RETURN TO HAMUNAPTRA
By Sue Barnard 3/2000
As the others were leaving for Cairo on their camels, Beni looked like he was sealed in
the city of Hamunaptra with the scarabs closing in on him. His torch was going out because of
the lack of air and he resigned himself to the fact that he was going to die.
Suddenly, the floor gave way, and he found himself tumbling down a shaft, that seemed
to go on forever, and he landed in a heap in a small room under the gold chamber. The scarabs had disappeared and he hurried to find a way out of there. This part of the city was not sealed by the sand and stones as the rest had been.
He found an old torch on the wall, by touch and lit it with the lighter he had stolen of one of the Americans before they died. A right little rogue. Slowly but surely he crawled along the tunnel and after a couple of hours found himself outside in the sunshine, about half a mile from the city. From the desert it looked like nothing remained to the human eye, but he knew different.
On a ridge, sitting astride a camel was Ardeth Bey, still keeping a was on the city of evil, with some of the other ma-gai.
"Do we kill him?" asked one of the men.
"No" said Ardeth "I don't think he'll be back"
It was 1927, almost a year had passed since O'Connell, jonathan and Evelyn had fought Imhotep in the ancient city of Hamunaptra, with the help of Ardeth Bey, one the majai.
The city had imploded on itself after Beni had started the sequence of sand and levers that sealed the city. The wealth of Seti I had disappeared under the desert.
Jonathan had been given the curatorship of the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo and Evelyn and O'connell had married soon after their return. Life had more or less returned to normal for them.
A friend of Evie, as she liked to be called, had come to help Jonathan with the general duties in the museum, her name was Tanith and she helped catalogue all the books and trinkets that still kept coming into the museum.
When they had returned to Cairo from Hamunaptra, they discovered the two sackfuls of gold that beni had loaded onto the camel before he had become entombed in the city. It was worth a fortune and was on display in the museum.
O'connell was still into adventure and Jonathan still kept picking up worthless trinkets in the markets. Nothing had been seen of Ardeth bey since that day.
"Jonathan, I need you to come and have a look at something" said O'Connell "Someone passed this onto me yesterday in the museum, said he found it near Thebes"
"Look, I'm busy at the moment, can't it wait?"
"No, it can't, I need you to look at it now"
"Evie has enough with me bringing back worthless stuff without you doing it too, give me a couple of hours"
"Now, Jonathan, I think you need to see this" said O'connell holding up a little hexagan box in his hand.
Jonathan glanced up and his face changed as he saw what was in Ricks hand. He stood up and walked round the side of the desk.
"Oh my God, where did you get this, it's the ……..it's Imhoteps key, we dropped it in the city when we escaped"
"I know what it is, and I know where it comes from, what I want to know is how it got out of there and who found it" replied Rick "If we dropped this in the city, it means somebody knows how to get back in there, and if they found this they might find him"
"Who gave it too you"
"A man gave me this and told me that if I was interested to meet in the bar just outside the fort at 3 this afternoon"
"Are you going?"
"Oh yes and I want you to come with me"
"Well it's almost that now, ok I'll come with you, but you get me into anything dangerous and I promise you, I'll kill you"
"Who me?" said Rick looking hurt "Would I do that?"
"Yes, you bloody well would, remember last time"
"You can't blame me entirely for that, I wasn't the one who brought Imhotep back to life, it was a certain sister of yours"
They left the museum and headed for the bar. Neither said anything to Evie or Tanith.
In the bar they ordered a drink and sat at a table in the corner, Rick knowing that whoever they were meeting would find them.
"Hello my faithful friend" said a squeaky voice behind Rick. He turned round, suddenly stood up and grabbed the person who spoke by the throat.
"Well if it isn't my rogue of a pal Beni, what did you do make friends with the scarabs, so they did a Moses and let you just walk out of there. I was hoping you were dead."
"Thank you very much for leaving me there O'connell, but as you see I am very much alive and have a proposition for you"
"I wouldn't trust anything coming from you, what do you want and how did you get this?"
"Well when you left me to die in the city, I thought I was dead but Allah smiled on me and opened up the floor and here I am. I picked that up where you had dropped it.
"If Allah smiled on you" said Jonathan "Then there is hope for us yet"
"Funny man" said Beni "Look O'connell do you want the treasure from the city or not, I don't have to share it with you there are others who would be interested"
"Beni the only reason you have come to us is because no-one else would be stupid enough to go back to Hamunaptra, come to think of it neither are we"
"O'connell, you are as much of a rogue as I am, you want this treasure as much as I do. I know a way in and out, so far only you two know about this but it can be arranged that others know, it's your choice"
"What's in it for you Beni, you don't give anything away, hang on you're scared to go back there alone and you want us to did the digging and then you'll leave us there while you keep the treasure, how am I doing so far Beni?"
"How can you say that O'connell, I am your friend and I want to share this with you"
"My friend, I'd rather have the scarabs as my friends at least I know where I stand with them"
"You've got till tomorrow at 8pm, if not I'll find someone else"
Before they could say anything else, he had gone.
"Well what do you think Jonathan?"
"I think we would be mad to consider it after what happened and I can't see Evie wanting to go back there, yet Imhotep is dead and the treasure is sitting there, and I don't know about you but I don't want to let Beni have it"
"I know exactly what you mean. We know the dangers this time, as you say Imhotep is dead and the Ma-gai won't be guarding it anymore, there would be no need. Lets tell Evie and take it from there"
"You're mad the pair of you, after everything that happened, me nearly being turned into a mummy, everybody being killed or nearly being killed and you want to go back there?"
"Evie, think of the treasure, we haven't got to worry about the mummy this time, all we have to do it go down there and bring it out"
"You could get the book of Amun Ra back" said Rick "made of pure gold, remember?"
Evie paced up and down the room for a few minutes and then turned to them. "Alright but Tanith is coming with us and no heroics please"
"And no mummys this time" said Jonathan
"Don't worry, I have enough of mummies to last me a life
time" said Rick.
The next night they met with Beni again but they were prepared and gave Beni an ultimatum.
"If you double-cross me Beni" said Rick "I personally will feed you to the scarabs, piece by piece"
"I won't, I won't, I want this treasure as much as you do"
They arranged to meet at the museum a week later and start their journey. Beni left with a sly grin on his face which the others did not see. He was definitely up to something.
A week later, they were ready, Tanith was quite looking forward to an adverture looking for treasure.
"I'ts nice of you to let me come with you, I've never been on a field trip before"
"This is more than a field trip Tanith" said jonathan "You wouldn't believe the problems we've had at this place"
"Oh and watch out for Beni, compared to him a camel would make a better bed fellow" said O'connell.
"Thank you very much O'connell" said Beni.
He was the only one with a horse, he hated camels. Come to think of it they hated him.
After about two days riding they stopped about half a mile from what used to be Hamanuptra.
"Why have we stopped here" asked Rick "Hamunaptra is over there"
"Where this large sand dune is, is the entrance to where I fell . It just needs a bit of digging"
"A bit of digging, it's been 10 months since we were here, how the hell are we going to find the entrance Beni" Rick shouted.
"Come on Tanith" said Evie lets go to those pillars over there, where the city actually stood, maybe we can find an entrance there"
"Evie no" said Jonathan but his words went unheeded as Evie and Tanith rode off towards Hamanuptra.
Beni just stood there while Jonathan and rick started to dig, getting dirty looks off Rick every so often.
"Come Beni, you want this treasure as much as us, start helping, or God help me" yelled Rick.
"Ok, ok" said Beni and he started to dig as well although not very much at a time.
Mean while at Hamunaptra, Evie and Tanith were looking around being careful not to fall into any holes that maybe under the sand. Several of the pillars were still there, although broken this time by the disappearing city below.
"The original entrance was somewhere here, I think" said Evie "But it almost certainly would have disappeared along with the city"
"What are those two doing" said jonathan looking up. "Do you think they should be over there on their own."
"No I don't, look let's take a break, we have all the time in the world to find this entrance, if it exists, lets go and see what they are up to" said Rick.
They left Beni putting up a tent and lighting a fire. Even he couldn't mess that up. They walked over to where Evie and Tanith were.
"Will you two be careful" said Rick "You don't know what is left if the city under here, there might still be booby traps activated when the city collapsed"
"I know Rick" said Evie giving him a kiss. "But we'll be careful"
"Careful, like you were when you read the book of the dead?"
"Stop being sarcastic please" replied Evie. "That is all over with"
"Evie, who are they? Asked Tanith pointing to a ridge in the distance.
"What are they doing here" said Rick "Don't they know the mummy is dead and is no threat anymore"
"They are the Ma-gai, the decendant keepers of Hamunaptra" said Evie "They guard this area from the evil of Imhotep, although now he is truly dead, as Rick says what do they want"
Ardeth Bey got down off his horse and watched the small group dig around at Hamunaptra. He wasn't pleased.
"Didn't they have enough last time, don't they know that the mummy is just as dangerous now as he was before, if not more so"
"What do we do master?" asked one of the others.
"We keep an eye on them and hope they don't find the entrance back into the city. I think it is hidden well after that little man got out a few months ago, but these people don't give up easily"
Ardeth Bey and his followers rode off to their camp, somewhere in the desert. They would keep watch and decide what to do when necessary.
Back at the tent site, Beni was hammering the guys ropes into the sand, swearing under his breath that they had left him to do all the work. Suddenly the sand started to move. He jumped back just in time to see the tent disappear from view.
"O'connell, O'connell" he shouted "I've found it"
They heard him shouting and the two men started to run back, while the two girls mounted the camels and raced past them.
"What is it Beni, this had better be good" said Rick
"Mr O'connell, the entrance to Hamanuptra" he said sarcastically pointing to the hole that had appeared.
"Well done Beni, I knew you'd find it for us" said jonathan.
"How deep is this hole" asked Rick "You came out of it"
"I don't know, I was just glad to get out of there, but it does slope, remember I didn't have any rope to climb out with"
"Well in that case you'll go first Beni" said rick "Then when we know you are alright we'll follow"
"Oh no, I'm not going down there again, you'll leave me there"
"Oh how I wish I could" replied Rick "But we need you to get the treasure. Go on down you go"
He pushed Beni before he could protest again and after about 2 minutes he shouted that he was ok, so the others followed. Rick went first, then the two girls and then jonathan.
Before which of course, they threw down the equipment they would need and a rope secured, believe it or not to a camel. Stupid thing to do but there was no where else to put it, they hoped that the camel wouldn't run off.
Once down in the tunnel they followed Beni on their hands and knees.
"What are we doing here?" asked Evie "I must have been mad"
"We are all mad" replied Jonathan "Come on Beni move, my knees are going to sleep"
"I'm going I'm going" shouted Beni.
They came to a small room where they could stand up.
"You didn't tell me about this room"
"I never noticed" replied Beni "I was in too much of a hurry to get out"
"Ok where do we go from here" asked Tanith "I'd rather find a bigger place than this"
"Don't worry, there is a draught coming from that direction" said Rick "Look at the torch."
It was flickering in what looked like a way into the city behind some rubble. They started to clear it and as they did so they found they could crawl into another room, that was bigger and had not been completely sealed off.
"How come this is here" asked Beni "I fell through the floor back there"
"It's probably an annix of some sort" said Tanith "Maybe it leads to the treasure room a different way"
"Well I'm tired and hungry, surely we can eat now" said Jonathan.
"Ok let's go, we'll come back in the morning"
They got back out of the tunnel and climbed up the rope, a hand helped them out. It was Ardeth Bey and his followers.
"I am disappointed in you, I thought you would have had enough, why have you come back"
"You know why we're back anyway, I didn't think you would have to watch this place any more after what happened to Imhotep?" said Rick.
"You only destroyed that regeneration, he can be raised again, we will always have to watch this place"
"You mean that thing could come back to life again"
"Yes Mr O'connell, it could as for the treasure, it is buried now, no-one can get to it. Please leave here and do not return"
He got back on his horse and as they rode away he shouted back.
