"The Eye of Horus Affair" Chapter 3 by mrua7

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Chapter 1, Chapter 2


“So what are you boychiks doing back so soon if I may be so familiar?” Shlomo greeted the agents as soon as he saw them in the exchange. “Are you looking to buy a nice a diamond for your lady friend or wife? I can make you a such a deal…”

“Mr. Mr. Khazanov, might we go somewhere more private?” Solo asked.

“Certainly, my office is right in the back.”

They followed the man past the many cases seemingly overflowing with black velvet trays of jewelry and once they reached the office they were ushered inside.

It was a small room, with its walls lined with cabinets with small wooden drawers. On the desk was scattered the tools of the trade, tweezers a jewelers loupe, diamond parcel papers, and several open ones containing small diamonds. There was also a Hebrew Bible nearby.

Shlomo saw Illya eyeing the desk contents. “Oh, not to worry, they’re what we call melee, just small stones and not of great value. They’re used as accent stones and nothing more. “

As soon as the door was closed, Napoleon spoke up.

“We have a problem,  a one hundred twenty five carat one to be precise."

“Something is wrong with the diamond? Not possible. It is the real thing. Did those people at Southerly’s give you a hard time? I staked my personal reputation on that stone!”

“Its authenticity is not in question,”Illya said,”but its whereabout are.”

“You lost it? Oh meyn Got!” Shlomo slapped his hand to his forehead. “I gave it to U.N.C.L.E. because I thought you could protect it!”

That made Kuryakin wonder what happened to the man’s earlier cavalier attitude when tossing the diamond.

“No it wasn’t lost, it was stolen” Napoleon said.” I’m afraid that there’s more bad news. We think it was your son Yiddel who took it.”

“Meyn zun?”

“Yes your son,” Napoleon replied as he didn’t need a translation to understand.

“What makes you think my Yiddel would do such a thing?” Shlomo’s voice became louder as he demanded an explanation.

Once Napoleon filled in the details, and lastly of the boy taking off when he saw them; that was apparently enough to convince Khazanov things were amiss. The boy would have no reason to run from the agents unless of course, he had indeed done something wrong.

Illya had further questions, “Mr. Khazanov, why did you give the diamond to us to transport? Who would have known you were carrying it if you had taken it to Southerly’s yourself? I am curious about that.”

Shlomo’s face flushed pink, and he flopped down into his desk chair. It creaked as he did so.

“Someone demanded I turn over the the diamond to them, if not, they then threatened to to kill me. I don't care about myself, and such a threat...well I have lived through worse, but they also threatened to destroy my business. I have too many people who depend upon this place here for their living. Too many familiies would suffer. "

“Why didn’t you contact the police?” Napoleon asked.

“Here in our community we handle our own affairs Mr. Solo. I believed that once the diamond was auctioned, they wouldn’t come after me even in retribution.  A threat like that was upsetting but not that much for myself, not after what I experienced as a young man during the War.”

Shlomo pulled up his sleeve revealing a blue inked tattoo on his forearm. “After the camps, nothing really frightens me.”

Napoleon nodded, and stepped to the side pulling out his communicator to contact Waverly with this update.

Illya quietly removed his suit jacket and undid the button on his cuff before rolling up his left sleeve. He took his handkerchief and rubbed his forearm until a similar tattoo was revealed. It had been covered up with makeup.

Speaking softly in Russian, he told Shlomo a most private secret. “I too was in a camp.”

‘You are Jewish?”

“Nyet, however I was named for a man who was Jewish. His name was Elijah and he was my father’s friend. The man saved his life.  During the war, Nazis had rounded up the street orphans, of whom I was one, and took us to a camp outside of Kyiv. We were worked day and night, sorting the belongings of the people brought in by train to be...well, I have said enough, I think.”

That bit of connection between the two men, having that tragic shared experience was enough to make Shlomo trust Kuryakin and his partner even more.

Napoleon finished his conversation with Waverly. “Mr. Khazanov, my boss asked if you could locate your son so that we might speak with him.

“A moment. I need to make a telephone call.” He picked up a black rotary phone handset and a moment later he was speaking in rapid fire Yiddish.” Once done he hung up the receiver.

“Yes, Yiddel’s whereabouts are known. He is safe at the house of the Rebe, excuse me, the Rabbi in Williamsburg. I’ll take you there.

“We can use our car,” Napoleon said.

They arrived in less than a half hour and the reunion between father and son was an emotional one.

“Show me meyn zun. I know what you have done,” Shlomo spoke gently but firmly to his boy.

