Barnes. Pdf

 
Chapters 
14
grabbing hand of her husband. She walked down the central aisle to the gunmen, stopped a couple of yards short, and said in a 
clear, slow voice suppurating with panic, 'I have to go to the goddam bathroom.' 
The Arabs neither replied nor looked her in the eye. Instead, with a small gesture of their guns, they indicated as surely as 
such things can be that she was currently a large target and that any further advance would confirm the fact in an obvious and 
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final way. She turned, walked back to her seat and began to cry. Another woman an the right of the hall immediately started 
sobbing. Franklin looked across at Tricia again, nodded, got to his feet, deliberately didn't look at the two guards, and went 
across to the lectern. `As I was saying ...' He gave an authoritative cough and all eyes reverted to him. `I was saying that the 
Palace of Knossos was not by any means the first human settlement on the site. What we think of as the Minoan strata reach 
down to about seventeen feet, but below this there are signs of human habitation down to twenty-six feet or so. There was life 
where the palace was built for at least ten thousand years before the first stone was laid ...' 
It seemed normal to be lecturing again. It also felt as if some feathered cloak of leadership had been thrown over him. He 
decided to acknowledge this, glancingly at first. Did the guards understand English? Perhaps. Had they ever been to Knossos? 
Unlikely. So Franklin, while describing the council chamber at the palace, invented a large clay tablet which, he claimed, had 
probably hung over the gypsum throne. It read - he looked towards the Arabs at this point - `We are living in difficult times'. 
As he continued describing the site, he unearthed more tablets, many of which, as he now fearlessly began to point out, had a 
universal message. `We must above all not do anything rash', one said. Another; `Empty threats are as useless as empty 
scabbards'. Another; 'The tiger always waits before it springs' (Hughes wondered briefly if Minoan Civilization knew about 
tigers). He was not sure how many of his audience had latched on to what he was doing, but there came an occasional 
assenting growl. In a curious way, he was also enjoying himself. He ended his tour of the palace with one of the least typically 
Minoan of his many inscriptions: 'There is a great power where the sun sets which will not permit certain things'. Then he 
shuffled his notes together and sat down to warmer applause than usual. He looked across at Tricia and winked. She had tears 
in her eyes. He glanced towards the two Arabs and thought, that's shown you, now you can see what we're made of, there's 
some stiff upper lip for you. He rather wished he'd made up some Minoan aphorism 
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about people who wore red tea-towels on their heads, but recognized he wouldn't have had the nerve. He'd keep that one for 
later, after they were all safe. 
They waited for half an hour in a silence that smelt of urine before the leader of the visitors returned. He had a brief word 
with the guards and walked up the aisle to the lectern. 'I understand that you have been lectured on the palace of Knossos,' he 
began, and Franklin felt sweat burst into the palms of his hands. 'That is good. It is important for you to understand other 
civilizations. How they are great, and how' - he paused meaningly - 'they fall. I hope very much that you will enjoy your trip to 
Knossos.' 
He was leaving the microphone when the same American voice, this time more conciliatory in tone, as if heedful of the 
Minoan tablets, said, `Excuse me, would you be able to tell us roughly who you are and roughly what you want?' 
The Arab smiled. `I am not sure that would be a good idea at this stage.' He gave a nod to indicate he had finished, then 
paused, as if a civil question at least deserved a civil answer. `Let me put it this way. If things go according to plan, you will 
soon be able to continue your explorations of the Minoan Civilization. We shall disappear just as we came, and we shall seem 
to you simply to have been a dream. Then you can forget us. You will remember only that we were a small delay. So there is 
no need for you to know who we are or where we come from or what we want.' 
He was about to leave the low podium when Franklin, rather to his own surprise, said, `Excuse me.' The Arab turned. `No 
more questions.' Hughes went on, `This is not a question. I just think ... I'm sure you've got other things on your mind ... if 
we're going to have to stay here you ought to let us go to the lavatory.' The leader of the visitors frowned. 'The bathroom,' 
Franklin explained; then again, `the toilet.' 
'Of course. You will be able to go to the toilet when we move you. ' 
`When will that be?' Franklin felt himself a little carried away by his self-appointed role. For his part the Arab noted some 
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unacceptable lack of compliance. He replied brusquely, `When we decide.' 
He left. Ten minutes later an Arab they had not seen before came in and whispered to Hughes. He stood up. `They are 
going to move us from here to the dining-room. We are to be moved in twos. Occupants of the same cabin are to identify 
themselves as such. We will be taken to our cabins, where we will be allowed to go to the lavatory. We are also to collect our 
passports, but nothing else.' The Arab whispered again. `And we are not allowed to lock the lavatory door.' Without being 
asked, Franklin went on, `I think these visitors to the ship are quite serious. I don't think we should do anything which might 
upset them.' 
Only one guard was available to move the passengers, and the process took several hours. As Franklin and Tricia were 
being taken to C deck, he remarked to her, in the casual tone of one commenting on the weather, `Take the ring off your right 
hand and put it on your wedding finger. Turn the stone round so that you can't see it. Don't do it now, do it when you're having 
a pee.' 
When they reached the dining-room their passports were examined by a fifth Arab. Tricia was sent to the far end, where the 
British had been put in one corner and the Americans in another. In the middle of the room were the French, the Italians, two 
Spaniards and the Canadians. Nearest the door were the Japanese, the Swedes, and Franklin, the solitary Irishman. One of the 
last couples to be brought in were the Zimmermanns, a pair of stout, well-dressed Americans. Hughes had at first placed the 

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J
ULIAN 
B
ARNES
: A History of the World in 10 ½