"remember, leave here, do not return"
"Who was he?" asked Tanith "He is gorgeous"
"Oh please" said Jonathan in his disgusted voice.
"This is great Rick" said Evie "Not only are we back at the horrible place, but now we know that thing down there can be resurrected again. Is this treasure worth it?"
Together Rick and Jonathan and Beni said Yes.
Evie knew she was onto a losing battle. She went back to Tanith and sat down.
"Evie, who was that man, no-one answered me" she asked
"He is Ardeth Bey, the leader of the men we saw earlier, they live out here somewhere and guard this place."
"He is lovely isn't he?" she said.
"I suppose so, I'd never really thought about it, Let's get some sleep, no doubt the men will want to get started early."
"Aren't you sleeping with Rick tonight?"
"No, Rick wants to keep an eye on Beni, can't say I balme him"
Beni waited till the others were asleep and then crept over to the girls tent. Tanith was quite tall and had longish dark hair, quite plain really but Beni fancied her. He crept into her tent and suddenly there was a scream followed by a load of bad language from Tanith. Rick and Jonathan leapt out of their tents and headed for the girls. Beni was on his back with a bloody nose. Tanith came out of her tent and swore at Beni.
"How dare you come in here, you slimy little weasel, get out and stay out and stay away from me"
"Well, well Beni, being a little creep again are we. Will you never learn" laughed Rick.
Beni returned to his tent, mumbling under his breath, determined to get his own back somehow.
The next morning, they got their stuff together and started back into the cave. When they got to the large room again, Rick decided that it would be safe to use small amounts of dynamite on the rocks piled up at one end. This seemed to be the best place to start on to reach the rest of the city. The other sides seemed to be solid granite.
After setting the explosives, they all hid at the other side of the room. The explosions revealed an opening large enough for them to crawl through.
They found themselves in the room where the mummies were made.
"oh well, we're back" said Evie "I must admit I hate this place"
"You are not the only one" replied Rick "At least we have
no mummies to contend with this time, let's just find the room where the treasure is and leave"
"How do we do that?" asked Jonathan "It's sealed behind this wall"
Rick came over and had a look, it was true the place where there was once a doorway was gone. Somehow they had to find a way in.
The ancient Egyptians were renowned for building vast labyrinths for sealing in the pharaohs and their treasure when they died. Levers were activated to send sand and large granite stones moving into place, completely sealing the tombs. But when Hamunaptra was sealed a few months ago, something went wrong, it wasn't sealed totally, or they would have never got back in, even to where they were now. Maybe over the last 3 thousand years that Hamunaptra had been there the mechanism had become too old to work. Anyway there must be a way into the rest of the city.
"Go round all the walls, there might be a false door, like the one Evie went through before" said Rick.
They all looked and sure enough they found, at the side of one of the statues, a wall that with a bit of effort would move and they could go through into the next chamber.
"We must try and block it once we do get it moved, or we might not be able to get out again, it may only move in one direction."
So Jonathan grabbed Beni who was sneaking around elsewhere and made him help move a large piece of rock that would do as a door stop as such.
Rick, Evie and Tanith used some poles to try and move the door. Slowly with help from Jonathan, it suddenly opened and they wedged the rock in-between the door and the wall, so they could get back.
Suddenly, a rustling sound was heard by them all which got louder and louder, then ceased as quickly as it had begun.
"What was that?" asked Tanith.
"Scarabs, they live all over this place" replied Rick "And you don't want to know what they do"
"Look, Mr O'connell" said Tanith "I may be quiet, but I do know what scarabs do, they eat you alive in a few seconds, they can live for many years or lay dormant until disturbed"
"Sorry I'm sure" replied Rick.
Evie looked at Rick and smiled. Rick had had enough trouble realizing that Evie knew more about Egypt than most people and now he had another girl just as clever. What did he do to deserve it.
As they went through the doorway, Rick and Jonathan realized that this was the corridor that led to the statue Horus and then to the gold room, off of which was the room where Imhotep had tried to resurrect Ananksunamun, his princess for whom his love had caused him to be cursed in the first place.
In this room was also the slimy pool where Jonathan had dropped the golden book of Amun-ra. Maybe it wasn't too deep and they could get it out. This was one job that they would leave for Beni.
"Where abouts did you find the key, Beni?" asked Rick.
"I can't remember" replied Beni.
Rick grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him close to him.
"You had better remember Beni and quickly or this time
you won't come out of here"
"Alright, it was over there, by that table"
"Thank you" said Rick as he let go of him.
Beni was getting fed up of the treatment he was getting from Rick, but who could have blamed him. Beni was a nasty piece of work and only thought of himself in any situation. He didn't care who got hurt or killed as long as he was alright.
Rick and Jonathan went over to the table but there was nothing else except a lot of mummies that they had fought all those months ago, mainly piles of dust and bones, it was hard to imagine that these piles of bones were running around trying to kill people.
Tanith had gone over to the other side of the room to have a look round for herself. In the corner was a large black book with inscriptions on it and as she looked she realized that it must be the Book of the Dead. It was heavy but she put it in her bag, they would be going back soon and then she could have a good look at it. She would tell the others later that she had found it, even she would like something for herself.
Rick and Jonathan were looking at the gold and trying to decide what they would take and how to get it out of there.
"Beni, come here we need you" called Jonathan.
Beni slowly walked over to them and saw the pool of floating skulls and bones, black as the darkest night.
"We want you to get the book out of here which Jonathan dropped, it's not that deep, we tried it but you can get it, it will help satisfy me that you are doing your fair share in this expedition and I am your best buddy aren't are Beni?" said Rick putting his arm round his shoulders.
"O'connell you'll live to regret this" said Beni.
"It seems to me that you are the one that always comes unstuck, because you always think of yourself and never want to help anyone else, now move"
Beni stepped into the pool, it was cold, slimy and he protested in the strongest terms. But with rick standing there with a gun in his hand he thought he had better do as he was told. After a few minutes he tried to get out without the book but Rick stood in his way.
"Come on you haven't even tried, get on with"
The water was about 2foot deep and Beni could feel around with his hands to get the book. At the same time he decided that he would not bother with the gold, because if this book was so valuable, worth more than the rest of the gold put together, as Jonathan had said, it would do him very nicely. This idea gave him more incentive to find it in the slimy water, pushing aside bones as he did so.
Suddenly, he felt it under his hands and he lifted it up. It was very heavy and he shouted to Rick to give him a hand as it was all slimy from the water.
Rick put away the gun and lifted it from Benis hands. It was filthy and would need to be cleaned up when they got back to the surface.
"Come on" said Evie "Let's go back for now and come back tomorrow, I'm cold and hungry and we have been down here for 8 hours now"
"Thank you Evie" said Jonathan "I have been trying to tell him that for ages"
It took them about 30 minutes to get back to the surface and as they came out onto the sand, they found it was totally dark. They realized that they had been down there longer than they thought.
After eating, they got some rags and started to clean up the golden book. It was only then that they realized that the hinge had come apart and one of the gold pages was missing.
The book was made up of 5 pages of gold, a quarter of and inch thick each plus the gold covers which contained the lock. As Evie looked she realized that the page that was missing was the one that they had used to kill the mummy.
"We've got to try and find it, the book isn't complete without it" said Evie.
"By the way, where is Tanith?" asked Jonathan.
"She was tired and she went to bed a little while ago, I'll see if she is alright in a minute" replied Evie.
Tanith had eaten and made her excuses to go to bed, but secretly she wanted to have a look at the black book she had found. It was amazing. But she saw that she needed a patterned piece to unlock it. Then she realized that the box that Jonathan and Rick had, which Beni had given them must be the key. But how to get it.
She came out of the tent and went and sat with the others and told them she wanted a drink as she was thirsty. As they talked she asked if she could have a look at the little box that Rick had, she wanted to write down the hieroglyphics on it.
"I'm writing down everything I see and I thought that the box might be interesting."
"Ok, but don't lose it" said Rick " Well that's it I'm off to bed, Oh and Beni I'd leave the girls alone tonight especially Evie, do I make myself clear"
"Oh yes master" replied Beni sarcastically. Boy was he going to get his own back.
Tanith went into her tent and started to look at the box. Somehow it must open and the key must be inside. As she turn it round, it clicked and popped open revealing that the box itself was the key. She picked up the book and placed the key in the pattern on the front. Slowly turning it, the catches sprang up and she was able to open the book.
As she could read and speak ancient Egyptian, she had no trouble in reading what was on the pages.
"Amun ra, amun deim, finishing with "et soui, yutora yutora"
Deep in the city, the slimy pool rippled and bubbled, slowly a rotting, mummy began to emerge from the pool, he climbed out and looked around. The mummy Immhotep was back.
The next day Jonathan, Rick and Beni had gone over to the other part of what was Hamunaptra, to see if they could find another entrance that might be easier to get into than the one they had already found. They could not get the treasure out that way, there had to be another entrance that cold be opened up.
They spent most of the day digging around and it was just starting to get dusk, when Rick found the opening that they had originally used. It hadn't been sealed up.
"This is good, we can get down easier this way" said jonathan.
They all climbed down the next morning and found that the city was almost intact, a few of the large granite stones had come down into place but many hadn't. It had not sealed up as the ancient Egyptians had hoped.
Jonathan, Evie and Tanith decided to go down one tunnel, while Rick and Beni went down the other. Rick wanted to keep Beni in sight and also he was always one step ahead of Beni now, or so he hoped.
The rustling that they heard before had started again and seemed to be all around them, then it stopped.
"Oh boy do I hate that sound" said Beni.
"For once I agree with you" replied Rick.
As they went down the corridor, Rick had the feeling that they were being followed. He assumed that it was the others
But when he called out, no-one answered. They carried on and once getting into the treasure room they started to write down what they were going to take, or at least Rick did, Beni had mysteriously disappeared again.
"Beni, get your little butt back in here" shouted Rick.
But there was no answer from him either. Beni had gone back into the corridor because he had seen something glinting in the wall. They were scarab type jewels and he started to take them off and put them in a bag. He knew what happened to them and was being careful. Inside were a real scarab that once out would bury itself into your flesh and kill you.
From behind him he heard a noise, thinking it was Rick, he turned to start making excuses about what he was doing, when he found himself face to face with Imhotep.
Quickly remembering how he got out of the same situation last time, he spoke in the language of the ancient Egyptians. Imhotep stopped and as if realizing that this was the man who helped him before turned and motioned Beni to follow him.
Beni was shaking with fear but as he said last time, it was better to walk with the devil than to cross him. He thought they had said the mummy had been destroyed, so how was he still
alive, or as alive as he could be. He needed to regenerate and Beni wasn't going to be the one to help him do that. Someone else could have that pleasure.
The mummy and Beni climbed out of the hole and with Beni help took the gold book and disappeared into the desert. Beni knew that the mummy had to find victims to kill so that he could regenerate but he could have killed those in the city but he didn't. He must admit he wondered why, maybe Imhotep had something else in mind for them. After all they had destroyed his princess so that she could never be raised from the dead again, maybe he was going to use someone else to fulfill his anger.
Back at Hamunaptra, the others had taken enough gold over the following two days that there was no more room on the camels. They would take this back to the museum at Cairo and then come back later for the rest. The large statues would have to stay there, they were too big and heavy.
"let's go back now, has anyone seen Beni at all" asked Evie.
"Not since he disappeared the other day. But I will find him, he has the Book of Amun-ra, and he isn't getting away with that." Replied Rick.
"Not since he disappeared the other day. But I will find him, he has the Book of Amun-ra
and he isn't getting away with it" replied rick.
"I am not sure I want to come back here" said Jonathan. "For the last couple of days I
have had the feeling that something was wrong, just like last time."
"Well I think it's just our imagination" said Rick "This place is evil even if the mummy
is dead. I don't like it either but the gold helps"
They mounted the camels and headed back to Cairo. Up on the ridge they were still being
watched by the Ma-jai.
"What do we do about the gold they are taking?" asked one of the men.
