Leaving the ancients behind as the room ascended, they could not fail to hear Ramses shout out, “Think logically. Never confuse optimism with delusion.”
Approaching El Moalla, Rose slowed, bringing the Volvo to a halt. “They are expecting us.”
“It looks like it,” Alex said as they peered into the unnatural blackness before them.
Whilst this was never a heavily lit area, there were always more than enough lights around, not one of which was working. This was more than a power outage. It would be most unlikely if the two backup generators, of which they were aware, had both failed: one to provide security lighting around the ancient site, the other to light the Supreme Council of Antiquities Storage Museum. It was, however, the total lack of moonlight reaching down to the road ahead which confirmed the use of magic.
“If they are expecting us, then we need to do something that they will not be expecting,” Kate said, sounding as though she had an idea.
Talking through Kate’s plan once was enough for them all. It was scary, it was extremely risky, but they had to save Cairo.
Rose was eager to get going. “We need to move quickly and keep moving if we are to have the element of surprise. Are you sure, Kate, that the Volvo will fit?”
“Yes, it will, it definitely will. It’s whether or not it has enough power to make the climb that worries me.”
“Let me worry about that.” Rose turned to Alex: “However many times you reach for a seatbelt you will be disappointed. Is it really as steep and dangerous as Kate says it is?”
“I think it is steeper and more dangerous than she is saying. Honestly, this is a suicide mission.”
“Then a seatbelt really would be of little use, wouldn’t it? Shall we go? Yes or no?” I vote yes.”
“Me too,” Kate said.
“Thinking back to what Ramses said, don’t you think that we are being really over optimistic, as well as deluding ourselves, that this is going to work?”
“I’ll take that as a no. Two to one, you are outvoted.” Rose put the Volvo into gear.
“Take that as a yes. We are being over optimistic, we are deluding ourselves, but we must save Cairo. Come on, Rose, let’s get going!”
The wheels spun on the sand, then screeched on the metalled road. Nobody heard Alex say, “Before I change my mind.”
Chapter 23
-
Nice Teeth!
In accordance with their plan, Rose drove as fast and as recklessly as she dared, and when Rose drove, she drove!
Alex was grabbing hold of anything he could, in his desperate attempt to stay in the seat beside her. Kate was not having much more luck at staying in position: in the middle of the back seat, looking through to the front. Both of them left their seats as the Volvo bounced over the railway tracks, immediately after which Rose took a sharp left. Alex ended up in the footwell.
He had only just regained his seat as they flew past the Antiquities Storage Museum, after which they exchanged the metalled road for the white, stone-like sand of the desert. The rear of the Volvo fishtailing wildly after a shallow turn to the right, it fishtailed even more wildly as Rose forced the car harder in the same direction. Now aligned directly with the entrance to Ankhtifi’s tomb, she powered the Volvo up the steep slope in front of them.
For a car which looked as though its front lights were missing, it had an impressive full beam. Rose flicked a switch, immediately floodlighting the hill before them. With Ankhtifi’s tomb in her sights, she fought for grip on the loose surface. At the very last second, just before the car would have crashed through the entrance, she spun the steering wheel hard to the left. Despite knowing what she was going to do, both Alex and Kate braced themselves, their hands covering their faces. Breaking hard, the car disappeared within its own cloud of dust. Parked side-on to the hill, it was perilously close to its tipping point.
“Not yet. Wait, wait … wait … okay, go now.” Almost before Kate’s and Alex’s doors had had time to close, Rose slammed the Volvo into reverse. She took out at least four ancients who had been rushing the car from behind, before breaking hard. Changing direction, she ploughed through six, possibly seven ancients who were coming at the car head on. Spinning the wheel, she slammed the side of the car into three more, sending them hurtling off into a deep valley, though not before one had managed to send a sword through the Volvo’s windscreen. It ended up embedded in the seat Alex had been sitting in only moments before.
