"Sire, I think there is wisdom here," Samir said. But he too was confused." The Earl says that she knows who she is."
"She knows who she is supposed to be," Julie said." The cells! They are there, revitalized, and possibly some memory is encoded within them. But this thing is a monstrous twin of your lost love. How can it be more than that?"
"This could be true," Samir murmured." If you do what the Earl suggests - if you give her more of the drug, you may only be revitalizing a ... a demon."
"This is beyond my understanding!" Ramses confessed." It is Cleopatra!"
Julie shook her head." Ramses, my father has been dead no more than two months. There was no autopsy performed on his remains. The only embalming done upon him was the age-old miracle of the Egyptian heat and desert dryness. He lies, intact, in a crypt here in Egypt. But do you think I'd take this elixir, if I had it in my hands, and raise him from the dead?"
"God in heaven," Samir whispered.
"No!" Julie said." Because it wouldn't be my father. The connection has been fatally broken! A duplicate of my father would rise. A duplicate who knew perhaps all that my father had known. But my father wouldn't be there. He wouldn't know the duplicate was walking about. And what you have brought back to life is a duplicate of Cleopatra! Your lost love is not there."
Ramses was silent. This seemed to shake him as profoundly as everything else. He looked at Samir.
"What religion, sire, holds that the soul remains in the rotted flesh? It was not so with our forefathers. It is not so in any land in the world."
"You are truly immortal, my beloved," Julie said." But Cleopatra has been dead for twenty centuries. She is still dead. The thing you resurrected must be destroyed."
O, I'm sorry, Miles. My father's not here. Yes, I will. Immediately." Alex hung up the telephone. Elliott watched him from the desk in the corner of the room." Thank you, Alex. Lying is actually an underrated social skill. Some clever person should write a polite guide to lying. And all the charitable principles which justify lying so well."
"Father, I am not letting you go out alone."
Elliott turned back to the work at hand. His bath and brief rest had done much to restore his strength, even though it had been impossible to really sleep. He had had a quiet hour to think out what he meant to do now; and he had made his decision, though he had little hope that his scheme would work. Nevertheless the elixir was worth it. If only Samir had reached Ramses. And everything in the man's manner had indicated to him that Samir knew where Ramses was.
He sealed the last of the three envelopes, which he had just addressed, and turned again to his son.
"You will do exactly as I've told you," he said firmly." If I do not return by tomorrow noon, post these letters. To your mother and to Randolph. And leave Cairo as soon as you possibly can. Now give me my walking stick. And I need my cloak, also. It's damned cold in this city after dark."
Walter fetched the stick immediately. He had the cloak over his arm. He put it over Elliott's shoulders, adjusting it snugly.
"Father," Alex pleaded," for the love of - ""Good-bye, Alex. Remember. Julie needs you. She needs you here."
"Sire, it's past six now," Samir said." I must show you how to find this tavern."
"I can find it on my own, Samir," Ramses answered." Go back to the hotel, both of you. I must see for myself ... the state of things. And then I shall get word to you as soon as I can."
"No," Julie said," let me go with you."
"Unthinkable," Ramses said." It's much too dangerous. And this is something I must face alone."
"Ramses, I'm not leaving you," she insisted.
"Julie, we must return now," Samir said." We must be seen before they start searching for us."
Ramses rose to his feet slowly. He turned away from the flickering light of the candle, which was now the only illumination in the dark room. He lifted his hands as if in prayer. He looked for all the world like one of the Moslems in the mosque