"Nothing at the moment, we will get it back and then we will seal it with dynamite so that
no-one ever finds it again" said Ardeth Bey.
They followed the party back to Cairo, keeping at a safe distance. Rick heard the neighing of
horses and turning to look behind him, saw the Ma-jai on the hill.
"Well they don't give up do they?" said Jonathan.
"No I don't think they ever will"
Back in Cairo, Imhotep had killed a couple of beggars so that he could talk and start the
regeneration process. Beni had helped him get into the city without being seen at first but now
the mummy was regaining his power and one of the first things he did was release the plague of
locusts on Cairo. It spread out over the city and out into the desert. Rick and the others had to
leap off their camels and bury themselves in the sand. The ma-jai had to do the same. After a
few minutes they disappeared.
Ardeth Bey got up and shook the remaining locusts off his clothes, then he looked at the others
and then towards Hamunaptra.
"May Allah help us, he is back"
Rick and the others got up and climbed back on the camels..
"Remember the last time this happened" said jonathan quietly so that the girls did not
hear him.
"Oh I remember but it can't be that, you get locusts at this time of year anyway, don't
worry about it"
Jonathan rode off and Rick looked worried, not believing what he had just said and yet he knew
that nobody had done anything they shouldn't hadn't read any books and so he had to dismiss
the idea that the mummy was alive. The locusts had to be coincedence.
To get to the office they had to go through part of the museum on the top floor, as they walked
in there was a loud click of rifles and standing in front of about eight men was Ardeth Bey.
"What the hell?" exclaimed Rick.
"You never learn, you had to go back and now the creature is back" said Ardeth.
"Yes, we went back but we haven't released the mummy, it's still there"
"No it is not, someone in your group has resurrected him again and he is here in Cairo
regaining strength."
"Beni, it had to be Beni" said Rick "I wondered where he had disappeared to"
"It couldn't have been him" replied Ardeth "He may be able to speak ancient Egyptian
but he can't read it. No someone has found the book of the dead and spoken the words"
"I'm afraid it might have been me" said Tanith. "I found the black book, I have it here"
"Tanith, why, didn't you know that speaking those words brought the mummy back to
life" asked Jonathan.
"I knew what you had told me briefly but I didn't believe it, it was too far fetched I
thought it was just one of your stories."
"Well now we know how he got here, I suppose we had better destroy him again" said
Rick.
"It won't be so easy this time" said Ardeth "He knows what we did last time and his
princess has been destroyed so that she can never be brought back to life. He will want a
substitute to become like him and he will destroy us all in the process."
"Beni helped him last time, we can assume that he will this time, so if we can find Beni
we should find Imhotep" said Rick.
"I'm sorry Evie" said Tanith "I should have believed Jonathan."
"It is never easy to believe Jonathan sometimes and me and Rick had never really
mentioned it. Don't worry, come on"
"Where is the book of Amun Ra?" asked Ardeth.
"It's here, well most of it is, one of the pages has come away from the hinges and is still
in the pool where we dropped it last time"
"We have to go back and find it, if the mummy is to be destroyed again than we need the
whole book"
"Then what do we do?" asked Tanith.
"We will make sure that no-one ever finds Hamunaptra again, nor the book, they will be
buried with it" said Ardeth.
"Well it's too late to go back there tonight, what say we start at first light tomorrow" said
Jonathan.
"Right" replied Ardeth "I'll meet you here, I have to go with you. In a way the Ma-jai
should have sealed that place for good last time, we are as guilty as you. Yalla, imshin"
He and his men left the museum and the others were left not knowing what they were going to
do this time.
"One thing is certain" said Rick "Evie is not to be left on her own, the mummy will be
after her, she was the one he came after last time. Anything weird happens and we're out of
here"
Back at the hotel, Evie took the much needed bath and the men were having a drink in the bar.
Tanith was not there, she had gone to find Ardeth, she needed to speak to him.
"Where has Tanith gone" asked Rick later.
"Oh she's gone for a walk" replied Evie "She'll be alright, the mummy won't touch her,
it's me he's after"
It took Tanith quite a while to find out where Ardeth and the Ma-jai were camped. She had to
take a camel and rode off into the desert to find the camp.
In the distance she saw the glow of a camp-fire, she was about a mile outside cairo. As she
approached the light, four men jumped out in front of her their guns raised.
"What are you doing here?" they asked.
"I have come to see Ardeth bey, is he here?" she asked.
"Why do you want to see him?
"That is really between him and myself don't you think"
They grabbed the reins of the camel and lead her through the sand dunes and into a large camp.
Other ma-jai were sitting around the fires and some were sleeping. They lead her to a tent at the
end of the camp. She got off the camel.
A man came out of he tent and over to her. She saw it was Ardeth Bey.
"Why have you come here, very few people can find us here?"
"I need to talk to you about Imhotep, it is because of me he is here and I need to find out
what we can do. The others won't talk to me about what happened before. Will you tell me?"
"Come, I will tell you" replied Ardeth.
He took her inside one of the tents, and proceeded to tell her everything that happened 10
months ago.
"So, after guarding Hamunaptra for over 3000 years, so that no-body found the mummy
of Imhotep, you and your friends have succeeded in bringing him back to life twice. This time
he has a purpose, his princess has been destroyed totally and he will need someone to take her
place, we can correctly assume that Evelyn is the one he will come after, killing anyone who
gets in his way"
"Can he be stopped this time?"
"I hope so, but it will be harder than the last time, he will be more wary and careful than
last time and it looks like he has the help of that Beni again"
"What can I do, this is all my fault"
"It is all our faults, Hamunaptra should have been destroyed many years ago, then
hopefully this would never have happened. Go back to the others, we will meet tomorrow and
find the rest of the Book of Amun-ra and try to destroy the creature again. Two of my men will
take you back"
Tanith left, with many things to think about and with the image of Ardeth in her mind.
Back at the hotel, while Tanith was seeing the Ma-jai, Rick and Jonathan were having a drink
with two Americans who were quite willing to help them. They loved danger and the thought of
finding treasure while destroying a mummy, which they also thought was a load of rubbish,
living mummies were a myth and fairy story, was a good incentive. Their names were Johnson
and Davies.
"Well, we meet Ardeth Bey tomorrow" said Rick "And we have to go back to
Hamunaptra to find the rest of the book. There will be no collecting and gold we might find,
I've had enough of treasure to last me a lifetime. When this is over, if it is over, Hammunaptra
can stay buried in the sand for ever as far as I am concerned."
"Oh, we're just here to help Rick, we promise, no treasure" lied Davies.
Secretly they were after as much as they could carry, without Rick and the others they would
never have found the city of gold..
"Rick look at the fountain" said jonathan.
Rick turned round to look at a fountain that was situated in the middle of the bar, the water was
turning red, something they had seen before.
"Oh my God, Evie, he's back"
They ran out of the bar and up the stairs to Evies room. She shouted at them when they all burst
in without knocking.
"What the hell are you doing, is there a fire?"
"We've got to get out of here, He's back, in the hotel somewhere" said Rick.
Evie didn't need telling twice, she grabbed her clothes and ran out of the room with them and
they all went to Davies room, where they thought they might be safe for a while. Imotep would
try her room first, they hoped.
Suddenly Rick spotted a fez hat, popping down behind a cupboard just as he went into Davies
room.
"Hang on a minute" he said.
He crept round the back of the cupboard and grapped Beni who was listening and watching"
"Well, well, well, what have we here, Imhoteps spy no less"
"O'connell let go of me, my prince will kill you all"
"Your prince, we have come up in the world haven't we Beni, get in there"
He shoved him into the room and locked the door. Beni tried to run over to the window but
Jonathan and Davies stopped him.
"What are you going to do with me, don't kill me" pleaded Beni.
"Oh I'm not going to kill you, while you are with Imhotep we know what you are up to,
he will kill you just the same as us you know"
"I am of too much help to him, he won't kill me"
"Well let me assure you that when this is over, if he hasn't then I will and I can assure
you that you will have wished he had. Where is he now and what does he want, no lies mind
you"
"He is close by, and he wants the lady he had last time, she is to become his princess and
live with him through all eternity, but he is very angry with all of you and will destroy you."
"Ok well you go back to your master and tell him from me that he won't get Evie to turn
her into a mummy and that we will get him first. Can you remember that Beni?"
"Yes, O'connell but you underestimate him, he will get what he wants."
O'connell threw him out of the room and locked the door. They had to find somewhere safe for
Evie.
"I am not going anywhere, I am the only one who can read ancient Egyptian apart from
Tanith, and I have told you before I am not a piece of left luggage, where you go, I go, no
matter what the danger"
"Ok, ok, I'm not going to argue. Tomorrow we will get the book and destroy him once
and for all, until then we will take turns to keep watch."
Johnson and Davies still thought they were mad, mummies didn't exist, only dead ones but they
would go along with Rick, they wanted the treasure. It wouldn't be long before they were to eat
those words.
They left evie in the Bedroom "while they stayed outside and had a drink. they were going to
need it.
About two hours later, Davies woke up to a noise outside the window, the others were asleep.
he got up and walked across to have a look but couldnt see anything. he went back to the chair
where he had been sleeping. Just nerves he thought.
In evies room the window was open and a breeze was starting to get up, blowing the net
curtains gently. Then on the balcony sand began to pile up in the corner. lots and lots of sand.
evie stirred in her bed but didn't wake up. The sand finished falling and in the reflection of her
mirror, had changed into the mummy. Not fully regenerated yet, but well on the way. He walked
over to evie and pulled the covers from her. She suddenly woke up and screamed.
"Rick and the others came bursting in. The mummy turned and screamed at them, giving Evie
the chance to scramble out of bed and run behind rick. Johnson and Davies were dumbstruck,
the mummy did exist and was standing in front of them. Rick and Jonathan started firing their
guns at Imhotep, but he kept coming.
"go find the cat in the other room" shouted Rick "now quickly"
davies turned and scooped up the white cat that lived at the hotel and always stayed with
'Evelyn. he carried it into the bedroom.'hold it up to the mummy, now" said Rick. 'Davies did as
he was told, the mummy took one look and speaking something in Egyptian, revolved in a spiral
of sand and disappeared out of the window. Johnson staggered back into a chair,
"I'm sorry O'connell, I didn't believe you, But I hope I never see that again"
"you 'will, it has only just started" said Rick.
'What was all that with the cat?" asked "Davies.
"we discovered last time that until he is fully regenerated that he is terrified of cats, they
protect the under'world"
fully generated how does he do that?"
"he kills people, then sucks them dry, that's how" said O'connell.
Tanith came running up the stairs when she heard the noise.
'what happened?" she asked.
"Oh you came back then, resurrected any more mummies lately?" asked "Rick
sarcastically.
"alright you've made your point, but if you had told me everything before we went to
hamunaptra, maybe this wouldnt have happened"
"we were protecting you, the mummy was dead you didn't need to know the detail's" said
evie.
"well I do now, I went to see ardeth Bey and he told me the whole story. he says that if
the mummy can be destroyed, he "will make sure that the city is never found again"
""That was dangerous, we don't know that much about these men except Ardeth
Bey who helped us last time"
"i was alright, he seems very nice, I like him" replied Tanith. he said he will be
here early tomorrow"
'well we will have to be on our guard, at least Ardeth was right about the mummy coming
back for Evie again. Lets get some sleep, we have a long ride tomorrow"
They all agreed and went to sleep except Rick and tanith.
"I'm sorry "Rick, I never knew this could happen when I read the book."
"I know, it isn't really all your fault, you didn't have the facts" replied Rick
"Do you think we can stop him?"
"I really don't know, not this time, it was hard last time and many people were killed. Not
all of us will survive this."
The next day Ardeth met them as arranged and they left for Hamunaptra. On the way they had
to endure a plague of flies, obviously sent by Imhotep. They hoped that for a while he would
remain in Cairo, at least till he was fully regenerated. They didn't have much time.
On reaching the city they were met with a surprise. Imhotep had summoned more of his
followers and they were guarding the entrance. About 10 mummies.
