The Contessa shut the door behind her and waved the gun at Ace again. The corridor was dark except for the moonlight coming in through the windows, and the pulsing green glow of the Contessa's scarab ring.
"Keep moving." She commanded. Ace scowled at the Contessa, then began to walk down the corridor, towards the luggage car.
"Wait!" The Contessa's voice rang out. Ace stopped moving and turned round to face her.
"Make up your mind." Said Ace, trying to sound nonchalant. "Not very good at this, are you?"
The Contessa didn't reply, but instead brought the scarab ring up to her mouth. She whispered something into it, but Ace couldn't quite make out what she was saying.
"Just having a word with your friend, are you? I should be careful, if I were you. The Doctor's right, you know, that thing's a killing machine."
The Contessa smiled wickedly, and Ace had the feeling that this was what the mouse saw, just before the cat pounced.
"Just telling it to guard this door, to make sure no one tries to follow us."
"Worried that young Tommy's not up to the job? I think he's gone mental, if you ask me."
The Contessa looked angry for a moment, and perhaps a little afraid: Ace had clearly touched a nerve. Her composure returned almost immediately, however, and she ushered Ace along the corridor again.
"I won't need Tommy for this procedure. You will be able to assist me quite admirably."
Ace said nothing, and tried not to think about exactly what this 'procedure' might entail.
They continued along the corridor, and as they passed Crowley's room Ace noticed that the door was open just a crack, and she could see the glint of an eyeball as the green glow from the ring pulsed again. Crowley must have escaped in all the confusion! If the Contessa didn't notice the open door, then Crowley could pop out and surprise her after she had passed it, perhaps get the gun away from her. The train lurched slightly and Ace pretended to lose her balance, banging into the wall in an effort to distract the Contessa. It seemed to work as the Contessa snarled at Ace to keep moving, and didn't appear to notice the slightly open door.
- - -
In his compartment Crowley was crouched next to the door, one eye pressed to the narrow crack, watching the corridor. He was clutching an empty champagne bottle in one hand as a makeshift weapon. He saw Ace and the Contessa move past, and saw Ace stumble. This was it! This was his chance to prove the Doctor wrong. All he had to do was quietly open the door, sneak up behind the Contessa and hit her over the head with the champagne bottle. He would save the girl, and everyone would know what a hero he was. All he had to do was stand up, reach out, and slide the door open.
He stood up, his hand reached towards the door. He felt as thought his insides had turned to ice. He felt sick with fear. He grabbed hold of the door handle. He paused for a moment, struggling with his conscience, then carefully slid the door shut, and turned the key in the lock. He let the bottle fall to the floor, then turned slowly round and climbed onto the bed, leant back against the cushions and brought his knees up to his chest. He hugged his knees with his arms, and began to rock himself slowly, back and forth. His eyes slid inexorably over to the small black box on the table. He thought of the syringe inside. He thought of the sharp needle and the small glass phial with its precious liquid contents. He willed himself to be strong, but he knew already that he wasn't.
- - -
Heng-wei had made the Doctor, Litefoot, Jago and the Colonel sit down at one table, where he could keep an eye on them. He allowed Anton to go over to the bar, to fix him a gin and tonic. Prewett's body had not been moved. A horrible smell of burnt flesh filled the dining car.
"Would any of you gentlemen care for a drink?" Heng-wei asked them, a small smile playing over his lips. He was sitting at a table on the other side of the train, leaning back in his chair, legs crossed. He looked calm and unruffled, his earlier madness apparently gone. His gun was lying on the table in front of him. One hand, the one shot by the Colonel, rested next to it. The bullet wound had all but healed now. In his other hand he held a cigarette, and he puffed away on this as he watched them.
"I could do with a brandy." Said Jago. The others looked at him, somewhat askance. "It's been a long evening." He added defensively.
"A man after my own heart!" Said Heng-wei. "Anton, bring Mr. Jago a large brandy."
"Oui, monsieur. At once."
Anton poured out a generous measure of brandy, and added it to the drink already on his tray. He brought it over to Heng-wei and served him his gin and tonic. Heng-wei automatically reached for his wallet, but then remembered that he was not wearing his usual clothes.
"Sorry, Anton, I seem to be financially embarrassed." He smiled amiably at him. "You'll have to wait for your tip."
Anton stared at Heng-wei, his face cold and impassive.
"That will not be necessary, monsieur." He struggled to keep the contempt he felt out of his voice, but didn't quite manage it.
Heng-wei's smile dropped away, a flash of anger replacing it.
