For a moment there was just silence and Alec told himself that the shot must have missed; but then he felt the impact of an explosion and saw a great flash of light as the petrol ignited. The blast slammed him and Ethan to the ground and a huge gout of oily flame blossomed up over the lip of the abyss.
Whatever had been rising to the surface fell back into the void with a mighty crash, and the ground began to shudder as though in the grip of a mighty earthquake. The movement caused rocks high in the roof to dislodge and rain down. Alec scrambled to his feet and ran to help Madeleine up. She opened her hand to reveal the two objects lying in her palm. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, as though considering taking them with her; but then she turned and flung the amulets into the chasm.
She and Alec started to run for the cave mouth and Ethan joined them. The ground bucked and shuddered as something below the surface thrashed and crashed around the stone labyrinth. As they ran, Alec was aware of the roof above them, sagging, buckling, ready to fall and crush them to a pulp. They emerged from the cave and threw themselves down the incline, tumbling head over heels, not even feeling the impact when their knees and elbows connected with hard scree.
Behind them, the cave roof came down with a thunderous roar and thick clouds of dust enveloped them, but they went on falling. When they finally hit the sand at the bottom of the slope, they leaped up and ran as huge boulders came crashing down behind them.
Glancing fearfully over his shoulder, Alec caught a glimpse of the headless mummy stumbling blindly back uphill before being struck by a boulder the size of an automobile. He didn’t stop to see any more.
They kept on running until they were clear of the last rolling boulders and were able to stop and catch their breath and look back at the devastation behind them.
The Gates of Apophis were gone. As the dust began to settle, all they could see was a great pile of stones where the hillside used to be. A thick red cloud hung in the air above it.
Nobody said anything. They stood there, letting their breathing settle to something like a normal rate, and then glanced at each other, grinning. They kept looking back at the heap of stones, asking themselves what had really happened back in the gloom of the cave.
‘It was real, wasn’t it?’ gasped Alec after a while. ‘We all heard it.’
‘We heard something,’ said Ethan. ‘But we didn’t see anything.’
‘Something was coming up through that crevasse,’ persisted Alec. ‘Something big and powerful. The ground was shaking!’
Ethan frowned. ‘Good job you insisted on bringing that gasoline,’ he said. ‘Whatever was in there must be buried under a hundred tons of rock.’ He laughed incredulously. ‘Maddie, do you realize that if Alec hadn’t—’ He broke off.
Madeleine was standing a short distance away, studying the smouldering remains of her plane. ‘My beautiful Caudron,’ she said. ‘Destroyed.’
Ethan winced, then nodded. He and Alec went to stand with her.
‘I’m sorry,’ muttered Ethan. ‘But there was just no other way to get to you.’
She forced a smile. ‘Under the circumstances, I suppose I’ll have to forgive you,’ she said. She turned to look at them. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Both of you. For saving my life.’
Alec smiled. ‘Our pleasure,’ he said. ‘It was a fluke really. The can was made of copper. I didn’t even notice when I was filling it.’ He looked at the other two and then pointed back towards the place where the Gates of Apophis had been. ‘But I don’t suppose we’ll tell anyone . . . what really happened in there?’
Madeleine laughed. ‘Not if we want anybody to believe us,’ she said.
‘We’ll do what we’ve been doing all along,’ said Ethan. ‘We’ll keep a lid on it, and if anybody asks us awkward questions, we’ll just look like we don’t know anything.’ He jerked a thumb at the devastation behind them. ‘We’ll put that down to an earth tremor,’ he added.
Alec looked around slowly. They were in the middle of the desert and the heat was intensifying. There was no habitation anywhere near them and they had no water.
‘I’m not sure how we get out of this one,’ said Ethan.
‘It can’t end like this,’ said Alec. ‘Not after everything that’s happened.’ He remembered something. ‘Wait! You . . . you told Mickey where we were going, didn’t you?’
‘Well, yeah, I guess if we wait around long enough, he—’
‘What’s that?’ yelled Madeleine, pointing.
Something had appeared on the far horizon: a shimmering mirage against the white sand dunes, tiny at first but rapidly growing in size; and as they watched impatiently, the mirage took on shape and substance. At last they were able to see that it was a group of camels. As the creatures approached, they could see Mickey perched awkwardly on one of them and, riding beside him, an Arab whom Ethan soon identified as the drover they had nearly killed with the plane. They were leading three more camels behind them.
Ethan chuckled. ‘How about that for service?’ he cried.
They sat down on the sand and waited more patiently now. After what seemed like an age, Mickey was grinning down at them.
‘You all right?’ he asked them.