Having lost the element of surprise, though having inflicted more damage on ancients than she could have hoped for, Rose headed back down the hill, taking out four more ancients as she did. That was around twenty ancients who would not be fighting again, not before their Hathor had turned back into being their Hathor.
Having crossed the railway line, Rose was about to embark a route that she had never taken before. She needed a clear view, rather than one through a shattered windscreen. “Alex, would you use that sword to clear me a view?”
He pulled himself up, out of the footwell, before using the hilt of the sword to push the windscreen out. Rose braked to help it on its way. Falling onto the bonnet, she weaved left and right until it slid off. The air rushing in was warm, welcome, though it made their eyes water.
“Do you think they suspected that we didn’t leave the car?” Kate asked, in the sure knowledge that this part of her plan had actually gone to plan!
Just to the left of Ankhtifi’s tomb were two burial pits, these sat side by side. The opening to the dilapidated tomb they were in was wide, whilst each pit was deep. Ancients would be kept busy searching for Kate and Alex for ages.
“Hold on,” Rose shouted as they entered the tunnel, out of which Alex had shot as though he had been fired from a cannon. With her foot to the floor they headed down at a ludicrous angle, as well as at a ludicrous speed.
The loss of the Volvo’s driver door mirror prompted Kate to reassure Rose. “It widens out at the bottom,” she managed to say, even though her cheeks were pressing into her face by the force of the incoming air.
The car’s powerful headlights bounced off a wall that curved around to their left, as they continued to head ever deeper underground. Rose had so far managed to navigate the long sweeping bend. Kate and Alex had so far managed not to scream.
Now, as the curve to their left tightened, and the downward rake shallowed, it allowed for a build-up of sand. It was as slippery as ice. Alex’s door mirror smashed into the wall, breaking off before being projected through the window beside Kate. Narrowly missing her, it caused her to scream, before leaving through the tailgate window.
Now the entire side of the Volvo slammed against the wall, sending a shower of sparks off behind them. Alex’s window imploded; Rose fought with the steering. She knew that the car could take the punishment, that was not her worry, it was the rapidly dropping speedometer in front of her which was the cause of her concern. The wall was acting as a brake, it was slowing them down far too much. If the slope they were about to climb was as steep as Kate had made it out to be, the one thing they could not afford to lose was momentum. Grip should not be a problem, as any sand would have descended to where they were now.
Managing to get the car away from the wall – a clear ten millimetres away from it – Rose had stopped it from slowing. In her attempts to power the car through the sand, to regain the momentum they had lost, it fishtailed just enough to first dislodge the left-hand side of the rear bumper, then the right-hand side. Flapping around behind the car it made far too much noise, before finally it broke free.
Their upward momentum started well, though having hit the steep incline at a far lower speed than Rose had anticipated, all too quickly she was having to drop down through the gears as the car struggled. The Volvo had plenty of traction whilst it was moving, its lights lighting up a decorated ceiling well ahead, that only Alex knew was an ancient zodiac, though its forward motion was dropping alarmingly. Once stationary, its wheels would not have to move for it to slide
backwards.
Kate and Alex had been forced back into their seats on the way down, due to the speed they had been travelling, now, with Rose fighting to keep the car from becoming stationary, whilst being only slightly less vertical than a rocket, they were being pushed back into their seats with just as much force.
“Would anybody like to get out and push?” Rose asked.
All conversations were now having to take place over the ever-increasing engine noise.
Kate and Alex both turned to look back. Dreadful mistake. Nothing in the world would stop any car, on a slope as steep as this, from sliding backwards, once it had lost all forward momentum. The flaming torches, which now lit their decent, letting them know that their way into the El Moalla tunnel complex had been discovered.
“I think that I preferred it when it was dark.” Alex turned back, deciding that it was better to look forward rather than back.
For once, Kate did not disagree with him. She watched as the tunnel, right down at the bend, became a solid wall. “Rose?”
