After a long morning researching both the tablet and Ahkmenrah's wife (with the unwanted input of a very scathin librarian at the National History Museum Archives) Larry found himself visiting C.J. Fredericks, who turned out to be Cecil Fredericks - the old man who lusted for youth was a night guard who lived on the power the tablet gave him, along with the two other guards, Gus and Reg. He visited the old peoples home where the three were living. At first they claimed it was behind them but after Larry showed Cecil a photo of a younger version of himself at the expedition, the older man suggested that they talk alone
"Expedition like that, pretty amazing thing for a 12 year old boy." Cecil reminisced as he and Larry sat round a garden table, in the empty conservatory
"I tried to move on but there was something about that tablet" Cecil suddenly became serious
"It's turning green. Some sort of corrosion" Larry confessed. The large conservatory, in which they were, was packed to the rafters with an assortment of tropical floral arrangements.
"And somethings happening to Teddy and Dexter ... Jed and Octavius. They're all acting weird. It's like the green rust is affecting them" Larry added. Towards the end of the younger man's words, Cecil's face fell, a haunted look crossing his wrinkled face
"The end will come" he mumbled
"What?" Larry leaned forward and Cecil seemed to re-enter his body and his mind was suddenly back in the room
"The locals, they-they warned us. They begged us to leave that tomb alone. I-I mean I thought they meant the end of the world ... But maybe it meant the end of the -" Cecil trailed off but Larry filled in his blank:
"Magic"
This seemed to trigger something Cecil who seemed to become engrossed in his own little mantra of:
"We should of listened. Should'a listened"
After a moment or two he snapped out of it and turned his attention back to Larry
"Instead we shipped Ahk and the tablet off and his folks to England" Cecil told him, almost wistful as he recalled the memories
"Wait, wait. Ahkmenrah's parents are in England?" Larry tried to make sense of all the information
"It was a joint expedition. Some of the artefacts stayed in Egypt, the rest was divided up between New York and the British Museum" Cecil added clarity
"Ahk said that his father knew the secrets of the tablet ... I think I'm going to have to go talk to him" Larry deduced
"That's not all. Later in the 80's I had to sign a way my father's right to the digging ground when the Egypt and English authorities formed an agreement to try to find and if so excavate Ahk's wife - there was a programme on about it the other night" Cecil continued, neither affirming or disagreeing with Larry's proposal
"I know"
"Yeah, but one thing that programme smoothed over was the discovery of a ring, in Ahk's wife's tomb. I mean I only know because some of archeologists came to see me after to discuss their finds, y'know keeping everyone in the loop. Anyway this ring, couldn't be found in the tomb which was odd because as you'll know if you've seen the documentary that chamber was basically air locked but it was definitely in their in the Egyptian times. There were many hieroglyphs addressing it was nowhere to be seen"
"What was it that was so special about this ring?"
"Looking at the drawings of it, it's design seemed to perfectly match what were once thought to be scratches on the tablet - like a lock and key kind of fit between the two. Joining them according to the scripts would do unimaginable things" Cecil finished
-line break-
Stubborn and somewhat sensitive in a complicated way, was how Larry would describe Dr McPhee. He was trying to let him and the exhibits visit Switzerland and London to try and solve the mystery of why the tablet was acting up. Unfortunately after the disaster in front of the Governor and Mayor the night before, Dr McPhee was being very very awkward and purposely irrational
"I need you to listen to me" Larry was all but begging now as he jogged to catch up to the pompous English man who was striding quickly.
"Our esteemed chair woman asked for my resignation." Dr McPhee flatlined as they took a detour into his, well his old, office. The room was still the same as before at a quick glance but it became clear after a minutes or and personal touches or effects that had once been there were gone. The desk was bare and the whole room was pretty stark of any character. Dr McPhee continued over to the coffee table where two boxes, already bulging with office junk, were sat
"She said since the night programme was my brain child, that the book starts and stops with me" Dr McPhee started shuffling around inside and re-organising one of the boxes
"I can fix it" Larry assured
"How?" You could here the disbelief as well as how fed up Dr McPhee was in his tone
"I need you to let me take the tablet and Ahkmenrah to Switzerland and then London" Larry tried to make it sound plausible
"…" Dr McPhee's mouth just hung open, shocked into speechlessness - a first
"I ... Sorry, just processing that. Bleed do, bleh, blud debbie do ... Input Data analysis" Dr McPhee mimicked a computer before hot footing back over to Larry.
