my five-star hotel and the shoot site. It’s not the art so much as the people. I rarely get to meet real people in a real environment. Those women are lovely people, so friendly, and they look as though they can use the money.’
‘But the goddess is a collectors’ item. Are you a collector?’
‘The goddess? Is that who she is? How do you know?’ Her interest sparked, Desi dug into the bag of goodies and unwrapped the little clay statuette. She held it cupped in her hand.
‘What’s her name?’
‘It depends on where she was found. It’s almost impossible to say with certainty. My father would say, a love or fertility goddess.’
Desi frowned, accessing recent memories. ‘Inanna! Wasn’t she the goddess of love?’
Salah flicked her a look and said gravely, ‘In Sumer. Yes.’
‘Could it be her?’
‘You would have to ask my father.’
‘Oh, but it’s impossible. It would mean this was five thousand years old!’
‘It probably is.’
Desi gasped. A feeling of wonder flooded her, and a strange energy, as if the little goddess’s locked-up power had suddenly been released into her palm.
‘That’s amazing,’ she whispered. ‘But—why…I mean, how is it I can buy something so valuable just like that?’
‘She might be taken away from you at the airport.’
‘Really?’
‘It is illegal to take antiquities out of the Barakat Emirates. It is part of our cultural heritage. We have museums where such pieces belong.’
‘Seems a pretty poor way to manage resources. Wouldn’t it be better to stop the sale in the first place?’
‘We can’t police the entire desert. Instead tourists are searched before they leave, and such valuable items as your little goddess are confiscated. This discourages tourists from making such purchases in future.’
She laughed. ‘So I’ll have to give up my little talisman?’
‘Not everything is found, of course. Perhaps less than forty percent. If you pack it carefully, you might get away with it.’
She looked at him quizzically. ‘What makes you think I would want to “get away with” taking something that belongs in the country’s museums?’
‘You seem to like it.’
‘You think I steal everything I like? Have you noticed me wearing any of the Crown Jewels?’
‘You paid for it. Most people would not consider it theft.’
‘Oh, give me a break! We make love at night, and in the morning you salve your conscience by suggesting I’m dishonourable, is that it? We’ve been there before, Salah, and I got enough of it last time. Can’t you just enjoy the sex for what it is and leave your condemnation in your pocket?’
His jaw tightened. ‘No, that is not it. I apologize. In my work I see many people who consider themselves honest but who are without any conscience at all in this area.’
‘In your work?’
‘One of my areas as Cup Companion is antiquities security.’
‘Say what?’
‘My task is to prevent the smuggling of antiquities to foreign markets. Both West and East have many wealthy men who are interested in the ancient cultures of the Barakat Emirates. Organizers pay what to poor nomads and farmers seems a good price for any artefact they can steal or dig up, then sell them on to unscrupulous dealers for many times more. They in turn sell it on. By the time it reaches the collector, he is paying thousands of times the sum the finder got. Our heritage is in danger of being destroyed by this practice.’
‘Are you saying your personal mission is to stop it? How do you go about it?’
‘In various ways, none of them satisfactory. People mostly rob the sites of ancient cities and settlements which have not yet been studied, near the villages where they live. It is a big problem for archaeologists like my father. As you know, once something is dug up and removed, its provenance can never be discovered. So even if we recover that piece, its historic value is lost.’
‘Of course.’ Archaeologists must know exactly where something is found before it can shed light on history: Desi had learned that in her researches. A jug was just a jug unless you knew what else it was found with, its period, of what civilisation it had formed a part.
‘But theft is not my father’s biggest worry.’
There was something in his tone that caught her attention.
‘Really? What is, then?’
‘The answer is in your hand.’
She thought it was a covert challenge, that he wanted to know if she had any real archaeological interest or understanding. She held up the little statue.
Goddess of love. What did she know about the goddess of love? Worshipped as the one who made animals and land, as well as humans, fertile. Her sexual characteristics painted over by whoever had found it, because now her blatant sexuality was seen not as powerful, but immodest.
‘Oh my God!’ Desi whispered.
Found in a land where to worship the divine in any form but as Allah was blasphemy.
‘Tell me I’m wrong!’ she begged. ‘Is your father afraid that religious fanatics might…Oh, no!’
‘There is a significant risk. My father thinks the site is a city devoted to a love goddess. It could rewrite history. But if the Kaljuks and their supporters here in the Barakat Emirates hear of this find, and learn where it is located, the risk is worse than ordinary theft—they may try to sabotage the site itself. They would want to destroy it completely.’
Desi’s strongest emotion after dismay was exasperation. ‘For God’s sake! Four thousand years before Islam even happened!’
‘They do not care about that.’ Salah slowed the vehicle and turned his head, and his black eyes found hers. ‘That is why, Desi, I ask you if you have any other reason for wanting to visit this dig.’
‘What?’ she asked blankly.
‘If someone has asked you to try to find out what you can about the site my father is digging, you must understand that it is unlikely to be for genuine academic purposes.’
‘What are you trying to say?’ She blinked at him.
His voice was rough now, his eyes probing.
‘I know you are not here for the reason you have given. Do not be the innocent tool of villains, Desi. If someone wants to know about this project, it is because they want to steal our history from us, one way or the other. Tell me who asked you to use