"Oh great, a reception committee" said Rick "That's all we need"
The men dismounted and grabbing their loaded rifles, stormed into the mummies, destroying as
many as they could. But unbeknown to them, behind them was Imhotep and while they were
fighting the mummies, he was grabbing Evie. She screamed for Rick.
He turned to see Tanith lying on the ground and Imhotep carrying Evie towards the city.
"Evie, noooo" shouted Rick running after her.
Suddenly a wall of sand rose up in front of them, hiding Imhotep from view. They shielded
their eyes from the sand and when it stopped a few minutes later, Imhotep and Evie were no
where to be seen.
"He's got her, we have to hurry and find her before he turns her into a creature like himself"
They were so busy watching the mummy disappear with Evie that only Ardeth went over to see
if Tanith was alright.
She was only stunned as she had been knocked off the camel, he helped her up.
"Are you alright?" he asked
"Thank you, yes I'm ok, it was just a long way down"
"We have to get into the city, find the lost page of the book and then look for the girl"
said Ardeth.
"You go look for the page, I'm going to find Evie" said Rick.
Ardeth grabbed his arm and told him not to go rushing in, the city wasn't that safe now that
some of it had been sealed.
"If you get trapped then the girl is lost forever and the world will be destroyed, that is the
purpose of the mummy. We have to be careful"
"Alright, but let's go"
They lowered themselves down into the city and made their way to the room where
Anaksunamon had been the last time. That was next to the treasure room where the pool was
that contained the last page of the book.
As they made their way to the treasure room, Davies and Johnson disappeared down one of the
other tunnels. They wanted to find the treasure not fight mummies.
When Rick and the others got to the room, who should they find there but Beni, knee deep in
water obviously after the page of the book that they were after.
"In the shit again Beni, where is Evie and the mummy?" said Rick.
Beni tried to run but Rick jumped in after him and grabbed his collar.
"I don't know O'connell" shouted Beni trying to get away.
"Don't lie to me Beni, I'm not in the mood"
He pulled Beni out of the water and held his gun to Beni's throat.
"He's in the big room, through there, but the girl is already dead O'connell, you're too
late, he just wants the book so that you can't kill him"
"Oh does he, well if Evie is dead then so are you Beni"
He pulled the trigger and Beni looked surprised that he had actually done it after all the times he
had been threatened.
With Beni dead, Rick jumped back into the water and feeling around at the bottom, found the
page they had been looking for.
Suddenly, mummies started popping up from the sand.
"What more of them?" said Jonathan "Rick get a move on"
The sound of the shot let Imhotep know that the others were in the city and he send some more
of his priests to stop them. Also the noise of the bullet had loosened some rocks in the tunnels
which they were going to find made the whole place unsafe.
"Where are the others?" asked Jonathan looking round.
"Don't worry, I'll find them" said Ardeth "You go and get the girl and then try and
destroy Immhotep"
He ran back the way they had come. Tanith followed Rick when all at once a rumble came from
beneath the city and rocks began to fall from the ceiling and they all had to run.
The city was falling apart and they didn't have much time to find Evie.
Tanith looked back just in time to see a load of rubble fall where Ardeth had just gone. She ran
back.
"Tanith come back, it's not safe" shouted Jonanthan.
"Let her go, we have to find Evie" said Rick.
In the room they saw Imhotep standing over Evie who was tied to the stone table. She wasn't
dead yet but he was about to perform the ritual that made Evie into the mummy that would take
the place of his princess.
"Get away from her" shouted Rick.
Imhotep looked up surprised and Evie looked relieved that Rick had found her.
"Kill him Rick, kill him" she shouted.
In the other room, Tanith ran back to the tunnel that they had come in from. There was a lot of
rubble by the entrance and she pulled a lot of it away, allowing her to crawl through and try and
find Ardeth. She went through that tunnel and into the next, looking for him. All at once she
came upon a pile of rubble where she saw a hand sticking out from it. She ran over but it wasn't
ardeth, he had tattoos on his hands, this must be Davies or Johnson. Making her way round the
rubble she continued along the tunnel. The noise of the scarabs could be heard in the walls and
she hoped that was where they would stay.
As she turned the corner into yet another tunnel, she spotted Ardeth, lying on his back with
rubble all round him and some small pieces on him. She ran to him, taking his hand and
realizing that he wasn't dead, tried to wake him up. Gradually he came round and she helped
him to his feet.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yes, I think so, but what are you doing here, why did you come back?"
"I was worried about you, I thought you might have been hurt"
She went to walk away assuming that Ardeth would follow. But he grabbed her arm and she
turned round to look at him. He smiled and said thank you. She plucked up enough courage to
kiss him on the cheek and then turned and went out into the tunnel to go and find the others.
Ardeth stood there for a moment, surprised then he ran after her.
Rick slammed the book and spare page into Jonathans hands, and ran towards Evie.
"Find the inscription that kills him" he yelled.
"How, I can't read ancient Egyptian, I need Evie"
Imhotep strode past the table and speaking some words brought to life some more mummies
that were in coffins round the walls. They ambled towards Rick while imhotep went after
Jonathan to get the book back.
As Rick fought the mummies, Jonathan led imhotep on a merry dance trying to keep out of his
way until Rick could free Evie.
Then Ardeth and Tanith came into the room and Ardeth joined Rick in fighting the mummies.
"Tanith, find Jonathan and read the inscription in the book, destroy Imhotep"
Rick managed to release Evie in between being chased by the mummies. Imhotep tried to
recapture her but couldn't get her. Tanith found Jonathan and was just about to read the words
when Imhotep struck her from behind, sending her sprawling across the floor. Jonathan dropped
the book when Imhotep picked him up to kill him.
Evie ran round and somehow got the book, found the page that she needed and read aloud the
words she used before.
"Kadish mal, kadish mal, paradeux paradeux"
Imhotep stopped in his tracks and started to decompose again, swearing at them in Egyptian
before he disappeared into the pool again.
As Imhotep disappeared, so the other mummies that Rick and Ardeth were fighting suddenly
stopped and crumbled to the floor.
Evie ran to Rick and he held her tight. Jonathan came over and gave her a brotherly kiss.
"Well done ole mum" he said affectionately.
"Where is Tanith?" asked Evie.
They looked around and saw Ardeth kneeling beside her. She opened her eyes and looked at
him and as he helped her up, he held her in his arms.
"I think she's alright" said Rick. "Come on let's get out of here"
"Wait" said Ardeth "I have to do something first, give me the books"
"Why, what are you going to do with them?" asked Jonathan.
"I am going to throw both of them into the slime pool and there they will stay so that no-
one can find them ever again"
"You can't" protested jonathan "We haven't gone through all this just for you to throw
them in a pool"
"Give them to him Jonathan" said Evie "We don't want them, as long as they are
available, someone will use them and we don't want this creature loose again"
"Oh alright, but it's not fair" he said as he reluctantly gave them to Ardeth.
Ardeth took them over to the pool and after dismantling them, threw them page by page into the
dark water, never to be found again, he hoped.
They slowly made their way out of the room and followed Ardeth towards the entrance to the
city. Another rumble echoed through the city.
"Come on let's get out of here" said Rick "Before we get trapped down here"
When they got to where Tanith had found Ardeth earlier and realized that they had to remove
the rubble before they could get out. It was going to take ages, there was a lot of rubble to be
moved.
"Oh great we are going to be here for hours" said Evie.
"I know but the quicker we start the quicker we will get out" replied Rick.
So they started to move it, listening to the rustle of the scarabs in the walls.
"I hope they stay there" said jonathan "If they come out we are dead we have no-where to
go"
After a while they had moved enough to enable them to get out. They were all glad to be out in
the fresh night air.
"We will stay here tonight" said Ardeth "Tomorrow the rest of my men will help me
destroy this city forever"
"Well I could do with a sleep and something to eat" said jonathan "At least we are out of
there, by the way haven't we forgotten something?"
"What?" asked Rick.
"Davies and Johnson, we had forgotten about them"
"They are dead" replied Ardeth "A fall of rubble killed them"
They had some food and settled down for the night. Rick really wanted to go but decided that
he would help Ardeth in the morning. He had risked his life for them it was the least they could
do.
Ardeth said he would keep watch for a while, just in case. Rick didn't ask why, he thought
better of it.
Tanith only slept for about an hour and seeing Ardeth sitting on a pillar a little way from their
camp, got up and walked over to him.
Hearing a noise behind him, he quickly turned and pulled his gun.
"Its alright, it's only me" said Tanith.
"Couldn't you sleep?" he asked.
"No, what are you watching for?"
"Oh this and that, mainly thinking about what we have to do tomorrow."
"When the city is destroyed will you still have to guard it, like it has been all these
centuries?"
"Yes, but not as much. The gold and the mummy will hopefully, stay under the desert
sand undisturbed now. I wonder if it shouldn't have been done before"
"Can I sit with you?" she asked.
He moved over a bit so that she could sit beside him. It was cold in the desert at night and she
laid her head on his shoulder. He put his arm round her and she looked up at him.
"Why did you kiss me in the city?" he asked.
"I don't know Ardeth, do you?"
"I think so" he replied and bending down kissed her gently on the lips. She snuggled
against him and they sat there for a while.
When Rick woke up, it was daylight and looking around saw Ardeth and Tanith leaning against
the pillar, cuddling each other, fast asleep. He went and woke Evie.
"Take a look over there, we have a romance in our midst"
"Must be something about this place" she laughed kissing him "Remember"
He smiled, remembering that it was here that him and Evie had found romance too.
When they had finished breakfast, Ardeth disappeared for about an hour and then returned with
about 15 of his men. With them they had dynamite and with the help of Rick and Jonathan, set
charges all round the perimeter of the city.
Tanith and Evie stayed at the camp site watching.
"Do you love him?" asked Evie.
"What do you mean?" answered Tanith.
"Oh come on, we saw you this morning, cuddling up over there and we saw the way you
have looked at each other a few times"
"Alright, yes I think I do, but I don't know if he feels the same. He has a different life to
me and maybe the ma-jai aren't allowed to marry or anything"
"Only one way to find out, ask him, before its too late"
Ardeth and the others came back and told them to get their stuff and the camels and move quite
a way away. They were going to blow the place.
Explosion after explosion echoed round the desert, as the city disappeared beneath the sand.
After the dust settled they saw that nothing remained except a few pillars. No-one would ever
know that Hamunaptra was there, buried under the sand.
They packed their stuff onto the camels and started off back towards cairo. When they arrived
back, they all went into the museum.
"What do we do with the stuff that we have here from Hamunaptra?" asked Rick.
"It stays in the museum" replied Ardeth "No-one, except us need know where it came
from. There are indications on it that it came from hamunaptra. Again our people and the world
are in your debt, may Allah go with you"
He left them and walked out of the museum.
"Didn't you say anything?" Evie asked Tanith.
"No, I didn't know how" she replied.
"Go after him, you may not have another chance, they might move camp now they
haven't got to watch the city"
Tanith looked at her, then at the others, Rick nodded. She ran out of the office and down the
stairs. Ardeth was then getting his camel ready to return to his camp.
"Ardeth, wait" she called.
He turned round and she ran up to him.
"Don't go Ardeth, stay"
"I can't, I have to go back to my camp, I told you we still have to watch the place even
now. There will always be treasure hunters who want to find Hamunaptra."
"But I don't want you to go, I…..I love you"
He took her in his arms and kissed her.
"Then come with me, because I love you too"
He climbed onto his camel and she climbed up with him. He held her so that she wouldn't fall
off and kissed her again.
He clicked his tongue so that the camel moved off and with his men following, they headed out
of Cairo, into the desert towards his camp.
Rick and the others watched them go.
"Well I never thought either of them had it in them. I'm impressed."
Back at Hamunaptra, under the sand, something was stirring but it wasn't the scarabs. Suddenly
a hand pushes through the sand and a blood curdling scream can be heard.
No-one had known but this time, they had not destroyed the mummy, his second regeneration
was too strong.
Imhotep still lived!!!!!!!!!!
