"We did it!" said Roma, "We did it," echoed Evelyn and they looked again at the papers that contained the terms of the concession to dig in the desert where Roma and Ardeth discovered the tomb. They shook hands and practically skipped out of Pierre Lacau's office.
"I want to see the mummy," Roma said, "He's on display in the mummy room. I've seen him but I want another look at him, I want to know who our enemy is. Will you come with me?"
Evelyn nodded, "I've seen him before, but that was before they knew who he was. I always felt sorry for him and wondered why he'd been treated so shabbily."
"He deserved it," said Roma grimly, "He murdered his father for the throne—I always wondered why he didn't kill the crown prince too, maybe he was afraid."
The mood in the mummy room was solemn. They walked past the kings and queens of Egypt until they came to the case that held Pentaweret's pitiful looking mummy.
"I want to burn it," said Roma in a quiet voice, "I think he called up something dark, maybe Set himself, to protect him, but all that happened was he escaped a worse punishment by hanging himself."
"Maybe we will be the ones who put an end to him. Whatever it is, we will find a way to banish it, you must have faith that we can do it."
"They won't be happy," Roma told Evelyn as they sat in the back of a cab, "Your husband wants to go treasure hunting in the Valley of the Kings. Ardeth doesn't want me to go back but what we found is too important not to excavate. No one knew the location of Pentaweret's last resting place, and now we can offer proof that he was buried in his own tomb before his mummy was placed in the cache."
"We're going to need diggers, tools, lamps, cameras, as well as supplies. Are you sure you can afford this?" Evelyn asked.
"Oh yes, this is going to be fairly economical as far as an excavation goes. We won't be wasting a lot of time looking for something when we already know where it is. It will just be a matter of clearing the tomb to see if there are any more hidden artifacts and mapping the area around it. We may find more tombs, who knows? That whole area is a big unknown, it's been neglected by archaeologists for a long time—and now it's ours!"
"Roma," Evelyn's voice had a hesitant tone and she knew what was coming, "How are we going to persuade Rick and Ardeth? I know they won't be pleased when they hear what we plan to do."
"Ardeth has no say in this and he knows it, he will come with me because he won't want me to go alone. You will have to convince Rick because we will need protection that the diggers cannot give us."
"You're not married dear, I don't like arguing with Rick, but I do want to go with you."
"What would happen if you went with me anyway? He may get mad but surely he'll get over it?"
They had their answers over dinner.
"No," said Ardeth, "You're not going back to that tomb."
"Forget it, Evelyn," said Rick, "You're not going into the middle of the desert on your own, that's bandit country."
"If Roma is going, then so am I," said Evelyn, and Rick knew that defiant tone well, "It's not like we're going unprepared and without knowing where we are going."
"We're going to be better supplied this time, I can arrange to have water and supplies ferried across the Nile," Roma summoned her most convincing arguments, "I'm going to bring a Land Rover and several camels, and I'm going to bring diggers who've worked with Father and me. Rick, Ardeth and I grew up in Egypt and we can look after Evelyn. You may as well say "yes" Rick because I intend to go and if she wants to come with me, she can."
"This is the chance for Evelyn and me to make a name for ourselves, we've found something that no one else knew existed. When we're finished, we'll write a paper and submit it to the Sorbonne, and if they accept it I'll earn my doctorate and a full professorship. Evelyn will earn some much-needed credentials and it will open doors for her. Women are not taken seriously in this field, this will force them to recognize us—at last."
"Ardeth," Roma finished, "Short of tying me to the bed there is no way you can prevent me from going. I know you don't like that tomb, neither do I, but this is something I want to do, no I need to do. I'd feel better if you came with me, I'll feel much safer. Please say you'll come."
Ardeth had grown up with her, he knew when he was defeated. Rick, on the other hand, would take some convincing, but from the look in Evelyn's eyes, Roma knew that they had won.
The logistics of any excavation were almost overwhelming in their scope. Diggers, tools, tents, food, water, transportation, all had to be obtained and made ready by the departure date. Fortunately, they could obtain what they needed in Luxor, so it was not necessary to haul supplies from Cairo.
Roma closed the Cairo house and gave last-minute instructions to the servants. She, Ardeth, Rick, and Evelyn then boarded the ship which would return them to Luxor.
It was a more solemn voyage for Roma this time. Evelyn's enthusiasm could be contagious, but the magnitude of her decision weighed heavily on Roma's mind.
Ardeth found her at the rail, smoking a cigarette. He came to her side and took it from her hand, inhaled deeply, then flicked it over the side.
"You don't have to do this," he told her, "We can tell the O'Connells how to find the tomb, then return to Luxor or Cairo, whichever you wish. I know you, Roma, I know you're afraid, I'm afraid, too. We don't know what this thing is."
