Arabesque

Professor Ragheeb.

Send him in, will you?

Good afternoon.

Mr. Saeed?

Mr. Saeed's away,

I'm afraid.

My name's Sloane.

Why is he away?

Flu, Professor.

Medical men aren't immune.

He asked me to look after his appointments.

I'm only going

to check your glasses.

You look as though I want

to drill your teeth.

Do sit down,

Professor.

Ragheeb.

That doesn't sound English.

Are you English,

Professor Ragheeb?

Why do you ask?

Oh, small talk, merely small talk.

The weather's too dull

and politics too explosive.

I certainly

didn't mean to pry.

May I see your glasses?

I can't see anything without them.

Hmm. Yes.

Yes, indeed.

Please.

Have you been exposed

to flu recently?

Does that weaken the eyes?

No, merely the eye doctors.

There's so much close

personal contact in our line, we can't be too careful.

Now...

let's just

try these.

There.

Just read those letters

in the mirror, will you, please?

"A."

"N, D."

"A, O, H, T."

Hmm, not bad.

Now the other eye.

"H, C, U."

"D, H, L, E."

"M."

No.

"N."

Jolly good.

Look up at me, Professor.

I want to put some drops in your eyes.

Why?

To dilate the pupil.

It's quite all right, Professor.

You won't feel anything.

There.

That didn't hurt,

did it?

No, it was-

Now here on the final slide is an example...

of a more cursive form

of hieroglyphics,

probably from the reign

of the great Pharaoh Remesus II.

Now we can still recognize what

many of the signs represent.

Here, for example,

is the word for "heart,"

written simply with

the picture of the heart.

But here,

above the monster Amensit-

who, as you can see,

is part crocodile, part lion and part hippo,

and who waits to devour

the heart of the dead man if it is found wanting-

is the glyph for a house.

Below it is a mouth.

These signs have phonetic value only.

They are followed

by a drawing of a pair of legs,

which, in this case,

has no phonetic value.

However, as an ideogram,

it does give us the clue...

to the meaning of the word...

"to go forth."

Sex.

I thought there must be some way

of attracting your attention, Mr. Fanshaw.

I seem to have been talking

in your sleep.

That will be all for today.

Professor Ragheeb

will be back tomorrow.

Good morning.

May I have a word

with you, please, Professor Pollock?

If it's about that

small, outstanding bill at the bookstore,

there's a simple

explanation:
poverty.

- No, it's nothing like that.

- In that case, how do you do?

My name is Sloane.

Major Sylvester

Pennington Sloane...

of Her Majesty's

Marvelous.

Yes, quite.

I'm private secretary

to Mr. Nejim Beshraavi of the shipping lines.

- The Nejim Beshraavi.

- I didn't think there could be two.

Mr. Beshraavi would like

to see you in London now,

so if you'll follow me,

please, the car is waiting.

Mr. Sloane,

this is Wednesday.

Shall I tell you

about my Wednesdays?

Right now:
a healthy jog

and a couple of tutorials,

an indescribable lunch

with the faculty at 12:45-

Mr. Beshraavi is prepared

to pay you well for your time.

And I could use it,

I don't mind telling you.

But, as I said,

not on Wednesdays.

Good morning, Mr. Sloane.

You people really can't take no

for an answer, can you?

What do you think

you're doing?

Let me go!

Good Lord,

a-aren't you-

Mr. Pollock, may I present

His Excellency, Mr. Hassan Jena.

- Well... Mr. Prime Minister.

- Good morning, Mr. Pollock.

And I am Mr. Jena's

Ambassador to Great Britain, Mohammed Lufti.

- Mr. Ambassador.

- I beg you to forgive this unorthodox method...

of making your acquaintance.

Please, don't mention it, Mr. Prime Minister.

There's nothing like a little

kidnapping every now and then to keep the circulation going.

The fact is that there are

very few men on this Earth whom I admire more than you.

You're

a very great man.

No man is greater

than the people he serves. Your respect must be for them.

Yes, sir.

I didn't know that you were in England.

You are quite right.

I am not.

You have not seen me.

The first favor I would ask

of you is to help keep my visit to England a secret.

Of course, sir.

And the second?

You know a fellow countryman

of mine, Mr. Nejim Beshraavi.

The Nejim Beshraavi.

Yes, our richest and most powerful citizen.

We have every reason to believe

he intends approaching you...

with a business proposition.

He already has, sir, but I turned him down.

- Oh, dear.

- Wrong?

Your association with Beshraavi

could have been extremely valuable...

to the cause of freedom, Professor.

How?

All we know is that Beshraavi

is supposed to have problems...

and plans some violent

exercise of that opposition in the near future.

We have to find out what

he intends doing and when.

You want me

to reestablish contact,

accept his offer

and see what I can find out.

We want that very much.

But you must not accept

until you know all the possibilities.

The assignment carries

a certain amount of risk.

Is that a statesmanlike

way of saying that I could get killed?

Mr. Beshraavi respects

no one's life but his own.

If you wish, I will stop

the car and let you out with nothing further being said.

For generations, the Pollocks

have devoted themselves...

to uncovering the past.

I think it's probably

about time that a Pollock...

involved himself

in the future for a change.

As soon as you have

any information,

you will at once contact

Mr. Jena in London.

Ambassador-2779.

Words cannot express

my gratitude.

Mr. Pollock,

very good of you...

to reconsider my proposal.

I always try my best...

to cooperate

with the very rich, Mr. Beshraavi.

Do sit down.

Ah.

You mustn't mind Hassan,

Mr. Pollock.

Hassan?

He's a peregrine falcon.

I've named him Hassan Jena

after our beloved prime minister.

They share so many

sterling qualities:

a sharp eye,

a fierce dedication, and very sharp claws.

Hassan won't harm you,

Mr. Pollock,

so long as you don't try

to separate him from his master.

He is excessively loyal.

You keep him well fed, I trust.

Of course. Nobody's that loyal.

I won't presume

upon your time, Professor.

I know how valuable

it must be.

What do you make of that?

It's a copy of

a Hittite inscription.

Second millennium B.C.,

I would guess.

Take a date, Mr. Pollock,

as a gesture of friendship.

I'm a very Arabian Arab,

I'm afraid.

Friends?

Flesh, Mr. Pollock.

Hassan eats only flesh.

I thought he looked at it rather wistfully.

It must have been your fingers.

I want to know

what that inscription means.

I want to know that

very much.

May I ask

an indelicate question?

- How much?

- $25,000.

Very well. I won't quibble, $30,000.

You go right ahead

and quibble.

How did you happen

to get hold of it?

Let us say,

I happened upon it by chance.

Oh.

Well, may the...

gods continue

to smile on you.

Thank you, Professor.

I value your good wishes.

But I won't keep you

from your work any longer.

- If you haven't finished by

- That is correct.

- I'm sorry.

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