"I've just told you I'm being fired and the first thing you ask is if is allow you can take some priceless artefacts away with you on holiday?!" Dr McPhee cried in exasperation
"Yes" Larry winced at how foolish his previous offer had sounded
"No ... " came the immediate reply
"Please"
" ... Wayyyyyy. Naaaahhhhh ..." Dr McPhee began to drag out his decline so Larry just resorted to speaking over him:
"I'm asking you to please go with me on this! Please!"
"Can't do it dude!" Dr McPhee started speaking proper English again. At his refusal, Larry turned in his heel and began to leave, or so Dr McPhee assumed
"Bye" Dr McPhee called but Larry went to the door, closed it before walking determinedly back to in front of him
"Are you gonna mug me?!" Dr McPhee's voice became high as he recoiled, hands braced out in front of him
"What?!" Larry's eyebrows furrowed
"Well I don't know! Just being prepared" The suited English man dropped his hands and regained a formal stance
"I need you to listen to me, ok?" Larry began again. Dr McPhee uttered a quiet 'yep' with a curt nod, though Larry didn't really respond to it, he just continued:
"Ok, the truth is ... The truth is the tablet is actually magic. Things really do come to life at night"
"It's special affects" came the perplexed response of the Dr
"It's not"
"It's special effects"
"How could it be special effects?" Larry tried not to sound too harsh but it didn't really work
"How could it not be special effects?" Came the equally harsh reply
"It isn't!"
"Of course it is!"
"I'm telling you, this is what happens"
"What?"
"The sun goes down, the tablet starts to glow and everything comes to life"
"Shut up"
"It's real"
"Tablet starts to glow? Now I know you're mental" Dr McPhee lamented and began to walk away, Larry following quietly
"No, listen -" Larry tried to reason in a lower, calmer tone
"Ah!" Dr McPhee jumped out of his skin, obviously not aware that the 'mad man' was following him
"Listen to me, I … I'm not gonna hurt you!" Larry exclaimed, noticing that the other man had backed right up against the wall to get away from him
"I know, just ..." Dr McPhee tried to make out his was stretching
"What? ... No one cares about this place as much as we do, right?"
"Yep"
"If you don't help me, everything that's special about it might stop and it may never come back. I'm not asking you to understand I'm asking you to trust me" Larry stated calmly
"I'd like to help you but I don't even work here anymore" Dr McPhee replied in an equally low tone
"The Museums in Geneva and England don't know that" Larry grinned cheekily
-line break-
After a few phone calls and multiple emails later the deal was done. Ahkmenrah and a few other select artefacts from the display would go to Switzerland and then London but the the Egyptian Queen Tropeaka would join Ahkmenrah's display and also make the move to the UK.
Larry had arranged with Nick's mum, Erica that she would have him while he was in Switzerland and then Nicky would fly out to join him London.
Currently Larry was signing the papers necessary to extend Ahk's exhibit to his wife and her display.
"Right so, that's all done then" the director of the museum in Geneva confirmed. She was a small lady, very petite with obvious Latin features.
"Right thank you, Dr Holly. Erm, I'm gonna stay - pack her up over night so I'm out of the way for tomorrow." Larry smiled
"Of course, I'll inform security" Dr Holly smiled before she sashayed away
-line break-
Larry waited in storage, until the time came. He'd had to come up with a few excuses as to why he wasn't packaging the Egyptian display up but apart from that it'd gone pretty well. Now, with sun down past and the tablet beginning to wake, Larry helped Ahk out of his crate, unaware of the nasty surprise in store for him
"Erm, Larry the others thought that perhaps we could use there help" Ahkmenrah said as soon as he was on to two feet and straightened out his robes
"The others?" Larry sounded as perplexed as he looked
"Yes, you see you only told us why you were going to England, never Switzerland - they were worried" Ahk added sheepishly as he begun to unwrap his tablet
"There was a reason for that, it's sort of private. I'm going to need a word with you, Ahk. For now though, which others?" Larry ran a hand over his face. The young pharaoh also looked confused now but quickly regained himself.