"You may be right, Ardeth. I don't know what this thing is. I've seen the forms it can take but I don't know what it is. I can't leave the O'Connells to deal with it by themselves, I don't know if Evelyn understands just what she's dealing with. I think it's returned to the tomb, which could be its power center." She put her arms around him, holding him close, "I'm afraid but I don't want to let it get the better of me. It's evil, and I want to take it out of this world."
"I will help you all I can," murmured Ardeth, "but you have no idea what you are doing. Do you have a plan?"
"No, I don't, I haven't dealt with the spirit world before. The tomb robbers didn't destroy his mummy, why did they leave it? I read somewhere that the spirits of suicides never rest, maybe he has always been there. Why didn't the priests destroy his body in the first place? Was it because he was a son of the pharaoh? Did they think that the way he was mummified and wrapped with the sheepskin would keep his spirit from continuing on to the afterlife? Why didn't they destroy him once and for all?"
"Those are questions I can't answer," replied Ardeth.
"Yes, I will and I know a place to start. Father has a collection of books I've never seen, books about Egyptian magic. I hate magic, I've never delved deeply into it—but Father did. I may find my answer there."
"Magic scares me, Ardeth, but Father wasn't so bothered by it. I think his attitude towards it was too casual. Now I've got to read those books and see if there is a way to drive away a spirit, or, better still, destroy it. It followed us all the way back to Luxor, even though we crossed the water. I've got to find a way to exorcise it in terms it understands. I wish I could get into the Egyptian Museum and steal that mummy and destroy it."
"Tell me, Roma," he said, "How do you kill a god?"
"You can't, but you can kill his servant. Pentaweret was the servant of Set, maybe if we can destroy his spirit, we can stop the curse. But would killing him be enough, he was only one of many in the Harem Conspiracy?"
Roma's sense of dread increased when they stepped off the ship and took a taxi to the Luxor house. She paused on the threshold, hesitant at first to step in, but the house had a clean and wholesome feeling, not a trace remained of the fear and foreboding that she had fled.
"I am all right," she said to Ardeth, noting the look of concern on his face, "The house has been cleansed, all we have to do now is make sure that we don't let any evil back in."
She sat in her office and went through the mail that had piled up since her exit. Nothing of importance, a letter confirming the possession of her concession to dig in the desert tombs, and one that stabbed at her heart: a letter informing her that no trace had been found of her father's assailants, although the case had not yet been closed.
The tears came unbidden, how had her father died? Nothing had been found but she was sure now that no items of value to a thief had been contained in the load her father intended to take back to Cairo. The true treasure had been with her and Ardeth. Who then had attacked a helpless old man for nothing?
She opened the desk drawer and felt along the surface for the key she knew had been taped there. Her fingers found it and she drew it out. Crossing over to the bookcase she pressed a button underneath one of the shelves and it swung open, revealing a hidden door.
The key fit in the lock and she turned it, taking hold of the edge she opened the hidden cabinet that held her father's collection of books of magic of every known civilization that had existed in the ancient world. Some were in Greek or Arabic, but she set those aside, what she was interested in were written in hieratic, with notes her father had translated in English.
Her preference was to investigate the Egyptian, but she knew Evelyn did not know Greek. Therefore, she made two stacks, the volumes in Greek went into one, and those in ancient Egyptian want into another. She scooped up the books and came into the living room where Rick, Ardeth, and Evelyn had been talking softly amongst themselves.
"Evelyn, you are able to translate hieratic, yes? I need you to go through these books and see if there are any spells that deal with vanquishing the dead. I will go through the Greek translations. It is said that the Greeks gathered all the knowledge of the ancient Egyptians and placed them in the Library of Alexandria. The scrolls these books are based on had been stolen before the library burned. The books in hieratic were put into book form by Coptic monks during the Middle Ages, no one knows what happened to the scrolls."
"What are we looking for?" asked Evelyn.
"We are looking for a way to destroy the spirit that has been brought back to life. I believe the spirit of Pentaweret is haunting his tomb, and furthermore has learned how to transport his spirit. If we could destroy his mummy that would put an end to it, but we can't, so we must find another way to stop to him. If we can't destroy him, we must find a way to banish him from this earth, he's too dangerous."
FYI: I looked up the Mummy movie from the 1932 article on Wikipedia and found that in some ways Sommers was pretty faithful to the movie. However, "Ardeth Bey" was the name that the mummy used when he was brought back to life. And he wanted to resurrect Princess Anck-su-namen and needed a mortal woman to do it. Outside of the core plot, the rest is Sommer's imagination, and we are glad that he created something so wonderful!