surprised to see me is because you probably thought I was dead. If you'll recall, the last time you saw me was in that Icelandic fiord where your thugs left me tied up on the beach and waiting for the tide to come in."
"Oh my dear," the woman spoke with an insincere defensiveness, "you must understand, that was all such an unfortunate misunderstanding," then she leaned forward and her voice assumed a tone of righteous indignity which, like everything else about her rang hollow, "you'll be happy to know that I fired all of them after that whole business up there; the whole lot.....bad men they were....yes."
"You seem to have a habit of surrounding yourself with bad men Yelena." She leered even wider at him, "But Doctor Jones, I'm sitting here with you today," she glanced over at Vadoma, "you and your lovely companion."
Yelena ran her eyes up and down Vadoma, sizing her up as one would a piece of equipment, "I'll bet she sure takes the chill out of those cold desert nights," she said with insipid crassness.
Vadoma glared at her.
Indiana Jones rolled his eyes, "Look, like I said before we're trying to eat our breakfast and..."
Yelena once again ignored Jones, "So tell me, what brings you here to Egypt today?" She said, "Perhaps the same thing that brings the German archaeology team...and the others?"
In keeping with the rude interruption to their peaceful breakfast, the wind had seemed to change. It had picked up and now seemed to be blowing in off of the desert to the east, carrying a fine, gritty sand that Indiana Jones could actually feel grinding between his teeth. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could utter a word, Yelena continued.
"It seems that everyone is suddenly so interested in the same thing....these....Sun Tablets...no? ...The Germans, the British, and now the famous American archaeologist Doctor Henry...Indiana... Jones shows up. And all seem to be headed in the same direction. I find this very interesting."
Indiana Jones sat silently for a long moment, and then said, "Well what is it you want me to say Yelena, it seems like you already know everything there is to know anyway."
She leered widely again, displaying cigarette stained teeth beneath the garish red of her lipstick which crept up between the cracks in her wrinkled flesh like water flowing up a dry riverbed, "We Russians, we have our ways don't we."
"I didn't think Premier Stalin cared much for archaeology," Jones said in a detached manner.
"He doesn't," Yelena said, "but you must understand that what interests Herr Hitler...interests Premier Stalin."
"I see," Jones said, continuing to feign disinterest, but wondering inwardly how much this potentially dangerous woman knew.
"...and what interests Premier Stalin...interests me," she added. "Oh come off it Yelena you're no Bolshevik. I happen to know that your own father was an officer in the Czar's Army."
"I am like a tree that bends with the wind Doctor Jones."
"Look, spare me the Zen," Jones said, "what do you know, and what is it you want from me?"
"Well now," the woman's cold eyes lit up, "why don't we start with the first. What do I know?" She paused for effect, and then continued on, "As I said, I know that the Germans are very interested in locating these Sun Tablets, as are the British, and now apparently yourself, it would seem. I know that the Germans have solicited...rather unwillingly...the aid of the noted British Egyptologist Lord Richard Malboury."
She chuckled coldly as she mentioned Malboury's plight.
"Go on," Jones said sternly.
Yelena smiled snake-like, and continued, "Well, it seems that everyone is searching rather madly for a certain scroll that is reputed to contain the instructions to locating the tomb in which these Sun Tablets reside. ...Perhaps, they think, this scroll is buried somewhere in the Temple of Isis? ...On Philae Island?"
Indiana Jones sat in silence. To be perfectly honest he had to admit that he was more than a little shocked at how much this Russian woman knew. But then even as she herself had asserted, the Russians seemed to 'have their ways'.
"Just how do you know so much?" Jones challenged.
"As I said before, We have our ways. We have "
"So what do you want from me?" He demanded.
Yelena paused and made a failed attempt at coyness, a tactic which bordered on the grotesque with the cold hearted, wrinkled, old crone.
"Some answers," she said.
Jones sat silently.