"Well ..." The pharaoh began but an explosion of polystyrene cuttings from a crate cut him off.
"Laurence! I couldn't stand idly by, our very survival is at stake" Former president of the USA, Teddy Roosevelt appeared from the box that was packed tightly with the little White polystyrene protective pieces
"Alright, alright. Hey, Teddy, hey. Good. Good man to have in a crisis" Larry said the first but more to himself before addressing the living wax work. In the open crate next to Teddy, a large mass rose up also covered in pieces of polystyrene after shaking violently off it was revealed to be Attila the Hun, who also shot a piece of polystyrene out of his mouth as soon as he came up out of the box
"Attila, nice a little muscle" Larry stiffly appraised and than Sacagawea, literally popped up.
"Hi Larry" she greeted but all she got in return, from the night guard was:
"That is a deceptively large box"
"Obviously we came along too!" Octavius spoke up from his seat in Attila's helmet
"You know you'd be lost without us, gigantor!" Jed proclaimed appearing next to his little friend
"Are you been serious?!" Larry hissed at Ahk, who just shrugged keeping a placid façade. Just when Larry thought it could no worse, Dexter jumped on out on to the ledge of the box containing Attila, Sacagawea, Jed and Octavius
"... And the monkey" Larry sighed
"Ok, and the monkey. Basically everyone" Larry spoke a little louder.
Then, flinging himself up from the polystyrene, La appeared and in doing so scattering polystyrene pieces every where.
"Dada!" The Neanderthal look-a-like of Larry uttered, his eyes wide with excitement
"Oh! Oh no! No possible benefit whatsoever!"
"He really wanted to come" Ahk defended
"Now Larry, why exactly are we here?" Teddy asked as the exhibits began clambering out of their traveling crates
"Er, well, um … Ahk it's kinda private … do you want me to-" Larry stammered
"No, whatever you want to say can be said in front of everyone" Ahkmenrah reassured. Larry gulped and nodded before explaining:
"Well I was talking to Cecil about what was happening with the tablet. He said that we don't only need your parents, that we also need a woman called Tropeaka? I believe that's how it's pronounced, your ..."
"Wife" Ahkmenrah said quietly but was still heard. The young pharaoh went silent his eyes becoming glassy as he walked away from the group a little to be alone in his thoughts while Larry dealt with the shock of the other exhibits.
"You mean to tell me that the walking jingle bell has a Missis?" Jed didn't sound convinced
"Yes Jed" Larry reinstated the fact
"Well many a wedding at that time were arranged, is it possible their relationship wasn't a good one?" Teddy offered a thesis
"I don't kno-" Larry began but Ahk rejoined the conversation, in a soft but impacting tone, saying:
"Tropeaka and I were more than happy. She was my adopted sister, we grew up together. We were each other's best friend for the entirety of our lives. She was so special not only to me but to our people, she was unique in soul and body - with her golden hair and skin most people thought she was an angel."
"She sounds lovely" Sacagawea smiled a sad small smile, the former king sounded so desperate. He was longing for his wife and had been for a long time
"She was. She was to have my child but Karmunrah killed all three of us, neither of us got to meet our baby - we were all killed while it was still in Tro's w-womb … we have never been displayed together, to be honest I didn't even know if she'd been discovered after all our brother was so hell bent on keeping us apart in the afterlife" at one point Ahk's resolve crumbled, and a tear or two escaped his eyes but he quickly got himself together. The others were left stunned and upset, Attila moved to near tears, by the story. Sacagawea was huddled up into Teddy, Jed and Octavius were cuddling in Attila's hat and Dexter had leaped on to Larry and hid his head in his shoulder
"Ahk, you-your baby-y … it was a bo-oy. Historians called him Ahk" Larry informed him, choking up a bit
"A boy? Ahk? Oh Larry, thank you!" Ahkmenrah hugged him fiercely. The mood was immediately lightened and smiles broke out among the others. As the two pulled apart, Larry beamed from ear-to-ear while Ahk could barely stand still.
"Well c'mon, let's go find your wife!" Larry laughed