‘We are now,’ said Alec; and he noted with joy that both Mickey and the drover were carrying water canteens over their shoulders.
‘Sorry it took a bit of time,’ said Mickey. ‘We had to catch the camels and then I had to explain to Malik here that I needed his help.’ He looked around, first at the remains of the biplane and then the great heap of rock and dust where the Gates of Apophis used to be.
‘What the hell happened here?’ he asked.
‘It’s a long story,’ said Alec. ‘We’ll tell you all about it on the way home.’
EPILOGUE
One Week Later
THE STEAMSHIP SUDAN was still waiting when they got to the port but it was obvious from the bustle on the quayside that it would soon be leaving. Mohammed brought the Crossley to a halt and sat there proudly for a moment, taking in the admiring glances of his friends and neighbours. Then he got out and limped around to the back to unstrap the luggage.
Alec helped his uncle out of the automobile. He was still frail and subdued, and needed the help of a walking stick, but he had improved considerably since Alec had last seen him; and the doctors had decided that he was now strong enough to make the trip back to Cairo to continue his convalescence. Perhaps in time he would be up to making the long journey back to England. Madeleine got out too and linked her arm with Uncle Will’s.
‘Let me ’elp you aboard,’ she said.
‘Thank you, my dear,’ said Sir William.
There was a grinding noise behind them and Alec turned to see that Mickey was coaxing what was left of the other Crossley to a halt. Mickey had found it abandoned on the sands when he rode by on his camel and had somehow managed to get it towed back to base. He had patched it back together, but after being gunned headlong across that desert road it would never be the same again. Steam boiled from the radiator, but Ethan, sitting beside Mickey, didn’t seem to care. He left Mickey and Coates with the rest of the luggage and hurried over to say his goodbyes. Alec watched as he shook hands with Uncle Will.
‘It’s great to see you looking so much better, sir,’ he said. ‘Now, listen, before you go . . . are you absolutely sure you don’t want to keep any of the antiquities for your own collection?’
Sir William shook his head. ‘I’ve already told the people at the museum – they can have every last bit of it,’ he said. ‘I’m finished with archaeology. Now I just want to sit quietly at home and rest. And we stick to the story, Ethan. We found an antechamber and an empty tomb. Nothing more. Right, Alec?’
Alec nodded. ‘I don’t think anybody would believe us if we told them the truth,’ he said. ‘I’m still not sure what Ethan is supposed to say to the authorities, though. All those people gone without a trace – Tom, Doc Hopper, Llewellyn – and all of them linked to the dig. How will h
e ever explain all that?’
Sir William sighed. ‘He’ll just keep insisting that he doesn’t know anything,’ he suggested.
Ethan nodded. ‘Maybe that ain’t so far from the truth,’ he said. ‘Oh, don’t worry about me, pard. They ain’t gonna pin anything on me!’
Now he turned to smile at Madeleine, and Alec could see the look of regret in his eyes.
‘I’m real sorry you have to travel home the slow way,’ he said.
‘I’m not,’ she assured him. ‘I so very nearly wasn’t travelling ’ome at all. It was a good plane, but there will be others.’
‘It’s a shame your first assignment was something you won’t even be able to talk about,’ Ethan observed.
She shrugged. ‘But it is something I will never forget,’ she told him. ‘It was an incredible adventure and nobody can take that away from me.’
‘You’ll write to me – let me know how you are?’
‘Of course.’ She leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the cheek. ‘Goodbye, Ethan Wade,’ she said. ‘You are a good man. I ’ope you will come to Paris one day so I can show you the sights.’
Ethan grinned. ‘You can bet on it,’ he told her.
Now Madeleine turned to Alec and smiled at him. ‘The same goes for you, Alec Devlin. And I want you to write to me just as soon as you can.’
‘I will,’ he promised.
She reached out and hugged him tightly for a moment. ‘I’m going to miss you,’ she told him; and a slight catch in her voice betrayed the fact that she was close to tears. She turned away quickly, took Sir William’s arm and led him towards the Sudan. Alec and Ethan watched her fondly.
‘Why don’t you ask her to stay?’ asked Alec under his breath.
Ethan snorted. ‘What makes you think I haven’t?’ he muttered. ‘But she has her own life in Paris – stuff she needs to do. And neither of us is ready to settle down. Maybe I’ll meet up with her another time.’
‘Hey, Wade!’ They turned their heads and saw Charlie Connors pushing Biff Corcoran towards them in a wheelchair. Biff had one leg encased in plaster and he still bore the marks of an injury on his forehead.
‘You going on the Sudan too?’ cried Ethan.
