Alex entered the drawing room to find one of the windows open and five finger-like tendrils of thick fog extending through it and hovering over Michael's carry-cot. Alex frowned and extended his right hand towards the window, which immediately slammed shut. Alex went to the cot and lifted his brother into his arms.

'Hey there, Mikey,' he said soothingly. 'What's all this noise about, huh? You're getting as bad as the rest of them... but at least you have the excuse of only being five weeks old! I don't know what's wrong with everyone today. There's definitely something in the air, and I'm not just talking about the fog... or maybe I am, huh? Are you feeling it too, Mikey?'

Michael had stopped crying almost as soon as Alex had picked him up. Alex gently hugged his brother to his chest for a few moments, then he put the baby back in the carry-cot and took it over to the couch. Alex sat down and placed the carry-cot beside him, then he let out a long sigh.

'I don't know, Mikey,' said Alex, 'maybe I'm over-thinking the whole situation. I mean, just because this fog has been hanging around for days and now everyone's depressed, that doesn't necessarily mean it's some kind of evil fog, does it? Maybe I'm just seeing the supernatural in the naturally unusual. But can you really blame me for that, after everything I've been through? It's not always easy being the Supreme Medjai, you know. Maybe... maybe I'm not so good of a Supreme Medjai. I've made a lot of mistakes, Mikey... mistakes that might make me a highly unsuitable role model for you, come to think of it. Maybe you'd be better off without me. Maybe I should just go back to Egypt and get myself out of everyone's hair. Maybe...'

Alex's eyes slid shut and his head lolled back on the couch cushion. His mind was immediately assaulted by images of his past failures and mistakes. He felt the Manacle of Osiris attaching itself to his wrist with an unbreakable grip. He saw himself taking one risk too many with a herd of rhinos. He looked into the Well Spring of Darkness and remembered its tantalising power. He relived the moment when his own self-doubt had caused the ship that he and his family were travelling on to burst into flames.

He saw Yanit dangling from the mandibles of the Scarab. He looked into the hate-filled eyes of Elder Garth. He watched his grandfather disappear into the desert. He saw himself hurling the small figure of Safin to the floor with tremendous force. He felt the claw-like fingers of Imhotep burrowing their way into the flesh of his back. He screamed.

Alex's eyes snapped open. He saw immediately that the drawing room was now thick with the cloying grey fog. He glanced over to the window. It was open again.

'I... I knew it,' Alex muttered. 'It's... it's evil fog!'

He tried to stand up, but found that he did not have the strength. He heard Michael gurgle in the carry-cot beside him. Alex smiled down at his brother, and put his left hand into the cot. Michael grasped Alex's forefinger in his tiny hands. Alex smiled, and his eyes slid shut again.

Alex saw himself happy and triumphant. He was passing his final test to become a fully qualified Medjai warrior. He was activating his telekinetic powers for the first time to snatch the Medallion of the Medjai from Imhotep's grasp. He was raising Imhotep above his head and hurling him into the Underworld.

He was trapping the Scarab in its amulet form. He was sitting up in his bed and hugging Yanit. He was shaking hands with Zain and Hamza. He was indulging in a topless hug with Fadil. He was running across the desert sand to meet his father. He was being gathered into the welcoming arms of his mother. He was holding his baby brother for the first time.

Alex's eyes opened again. Michael was still grasping his left index finger. On his right wrist, the Manacle of Osiris had started to glow. The fog in the room had almost completely dissipated. Alex tried again to stand up, but found that he still did not have the energy. He closed his eyes again.

Alex saw himself kissing Yanit for the first time. He went on to relive many of their most tender moments. He found himself lying in his bed. He felt Yanit sliding between the sheets to join him. An enormous smile spread over Alex's face. He then felt a sudden lurching sensation, and fell to his hands and knees on the floor.