By Sue Barnard 3/2000
As the others were leaving for Cairo on their camels, Beni looked like he was sealed in
the city of Hamunaptra with the scarabs closing in on him. His torch was going out because of
the lack of air and he resigned himself to the fact that he was going to die.
Suddenly, the floor gave way, and he found himself tumbling down a shaft, that seemed
to go on forever, and he landed in a heap in a small room under the gold chamber. The scarabs had disappeared and he hurried to find a way out of there. This part of the city was not sealed by the sand and stones as the rest had been.
He found an old torch on the wall, by touch and lit it with the lighter he had stolen of one of the Americans before they died. A right little rogue. Slowly but surely he crawled along the tunnel and after a couple of hours found himself outside in the sunshine, about half a mile from the city. From the desert it looked like nothing remained to the human eye, but he knew different.
On a ridge, sitting astride a camel was Ardeth Bey, still keeping a was on the city of evil, with some of the other ma-gai.
"Do we kill him?" asked one of the men.
"No" said Ardeth "I don't think he'll be back"
It was 1927, almost a year had passed since O'Connell, jonathan and Evelyn had fought Imhotep in the ancient city of Hamunaptra, with the help of Ardeth Bey, one the majai.
The city had imploded on itself after Beni had started the sequence of sand and levers that sealed the city. The wealth of Seti I had disappeared under the desert.
Jonathan had been given the curatorship of the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo and Evelyn and O'connell had married soon after their return. Life had more or less returned to normal for them.
A friend of Evie, as she liked to be called, had come to help Jonathan with the general duties in the museum, her name was Tanith and she helped catalogue all the books and trinkets that still kept coming into the museum.
When they had returned to Cairo from Hamunaptra, they discovered the two sackfuls of gold that beni had loaded onto the camel before he had become entombed in the city. It was worth a fortune and was on display in the museum.
O'connell was still into adventure and Jonathan still kept picking up worthless trinkets in the markets. Nothing had been seen of Ardeth bey since that day.
"Jonathan, I need you to come and have a look at something" said O'Connell "Someone passed this onto me yesterday in the museum, said he found it near Thebes"
"Look, I'm busy at the moment, can't it wait?"
"No, it can't, I need you to look at it now"
"Evie has enough with me bringing back worthless stuff without you doing it too, give me a couple of hours"
"Now, Jonathan, I think you need to see this" said O'connell holding up a little hexagan box in his hand.
Jonathan glanced up and his face changed as he saw what was in Ricks hand. He stood up and walked round the side of the desk.
"Oh my God, where did you get this, it's the ……..it's Imhoteps key, we dropped it in the city when we escaped"
"I know what it is, and I know where it comes from, what I want to know is how it got out of there and who found it" replied Rick "If we dropped this in the city, it means somebody knows how to get back in there, and if they found this they might find him"
"Who gave it too you"
"A man gave me this and told me that if I was interested to meet in the bar just outside the fort at 3 this afternoon"
"Are you going?"
"Oh yes and I want you to come with me"
"Well it's almost that now, ok I'll come with you, but you get me into anything dangerous and I promise you, I'll kill you"
"Who me?" said Rick looking hurt "Would I do that?"
"Yes, you bloody well would, remember last time"
"You can't blame me entirely for that, I wasn't the one who brought Imhotep back to life, it was a certain sister of yours"
They left the museum and headed for the bar. Neither said anything to Evie or Tanith.
In the bar they ordered a drink and sat at a table in the corner, Rick knowing that whoever they were meeting would find them.
"Hello my faithful friend" said a squeaky voice behind Rick. He turned round, suddenly stood up and grabbed the person who spoke by the throat.
"Well if it isn't my rogue of a pal Beni, what did you do make friends with the scarabs, so they did a Moses and let you just walk out of there. I was hoping you were dead."
"Thank you very much for leaving me there O'connell, but as you see I am very much alive and have a proposition for you"
"I wouldn't trust anything coming from you, what do you want and how did you get this?"
"Well when you left me to die in the city, I thought I was dead but Allah smiled on me and opened up the floor and here I am. I picked that up where you had dropped it.
"If Allah smiled on you" said Jonathan "Then there is hope for us yet"
"Funny man" said Beni "Look O'connell do you want the treasure from the city or not, I don't have to share it with you there are others who would be interested"
"Beni the only reason you have come to us is because no-one else would be stupid enough to go back to Hamunaptra, come to think of it neither are we"
"O'connell, you are as much of a rogue as I am, you want this treasure as much as I do. I know a way in and out, so far only you two know about this but it can be arranged that others know, it's your choice"
"What's in it for you Beni, you don't give anything away, hang on you're scared to go back there alone and you want us to did the digging and then you'll leave us there while you keep the treasure, how am I doing so far Beni?"
"How can you say that O'connell, I am your friend and I want to share this with you"
"My friend, I'd rather have the scarabs as my friends at least I know where I stand with them"
"You've got till tomorrow at 8pm, if not I'll find someone else"
Before they could say anything else, he had gone.
"Well what do you think Jonathan?"
"I think we would be mad to consider it after what happened and I can't see Evie wanting to go back there, yet Imhotep is dead and the treasure is sitting there, and I don't know about you but I don't want to let Beni have it"
"I know exactly what you mean. We know the dangers this time, as you say Imhotep is dead and the Ma-gai won't be guarding it anymore, there would be no need. Lets tell Evie and take it from there"
"You're mad the pair of you, after everything that happened, me nearly being turned into a mummy, everybody being killed or nearly being killed and you want to go back there?"
"Evie, think of the treasure, we haven't got to worry about the mummy this time, all we have to do it go down there and bring it out"
"You could get the book of Amun Ra back" said Rick "made of pure gold, remember?"
Evie paced up and down the room for a few minutes and then turned to them. "Alright but Tanith is coming with us and no heroics please"
"And no mummys this time" said Jonathan
"Don't worry, I have enough of mummies to last me a life
time" said Rick.
The next night they met with Beni again but they were prepared and gave Beni an ultimatum.
"If you double-cross me Beni" said Rick "I personally will feed you to the scarabs, piece by piece"
"I won't, I won't, I want this treasure as much as you do"
They arranged to meet at the museum a week later and start their journey. Beni left with a sly grin on his face which the others did not see. He was definitely up to something.
A week later, they were ready, Tanith was quite looking forward to an adverture looking for treasure.
"I'ts nice of you to let me come with you, I've never been on a field trip before"
"This is more than a field trip Tanith" said jonathan "You wouldn't believe the problems we've had at this place"
"Oh and watch out for Beni, compared to him a camel would make a better bed fellow" said O'connell.
"Thank you very much O'connell" said Beni.
He was the only one with a horse, he hated camels. Come to think of it they hated him.
After about two days riding they stopped about half a mile from what used to be Hamanuptra.
"Why have we stopped here" asked Rick "Hamunaptra is over there"
"Where this large sand dune is, is the entrance to where I fell . It just needs a bit of digging"
"A bit of digging, it's been 10 months since we were here, how the hell are we going to find the entrance Beni" Rick shouted.
"Come on Tanith" said Evie lets go to those pillars over there, where the city actually stood, maybe we can find an entrance there"
"Evie no" said Jonathan but his words went unheeded as Evie and Tanith rode off towards Hamanuptra.
Beni just stood there while Jonathan and rick started to dig, getting dirty looks off Rick every so often.
"Come Beni, you want this treasure as much as us, start helping, or God help me" yelled Rick.
"Ok, ok" said Beni and he started to dig as well although not very much at a time.
Mean while at Hamunaptra, Evie and Tanith were looking around being careful not to fall into any holes that maybe under the sand. Several of the pillars were still there, although broken this time by the disappearing city below.
"The original entrance was somewhere here, I think" said Evie "But it almost certainly would have disappeared along with the city"
"What are those two doing" said jonathan looking up. "Do you think they should be over there on their own."
"No I don't, look let's take a break, we have all the time in the world to find this entrance, if it exists, lets go and see what they are up to" said Rick.
They left Beni putting up a tent and lighting a fire. Even he couldn't mess that up. They walked over to where Evie and Tanith were.
"Will you two be careful" said Rick "You don't know what is left if the city under here, there might still be booby traps activated when the city collapsed"
"I know Rick" said Evie giving him a kiss. "But we'll be careful"
"Careful, like you were when you read the book of the dead?"
"Stop being sarcastic please" replied Evie. "That is all over with"
"Evie, who are they? Asked Tanith pointing to a ridge in the distance.
"What are they doing here" said Rick "Don't they know the mummy is dead and is no threat anymore"
"They are the Ma-gai, the decendant keepers of Hamunaptra" said Evie "They guard this area from the evil of Imhotep, although now he is truly dead, as Rick says what do they want"
Ardeth Bey got down off his horse and watched the small group dig around at Hamunaptra. He wasn't pleased.
"Didn't they have enough last time, don't they know that the mummy is just as dangerous now as he was before, if not more so"
"What do we do master?" asked one of the others.
"We keep an eye on them and hope they don't find the entrance back into the city. I think it is hidden well after that little man got out a few months ago, but these people don't give up easily"
Ardeth Bey and his followers rode off to their camp, somewhere in the desert. They would keep watch and decide what to do when necessary.
Back at the tent site, Beni was hammering the guys ropes into the sand, swearing under his breath that they had left him to do all the work. Suddenly the sand started to move. He jumped back just in time to see the tent disappear from view.
"O'connell, O'connell" he shouted "I've found it"
They heard him shouting and the two men started to run back, while the two girls mounted the camels and raced past them.
"What is it Beni, this had better be good" said Rick
"Mr O'connell, the entrance to Hamanuptra" he said sarcastically pointing to the hole that had appeared.
"Well done Beni, I knew you'd find it for us" said jonathan.
"How deep is this hole" asked Rick "You came out of it"
"I don't know, I was just glad to get out of there, but it does slope, remember I didn't have any rope to climb out with"
"Well in that case you'll go first Beni" said rick "Then when we know you are alright we'll follow"
"Oh no, I'm not going down there again, you'll leave me there"
"Oh how I wish I could" replied Rick "But we need you to get the treasure. Go on down you go"
He pushed Beni before he could protest again and after about 2 minutes he shouted that he was ok, so the others followed. Rick went first, then the two girls and then jonathan.
Before which of course, they threw down the equipment they would need and a rope secured, believe it or not to a camel. Stupid thing to do but there was no where else to put it, they hoped that the camel wouldn't run off.
Once down in the tunnel they followed Beni on their hands and knees.
"What are we doing here?" asked Evie "I must have been mad"
"We are all mad" replied Jonathan "Come on Beni move, my knees are going to sleep"
"I'm going I'm going" shouted Beni.
They came to a small room where they could stand up.
"You didn't tell me about this room"
"I never noticed" replied Beni "I was in too much of a hurry to get out"
"Ok where do we go from here" asked Tanith "I'd rather find a bigger place than this"
"Don't worry, there is a draught coming from that direction" said Rick "Look at the torch."
It was flickering in what looked like a way into the city behind some rubble. They started to clear it and as they did so they found they could crawl into another room, that was bigger and had not been completely sealed off.
"How come this is here" asked Beni "I fell through the floor back there"
"It's probably an annix of some sort" said Tanith "Maybe it leads to the treasure room a different way"
"Well I'm tired and hungry, surely we can eat now" said Jonathan.
"Ok let's go, we'll come back in the morning"
They got back out of the tunnel and climbed up the rope, a hand helped them out. It was Ardeth Bey and his followers.
"I am disappointed in you, I thought you would have had enough, why have you come back"
"You know why we're back anyway, I didn't think you would have to watch this place any more after what happened to Imhotep?" said Rick.
"You only destroyed that regeneration, he can be raised again, we will always have to watch this place"
"You mean that thing could come back to life again"
"Yes Mr O'connell, it could as for the treasure, it is buried now, no-one can get to it. Please leave here and do not return"
He got back on his horse and as they rode away he shouted back.
