The four attendants carried the gurney down the porch steps and wheeled it to the open doors of an ambulance. Ramses held his breath as they lifted it, apprehensive that Gunter might catch a glimpse of David. Luckily, the light was inadequate for anyone to see more than a bulky contour. As two of the attendants began to clamber into the back with their patient, a barrage of shots resonated from behind the embassy.

“Verdamnis!” shrieked Gunter. “Go find out what’s happening!”

The guards in the shrubbery emerged and raced toward the backyard, firing randomly and more likely to harm one another than an intruder. Ramses leapt into the back of the ambulance and slammed the doors closed. “Drive!” he yelled. He clung to the gurney as the ambulance spun in the gravel and then sped through the gates to the street.

Sethos, who had been flung off the gurney, began to laugh loudly. “Well done, my Welsh lad.”

“Is it possible,” David’s voice said, “to explain what is happening? I must admit I am a trifle curious. I was assaulted outside the hotel and regained consciousness only an hour ago. Had I not heard a German utterance from one of the assailants, I would have no idea where I was—or why.”

“You will have to wait,” said Ramses. “We have arrived at the entrance to the hospital, where a carriage is awaiting us. Get yourself out of that contraption before we are noticed. I will pay our participants for their hearty enthusiasm and willingness to steal an ambulance.”

David grunted as he struggled out of the hammock and fell on top of Sethos. “I recognize your voice, but who the hell is this?”

Ramses left them to extricate themselves from the tangle of arms, legs, and medical devices. After he had paid the men, who were still clad in hospital garb as they dissolved into the darkness, he gestured for the carriage to approach. David was glaring at both of his companions as they climbed inside and sank back against the peeling leather upholstery. Sethos sat with the serenity of a statue of Buddha in front of a temple.

David gasped as he realized the identity of the Master Criminal. “Ramses, why the devil is he here?”

“The same reason that I am here, which was to rescue you before Gunter decided you were of no further value.” He ran his finger across his throat. “They would have left your corpse in the desert for scavengers.”

Sethos’s mustache twitched. “I acted purely out of altruism, although if our scheme was exposed, I was not inclined to play the martyr. That’s why I permitted Higginsnort here to take a predominant role. He has fancied himself to be a martyr in many other dire situations.”

“Higginsnort?” David said, amused.