7: O'Connell Wins the Prize for Understatement of the Year

Voices, three of them, floating through the fog...

"We should wake her up."

"How do you suggest we do that?"

"I don't know. We could throw some water on her face, that always works."

"Yeah, in the movies. That'll just get her wet. Besides, you see any water around here?"

"I was just suggesting..."

Meela forced her eyes open, struggling to focus them in the dim light. Three men stood above her arguing about something or other, most likely the unconscious woman at their feet. They hadn't seemed to notice, however, that she'd woken up. She sat up slowly and finally caught their attention.

"Oh!" one of them cried. "Uh...hello."

"Who are you?" Meela asked weakly. "Where am I?"

The men looked nervously at each other before one of them answered. "We're, uh, lost. We were sort of hoping you knew where we were."

Meela stood on shaky feet with no assistance from any of the three men. "Strangely enough, this seems familiar."

"So you do know where we are!"

"No, I didn't say that."

"Well, how did you get here?"

"Trap door. How about you guys?"

"Uh...We were...looking for a--"

"Daniels!"

"What? I didn't tell her anything!"

"You were going to!"

"Would you just let me handle things, guys? I'm the leader, here!"

"You are not, Burns! I am!"

"What? You are not, Henderson, and neither is Burns! We agreed that I would..."

The three voices faded into the background as Meela walked away from the bickering trio. Honestly, why did all the men she came across have to be such frigging idiots? They weren't going to be any help, that was for sure, and Meela was quite confident that she could get out of this on her own. She rounded a corner, the voices becoming more and more distant, and spotted a doorway. It was just like the number of nondescript gray metal doors that lined the hallway, but something about it....

The door, pulsating with energy where it should be cold and lifeless, called to Meela as she produced a keycard from her pocket. She had no time to ponder where the keycard had come from before her hands swung the door open and beheld a most beautiful sight.

Or a most gruesome sight, depending on your point of view.

Bey steered his charges through various security measures, depositing Jonathan in the care of a bewildered intern with strict instructions to watch him like a hawk. "Evelyn," he said, "if you'd just come with me, and O'Connell--"

"I'm going with her."

"I don't know how happy Mr. President will be to see you, but--"

"I don't care. I'm not leaving Evelyn."

Evelyn seemed quite pleased with this arrangement, but Ardeth was still less than convinced. "Fine. But it's not my fault if he shoots you in the ass."

Bey directed the pair to the Oval Office and then left, saying he wanted to check up on something. "You don't seemed awed by the Oval Office," O'Connell remarked as he and Evelyn stood waiting.

"Oh, I've been here before. Isaac and my father were great friends; he's always looked after us. Look, here's my picture. That's Jonathan, when we were little."

"Wow. Your picture is on the Oval Office desk."

"Yep." Her attention was drawn to another object on the desk, a large, heavy book. "Isaac said there was an artifact he wanted me to look at. This must be it." Evelyn looked up to find that Rick's attention was focused not on the book, but on her. "Rick, you're staring at me."

"Yes. I admit it."

"Why?"

He grinned, knowing she didn't care. "Just because you're beautiful."

"All right then, go ahead."

"Having permission takes all the fun out of it."

"Well whatever are you going to do with yourself then?"

"Hmm. How about..." Rick kissed her again, and it struck Evelyn as very funny that she, of all people, was having a make-out session in the Oval Office. Not that she was complaining, of course.

"Cut that out, you two," said Izzy as he swung the door open. Rick and Evelyn jumped apart guiltily.

"Hello, Isaac."

"Hello, Evy. O'Connell."

"Pleasure, Mr. President," replied Rick.

"I can see that."

"Is this book what you wanted me to look at, Isaac?"

"Yes."

"Where did you get it?"

The President sat behind the desk with a sigh. "It was found in a closet last month by a cleaning crew."

"How? I mean, was it stored in a box, or...?"

"We don't know. They're all..." Izzy paused. "...dead."

"What? How?"

"Unrelated incidents. One killed himself, one died in a car crash, and the other...well, actually the last one is still in a coma up at GW."

"What happened to him?"

"Her. Attempted mugging."

"That's horrible."

"Sounds suspicious," said O'Connell. "Three people in fatal or near-fatal situations within weeks of finding this thing?"

"That's what I thought," agreed Izzy. "No one can tell me what the damn thing is, though. Which is where you come in, Evy."

Evelyn had a look of great concentration on her face. "It's definitely Egyptian. Three thousand years old, maybe more."

"How do you know all this?" asked Rick.

"It's my specialty. My aunt was Egyptian, it was like a second home to us growing up."

"Do you know what it is?"

Evelyn bit her lip. "Yes, unfortunately."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"The Tutankhamen exhibit was in London in 1972. My aunt worked there, after we moved I remember her telling us that a very precious book had been stolen a few months prior to the opening. I think this...This is the Book of the Dead."

"The Book of the Dead? Maybe we shouldn't be playing around with this."

Izzy opened a drawer and removed a round object. "This was found as well. We think it's a key, but we can't figure out how to open it."

Within moments of taking the key from Izzy, they heard a tiny click and just like that Evelyn had the key open. She placed the star-shape into the cutout on the front of the book.

"I really don't think this is a good idea."

"It's just a book," replied Evelyn as she unlocked it. "No harm ever came from reading a book."

"What's it say?"

"Ah mun ra, ah mun dai... It speaks of the night and of the day... Imhotep en set pique set suey yahtoay yahtoay yahtoay..."

With a slight hiss all the lights went off. O'Connell broke the silence. "Well, that can't be good..."

Meela was startled out of her reverie as she felt a slight tremor run through the floor. The lights flickered off for a movement, and when they came up the corpse she'd stumbled upon was...moving!!!

He blinked a few times, attempting to focus on the frozen woman in front of him. "Annie," he said, recognition lighting up his grisly face. "Come with me, my darling. It is time to make you mine, for all eternity."

Ivan would have thought she'd be pleased. Of course, owing to the nearly rotted through vocal chords that Ivan possessed, what really came out was more like a demonic growl.

So when 'Annie' suddenly produced a potted plant from behind her back and whacked Ivan over the head with it, Ivan was more than a little confused (and that wasn't just the concussion talking!)

~*~*~*~

My Imhotep already has eyes, okay? So sue me:)~ I'm diverging majorly from TM now so don't be alarmed by all these plot changes, d'accord? Merci:)