Alex blinked in the semi-darkness. His eyes took a few moments to adjust, then he looked around in bewilderment. He could tell with certainty that he was no longer in the drawing room. He was surrounded by walls of stone. There was a wooden chair and table to one side of him, and a large cupboard to the other. In front of him was a bed, on which a figure was curled up in a tight ball, hugging its knees and obviously asleep.

'I... I'm back at the Medjai Academy,' Alex breathed. 'But... but how?'

Alex pulled himself to his feet and walked towards the bed. It did not take him long to recognise the sleeping figure.

'Yanit...' he whispered.

Yanit continued to sleep. Alex reached out to touch her cheek, but he somehow missed it in the darkness.

'Yanit!' he said, more loudly this time. 'I don't understand what's going on here. Is that really you?'

'Alex...' Yanit breathed, still with her eyes closed.

'Yes,' said Alex, 'I'm here, Yanit... at least, I think I am.'

Yanit's eyes opened. She stared up at Alex. He smiled at her. She smiled back. Alex reached out to touch her, but again found that he could not.

'I don't get this, Yanit,' said Alex. 'Are you really here? Am I really here? I want to touch you but I can't!'

'I want you to touch me too, Alex,' said Yanit. 'This must be a dream, I think – one where the object of your desire is forever tantalisingly out of your reach.'

'I guess that makes sense,' said Alex. 'I mean, you're definitely the object of my desire.'

'And you're the object of mine,' said Yanit. 'Oh Alex, you have no idea how much I want you right now... how much I need you! I suppose that's why I'm imagining that you're here with me; you're so far away from me, I can only have what I want in the deepest realms of sleep.'

'I think I'm trying to overcome the effects of some kind of evil fog, and you're my beacon of light,' said Alex. 'That must be why I'm getting such a strong image of you.'

'It's interesting to hear you say that, Alex. Do I look like an image to you? You certainly look like an image to me... translucent, I mean.'

'Um...' said Alex. 'No, you look completely solid.'

'I wish I could say the same thing about you,' said Yanit. 'Oh my God, you're not dead, are you? You're not appearing to me as a ghost?'

'I... I really don't think I'm dead,' said Alex. 'I mean, I don't feel dead... or not so far as I know, anyway.'

'You don't look dead either,' Yanit agreed. 'I can tell from your eyes, I think. That settles it, then – you must be a figment of my imagination, because I love you and I miss you and I want you so much.'

'And you must be a figment of my imagination, because I love you and I miss you and I want you so much,' said Alex.

'Well, it's good to've gotten that sorted out,' Yanit said, with a wry smile.

'I... I wish you would've come with me to London, Yanit.'

'So do I, now. But no; that's selfish of me. You need to spend time with your family, Alex.'

'That's not really a very attractive prospect at the moment,' said Alex, 'with the way they're all behaving... well, except for Mikey.'

'Is that your little brother?' Yanit asked.

'Yeah,' Alex grinned. 'He's beautiful, Yanit.'

Yanit smiled back at him for a moment, then her face clouded over and tears began to run down her cheeks. Alex looked horrified and tried again to reach out to her, but he met with no more success than the previous two times.

'Yanit, what's wrong?' Alex asked shrilly.

'Oh... nothing, really,' said Yanit. 'I'm being silly. I just... I wish so much that you were really here with me, and that I could touch you and hold you and... and... and just be with you!'

'Why?' said Alex. 'I mean, why more than usual? Because it is more than usual, Yanit – even I can see that!'

'I'm just missing you, that's all,' said Yanit. 'And I'm wishing to God that I'd come with you so that... well, so that we could've been together.'

'We will be together, Yanit, really soon! And then we'll never, ever leave each other's side again, I promise you!'

'You shouldn't make promises you can't keep, Alex.'

'But I can keep that promise!' said Alex. 'I will keep that promise! Nothing means more to me than you, Yanit. I'd turn away from the Medjai life and fly off with you in Rupert to some island paradise where we could live together in ecstasy for the rest of our lives, if that's what you wanted!'

'Oh, Alex,' Yanit sighed, 'what a beautiful and exciting mental picture you paint. But it's only a dream, you know. The reality is that I'd end up disappointing you and letting you down.'