"I've gotten some rather strange reports about you Doctor Jones," Yelena continued, "It seems you've gotten around quite a bit lately."
"I don't know what you are talking about," Jones said nonchalantly. "Well," she leered sardonically, "apparently you made quite a ...splash....in Germany recently. Tsk, tsk, tsk," she clucked her tongue and shook her head as if scolding him, "the SS is not very pleased."
"The SS can go to Hell," Jones said with steely disdain.
"Yes, and apparently you personally made the travel arrangements for several of them recently," Yelena said with grim humor.
Indiana Jones just stared blankly at her.
"But actually I'm far more curious about your recent activities in Italy. I'm very curious to know what you were doing poking around in the ruins of Pompeii."
"I haven't been to Italy in years," Jones said to her, "I don't know what you're talking about; must have been somebody else."
Yelena gave a mirthless chuckle, "Oh but I think it was you Doctor Jones. I find it very interesting that you were digging in the ruins of Pompeii only just a few days ago, and yet today I find you headed up the Nile; perhaps to join up with your British colleagues?" She raised her eyebrows for a moment, "But wait, I almost forgot, the British think that you're working ....for the Nazis, don't they? How truly puzzling."
Jones couldn't help feeling a bit unnerved by the old woman's knowledge of events.
"But what really intrigues me...." Yelena paused for a long moment.
"What?" Indiana Jones finally said, becoming increasingly annoyed with the woman.
"Yes, what really intrigues me is just what exactly that document is that you were studying so intently just a little while ago....the one now tucked underneath your shirt?"
A bead of sweat formed on Indiana Jones' forehead. He'd been incautious, and now he regretted it.
"Once again Yelena, I have no idea what in the Hell you're talking about," he said, "and we'd really like to finish our breakfast. It's been ...interesting talking with you but ...."
"Before you dismiss me so impolitely perhaps you should consider the fact that Yuri and I," she motioned with her head towards her mostly silent companion, "could be of great assistance to you."
"What could I possibly need from you?" Jones asked incredulously.
"As I said, I have I may not know the whole game that you are playing, but I do know that the British want to obtain the release of Richard Malboury...without causing an international incident."
"If there's an international incident it's the Nazis who've caused it. They can't just go around kidnapping eminent scientists and get away with it." Jones said sternly.
Yelena waved her hand dismissively, "Oh really Doctor Jones, don't be so naïve. If any of this ever comes to light you know that the Nazis will just call him a defector to their cause, and then he will conveniently meet his end in some kind of unfortunate....accident."
"Sounds like they're taking lessons from the Russians," Jones quipped.
Yelena threw him a cold look and ignored the comment before speaking again, "I can act as a go-between," she said, "I can help to negotiate the safe release of Malboury."
Jones silently considered the offer, though he strived hard not to betray any interest with his eyes. While he was loath to deal with the woman, he nonetheless wouldn't want to discount anything that might assist with the satisfactory conclusion to the whole business.
"Not that I have any interest, but I'm just curious, what would be in it for you?" Jones asked her.
"Money," she answered without hesitation.
"How much?"
"Enough to make it worth my trouble," she said, and then added, "and I want to know what it was that you dug out of the ruins of Pompeii....what you have beneath your shirt."
The woman's seemingly inhuman intuitiveness gave Jones a chill.
"Like I told you Yelena, I haven't been to Italy in years, and...."
"Yuri and I have been discussing it," Yelena once again interrupted him.
"It doesn't seem like Yuri discusses too much," Jones said.
Yuri looked away while Yelena ignored Jones' comment and kept talking, "Is it possible that this missing scroll, the one that everyone is searching so madly for, has indeed been already found?" She stared directly into Indiana Jones' eyes, "Are you sure Doctor Jones that you don't have something you'd like to show to me and Yuri?"
"Look," Jones said, "the only thing I want to show you and...Yuri right now is the door."
