The Quest

Gann continued, “Most of Africa was accurately mapped by the colonial powers. Ethiopia, however, was not a European colony until the Italians invaded, and the Ethies themselves hadn’t any idea how to make a map, or what use they were. Therefore, most of what exists is a result of the Italian Army’s brief control of the country.”

Mercado asked, “And nothing since then?”

Gann informed them, “The former Ethiopian government had a small cartography office, but they mostly reproduced Italian maps, and now and again they’d produce a city map or a road map, though never a proper field-checked terrain map.” He added, “Both armies in the current civil war are using what we see here from 1935 until 1941.”

Purcell pointed out, “I assume the black monastery hasn’t been moved, so maybe these are better than nothing.”

“Quite so.”

Gann studied the maps closely, then unrolled a few more.

“Here. This is the area where we were, and this is the map I was using then.” He ran his finger in a circle around a green-and-brown-shaded area. “This is the jungle valley where the spa is located, and this is the unimproved road by which you presumably arrived.”

Purcell asked, “Where is the spa?”

“Not here, actually. Probably built after the map was done. But right here”-he pointed-“is where it is.”

Gann bent over the map and said, “These are the hills where Prince Joshua set up his camp… These are the hills where Getachu’s camp was located. And this is the high plains or plateau between the camps where… where the armies met.”

Purcell stared at the map-the same one Gann had shown him-and that unpleasant day came back to him as it had just come back to Colonel Gann.

Purcell said to Mercado, “Puts me right there again, Henry. How about you?”

“Makes me wonder why we ever left.”

They all got a laugh at that, and Gann continued his map recon. He glanced at the monk across the room, then joked, “Don’t see the symbol for hidden black monastery.”

Purcell asked, “Do you see anything that could be a fortress?” He reminded Gann, “Father Armano’s prison for almost forty years.”

“No… don’t see any man-made structures…”

Mercado reminded everyone, “Father Armano walked through the night from this fortress to the spa.”

“Yes… but what direction?”

Purcell said, “He mentioned something about Gondar to the north. And I’m assuming the fortress was in the jungle-the dark green stuff.”

“Yes, possibly… here is something that would be a night’s march to the spa…” He pointed to a small black square identified as “incognita”-unknown.

Gann surmised, “Probably seen from the air and put on the map, but never field checked to identify it.”

Mercado said, “Could be the fortress. I don’t see any other man-made structures in this jungle valley.”

Gann agreed that incognita could be the fortress, but he advised, “The scale of this map is so large that even these hills, which we know are large from being there, look quite small.”

In fact, Purcell thought, those hills had almost killed Henry.

The monk had moved and was now standing across the table, looking at them.

Gann said, “Don’t assume he doesn’t speak English.”

Purcell said to Mercado, “Maybe this guy wants to back off.”

Mercado said something to the monk, who moved a few feet away.

Purcell said softly, “The priest said he was taken from the black… place by the monks and handed over to soldiers of this Prince Theodore, who marched him to the fortress.” He thought back to the spa and to Father Armano’s dying words. “The priest didn’t remark about the march, so maybe it was a day’s march at most.”

Mercado, too, was thinking about what Father Armano had said. “I don’t know if we can make that assumption… I wish we’d known we were going to be looking for this place. I’d have asked him to be more specific.”

Purcell replied, “We knew at some point, but there was a lot going on. He was dying.”

Gann suggested, “Try to recall all that this man said. He may have given you a clue.”

Purcell and Mercado thought about that, then Purcell suggested, “Let’s back it up. The priest said his battalion had made camp on the eastern shore of Lake Tana.” He pointed to the lake. “His patrol went out to find the place where the Gallas had ambushed the previous patrol. They found the ambush site… maybe the same day… then continued on to find the black walls and tower that the sergeant, Giovanni, said he’d seen on the previous patrol.”

Mercado added, “The priest said this took several more days… Three? Four? And they were lost, so they could have wandered in circles.”

Gann said, “I can tell you that you’d be good to make a kilometer an hour in this terrain. So if we assume a ten-hour-a-day march, from somewhere along this eastern bank of Lake Tana, we can reckon thirty kilometers in three days, perhaps, less if this patrol was moving cautiously, which I’m certain they did.”

Gann took a notebook from his pocket and a pen, which caused the monk to say, “No!”

Gann said to Mercado, “Tell him I’m not going to mark his map.”