‘Yeah. Can’t wait to get out of this hole. The Post has got a nice quiet story lined up for me in New England. Suits me fine.’ Biff took the stub of a cigarette from his mouth and, leaning forward, lowered his voice. ‘Come on, Wade, off the record. What really happened out there in the desert?’
Ethan shrugged his shoulders. ‘Your guess is as good as mine, Biff.’ He looked at Alec. ‘You know anything, kid?’
Alec shook his head. ‘Not a thing,’ he said.
‘You figure?’ Biff clearly wasn’t convinced. ‘We got at least three missing people, a car crash, a photograph of a guy that looks like his face is made of bugs.’ He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. ‘And I got Scary Mary here telling me that she saw a bunch of mummies driving off in your automobile. You telling me you don’t know anything about it?’
Ethan kept his expression blank. ‘No comment,’ he said.
‘Aw, forget it!’ said Biff, waving a hand in dismissal. ‘You know what? I ain’t even interested no more. I wouldn’t please ya to ask any more questions. I just wanna go home.’ He looked up at Charlie. ‘Let’s get aboard this tub before it leaves without us.’
Charlie glanced at Ethan as she went by. She looked harassed. ‘Remember me?’ she said. ‘I used to be a top photographer. These days I’m Biff’s nurse.’
‘Yeah? Well, look after him anyway,’ said Ethan, and he and Alec watched as she pushed the reporter up the gangway.
Now Coates bustled forward, all businesslike. He shook Ethan’s hand but not with any real warmth. ‘Mr Wade,’ he said, ‘I’d like to say it’s been a pleasure, but really it’s been more of an education. I won’t speak to Alec’s father about some of the exploits you got up to. I wouldn’t want to unnerve him.’
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said Ethan. ‘You know, we’re going to miss you up at the dig. We’ll be back to Archie’s cooking for the next few weeks while we get the last of the antiquities packaged up.’
‘I’ve left him full instructions,’ said Coates proudly. ‘I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by his culinary skills.’ He turned his head. ‘Come along, Master Alec,’ he said. ‘The boat will be departing at any minute.’
‘Please don’t call me that,’ pleaded Alec. ‘And could I have a few moments to say goodbye?’
Coates rolled his eyes but obligingly left him to it.
Alec turned to look solemnly at Ethan. ‘Well, I suppose this is it,’ he said.
Ethan nodded. ‘It’s gonna seem kind of quiet without you, Alec.’
Alec laughed and glanced over at Mohammed, who was chatting to Mickey and proudly polishing the bonnet of his new automobile. He lifted a hand to wave. ‘I can’t believe you gave him your best Crossley.’
Ethan shrugged. ‘I won’t be needing it,’ he said. ‘The old one will see me out for the last few weeks. And how else was I gonna swear Mohammed to silence? Don’t forget, he knows quite a bit about what happened.’
Alec chuckled. ‘What are your plans once you’ve finished here?’
‘Well, I’m getting out of Egypt, that’s for sure.’
‘Where will you go?’
‘Haven’t decided yet. What about yourself?
‘Father mentioned Mexico in his last letter,’ admitted Alec.
‘Yeah? I know Mexico like the back of my hand. Say, if your pop needs any help, remember me to him. Tell him to get in touch with me. You can always get a message to me at the Winter Palace – I’ll be around for a while.’
‘I’ll do that,’ said Alec. ‘I’ll talk to him just as soon as I get back.’
‘Good.’ Ethan glanced up at Coates, who was staring frostily at him from the deck of the Sudan. ‘Might be a good idea not to mention it while ol’ Coates is in hearing range. For some reason I still don’t think he approves of me.’
They laughed together and Alec reflected that he was going to miss that.
There was a great honking blast as the steamer sounded its whistle, and somebody shouted the ‘All aboard!’ for the last time.
Alec glanced back to the gangway. The crew were getting ready to remove it. ‘I have to go,’ he said. ‘Take care of yourself, Ethan.’
‘Always.’
They shook hands one more time and then Alec hurried aboard. He joined the others at the rail and the Sudan edged slowly away from the quayside and headed out into mid stream. Ethan stood looking out across the water, an easy grin on his face.
‘Well, that’s the last we’ll see of Mr Wade,’ said Coates, with some satisfaction.
‘I wouldn’t bet on it,’ said Alec, smiling; and he lifted a hand to wave.
Follow the further adventures of Alec Devlin in Empire of the Skull.
Also by Philip Caveney:
Alec Devlin: Empire of the Skull
Alec Devlin: Maze of Death
Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools
Sebastian Darke: Prince of Pirates
Sebastian Darke: Prince of Explorers
ALEC DEVLIN:THE EYE OF THE SERPENT
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The Eye of the Serpent Page 22