The Russian woman, her archaeologist companion, and then even Jones himself all searched around the outdoor deck for a moment in slight confusion before Jones cleared his throat and spoke again, slightly embarrassed.
"Er, if there was a door, I'd...show... Listen, we just want to finish our breakfast in peace. OK, I'll keep your offer in mind. I have no use for it, but maybe someone I know will."
Yelena and Yuri stood up, "You will come to me. You will need me," the Russian woman said with conviction, "until then, let us enjoy our trip up this magnificent river to the splendid wonders of the New Kingdom, no?....da svyidanya."
"Da svyidanya," Jones waved his hand disparagingly at the pair of Russians as they walked away.
"Indy I don't like her," Vadoma said, "who is she?"
"She's trouble," Jones answered simply, "but forget her, come on, let's go down to the after deck and get some sun."
As Jones and Vadoma got up and departed from the dining deck neither took notice of the two burly men who, as before, carefully studied the movements of the archaeologist and the gypsy woman. If they had, they'd have taken note of the cold, heartless eyes that stared out from beneath the brims of hats pulled low; eyes of men not unaccustomed to killing. And they may have even noticed the bulge of concealed weapons beneath each of the mens' close fitting suits.
Russians
"My, but isn't the world of Archaeology a small one," the tall, Russian woman said through a pretentious, almost reptilian smile; pronouncing 'world' as 'vordld'.
"Apparently too small Yelena," Jones deadpanned and returned her leer with an affected grin of his own, and a shake of his head.
"May we join you?" Yelena Badonov asked with exaggerated politeness, but had in fact already sat down in one of the unoccupied chairs at Jones and Vadoma's table.
Yelena Badonov, former White Russian Countess, pseudo archaeologist, antiquities smuggler, Soviet agent? ...Jones wasn't too sure what she was at any particular time. He only knew that if history proved correct, she was bad news.
"Sit down Yuri!" The woman nearly shouted at her graying, balding, and scholarly looking companion. She shot him an intimidating glare for the briefest of moments from beneath the wide brim of her Bandino hat, before turning back to Jones and reassuming her saurian smile.
With a subtle, obsequious nod of his head, the Russian archaeologist Yuri Ivanovitch took a seat.
"Hello Yuri," Indiana Jones gave a nod to the man and then spoke up, "Look, we're trying to eat our breakfast here and..."
The woman ignored him as if he wasn't even speaking, and spoke right over his words of protest, "What a pleasant surprise it is to see you again Doctor Jones," she said, "and what a fortunate coincidence it is that you and I seem to have ended up on the same boat traveling up the Nile."
Indiana Jones paused as he considered the woman with a steely expression, then screwed up his face in a sardonic, wry half smile, "Gosh Yelena, the only reason you'd be surprised to see me is because you probably thought I was dead. If you'll recall, the last time you saw me was in that Icelandic fiord where your thugs left me tied up on the beach and waiting for the tide to come in."
"Oh my dear," the woman spoke with an insincere defensiveness, "you must understand, that was all such an unfortunate misunderstanding," then she leaned forward and her voice assumed a tone of righteous indignity which, like everything else about her rang hollow, "you'll be happy to know that I fired all of them after that whole business up there; the whole lot.....bad men they were....yes."
"You seem to have a habit of surrounding yourself with bad men Yelena." She leered even wider at him, "But Doctor Jones, I'm sitting here with you today," she glanced over at Vadoma, "you and your lovely companion."
Yelena ran her eyes up and down Vadoma, sizing her up as one would a piece of equipment, "I'll bet she sure takes the chill out of those cold desert nights," she said with insipid crassness.
Vadoma glared at her.
Indiana Jones rolled his eyes, "Look, like I said before we're trying to eat our breakfast and..."
Yelena once again ignored Jones, "So tell me, what brings you here to Egypt today?" She said, "Perhaps the same thing that brings the German archaeology team...and the others?"