“I can see it in my mirror.”
“What can you see?” Alex was starting to sound panicky.
“Magic!”
“What magic?” Of course he was worried about the situation they found themselves in, though he had not been too worried if the car slid back down. However quickly they descended the sand would slow them, bring them safely to a stop. Magic erecting a solid wall that they would hit at speed was quite another thing.
“Eyes front, Alex, we need to see who cast that magic.”
“If we hit that we are dead!”
“Forget what’s behind us. Both of you, focus on what’s up ahead. Whoever cast that magic is the person we need to get our hands on. That will be the person behind all of this.” Rose continued revving the engine whilst working the clutch. The car continuously jerked, there was the terrible smell of a burning clutch combined with that of an engine overheating, though, at least, they were not yet going backwards. They were still managing to move forward, if only centimetre by centimetre.
“There,” Alex said at the same time as he pointed. A hand had briefly come into view. “I saw a hand.”
“Whose?”
“Sorry, Rose. Too far away to make out whose hand it was … male, female, large or small, I don’t know.”
Neither Kate nor Rose had even registered that the change in light coming from above had been caused by a hand. Six eyes were now staring up at the spot Alex had pointed to. Less than a minute later they were met by six eyes staring down at them.
“I’d like to have said that it was nice to meet you, but it wasn’t,” the young girl shouted. “Kill the engine and accept your fate.” Celina and her parents waved Kate, Alex and Rose goodbye, grinning as they did.
“I’d rather kill you,” Kate shouted back in a vain attempt at defiance. Either the clutch or the engine would fail, perhaps both. Their death was inevitable.
“Would you really like to kill her?” Rose asked over the noise of the engine.
“That’s the most flipping stupid question I have ever heard you ask. She is pure evil. She deserves to die.”
“She does, Rose,” Alex shouted before correcting himself. “They do. Hathor heals the sick, she is good and kind, whilst those …” he pointed to the three grinning faces looking down at them. “See how happy they look to see us die. It’s them who want to bring Sekhmet back to cause destruction. To hurt good people, like Cairo.”
“Slide across the seat, Kate. Make sure that your head is directly in front of a headrest. Alex?”
“Yes?”
“Twist the cigarette lighter as far to the right as it will go, then thump it with the palm of your hand.” He hesitated.
“We are certainly dead if we hit that wall behind us. We could well be dead if you hit that lighter, but it’s our only chance. I can’t hold our position much longer.” Rose was really having to fight to keep a balance between an overheating engine and a burning clutch.
Alex turned the lighter as far right as he could.
Rose shouted, “Brace yourselves.”
Thumping the lighter in as hard as he could, Alex was immediately pushed, as though by truck, back into his seat. Unlike magic there was no delay. The explosion of the fuel tank behind Kate took out the entire rear section of the car. It shot backwards just as quickly as they shot forwards.
If the Volvo ever needed to be destroyed, in order to safeguard its secrets, then this was the way to do it. Rose had worked on the assumption that the energy from the explosives packed around the fuel tank would, due to the angle of the car, be projected backward, thus sending them forward.
The grins of Celina and her parents did not have time to leave their faces. The car took them out as though they had been skittles. Crashing through the rear corner of Neferkare’s tomb, the front section of the Volvo did not stop before it jammed itself diagonally into her tomb entrance.
Cocooned within airbags, Kate, Alex and Rose were unhurt, though they were having to fight to push the airbags out of their way. The car was being engulfed by smoke, so they desperately needed to get out. Alex, kicking the door open, stepped out into the corridor leading to the Sekhmet tomb. Rose helped Kate over the passenger seat. Alex, taking hold of a hand, helped her out of the door he had left the car by. Rose slid across, stepping out beside them. They were all now standing just a few metres from the Sekhmet tomb.