"Just give that old fool his drink, then get back to the bar."
Anton bowed the merest fraction towards Heng-wei, keeping his eyes on him all the time. Then he turned and served Jago's brandy and went back to his station behind the bar.
Heng-wei raised his glass to the others, then took a sip.
"Your good health, gentlemen."
- - -
The Contessa had pulled a pair of handcuffs out of her purse, and had made Ace chain herself to the handle of a large steamer trunk. Now she was searching through the packages and parcels in the luggage car, tearing open any that were marked with the Sultan's crest. She had been quite methodical at first, but now she was becoming more urgent, almost frantic.
"Having trouble finding it, are we?" Asked Ace, helpfully.
"It must be here somewhere."
"I shouldn't get so worked up about it." Ace told her. "You'll only give yourself more worry lines."
The Contessa's head snapped up to glare at her. She dropped the parcel she was looking at and suddenly rushed over to Ace and slapped her round the face.
"Shut up! Shut up!" The Contessa screamed at Ace. She pulled the gun out from her purse and pointed it at Ace's head, her hand trembling.
Ace's cheek was stinging were the Contessa had hit her. Anger swelled up in her, and she started shouting back, all the horrible things that had happened to her rising up and overwhelming her common sense.
"Go on then! Bloody shoot me, see if I care! I've had just about enough of people hitting me today. Why don't you do me a favour and kill me, then at least I wouldn't have to look at your ugly face anymore."
The Contessa's finger tightened on the trigger. For a long moment she stood there, breathing heavily, seething with rage. Ace stared down the barrel of the gun and waited, so angry that she didn't care what happened next. Then the Contessa regained her control and slowly lowered the gun.
"I would very much like to shoot you, my dear. But it just so happens that I need you. For the moment at least."
She was just about to turn away, when she heard a sound coming from behind Ace. It was another parcel, and as Ace twisted round to see what the Contessa was looking at, another noise came from inside it, a pulsing, warbling sound, barely audible through the wrapping paper.
Triumph radiated from the Contessa's face. "At last!" She reached for the box, putting her gun down on top of the trunk. She took a step away from Ace, then tore open the top of the parcel, shredding the brown paper wrapping to reveal a wooden lid. She carefully placed the box on the floor, knelt down in front of it, and then took a small knife out of her purse and prised it open. The noise grew louder and a green light shone up from inside, lighting the Contessa's face from beneath, giving her skin a cadaverous look. It cast shadows on her face that made it look like a skull, with dark, empty eye sockets.
"Now you will see the power of a god!" Saying that the Contessa reached in and began to pull out the object that rested inside the box. Ace was forced to close her eyes and turn her head away as the green light flared up, filling the room with incandescent brightness.
- - -
Heng-wei seemed distracted, he kept casting glances towards the mummy which stood immobile in front of the doorway. The Doctor took advantage of this to whisper to others.
"We must overpower Heng-wei, get that gun away from him."
"But what about that mummy thing?" Asked Jago.
"I think we can deal with that as well, if we are careful, and we work together. They have a weak point on their backs. There is a red pyramid-shaped crystal, which they use to gather energy from a cytronic particle accelerator. If we can damage that in some way it might disrupt the mummy's power circuits."
"Power circuits?" Litefoot look confused. "You mean that thing is a machine?"
"Yes, Professor, it is an example of Osiran technology."
"Who are the Osirans?"
"They were a highly advanced alien species. They are extinct now. The ancient Egyptian gods were based on them, that's how powerful they were."
"And this Mouth of Setesh thing, was that made by the Osiran's as well?"
"Setesh, and Set, are alternative names which the Egyptians used for Sutekh, their desert god. He fought against Horus and was imprisoned beneath a pyramid in Egypt, which was later found by the Scarman expedition. A twisted, evil creature, Sutekh was also known as the Great Destroyer. Anything made by him will be immensely powerful, and will no doubt be malevolent in its purpose."
"But how do we get past Heng-wei?" Asked Jago. "He has a gun, he'd shoot us down if we tried anything."
"If only I had some bullets left." Said Colonel Huntington. "I fired them all into that thing, when it was attacking poor Prewett."
"Hang on!" Said Litefoot, excitedly. "I've got a gun in my pocket. I took it from Heng-wei after he was shot."
"But what good will bullets do us against him?" Asked Jago. "He's been shot twice already, and it hasn't slowed him down much."
"We don't have to kill him, we just need to grab him and hold him down. There are five of us, we should be able to overpower him." Replied the Doctor.
