"Look, let him out of there, and do it now."

The huge man shook his head. Jenny took a step forward, and he raised his ornate bronze sword.

"Come no closer, lady. He will remain here until his punishment."

"Not bloody likely." Jenny replied, hands crossed over her chest.

"I want you to let him out of there, and I don't want to hurt you. So do me a favor and get out of the way."

The man's placid face curled with an unpleasant smile.

"We have taken your man, lady. I was there at the capture. Even if he is wise as the god Thoth himself, he is weak as an antelope. If your men folk are so weak, I would hurt you at a touch of the hand. Do not make me do such a thing, to such a pale little flower as yourself." The man put out one large hand, his smile going from unpleasantly smug to nearly lecherous. Jenny cocked her head, looked him up and down. Then she kicked him neatly in the kneecap. As he went down, she landed a nice jab into his solar plexus. He hit the stone floor with a really satisfying thunk.

Looking down into his shocked face, Jenny smiled sweetly.

"See, here's the thing. My father has a thing about not hitting people, even when they really deserve it. Me, I don't. So when you get up, stay out of my way, all right?"

Her father was sitting on the stone bench inside the room, studying the painted wall. He turned and smiled.

"Oh, hello. These hieroglyphs are really quite lovely. I've gotten plenty of pictures of them. We can update the TARDIS information banks, language banks too."

Jenny forced back a growl of annoyance. "Great, Father. Can we go now?" They really needed to hurry. If more guards showed up, things could get messy.

Her father jumped to his feet.

"Yep. Let's go. Too bad I annoyed these folks; I'd of loved to look at a few more of their burial temples. Amazing artwork. Even at such a primitive point, humans still have such great artwork. And the engineering is-"

"Going into their burial chapel is what got us into this mess in the first place." Jenny snapped. "Why the hell didn't you know that we weren't supposed to go near one in this culture? They think you've insulted their gods and the soul of the man they buried in there."

"Mummified in there, Jenny. The Egyptians mummified bodies, they didn't bury them. I thought they might frown on it a bit, but I didn't know they'd make such a fuss over a little poking about. Now…" Her father fell silent, staring wide-eyed at the guard who stood against the far wall, his eyes huge, pale under his dark coloring.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Forceful persuasion. Now can we get moving?"

"Jenny, did you.."

"Yes, I hit him, no, he didn't hit me first, yes, he was a threat, and you can lecture me later. Now will you get a bloody move on?"

The minute Jenny got out of the room, she spotted the next shift of guards. Grabbing her father's hand, she took off at a sprint, towing him behind her. Did he have no instinct for self-preservation?

At least she'd gotten them out fast enough to get back to the TARDIS. They'd be safe in a second.

No thanks to him. He was still talking about Egyptian culture, even while they ran.

If he didn't shut up and speed up, she might very well be the one to kill him.

There was the ship. They were in.

Safe.

And he was still talking about the hieroglyphs, grinning madly.

Jenny rolled her eyes. How her father had lived this long without her, she had absolutely no bloody clue.