more time to
maneuver the wire into position. By the time he was ready for the last
step, the cooks and some of the dragomen were watching. He paid no
attention. Holding his breath, he exerted pressure on the wire. The
inner handle turned, the latch clicked. The door was unlocked.

Scotty started in the front seat and went over the car methodically. He
found nothing. Finally, only the cushions were left. He pulled the front
one away and examined the debris that seems to collect under car seats.
He put the cushion back and went to the rear one.

He lifted the seat out--and disclosed the Egyptian cat, in back of the
cushion where Rick had stuffed it.

Scotty examined it, his heart racing. He hurriedly set things to rights
in the car, closed the car door, and hurried into the hotel.

He knew Rick, and he knew his pal wouldn't have parted with the cat
except for one reason: to protect it. That meant Rick had expected to be
searched.

Scotty followed the thought forward, logically. Rick had hidden the cat,
then he and Hassan had been taken from the car. A "cousin" had brought
it back to the hotel. Why? Scotty didn't know the answer to that, unless
Rick and Hassan had been taken in some location where an abandoned car
would have attracted attention. That wouldn't be in the city, because
who would pay any attention to a car parked and locked at the curb?

But if not in the city, where? Somewhere in the desert was Scotty's
guess. The desert was on both sides of the river, both north and south
of Cairo. He could assume that the two had headed for the project, or
that they had gone north for some reason he couldn't imagine.

He dropped the line of thought; it was getting nowhere. One thing was
clear: whoever had taken Rick and Hassan hadn't suspected that Rick
actually had the cat with him.

The cat had to be the reason. Someone who wanted it had decided on
direct action. Scotty opened the door of the room he shared with Rick
and looked about him unhappily, not really seeing anything. He knew
Rick's captors would not have an easy time making his pal talk. And even
when Rick did open up, he would spin some kind of yarn that would throw
them off the trail. Scotty thought that Rick would not be in any great
danger until he disclosed the cat's whereabouts. But he didn't like the
idea of what Rick would have to go through before then.

The question was who had taken him?

There were two possibilities: Moustafa and Youssef.