"All the same, I'd prefer it if you gave me that gun, Professor." Said the Colonel. "Bullets might not stop him, but they will slow him down, if it comes to it."
Litefoot carefully took the gun out of his pocket, keeping an eye on Heng-wei as he did so, then passed it to the Colonel under the table.
The Doctor frowned. "Be careful how you use that, Colonel. I'm not so sure that he's as indestructible as he appears to be. The first time he was shot he took some time to recover, but the wound on his hand was much quicker to heal. I think that whatever process is going on inside him is speeding up. He is healing very quickly, but in the process he is burning up his energy, and he doesn't have an infinite supply of it. If he exhausts it he will be vulnerable again."
"That doesn't sound such a bad thing." The Colonel said, grimly. The Doctor gave him a hard stare. "But I won't shoot him unless I have to." The Colonel didn't seem at all drunk now. Apparently the handiwork of the Ancients included a metabolism that processed alcohol very efficiently.
"Thank you, Colonel."
"Doctor, there's something else I don't understand." Said Litefoot. "How is that the Contessa now has complete control over that thing? You said before that she got the command words wrong when she ordered it to stop you from investigating, yet the thing seemed to understand English when she spoke to it in here."
"The mummy was dormant, to conserve energy. It hadn't been used for thousands of years. Nearly all of its systems would have shut down. Only the basic command interface would have been active, which probably accepted instructions only in Osiran logic-memes. The Contessa was using Scarman's translations of the hieroglyphs on the tablet that Tommy stole from the Sultan's collection in the luggage car. It must have contained a description of the basic command ideas. Either she or Scarman made a mistake somewhere and what she communicated to the mummy was not exactly what she intended. Now, however, the mummy is fully functional and its translation module must be working again. The Contessa can speak whatever language she likes into the control ring, and the mummy will understand perfectly."
"I saw that tablet earlier!" Litefoot was getting excited again, and his voice was rising. The Doctor cast a warning glance at Heng-wei, and the Professor lowered his voice back to a whisper. "Just before Heng-wei took me hostage, I saw someone in one of the empty compartments. They were looking at a stone tablet, and saying something in a strange language. It must have been the Contessa!"
The Doctor looked thoughtful. "But she'd already activated the mummy by then, and given it instructions. She must have been activating something else."
"It has to be that mouth thing, surely?" Said the Colonel.
"I think you're right. The device is probably powered up now, and ready to accept instructions." The Doctor looked worried. "We must get to that luggage car as quickly as possible. What we need is a diversion of some sort."
- - -
The light had dimmed slightly, and Ace's eyes had adjusted to the new illumination. She could see the object which the Contessa had removed from the box. It was a small globe, maybe five inches in diameter, which fitted comfortably in the Contessa's hand. It seemed to be made of glass, and the light which now filled the room was emanating from within it. At the very centre of the globe a small area of blackness flickered and shifted continuously, as if some dark flame was trapped inside the translucent sphere. The was a small depression on top of the device, surrounded by a decorative border of what looked like gold.
"What are you going to do with that thing?" Ace asked the Contessa, trying to keep any sign of apprehension out of her voice.
The Contessa didn't answer, but instead took off the scarab ring from her finger and, turning it upside down, inserted the gem on the scarab's back into the depression on the globe. The was an increase in the intensity of the green light coming from the globe, and the noise it was making rose to a painfully high pitch. The Contessa said something then, shouting the words above the sound of the globe, but Ace could not make out what it was. Then the light dimmed again, back to a more comfortable level, and the noise cut off. The Contessa took the ring away and Ace could see that the gem had separated and was now fixed into the top of the globe. Intermittent sparks of energy crackled over the globe, like a web of green lightning.
"The power of Setesh is mine to command!" The Contessa cried, as she stood up, holding the globe out before her, and took a step towards Ace. A ray of green light shot out and hit Ace in the forehead, then spread out to cover her entire body. Ace felt pain worse than she could ever remember, it coursed through her like a river of emerald fire, driving out all possibility of action. She screamed out loud and tried to turn her head away, or at least close her eyes. But she was transfixed by the beam of light, paralysed and helpless. The black heart of the globe was writhing faster now, and Ace could do nothing but watch in terror as it grew and spread towards her, opening wide like a tunnel into the cold depths of hell. Opening like a terrible gaping mouth, ready to feed on her and suck out the very roots of her life. As the blackness closed over her mind she cried out, once: "Doctor!" Then there was nothing at all.