Lion, Tiger, Bear | 143 leg. She looked back. Im not a ten-a-penny actress on Broadway. Alice mumbled to herself: No, but you could be. Bea stopped but didnt turn around. I heard that. 12 p.m. > At BTE (British Troops Egypt) Headquarters at the Semiramis Hotel near the Nile and the golf courses, Churchill waited with General Alexander, commander-in- chief Middle East, and Bernard Montgomery, his new subordinate and commander of 8th Army. Three lesser generalsGeneral Wavells cast-offs no doubta few colonels with stiff field experience, and lowly intelligence paper-pusher Brigadier McMaster stood witness, the cream of Cairo military officialdom. Each one had need of conversation or argument with Churchill, and would get it. Some politicians and generals back in England were tired of Churchills dictatorial, yesterdays man style, but not in Cairo; here they needed his stiff resolve, begged for it. McMaster read notes and mused on his sultan-worthy surroundings, the large wood-blade fans above twirling a soft breeze. The old boy feudal network held over from the 19th century, the one that gripped burning afternoon Polo, tiled swimming pools, scented-evening dances, end-of-marriage trysts, languid hours of cards and smooth whiskey, and petty prince lifestyles tighter than ever, was entrenched body and soul in the Canal District and Gezira Sporting Club environs. Nothing had changed since the last war, he thought. Luxury painted everything for the officers, a fine silk overlay of exotica and intrigue, black markets, and the promise of clandestine fortunes made or lost in the shadows. The dwindling English aristocracy that had been brought to its knees by taxes starting in 1918 found new life here where the pound sterling bought so much more. Night clubs, cabarets, and Clot Bey Street brothels fancy or plain were packed to the vaulted ceilings, so much so that more and more women had to be imported from around the Mediterranean to fill the voids. Overflowing souks made Egyptian traders rich, and any lewd pleasure or intoxicant imaginable was readily available on the cheap for^those with little taste and no discretion; the Bulaq settling pit had overflowed once again with heroin addicts of all classes and military ranks, the milder hashish and Lotus flower tea the order of the day for those in search of false enlightenment and genuine hallucination, temporary heaven or permanent hell.