"remember, leave here, do not return"
"Who was he?" asked Tanith "He is gorgeous"
"Oh please" said Jonathan in his disgusted voice.
"This is great Rick" said Evie "Not only are we back at the horrible place, but now we know that thing down there can be resurrected again. Is this treasure worth it?"
Together Rick and Jonathan and Beni said Yes.
Evie knew she was onto a losing battle. She went back to Tanith and sat down.
"Evie, who was that man, no-one answered me" she asked
"He is Ardeth Bey, the leader of the men we saw earlier, they live out here somewhere and guard this place."
"He is lovely isn't he?" she said.
"I suppose so, I'd never really thought about it, Let's get some sleep, no doubt the men will want to get started early."
"Aren't you sleeping with Rick tonight?"
"No, Rick wants to keep an eye on Beni, can't say I balme him"
Beni waited till the others were asleep and then crept over to the girls tent. Tanith was quite tall and had longish dark hair, quite plain really but Beni fancied her. He crept into her tent and suddenly there was a scream followed by a load of bad language from Tanith. Rick and Jonathan leapt out of their tents and headed for the girls. Beni was on his back with a bloody nose. Tanith came out of her tent and swore at Beni.
"How dare you come in here, you slimy little weasel, get out and stay out and stay away from me"
"Well, well Beni, being a little creep again are we. Will you never learn" laughed Rick.
Beni returned to his tent, mumbling under his breath, determined to get his own back somehow.
The next morning, they got their stuff together and started back into the cave. When they got to the large room again, Rick decided that it would be safe to use small amounts of dynamite on the rocks piled up at one end. This seemed to be the best place to start on to reach the rest of the city. The other sides seemed to be solid granite.
After setting the explosives, they all hid at the other side of the room. The explosions revealed an opening large enough for them to crawl through.
They found themselves in the room where the mummies were made.
"oh well, we're back" said Evie "I must admit I hate this place"
"You are not the only one" replied Rick "At least we have
no mummies to contend with this time, let's just find the room where the treasure is and leave"
"How do we do that?" asked Jonathan "It's sealed behind this wall"
Rick came over and had a look, it was true the place where there was once a doorway was gone. Somehow they had to find a way in.
The ancient Egyptians were renowned for building vast labyrinths for sealing in the pharaohs and their treasure when they died. Levers were activated to send sand and large granite stones moving into place, completely sealing the tombs. But when Hamunaptra was sealed a few months ago, something went wrong, it wasn't sealed totally, or they would have never got back in, even to where they were now. Maybe over the last 3 thousand years that Hamunaptra had been there the mechanism had become too old to work. Anyway there must be a way into the rest of the city.
"Go round all the walls, there might be a false door, like the one Evie went through before" said Rick.
They all looked and sure enough they found, at the side of one of the statues, a wall that with a bit of effort would move and they could go through into the next chamber.
"We must try and block it once we do get it moved, or we might not be able to get out again, it may only move in one direction."
So Jonathan grabbed Beni who was sneaking around elsewhere and made him help move a large piece of rock that would do as a door stop as such.
Rick, Evie and Tanith used some poles to try and move the door. Slowly with help from Jonathan, it suddenly opened and they wedged the rock in-between the door and the wall, so they could get back.
Suddenly, a rustling sound was heard by them all which got louder and louder, then ceased as quickly as it had begun.
"What was that?" asked Tanith.
"Scarabs, they live all over this place" replied Rick "And you don't want to know what they do"
"Look, Mr O'connell" said Tanith "I may be quiet, but I do know what scarabs do, they eat you alive in a few seconds, they can live for many years or lay dormant until disturbed"
"Sorry I'm sure" replied Rick.
Evie looked at Rick and smiled. Rick had had enough trouble realizing that Evie knew more about Egypt than most people and now he had another girl just as clever. What did he do to deserve it.
As they went through the doorway, Rick and Jonathan realized that this was the corridor that led to the statue Horus and then to the gold room, off of which was the room where Imhotep had tried to resurrect Ananksunamun, his princess for whom his love had caused him to be cursed in the first place.
In this room was also the slimy pool where Jonathan had dropped the golden book of Amun-ra. Maybe it wasn't too deep and they could get it out. This was one job that they would leave for Beni.
"Where abouts did you find the key, Beni?" asked Rick.
"I can't remember" replied Beni.
Rick grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him close to him.
"You had better remember Beni and quickly or this time
you won't come out of here"
"Alright, it was over there, by that table"
"Thank you" said Rick as he let go of him.
Beni was getting fed up of the treatment he was getting from Rick, but who could have blamed him. Beni was a nasty piece of work and only thought of himself in any situation. He didn't care who got hurt or killed as long as he was alright.
Rick and Jonathan went over to the table but there was nothing else except a lot of mummies that they had fought all those months ago, mainly piles of dust and bones, it was hard to imagine that these piles of bones were running around trying to kill people.
Tanith had gone over to the other side of the room to have a look round for herself. In the corner was a large black book with inscriptions on it and as she looked she realized that it must be the Book of the Dead. It was heavy but she put it in her bag, they would be going back soon and then she could have a good look at it. She would tell the others later that she had found it, even she would like something for herself.
Rick and Jonathan were looking at the gold and trying to decide what they would take and how to get it out of there.
"Beni, come here we need you" called Jonathan.
Beni slowly walked over to them and saw the pool of floating skulls and bones, black as the darkest night.
"We want you to get the book out of here which Jonathan dropped, it's not that deep, we tried it but you can get it, it will help satisfy me that you are doing your fair share in this expedition and I am your best buddy aren't are Beni?" said Rick putting his arm round his shoulders.
"O'connell you'll live to regret this" said Beni.
"It seems to me that you are the one that always comes unstuck, because you always think of yourself and never want to help anyone else, now move"
Beni stepped into the pool, it was cold, slimy and he protested in the strongest terms. But with rick standing there with a gun in his hand he thought he had better do as he was told. After a few minutes he tried to get out without the book but Rick stood in his way.
"Come on you haven't even tried, get on with"
The water was about 2foot deep and Beni could feel around with his hands to get the book. At the same time he decided that he would not bother with the gold, because if this book was so valuable, worth more than the rest of the gold put together, as Jonathan had said, it would do him very nicely. This idea gave him more incentive to find it in the slimy water, pushing aside bones as he did so.
Suddenly, he felt it under his hands and he lifted it up. It was very heavy and he shouted to Rick to give him a hand as it was all slimy from the water.
Rick put away the gun and lifted it from Benis hands. It was filthy and would need to be cleaned up when they got back to the surface.
"Come on" said Evie "Let's go back for now and come back tomorrow, I'm cold and hungry and we have been down here for 8 hours now"
"Thank you Evie" said Jonathan "I have been trying to tell him that for ages"
It took them about 30 minutes to get back to the surface and as they came out onto the sand, they found it was totally dark. They realized that they had been down there longer than they thought.
After eating, they got some rags and started to clean up the golden book. It was only then that they realized that the hinge had come apart and one of the gold pages was missing.
The book was made up of 5 pages of gold, a quarter of and inch thick each plus the gold covers which contained the lock. As Evie looked she realized that the page that was missing was the one that they had used to kill the mummy.
"We've got to try and find it, the book isn't complete without it" said Evie.
"By the way, where is Tanith?" asked Jonathan.
"She was tired and she went to bed a little while ago, I'll see if she is alright in a minute" replied Evie.
Tanith had eaten and made her excuses to go to bed, but secretly she wanted to have a look at the black book she had found. It was amazing. But she saw that she needed a patterned piece to unlock it. Then she realized that the box that Jonathan and Rick had, which Beni had given them must be the key. But how to get it.
She came out of the tent and went and sat with the others and told them she wanted a drink as she was thirsty. As they talked she asked if she could have a look at the little box that Rick had, she wanted to write down the hieroglyphics on it.
"I'm writing down everything I see and I thought that the box might be interesting."
"Ok, but don't lose it" said Rick " Well that's it I'm off to bed, Oh and Beni I'd leave the girls alone tonight especially Evie, do I make myself clear"
"Oh yes master" replied Beni sarcastically. Boy was he going to get his own back.
Tanith went into her tent and started to look at the box. Somehow it must open and the key must be inside. As she turn it round, it clicked and popped open revealing that the box itself was the key. She picked up the book and placed the key in the pattern on the front. Slowly turning it, the catches sprang up and she was able to open the book.
As she could read and speak ancient Egyptian, she had no trouble in reading what was on the pages.
"Amun ra, amun deim, finishing with "et soui, yutora yutora"
Deep in the city, the slimy pool rippled and bubbled, slowly a rotting, mummy began to emerge from the pool, he climbed out and looked around. The mummy Immhotep was back.
The next day Jonathan, Rick and Beni had gone over to the other part of what was Hamunaptra, to see if they could find another entrance that might be easier to get into than the one they had already found. They could not get the treasure out that way, there had to be another entrance that cold be opened up.
They spent most of the day digging around and it was just starting to get dusk, when Rick found the opening that they had originally used. It hadn't been sealed up.
"This is good, we can get down easier this way" said jonathan.
They all climbed down the next morning and found that the city was almost intact, a few of the large granite stones had come down into place but many hadn't. It had not sealed up as the ancient Egyptians had hoped.
Jonathan, Evie and Tanith decided to go down one tunnel, while Rick and Beni went down the other. Rick wanted to keep Beni in sight and also he was always one step ahead of Beni now, or so he hoped.
The rustling that they heard before had started again and seemed to be all around them, then it stopped.
"Oh boy do I hate that sound" said Beni.
"For once I agree with you" replied Rick.
As they went down the corridor, Rick had the feeling that they were being followed. He assumed that it was the others
But when he called out, no-one answered. They carried on and once getting into the treasure room they started to write down what they were going to take, or at least Rick did, Beni had mysteriously disappeared again.
"Beni, get your little butt back in here" shouted Rick.
But there was no answer from him either. Beni had gone back into the corridor because he had seen something glinting in the wall. They were scarab type jewels and he started to take them off and put them in a bag. He knew what happened to them and was being careful. Inside were a real scarab that once out would bury itself into your flesh and kill you.
From behind him he heard a noise, thinking it was Rick, he turned to start making excuses about what he was doing, when he found himself face to face with Imhotep.
Quickly remembering how he got out of the same situation last time, he spoke in the language of the ancient Egyptians. Imhotep stopped and as if realizing that this was the man who helped him before turned and motioned Beni to follow him.
Beni was shaking with fear but as he said last time, it was better to walk with the devil than to cross him. He thought they had said the mummy had been destroyed, so how was he still
alive, or as alive as he could be. He needed to regenerate and Beni wasn't going to be the one to help him do that. Someone else could have that pleasure.
The mummy and Beni climbed out of the hole and with Beni help took the gold book and disappeared into the desert. Beni knew that the mummy had to find victims to kill so that he could regenerate but he could have killed those in the city but he didn't. He must admit he wondered why, maybe Imhotep had something else in mind for them. After all they had destroyed his princess so that she could never be raised from the dead again, maybe he was going to use someone else to fulfill his anger.
Back at Hamunaptra, the others had taken enough gold over the following two days that there was no more room on the camels. They would take this back to the museum at Cairo and then come back later for the rest. The large statues would have to stay there, they were too big and heavy.
"let's go back now, has anyone seen Beni at all" asked Evie.
"Not since he disappeared the other day. But I will find him, he has the Book of Amun-ra, and he isn't getting away with that." Replied Rick.
"Not since he disappeared the other day. But I will find him, he has the Book of Amun-ra
and he isn't getting away with it" replied rick.
"I am not sure I want to come back here" said Jonathan. "For the last couple of days I
have had the feeling that something was wrong, just like last time."
"Well I think it's just our imagination" said Rick "This place is evil even if the mummy
is dead. I don't like it either but the gold helps"
They mounted the camels and headed back to Cairo. Up on the ridge they were still being
watched by the Ma-jai.
"What do we do about the gold they are taking?" asked one of the men.
