“A wise choice,” she said with a small smile. “Women are our own best keepers. Now, I understand you are here about the manuscript.”
At that moment, Ahmed appeared from somewhere on the other side of the massive ruin. He was breathing hard but appeared not to have broken a sweat. Had I just walked up a hill in a semi-arid region, I would have been soaked through. He spoke quickly to Thala in Arabic, and she turned to us to translate. “Ahmed would like to apologize for his lateness. He was waylaid by tourists who had a lot of questions.”
I nodded at Ahmed and turned back to Zariyah. “I do believe you know Brother Ahmed. We asked him to join us to help us authenticate the codex. We trust that is acceptable.” I hoped that I would not appear hypocritical because of my statement about Ivan an