'No!' said Alex. 'Yanit, you could never disappoint me, or let me down!'

'You wouldn't say that if you knew.'

'Knew what?'

'What I've done!'

'What you've done?'

Yanit nodded, then she started crying again. Alex desperately tried to reach out to her, but yet again his hands closed on thin air.

'I don't care!' Alex declared. 'Do you hear me, Yanit? I don't care! Whatever you've done, I love you and I need you and I wish with all my heart that you were here with me right now!'

'But I am here, Alex. You're the one who's not here. I mean, you can't be, can you? I wish it was really you... and that you really did say all those wonderful things to me.'

'But it is me, and I did say them! I don't know why and I don't know how, but I'm here with you, Yanit. At least, a part of me is... the most important part of me!'

'I wish I could believe you.'

'I'll prove it to you!'

'How?'

'I'll... I'll kiss you! That'll show you I'm really here, won't it?'

'Oh, Alex,' said Yanit, 'there's nothing I'd love more in the world than for you to kiss me right now... but I just don't believe it's possible.'

'Of course it's possible!' said Alex. 'If we truly love each other, anything's possible! And I do love you, Yanit. I don't care how Ardeth or anyone else wants to rationalise it, and I don't care how young I am, and I don't care that one or both of us might not really be here – I love you with all my heart and that's all there is to it!'

'I love you with all my heart, Alex,' said Yanit. 'But do you really think that's enough?'

'It's enough for anything – enough for everything!' said Alex. 'Close your eyes, Yanit, and I promise I'll kiss you – there's no force on Earth or Heaven that can stop me!'

Yanit smiled at Alex and closed her eyes. Alex kept his gaze trained on her face for several seconds, forming a complete picture of it in his mind. He closed his eyes; still Yanit's features were etched into his brain.

Alex leaned forward and pressed his lips to Yanit's. She made a vocalisation of pleasure; her own lips started to move under his. Then, with another sickening lurch, Alex found himself back on his hands and knees on the floor of his parents' drawing room.

Alex jumped to his feet. He quickly noticed that there was no longer any sign of the evil fog in the room, and that the Manacle of Osiris was glowing very brightly. He looked into the carry-cot and saw that Michael was sleeping contentedly. He smiled.

Alex ran over to the open window and peered out into the street. The fog was still lingering outside, but it was noticeably less soupy than before. Alex stuck his right arm through the window. He watched the tendrils of fog apparently shying away from the intense glow of the Manacle. He nodded.

Alex ran into the kitchen to find Rick, Evy and Jonathan still standing around in a disconsolate manner.

'Guys, we have to stop the fog!' Alex exclaimed.

'We can't stop the fog, Alex,' said Evy. 'We just have to wait for it to lift. It can't be too much longer now.'

'That's exactly where you're wrong, Mom!' said Alex. 'It'll never lift so long as it still has people's negative emotions to feed on – that's what it's doing, you take my word for it!'

'Don't be silly, mate,' said Jonathan. 'It's just regular fog.'

'It's not regular fog – it's evil fog!' Alex insisted. 'I don't just know that for a fact – I can feel it too, because I'm the Supreme Medjai!'

'That's your excuse for everything nowadays, sport,' said Rick. 'Kinda like "because of the Manacle" used to be your excuse for everything.'

'Well, it's not like that wasn't a true excuse!' said Alex. 'The Manacle did make me remember those erased timelines, and it helped me to break the spell of the Aglaophones, and it... well, it did a ton of other stuff for me as well. And I'm telling you now, just like I told you all those other times, I know for sure that the fog is not just ordinary fog! Maybe it's an evil entity that feeds on human emotions, or maybe it's some kind of genetically engineered weapon that's escaped from some freaky lab somewhere, or maybe it was actually created by a huge build-up of humankind's own negative emotions, which wouldn't surprise me with the way the world is right now... but none of that really matters! The fact is that the fog is here, it's evil, and we need to get rid of it!'