"Nothing at the moment, we will get it back and then we will seal it with dynamite so that
no-one ever finds it again" said Ardeth Bey.
They followed the party back to Cairo, keeping at a safe distance. Rick heard the neighing of
horses and turning to look behind him, saw the Ma-jai on the hill.
"Well they don't give up do they?" said Jonathan.
"No I don't think they ever will"
Back in Cairo, Imhotep had killed a couple of beggars so that he could talk and start the
regeneration process. Beni had helped him get into the city without being seen at first but now
the mummy was regaining his power and one of the first things he did was release the plague of
locusts on Cairo. It spread out over the city and out into the desert. Rick and the others had to
leap off their camels and bury themselves in the sand. The ma-jai had to do the same. After a
few minutes they disappeared.
Ardeth Bey got up and shook the remaining locusts off his clothes, then he looked at the others
and then towards Hamunaptra.
"May Allah help us, he is back"
Rick and the others got up and climbed back on the camels..
"Remember the last time this happened" said jonathan quietly so that the girls did not
hear him.
"Oh I remember but it can't be that, you get locusts at this time of year anyway, don't
worry about it"
Jonathan rode off and Rick looked worried, not believing what he had just said and yet he knew
that nobody had done anything they shouldn't hadn't read any books and so he had to dismiss
the idea that the mummy was alive. The locusts had to be coincedence.
To get to the office they had to go through part of the museum on the top floor, as they walked
in there was a loud click of rifles and standing in front of about eight men was Ardeth Bey.
"What the hell?" exclaimed Rick.
"You never learn, you had to go back and now the creature is back" said Ardeth.
"Yes, we went back but we haven't released the mummy, it's still there"
"No it is not, someone in your group has resurrected him again and he is here in Cairo
regaining strength."
"Beni, it had to be Beni" said Rick "I wondered where he had disappeared to"
"It couldn't have been him" replied Ardeth "He may be able to speak ancient Egyptian
but he can't read it. No someone has found the book of the dead and spoken the words"
"I'm afraid it might have been me" said Tanith. "I found the black book, I have it here"
"Tanith, why, didn't you know that speaking those words brought the mummy back to
life" asked Jonathan.
"I knew what you had told me briefly but I didn't believe it, it was too far fetched I
thought it was just one of your stories."
"Well now we know how he got here, I suppose we had better destroy him again" said
Rick.
"It won't be so easy this time" said Ardeth "He knows what we did last time and his
princess has been destroyed so that she can never be brought back to life. He will want a
substitute to become like him and he will destroy us all in the process."
"Beni helped him last time, we can assume that he will this time, so if we can find Beni
we should find Imhotep" said Rick.
"I'm sorry Evie" said Tanith "I should have believed Jonathan."
"It is never easy to believe Jonathan sometimes and me and Rick had never really
mentioned it. Don't worry, come on"
"Where is the book of Amun Ra?" asked Ardeth.
"It's here, well most of it is, one of the pages has come away from the hinges and is still
in the pool where we dropped it last time"
"We have to go back and find it, if the mummy is to be destroyed again than we need the
whole book"
"Then what do we do?" asked Tanith.
"We will make sure that no-one ever finds Hamunaptra again, nor the book, they will be
buried with it" said Ardeth.
"Well it's too late to go back there tonight, what say we start at first light tomorrow" said
Jonathan.
"Right" replied Ardeth "I'll meet you here, I have to go with you. In a way the Ma-jai
should have sealed that place for good last time, we are as guilty as you. Yalla, imshin"
He and his men left the museum and the others were left not knowing what they were going to
do this time.
"One thing is certain" said Rick "Evie is not to be left on her own, the mummy will be
after her, she was the one he came after last time. Anything weird happens and we're out of
here"
Back at the hotel, Evie took the much needed bath and the men were having a drink in the bar.
Tanith was not there, she had gone to find Ardeth, she needed to speak to him.
"Where has Tanith gone" asked Rick later.
"Oh she's gone for a walk" replied Evie "She'll be alright, the mummy won't touch her,
it's me he's after"
It took Tanith quite a while to find out where Ardeth and the Ma-jai were camped. She had to
take a camel and rode off into the desert to find the camp.
In the distance she saw the glow of a camp-fire, she was about a mile outside cairo. As she
approached the light, four men jumped out in front of her their guns raised.
"What are you doing here?" they asked.
"I have come to see Ardeth bey, is he here?" she asked.
"Why do you want to see him?
"That is really between him and myself don't you think"
They grabbed the reins of the camel and lead her through the sand dunes and into a large camp.
Other ma-jai were sitting around the fires and some were sleeping. They lead her to a tent at the
end of the camp. She got off the camel.
A man came out of he tent and over to her. She saw it was Ardeth Bey.
"Why have you come here, very few people can find us here?"
"I need to talk to you about Imhotep, it is because of me he is here and I need to find out
what we can do. The others won't talk to me about what happened before. Will you tell me?"
"Come, I will tell you" replied Ardeth.
He took her inside one of the tents, and proceeded to tell her everything that happened 10
months ago.
"So, after guarding Hamunaptra for over 3000 years, so that no-body found the mummy
of Imhotep, you and your friends have succeeded in bringing him back to life twice. This time
he has a purpose, his princess has been destroyed totally and he will need someone to take her
place, we can correctly assume that Evelyn is the one he will come after, killing anyone who
gets in his way"
"Can he be stopped this time?"
"I hope so, but it will be harder than the last time, he will be more wary and careful than
last time and it looks like he has the help of that Beni again"
"What can I do, this is all my fault"
"It is all our faults, Hamunaptra should have been destroyed many years ago, then
hopefully this would never have happened. Go back to the others, we will meet tomorrow and
find the rest of the Book of Amun-ra and try to destroy the creature again. Two of my men will
take you back"
Tanith left, with many things to think about and with the image of Ardeth in her mind.
Back at the hotel, while Tanith was seeing the Ma-jai, Rick and Jonathan were having a drink
with two Americans who were quite willing to help them. They loved danger and the thought of
finding treasure while destroying a mummy, which they also thought was a load of rubbish,
living mummies were a myth and fairy story, was a good incentive. Their names were Johnson
and Davies.
"Well, we meet Ardeth Bey tomorrow" said Rick "And we have to go back to
Hamunaptra to find the rest of the book. There will be no collecting and gold we might find,
I've had enough of treasure to last me a lifetime. When this is over, if it is over, Hammunaptra
can stay buried in the sand for ever as far as I am concerned."
"Oh, we're just here to help Rick, we promise, no treasure" lied Davies.
Secretly they were after as much as they could carry, without Rick and the others they would
never have found the city of gold..
"Rick look at the fountain" said jonathan.
Rick turned round to look at a fountain that was situated in the middle of the bar, the water was
turning red, something they had seen before.
"Oh my God, Evie, he's back"
They ran out of the bar and up the stairs to Evies room. She shouted at them when they all burst
in without knocking.
"What the hell are you doing, is there a fire?"
"We've got to get out of here, He's back, in the hotel somewhere" said Rick.
Evie didn't need telling twice, she grabbed her clothes and ran out of the room with them and
they all went to Davies room, where they thought they might be safe for a while. Imotep would
try her room first, they hoped.
Suddenly Rick spotted a fez hat, popping down behind a cupboard just as he went into Davies
room.
"Hang on a minute" he said.
He crept round the back of the cupboard and grapped Beni who was listening and watching"
"Well, well, well, what have we here, Imhoteps spy no less"
"O'connell let go of me, my prince will kill you all"
"Your prince, we have come up in the world haven't we Beni, get in there"
He shoved him into the room and locked the door. Beni tried to run over to the window but
Jonathan and Davies stopped him.
"What are you going to do with me, don't kill me" pleaded Beni.
"Oh I'm not going to kill you, while you are with Imhotep we know what you are up to,
he will kill you just the same as us you know"
"I am of too much help to him, he won't kill me"
"Well let me assure you that when this is over, if he hasn't then I will and I can assure
you that you will have wished he had. Where is he now and what does he want, no lies mind
you"
"He is close by, and he wants the lady he had last time, she is to become his princess and
live with him through all eternity, but he is very angry with all of you and will destroy you."
"Ok well you go back to your master and tell him from me that he won't get Evie to turn
her into a mummy and that we will get him first. Can you remember that Beni?"
"Yes, O'connell but you underestimate him, he will get what he wants."
O'connell threw him out of the room and locked the door. They had to find somewhere safe for
Evie.
"I am not going anywhere, I am the only one who can read ancient Egyptian apart from
Tanith, and I have told you before I am not a piece of left luggage, where you go, I go, no
matter what the danger"
"Ok, ok, I'm not going to argue. Tomorrow we will get the book and destroy him once
and for all, until then we will take turns to keep watch."
Johnson and Davies still thought they were mad, mummies didn't exist, only dead ones but they
would go along with Rick, they wanted the treasure. It wouldn't be long before they were to eat
those words.
They left evie in the Bedroom "while they stayed outside and had a drink. they were going to
need it.
About two hours later, Davies woke up to a noise outside the window, the others were asleep.
he got up and walked across to have a look but couldnt see anything. he went back to the chair
where he had been sleeping. Just nerves he thought.
In evies room the window was open and a breeze was starting to get up, blowing the net
curtains gently. Then on the balcony sand began to pile up in the corner. lots and lots of sand.
evie stirred in her bed but didn't wake up. The sand finished falling and in the reflection of her
mirror, had changed into the mummy. Not fully regenerated yet, but well on the way. He walked
over to evie and pulled the covers from her. She suddenly woke up and screamed.
"Rick and the others came bursting in. The mummy turned and screamed at them, giving Evie
the chance to scramble out of bed and run behind rick. Johnson and Davies were dumbstruck,
the mummy did exist and was standing in front of them. Rick and Jonathan started firing their
guns at Imhotep, but he kept coming.
"go find the cat in the other room" shouted Rick "now quickly"
davies turned and scooped up the white cat that lived at the hotel and always stayed with
'Evelyn. he carried it into the bedroom.'hold it up to the mummy, now" said Rick. 'Davies did as
he was told, the mummy took one look and speaking something in Egyptian, revolved in a spiral
of sand and disappeared out of the window. Johnson staggered back into a chair,
"I'm sorry O'connell, I didn't believe you, But I hope I never see that again"
"you 'will, it has only just started" said Rick.
'What was all that with the cat?" asked "Davies.
"we discovered last time that until he is fully regenerated that he is terrified of cats, they
protect the under'world"
fully generated how does he do that?"
"he kills people, then sucks them dry, that's how" said O'connell.
Tanith came running up the stairs when she heard the noise.
'what happened?" she asked.
"Oh you came back then, resurrected any more mummies lately?" asked "Rick
sarcastically.
"alright you've made your point, but if you had told me everything before we went to
hamunaptra, maybe this wouldnt have happened"
"we were protecting you, the mummy was dead you didn't need to know the detail's" said
evie.
"well I do now, I went to see ardeth Bey and he told me the whole story. he says that if
the mummy can be destroyed, he "will make sure that the city is never found again"
""That was dangerous, we don't know that much about these men except Ardeth
Bey who helped us last time"
"i was alright, he seems very nice, I like him" replied Tanith. he said he will be
here early tomorrow"
'well we will have to be on our guard, at least Ardeth was right about the mummy coming
back for Evie again. Lets get some sleep, we have a long ride tomorrow"
They all agreed and went to sleep except Rick and tanith.
"I'm sorry "Rick, I never knew this could happen when I read the book."
"I know, it isn't really all your fault, you didn't have the facts" replied Rick
"Do you think we can stop him?"
"I really don't know, not this time, it was hard last time and many people were killed. Not
all of us will survive this."
The next day Ardeth met them as arranged and they left for Hamunaptra. On the way they had
to endure a plague of flies, obviously sent by Imhotep. They hoped that for a while he would
remain in Cairo, at least till he was fully regenerated. They didn't have much time.
On reaching the city they were met with a surprise. Imhotep had summoned more of his
followers and they were guarding the entrance. About 10 mummies.
