His optimism increased. He glanced at the girl and saw a look of doubt and mockery in her eyes, as though she were asking why a man of private means should stay in this hotel. It didn’t bother him. The truth would appear when she discovered the reason for his being there. And she would find out sooner or later.

Did she remember him? He felt the long fingernails dig into his flesh after the long chase along the Corniche in Alexandria. The chase that ended in the dark with the sea breeze blowing over their naked bodies. But where was her father then? And when did he move to Cairo to run this hotel?

The woman called out, “Mohamed el-Sawi.”

An old man stood up from his seat near the door and answered her call. He was very dark, short, and lightly built. He wore a gray-striped galabiya and a white skullcap.

She pointed to Saber and said, “Room thirteen.”

Saber smiled at the number. He excused himself and went back to the station to get his luggage. When he returned, he followed Mohamed el-Sawi to his room on the third floor. A middle-aged porter, moving far too quickly for his profession, carried his bags. The porter had small, closely set eyes and a very small head that gave him an air of naïveté.

“What’s your name?” asked Saber.

“Aly Seriakous.”

The way he said it told Saber that he was a man who could be bought.

“Is the old man at the desk the owner of the hotel?”

“Yes, Mr. Khalil Abul Naga.”

He was about to ask about the woman when he warned himself that naïveté can be a two-edged sword.

When he was alone he looked over his surroundings. The immediate impression was that of age. High ceiling and a four-poster bed. His father must have enjoyed such surroundings when he made love to his mother. He looked out the window onto a square at the northern end of the street. Children were splashing about in the fountain in the center of the square. He switched on the light and sat on the old divan, closing his eyes. Sexual fantasies, intermingled with dreams of finding his father, swept over him.

He could hear the call of those almond eyes. She might now be thinking of him and asking herself about the reason for his presence. There was no doubt that she was the girl. He could hear her voice above the din of the festival, telling him sharply not to come near her in this manner.