Yiddel didn’t deny it, but the look in his eyes spoke volumes. He hesitated but finally drew the diamond from his pocket, holding it in the palm of his hand. It appeared even larger in the boy’s hand.

“Why Yiddel, why did you take it?”

“I heard Papa, I was listening when the men came demanding the diamond from you. I thought that if word got out that it was stolen from the U.N.C.L.E. agents, then those people would leave you alone and not hurt you.”

Shlomo looked stern, but gave his son a smile. “Afn ganef brent dos hitl.” He turned to the agents, translating for them.

“A hat on a thief burns,’ meaning a thief’s guilty conscience will betray him sooner or later. I think my son would have eventually confessed his crime to me.”

Napoleon cocked his eyebrows as he looked to his partner.

“No harm done Yiddel,” he said. “You were only trying to protect your father. We’ll deliver it again but I we’ll also look into the matter of your father being threatened as well. I promise.”

“I guess this means I can never work for the U.N.C.L.E. huh?” Yiddel whispered.

Solo laid a reassuring hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Never count your chickens before they’re hatched. You’ve got some skill as a pickpocket and Illya can attest to that coming in pretty handy at times for an agent.”

“Mr. Solo how can you hope to find the people who threatened me when I don’t know who they are even? Shlomo asked.

“Good question.”

“I have an idea.” Yiddel smiled, but he spoke first in Yiddish, “Mit a ventke khapt men fish un mit a kerbl khapt men mentshn.  Meaning with a rod you catch fish and with a ruble you catch people.”

“Ahh, yes,” Illya nodded. “We use the diamond as the ruble.”

“Use it as bait?,” Napoleon smiled.” We’ll have to give Southerly’s a call to make some advertising arrangements.”

The rest of the plan was already forming in Solo’s head, thank’s to Yiddel’s suggestion.

“In the meantime Mr. Mr. Khazanov, The Eye of Horus needs to be put under lock and key in a very secure place,” Illya said.

They returned to the exchange and Khazanov’s office.

“Observe gentlemen.” Shlomo flicked a switch, and his desk slowly lowered into the floor, creating an opening.  He hit another switch and a light came on, revealing a spiral staircase.

“If you’ll follow me?”

They did so and found the staircase led to another vault. The door wasn’t as enormous as the Series K-7991, they had observed earlier, but it was big enough.

“If you will give me some space gentlemen,  as I need to put in the code. “ There was a keypad not unlike the ones used by the Command.

The agents stepped back as requested and once the code was entered a green light flashed and the vault door slowly swung open.

“Come come,” Shlomo invited them inside with a wave of his hand.

There on shelves were sitting an astounding number of diamonds in every imaginable shape, size and color.   There were stones larger than The Eye of Horus.

“Why would those strangers want on the Eye,” Illya asked,” where there are so many larger stones here?”

“It is because The Eye of Horus is an internally flawless diamond. For a stone of that size it is almost unheard of; even the Hope diamond...once called Le Bijou du Roi is only classified as a VS1. “

“I’ll have to take your word for that,” Napoleon said as he had absolutely no idea about diamonds.  The only diamond he’d bought in his life was when he proposed to Clara years ago, and that was rejected, as was he.  Luckily he was able to get his money back. He only remembered the shape, an emerald cut and that is was a good stone. That’s what the jeweler had told him. It was only half carat; that’s all he could afford at the time.

“Mr. Khazanov, I have a question on the origin of the diamond, as I am unfamiliar with the name. Is it actually from Egypt?” Kuryakin asked.

“Yes, the tale is that the diamond in its original form was discovered in a little known pharaonic tomb from the Ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 BC.  It was located not far from the Temple Edfu of Horus on the west bank of the Nile in Edfu, Upper Egypt.  The stone has apparently changed hands many times since it was first found, and like the Hope diamond, it was finally cut to the size as it is now, revealing a stone without flaws, internally and externally.”

Kuryakin swallowed hard, glancing at his partner before he asked the next question.



Chapter 4


boychik.(plural boychiks) Yiddish term of endearmentfor any male with whom you are familiar. (I pushed it a little bit on this one…)

Le Bijou du Roi - The King’s jewel- The jewel that eventually became the Hope diamond

VS1- Diamond grade in which you can see flaws on and within the diamond. (not easily) with a 10X eye loupe.

Comments

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

LJ obviously decided that it would be more dramatic to end it there for now, LOL.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Sort of... it was the only place where I could find a natural break. Still it's LJ's fault.