In keeping with the rude interruption to their peaceful breakfast, the wind had seemed to change. It had picked up and now seemed to be blowing in off of the desert to the east, carrying a fine, gritty sand that Indiana Jones could actually feel grinding between his teeth. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could utter a word, Yelena continued.
"It seems that everyone is suddenly so interested in the same thing....these....Sun Tablets...no? ...The Germans, the British, and now the famous American archaeologist Doctor Henry...Indiana... Jones shows up. And all seem to be headed in the same direction. I find this very interesting."
Indiana Jones sat silently for a long moment, and then said, "Well what is it you want me to say Yelena, it seems like you already know everything there is to know anyway."
She leered widely again, displaying cigarette stained teeth beneath the garish red of her lipstick which crept up between the cracks in her wrinkled flesh like water flowing up a dry riverbed, "We Russians, we have our ways don't we."
"I didn't think Premier Stalin cared much for archaeology," Jones said in a detached manner.
"He doesn't," Yelena said, "but you must understand that what interests Herr Hitler...interests Premier Stalin."
"I see," Jones said, continuing to feign disinterest, but wondering inwardly how much this potentially dangerous woman knew.
"...and what interests Premier Stalin...interests me," she added. "Oh come off it Yelena you're no Bolshevik. I happen to know that your own father was an officer in the Czar's Army."
"I am like a tree that bends with the wind Doctor Jones."
"Look, spare me the Zen," Jones said, "what do you know, and what is it you want from me?"
"Well now," the woman's cold eyes lit up, "why don't we start with the first. What do I know?" She paused for effect, and then continued on, "As I said, I know that the Germans are very interested in locating these Sun Tablets, as are the British, and now apparently yourself, it would seem. I know that the Germans have solicited...rather unwillingly...the aid of the noted British Egyptologist Lord Richard Malboury."
She chuckled coldly as she mentioned Malboury's plight.
"Go on," Jones said sternly.
Yelena smiled snake-like, and continued, "Well, it seems that everyone is searching rather madly for a certain scroll that is reputed to contain the instructions to locating the tomb in which these Sun Tablets reside. ...Perhaps, they think, this scroll is buried somewhere in the Temple of Isis? ...On Philae Island?"
Indiana Jones sat in silence. To be perfectly honest he had to admit that he was more than a little shocked at how much this Russian woman knew. But then even as she herself had asserted, the Russians seemed to 'have their ways'.
"Just how do you know so much?" Jones challenged.
"As I said before, We have our ways. We have "
"So what do you want from me?" He demanded.
Yelena paused and made a failed attempt at coyness, a tactic which bordered on the grotesque with the cold hearted, wrinkled, old crone.
"Some answers," she said.
Jones sat silently.
"I've gotten some rather strange reports about you Doctor Jones," Yelena continued, "It seems you've gotten around quite a bit lately."
"I don't know what you are talking about," Jones said nonchalantly. "Well," she leered sardonically, "apparently you made quite a ...splash....in Germany recently. Tsk, tsk, tsk," she clucked her tongue and shook her head as if scolding him, "the SS is not very pleased."
"The SS can go to Hell," Jones said with steely disdain.
"Yes, and apparently you personally made the travel arrangements for several of them recently," Yelena said with grim humor.
Indiana Jones just stared blankly at her.
"But actually I'm far more curious about your recent activities in Italy. I'm very curious to know what you were doing poking around in the ruins of Pompeii."
"I haven't been to Italy in years," Jones said to her, "I don't know what you're talking about; must have been somebody else."
Yelena gave a mirthless chuckle, "Oh but I think it was you Doctor Jones. I find it very interesting that you were digging in the ruins of Pompeii only just a few days ago, and yet today I find you headed up the Nile; perhaps to join up with your British colleagues?" She raised her eyebrows for a moment, "But wait, I almost forgot, the British think that you're working ....for the Nazis, don't they? How truly puzzling."
