an excerpt from The General and the Elephant Clock!

Kim picked up before the first ring was done. “Uncle John. We saw it. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, nothing to worry about. How’s everything there?”

“I’m going to put you on speakerphone. Abdullah and Billy are here with me.”

“Shouldn’t you boys be asleep?”

“Uncle John, are you okay?” It was Billy. John could hear the thread of anxiety in his voice.

“Oh, I’m fine. It was just a piece of democracy theater, Billy. Nothing to worry about. You know, just like in the movies.”

“Really.” Kim could inject so much disbelief into his voice. “Did the other guy, the one punching you, did he also know he was engaging in a little democracy theater?”

“That was part of my genius,” John said. “Listen, boys. I need your help.”

“Me and Abdullah, we’re already packed. We should be there tomorrow.”

“No! Oh, my God. No, Kim. It’s dangerous over here.”

Now Abdullah spoke. “It’s dangerous? Thank you, Uncle John, but I’ve been to the Middle East before, remember? And you might also recall that I speak Arabic, and I look like an Arab, in fact, I am an Arab! So I might be of some help. Oh, and did we tell you? We’re grown up now.” He laughed, and John could hear Billy’s voice in the background. “Hey!”

“Okay, me and Kim are grown up. Not Billy, though he is getting close.”

“Uncle John, you’re fifty-two.” Kim had his soothing voice on, like he was trying to talk John down from the ledge. “You’re really too old to be punched repeatedly in the stomach. It’s dangerous. You need younger guys for the physical stuff. You can still be the brains behind the operation, though.”

“Thank you so much!” John wanted to scream, just a small scream, to vent his frustration. Okay, he thought, be the brains. Be the brains of the operation. “I called to tell you guys I was okay and to ask for some help. I need you to research something for me.”

“Sure, of course.” Kim had control over the phone. “What do you need?”

“I went to Tunisia with Abdullah’s father a long time ago when I was finishing up my dissertation. On that trip, we went through Istanbul and visited a museum. I think I saw a copy of a book there, called The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by Al-Jazari. I need you two to track down where the other copies of that book are, what libraries and museums. I know there’s a copy in Oxford, at the Bodleian. Figure out where the rest are and e-mail me the information as soon as you can.”

“Are you giving me busy work to keep me from flying to Tunis?” Kim sounded outraged.

“No, son. This book might be critical to getting us all home. I got the boys out of prison last night. They’re here in the hotel, but they’re still charged with blasphemy. One of the boys, he came here with a copy of a page in that book, the Elephant Clock. His middle name is Hannibal. You get it? He wanted to look at the Elephant Clock of Al-Jazari in the Bardo Museum on his first trip to Carthage.”