With the old Volvo predating airbags, Alex realised that they must have been yet another of Dr Margretti’s ‘toys’, just as the explosives had been. They looked to the smouldering remains of the car before turning to look up the dark corridor, a flicker of light appearing along the long slim opening to the Sekhmet tomb.
“Didn’t they have lovely teeth?”
“What?” Alex looked at Kate incredulously.
“Celina and her parents.”
“Sorry, Kate?” Alex really could not believe what he was hearing.
“Celina and her parents had such lovely white teeth. All in line, quite perfect. I couldn’t help but notice as we ploughed through them.”
“Are you feeling alright, Kate?”
“Perfectly, Rose. It’s just that their teeth were so perfect, so inline, so white. Each one matching the tooth next to it. In England, we look as though we have teeth which were bought individually at various car boot sales.”
“I think that you had better sit down for a moment.”
“No, no, no, Rose, I’m fine,” Kate said in such a way that she sounded anything except fine. “It’s just that I’m stuck with my teeth. Each one as individual as I am.” She paused. Alex and Rose looked to each other, neither knowing what to do. “There is one thing though–” Kate looked as though she was sinking to the floor, that was before she pounced, catlike, between Alex and Rose. The sound of somebody hitting the wall hard, the clink of metal landing on the floor just before two bodies did, alerted Alex and Rose to a threat that they had failed to see.
The fight on the ground was over almost as quickly as it had begun. Leonie stood, assassin’s dagger in hand. Kate held her hand outstretched, into which Alex placed the dagger he had just picked up.
Kate really had thought that she could have taken Leonie quite easily. “You are strong, I’ll give you that, but at least my teeth don’t glow in the dark.”
“I shall remember that for the next time we meet.”
“There is not going to be a next time. Give yourself up, you can’t get away.”
“That sounds almost as corny as your dying friend in there, with his stupid Colombo impersonations.” She gestured towards the light coming from the Sekhmet tomb. “Whichever one of you has the papyrus, give it to me and I will let him live.”
“Never!”
“Give it to her, Kate.” Rose looked to Leonie: “It’s in her bag.”
“Never! Whose side are you on?”
“Sorry, Kate, I won’t stand here and let Cairo die. We have Leonie’s word that she will let him live if
you give her the papyrus. We do have your word, Leonie, don’t we?”
“Of course, but you had better be quick. Now … hand me the papyrus.” Leonie held out her free hand whilst making sure that her dagger was positioned to stop Kate from playing any tricks.
Kate reluctantly did.
After grabbing hold of it Leonie made a sweeping slash with her dagger. Instinctively Kate, Alex and Rose stepped back, giving Leonie the gap that she needed to be able to make a run for it.
“I’ll get her, you two save Cairo.”
Chapter 24
-
Face to Face
“This close to Ankhtifi and we lost the papyrus. I really don’t believe it. Why did she want it? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Alex was moving quickly towards the flickering light coming from the narrow opening to the Sekhmet tomb, when he stopped, turned to Kate, and said: “You said it yourself. For whatever reason, they want to keep us away from our family. How better to achieve that than to get us chasing the papyrus rather than being back where we should be?”
“Or being here rescuing, Cairo!” she added under her breath, though just loud enough for Alex to make out.
“We must get him out of here.”
“I know … Do you think we have worry about Celina and her parents coming up behind us?”
“You must be joking! Didn’t you see them fly up into the air? If they survived that, which I seriously doubt anybody could at the speed we ploughed into them, then they most certainly wouldn’t have survived crashing down against that magic wall.” He did not mean to be so abrupt, so added: “They will need so much more than a good dentist!”
“Oh, yes, they will,” Kate said as she moved towards him.
Alex was down on the floor, sliding himself into the Sekhmet tomb headfirst, when he felt a hand grab first one ankle, then his other. He was about to start kicking like crazy when her heard Kate say: “No, Alex, we have this all wrong. Something has been bugging me.”
Ankhtifi's Papyrus Page 19