Rick, Evy and Jonathan exchanged glances.

'Even if you're right about the fog, Alex,' said Evy, 'that's not to say we have the power to do anything about it.'

'But we do have the power, Mom!' said Alex. 'All of us have the power! The fog can be defeated with strong positive emotions! I was just in the drawing room and I made all the fog in there disappear by thinking about you guys and Mikey and my Medjai friends and... well, some other stuff that I'd rather not talk about right now. But it made the Manacle of Osiris glow and it, like, killed the fog, or at least scared it off or something. So all we have to do is think about how much we love each other and direct our positive feelings through the Manacle – which is coming into its own in this plan as the world's most powerful conduit – and I'm sure we can kill all the rest of the fog!'

'But I don't have any positive feelings right now,' said Jonathan. 'My business is a flop and I'm going to be eviscerated by loan sharks.'

'I don't have any positive feelings either,' said Rick. 'I'm a failure as a father and as a person.'

'And I'm just a redundant librarian who couldn't write an adventure novel to save her life,' said Evy. 'Plus the chicken I'm making is undoubtedly going to taste like arse.'

'Look, I had to fight to overcome my negative emotions too,' said Alex. 'It wasn't easy... but I did it, and so can you! If you're not getting enough warm fuzzies from me, just think about Mikey! He's a blessing and a miracle and the best thing that could possibly have happened to this family as a follow-up to our mummy-chasing adventures!'

'We... we don't deserve him,' said Rick.

'That's right,' said Evy. 'Mikey would be better off without us.'

'Would he?' said Alex, adopting a determined look. 'Okay, fine; we'll see about that.'

Alex ran from the room. He returned a few seconds later with the carry-cot in his arms.

'If you guys think he'd be better off without you, I'd better take him back to Egypt with me, hadn't I?' said Alex. 'We'll raise him at the Medjai Academy, okay?'

'Raise him at the Medjai Academy?' Evy said distantly.

'That's right!' said Alex. 'He'll get a huge head-start as a Medjai warrior – quite an opportunity, huh? Don't worry; we'll take very good care of him.'

'Maybe... maybe that would be for the best,' said Rick.

'Yes,' said Evy, 'I think perhaps it would.'

'You won't get to see him very often!' said Alex. 'I don't want you guys turning up whenever you feel like it and interfering with his training schedule!'

'Whatever you say, sport,' said Rick. 'He's your responsibility now, and we'll respect your wishes.'

'Still, it... it would be a shame, I suppose,' said Evy.

'What would be a shame, Mom?' said Alex.

'If Mikey grew up without a mother to take care of him,' said Evy. 'Every little boy needs a mother, right?'

'Yes,' said Jonathan. 'A boy's best friend is his mother.'

'Yanit will be his mother!' said Alex. 'She and I will raise him like he's our own son... so he won't need you anymore, Mom!'

'Oh, well... that's all right, then,' said Evy. 'Go ahead and take him, Alex.'

Alex frowned. He took a few backwards steps towards the door.

'I'm gonna take him in the Zephyr, right now!' said Alex. 'We'll be in Egypt by midnight, and I'm not gonna bring him back to England for... ooh, ages.'

'Whatever you think is best, son,' said Rick.

'Yes,' said Evy. 'We bow to your superior judgement, Alex.'

'Okay,' said Alex, 'if that's what you really want. I'm going into the hallway now... I'm opening the front door!'

The sound of the front door being opened came into the kitchen. Rick, Evy and Jonathan did not react in any way.

'I'm going out of the front door now!' Alex's voice wafted into the room. 'I'm taking Mikey with me, to Egypt! I'm about to close the front door! I'm really gonna do it! Okay, here I go!'

The front door slammed shut. Rick, Evy and Jonathan continued to stare at each other in complete silence. Fog poured into the kitchen through the open window. No one seemed to notice. The room was soon filled with a thick cloud. The three inert figures were all but lost to view.