"Oh great, a reception committee" said Rick "That's all we need"
The men dismounted and grabbing their loaded rifles, stormed into the mummies, destroying as
many as they could. But unbeknown to them, behind them was Imhotep and while they were
fighting the mummies, he was grabbing Evie. She screamed for Rick.
He turned to see Tanith lying on the ground and Imhotep carrying Evie towards the city.
"Evie, noooo" shouted Rick running after her.
Suddenly a wall of sand rose up in front of them, hiding Imhotep from view. They shielded
their eyes from the sand and when it stopped a few minutes later, Imhotep and Evie were no
where to be seen.
"He's got her, we have to hurry and find her before he turns her into a creature like himself"
They were so busy watching the mummy disappear with Evie that only Ardeth went over to see
if Tanith was alright.
She was only stunned as she had been knocked off the camel, he helped her up.
"Are you alright?" he asked
"Thank you, yes I'm ok, it was just a long way down"
"We have to get into the city, find the lost page of the book and then look for the girl"
said Ardeth.
"You go look for the page, I'm going to find Evie" said Rick.
Ardeth grabbed his arm and told him not to go rushing in, the city wasn't that safe now that
some of it had been sealed.
"If you get trapped then the girl is lost forever and the world will be destroyed, that is the
purpose of the mummy. We have to be careful"
"Alright, but let's go"
They lowered themselves down into the city and made their way to the room where
Anaksunamon had been the last time. That was next to the treasure room where the pool was
that contained the last page of the book.
As they made their way to the treasure room, Davies and Johnson disappeared down one of the
other tunnels. They wanted to find the treasure not fight mummies.
When Rick and the others got to the room, who should they find there but Beni, knee deep in
water obviously after the page of the book that they were after.
"In the shit again Beni, where is Evie and the mummy?" said Rick.
Beni tried to run but Rick jumped in after him and grabbed his collar.
"I don't know O'connell" shouted Beni trying to get away.
"Don't lie to me Beni, I'm not in the mood"
He pulled Beni out of the water and held his gun to Beni's throat.
"He's in the big room, through there, but the girl is already dead O'connell, you're too
late, he just wants the book so that you can't kill him"
"Oh does he, well if Evie is dead then so are you Beni"
He pulled the trigger and Beni looked surprised that he had actually done it after all the times he
had been threatened.
With Beni dead, Rick jumped back into the water and feeling around at the bottom, found the
page they had been looking for.
Suddenly, mummies started popping up from the sand.
"What more of them?" said Jonathan "Rick get a move on"
The sound of the shot let Imhotep know that the others were in the city and he send some more
of his priests to stop them. Also the noise of the bullet had loosened some rocks in the tunnels
which they were going to find made the whole place unsafe.
"Where are the others?" asked Jonathan looking round.
"Don't worry, I'll find them" said Ardeth "You go and get the girl and then try and
destroy Immhotep"
He ran back the way they had come. Tanith followed Rick when all at once a rumble came from
beneath the city and rocks began to fall from the ceiling and they all had to run.
The city was falling apart and they didn't have much time to find Evie.
Tanith looked back just in time to see a load of rubble fall where Ardeth had just gone. She ran
back.
"Tanith come back, it's not safe" shouted Jonanthan.
"Let her go, we have to find Evie" said Rick.
In the room they saw Imhotep standing over Evie who was tied to the stone table. She wasn't
dead yet but he was about to perform the ritual that made Evie into the mummy that would take
the place of his princess.
"Get away from her" shouted Rick.
Imhotep looked up surprised and Evie looked relieved that Rick had found her.
"Kill him Rick, kill him" she shouted.
In the other room, Tanith ran back to the tunnel that they had come in from. There was a lot of
rubble by the entrance and she pulled a lot of it away, allowing her to crawl through and try and
find Ardeth. She went through that tunnel and into the next, looking for him. All at once she
came upon a pile of rubble where she saw a hand sticking out from it. She ran over but it wasn't
ardeth, he had tattoos on his hands, this must be Davies or Johnson. Making her way round the
rubble she continued along the tunnel. The noise of the scarabs could be heard in the walls and
she hoped that was where they would stay.
As she turned the corner into yet another tunnel, she spotted Ardeth, lying on his back with
rubble all round him and some small pieces on him. She ran to him, taking his hand and
realizing that he wasn't dead, tried to wake him up. Gradually he came round and she helped
him to his feet.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yes, I think so, but what are you doing here, why did you come back?"
"I was worried about you, I thought you might have been hurt"
She went to walk away assuming that Ardeth would follow. But he grabbed her arm and she
turned round to look at him. He smiled and said thank you. She plucked up enough courage to
kiss him on the cheek and then turned and went out into the tunnel to go and find the others.
Ardeth stood there for a moment, surprised then he ran after her.
Rick slammed the book and spare page into Jonathans hands, and ran towards Evie.
"Find the inscription that kills him" he yelled.
"How, I can't read ancient Egyptian, I need Evie"
Imhotep strode past the table and speaking some words brought to life some more mummies
that were in coffins round the walls. They ambled towards Rick while imhotep went after
Jonathan to get the book back.
As Rick fought the mummies, Jonathan led imhotep on a merry dance trying to keep out of his
way until Rick could free Evie.
Then Ardeth and Tanith came into the room and Ardeth joined Rick in fighting the mummies.
"Tanith, find Jonathan and read the inscription in the book, destroy Imhotep"
Rick managed to release Evie in between being chased by the mummies. Imhotep tried to
recapture her but couldn't get her. Tanith found Jonathan and was just about to read the words
when Imhotep struck her from behind, sending her sprawling across the floor. Jonathan dropped
the book when Imhotep picked him up to kill him.
Evie ran round and somehow got the book, found the page that she needed and read aloud the
words she used before.
"Kadish mal, kadish mal, paradeux paradeux"
Imhotep stopped in his tracks and started to decompose again, swearing at them in Egyptian
before he disappeared into the pool again.
As Imhotep disappeared, so the other mummies that Rick and Ardeth were fighting suddenly
stopped and crumbled to the floor.
Evie ran to Rick and he held her tight. Jonathan came over and gave her a brotherly kiss.
"Well done ole mum" he said affectionately.
"Where is Tanith?" asked Evie.
They looked around and saw Ardeth kneeling beside her. She opened her eyes and looked at
him and as he helped her up, he held her in his arms.
"I think she's alright" said Rick. "Come on let's get out of here"
"Wait" said Ardeth "I have to do something first, give me the books"
"Why, what are you going to do with them?" asked Jonathan.
"I am going to throw both of them into the slime pool and there they will stay so that no-
one can find them ever again"
"You can't" protested jonathan "We haven't gone through all this just for you to throw
them in a pool"
"Give them to him Jonathan" said Evie "We don't want them, as long as they are
available, someone will use them and we don't want this creature loose again"
"Oh alright, but it's not fair" he said as he reluctantly gave them to Ardeth.
Ardeth took them over to the pool and after dismantling them, threw them page by page into the
dark water, never to be found again, he hoped.
They slowly made their way out of the room and followed Ardeth towards the entrance to the
city. Another rumble echoed through the city.
"Come on let's get out of here" said Rick "Before we get trapped down here"
When they got to where Tanith had found Ardeth earlier and realized that they had to remove
the rubble before they could get out. It was going to take ages, there was a lot of rubble to be
moved.
"Oh great we are going to be here for hours" said Evie.
"I know but the quicker we start the quicker we will get out" replied Rick.
So they started to move it, listening to the rustle of the scarabs in the walls.
"I hope they stay there" said jonathan "If they come out we are dead we have no-where to
go"
After a while they had moved enough to enable them to get out. They were all glad to be out in
the fresh night air.
"We will stay here tonight" said Ardeth "Tomorrow the rest of my men will help me
destroy this city forever"
"Well I could do with a sleep and something to eat" said jonathan "At least we are out of
there, by the way haven't we forgotten something?"
"What?" asked Rick.
"Davies and Johnson, we had forgotten about them"
"They are dead" replied Ardeth "A fall of rubble killed them"
They had some food and settled down for the night. Rick really wanted to go but decided that
he would help Ardeth in the morning. He had risked his life for them it was the least they could
do.
Ardeth said he would keep watch for a while, just in case. Rick didn't ask why, he thought
better of it.
Tanith only slept for about an hour and seeing Ardeth sitting on a pillar a little way from their
camp, got up and walked over to him.
Hearing a noise behind him, he quickly turned and pulled his gun.
"Its alright, it's only me" said Tanith.
"Couldn't you sleep?" he asked.
"No, what are you watching for?"
"Oh this and that, mainly thinking about what we have to do tomorrow."
"When the city is destroyed will you still have to guard it, like it has been all these
centuries?"
"Yes, but not as much. The gold and the mummy will hopefully, stay under the desert
sand undisturbed now. I wonder if it shouldn't have been done before"
"Can I sit with you?" she asked.
He moved over a bit so that she could sit beside him. It was cold in the desert at night and she
laid her head on his shoulder. He put his arm round her and she looked up at him.
"Why did you kiss me in the city?" he asked.
"I don't know Ardeth, do you?"
"I think so" he replied and bending down kissed her gently on the lips. She snuggled
against him and they sat there for a while.
When Rick woke up, it was daylight and looking around saw Ardeth and Tanith leaning against
the pillar, cuddling each other, fast asleep. He went and woke Evie.
"Take a look over there, we have a romance in our midst"
"Must be something about this place" she laughed kissing him "Remember"
He smiled, remembering that it was here that him and Evie had found romance too.
When they had finished breakfast, Ardeth disappeared for about an hour and then returned with
about 15 of his men. With them they had dynamite and with the help of Rick and Jonathan, set
charges all round the perimeter of the city.
Tanith and Evie stayed at the camp site watching.
"Do you love him?" asked Evie.
"What do you mean?" answered Tanith.
"Oh come on, we saw you this morning, cuddling up over there and we saw the way you
have looked at each other a few times"
"Alright, yes I think I do, but I don't know if he feels the same. He has a different life to
me and maybe the ma-jai aren't allowed to marry or anything"
"Only one way to find out, ask him, before its too late"
Ardeth and the others came back and told them to get their stuff and the camels and move quite
a way away. They were going to blow the place.
Explosion after explosion echoed round the desert, as the city disappeared beneath the sand.
After the dust settled they saw that nothing remained except a few pillars. No-one would ever
know that Hamunaptra was there, buried under the sand.
They packed their stuff onto the camels and started off back towards cairo. When they arrived
back, they all went into the museum.
"What do we do with the stuff that we have here from Hamunaptra?" asked Rick.
"It stays in the museum" replied Ardeth "No-one, except us need know where it came
from. There are indications on it that it came from hamunaptra. Again our people and the world
are in your debt, may Allah go with you"
He left them and walked out of the museum.
"Didn't you say anything?" Evie asked Tanith.
"No, I didn't know how" she replied.
"Go after him, you may not have another chance, they might move camp now they
haven't got to watch the city"
Tanith looked at her, then at the others, Rick nodded. She ran out of the office and down the
stairs. Ardeth was then getting his camel ready to return to his camp.
"Ardeth, wait" she called.
He turned round and she ran up to him.
"Don't go Ardeth, stay"
"I can't, I have to go back to my camp, I told you we still have to watch the place even
now. There will always be treasure hunters who want to find Hamunaptra."
"But I don't want you to go, I…..I love you"
He took her in his arms and kissed her.
"Then come with me, because I love you too"
He climbed onto his camel and she climbed up with him. He held her so that she wouldn't fall
off and kissed her again.
He clicked his tongue so that the camel moved off and with his men following, they headed out
of Cairo, into the desert towards his camp.
Rick and the others watched them go.
"Well I never thought either of them had it in them. I'm impressed."
Back at Hamunaptra, under the sand, something was stirring but it wasn't the scarabs. Suddenly
a hand pushes through the sand and a blood curdling scream can be heard.
No-one had known but this time, they had not destroyed the mummy, his second regeneration
was too strong.
Imhotep still lived!!!!!!!!!!