The Bull of Mentju by Robert J. Muller

Author:Robert J. Muller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781939386120
Publisher: Poesys Associates

Chapter 28

MacIntyre Appeals to Ma'at

MacIntyre worked on the chips and molli while plotting her next step. The biggest problem with her plan was Djehutymes. Mes was a good man, though a bit of a curmudgeon, but first and foremost, he was a medja. At the moment, she was the most wanted person in Menmenet, and it was his duty to collar her and turn her over to the executioners at the Temple of Mentju. She had to craft an approach to him that would short-circuit his sense of duty.

That sense of duty came from an absolute devotion to Ma’at, and Ma’at was all about truth. She was a w’abet of Ma’at, though not a religious one, and she ought to be able to parlay that into something, but only if the truth was clear to Mes. If Mentju pulled the wool over his eyes, she was dead meat.

And, after all, he was the man who started her down this whole thing, by betraying her, firing her from the job she loved, because she was American. He hadn’t liked it, but he did it, and now was his time to pay.

MacIntyre picked up the burner phone and dialed a number she knew by heart.

“Djehutymes.” His voice came loud and clear.

“Hi, Mes.”

Silence.

She said, “Find somewhere you can talk to me.”

“Hold on.” A little time passed, then his voice came. “MacIntyre? What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Same old Mes.

“I’ll explain, but first, I have to know—are we good friends?”

He stuttered a bit. “You are the most wanted person in Menmenet right now, MacIntyre. The—Most—Wanted!”

“Going to turn me in?”

“Give me a good reason not to. You attacked the fucking hem-netjer-tepy of Mentju, MacIntyre! Hit him with a stick. Capital offense. Do you know what a capital offense is in cases like this? They’ll cut pieces off you and make you eat them. That’s if you’re lucky, if the gods don’t get you before the priests! The only thing I can’t figure out is how you’re still walking around!”

MacIntyre felt a surge of anger. “May I remind you that you fired me, for nothing? Betrayed me after all our years working together?”

“I did what I had to do.”

“So. Did. I. This is about Ma’at, Mes.”

“I didn’t hit anybody with a stick. Talk to me, MacIntyre. Now.”

So she talked. She got the big stuff out of the way first, then argued him down from his complete state of incredulity by giving him details, chapter and verse, including troop movements and the involvement of the American Consul General. She capped it off by explaining that she knew he was safe to talk to as his name was on the internment list as a possible foe of the conspiracy. That got his attention.

“How do you know all this?”

“A spy from the Temple of Imen-R’a named Hori. Small man, sad face, agent with a cover as a janitor in the Temple of Mentju. He filled me in on the secret plans he’d uncovered. The next day, they discovered him and killed him, then made me dispose of the body.

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