Jones couldn't help feeling a bit unnerved by the old woman's knowledge of events.
"But what really intrigues me...." Yelena paused for a long moment.
"What?" Indiana Jones finally said, becoming increasingly annoyed with the woman.
"Yes, what really intrigues me is just what exactly that document is that you were studying so intently just a little while ago....the one now tucked underneath your shirt?"
A bead of sweat formed on Indiana Jones' forehead. He'd been incautious, and now he regretted it.
"Once again Yelena, I have no idea what in the Hell you're talking about," he said, "and we'd really like to finish our breakfast. It's been ...interesting talking with you but ...."
"Before you dismiss me so impolitely perhaps you should consider the fact that Yuri and I," she motioned with her head towards her mostly silent companion, "could be of great assistance to you."
"What could I possibly need from you?" Jones asked incredulously.
"As I said, I have I may not know the whole game that you are playing, but I do know that the British want to obtain the release of Richard Malboury...without causing an international incident."
"If there's an international incident it's the Nazis who've caused it. They can't just go around kidnapping eminent scientists and get away with it." Jones said sternly.
Yelena waved her hand dismissively, "Oh really Doctor Jones, don't be so naïve. If any of this ever comes to light you know that the Nazis will just call him a defector to their cause, and then he will conveniently meet his end in some kind of unfortunate....accident."
"Sounds like they're taking lessons from the Russians," Jones quipped.
Yelena threw him a cold look and ignored the comment before speaking again, "I can act as a go-between," she said, "I can help to negotiate the safe release of Malboury."
Jones silently considered the offer, though he strived hard not to betray any interest with his eyes. While he was loath to deal with the woman, he nonetheless wouldn't want to discount anything that might assist with the satisfactory conclusion to the whole business.
"Not that I have any interest, but I'm just curious, what would be in it for you?" Jones asked her.
"Money," she answered without hesitation.
"How much?"
"Enough to make it worth my trouble," she said, and then added, "and I want to know what it was that you dug out of the ruins of Pompeii....what you have beneath your shirt."
The woman's seemingly inhuman intuitiveness gave Jones a chill.
"Like I told you Yelena, I haven't been to Italy in years, and...."
"Yuri and I have been discussing it," Yelena once again interrupted him.
"It doesn't seem like Yuri discusses too much," Jones said.
Yuri looked away while Yelena ignored Jones' comment and kept talking, "Is it possible that this missing scroll, the one that everyone is searching so madly for, has indeed been already found?" She stared directly into Indiana Jones' eyes, "Are you sure Doctor Jones that you don't have something you'd like to show to me and Yuri?"
"Look," Jones said, "the only thing I want to show you and...Yuri right now is the door."
The Russian woman, her archaeologist companion, and then even Jones himself all searched around the outdoor deck for a moment in slight confusion before Jones cleared his throat and spoke again, slightly embarrassed.
"Er, if there was a door, I'd...show... Listen, we just want to finish our breakfast in peace. OK, I'll keep your offer in mind. I have no use for it, but maybe someone I know will."
Yelena and Yuri stood up, "You will come to me. You will need me," the Russian woman said with conviction, "until then, let us enjoy our trip up this magnificent river to the splendid wonders of the New Kingdom, no?....da svyidanya."
"Da svyidanya," Jones waved his hand disparagingly at the pair of Russians as they walked away.
"Indy I don't like her," Vadoma said, "who is she?"
"She's trouble," Jones answered simply, "but forget her, come on, let's go down to the after deck and get some sun."
As Jones and Vadoma got up and departed from the dining deck neither took notice of the two burly men who, as before, carefully studied the movements of the archaeologist and the gypsy woman. If they had, they'd have taken note of the cold, heartless eyes that stared out from beneath the brims of hats pulled low; eyes of men not unaccustomed to killing. And they may have even noticed the bulge of concealed weapons beneath each of the mens' close fitting suits.