Chapter Five
The diorama figures crowded around the door to the basement, all armed to the teeth and all waiting for the figure prowling in the basement to show itself. The thing had been screaming its head off for a while until the door flew open, and not one, but nine heads filled the doorway. Octavius gave the order to retreat, pulling Jedediah along beside him, and diorama figures scattered every which way, just as the beast broke through the door jamb.
Ahkmenrah led Tally into the Egyptian Wing, gesturing for Kahmunrah to follow as well. "In theory," he said, "a virginal sacrifice would be used to resurrect a person, and since you're no longer a virgin, if we send your astral soul to the underworld, you should be able to trap these 'Nazis', as you call them, in limbo for eternity."
"In theory?" Tally and Kahmunrah asked at the same time.
"Well, I've never actually seen it done, and the astral soul of a person, much like the person itself, expresses his or her own desires and has his or her own will, alongside the fact that it is influenced by the astral souls of others, of which there is a concentration in the underworld."
"Okay, so it's kind of like guestimating and hoping you get lucky?" Tally asked.
"Yes, exactly like that."
"Will I make it back alive?"
"I hope."
"You hope?" Kahmunrah and Tally again said this at the same time.
"I told you, I haven't seen this sort of thing done before."
"So you expect us to trust you?" Kahmunrah asked.
"I don't expect it, but it would be very much appreciated if you would trust me." He continued to walk down to the Egyptian room. "Tally, you're to be directly over my sarcophagus, in the center, so that you are, as it seems from the door, directly in front of the tablet." Tally put the glass lid back on the case and pulled herself onto it so she could sit cross-legged comfortably. Ahkmenrah gave the rest of his directions in Egyptian, and he and his brother began to chant. Tally closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath.
Tally felt herself slipping out of her body before she found herself in an expansive foyer, in the center of which sat Anubis on a stone throne with hieroglyphs in gold overlay all over it. He was positioned before a set of golden scales that Tally recognized from a painting or two that Ahkmenrah had shown her once. Before the scales were the three Germans whose second bodies had been killed. Anubis gestured for her to come forward, and she did. "Is this the one whom you seek to grant you back your bodies?" he asked.
"Ja," Hitler said, starting one of his speeches before Anubis stopped him.
"If she doesn't cooperate?"
"We will kill her."
"You speak English?" Tally asked.
"Who doesn't anymore? It's become one of the official languages of the dead," Anubis said. He lowered his head so they were eye level with each other. "So tell me, why are you down here if you're not dead?"
"I've got stuff to do down here so the world up there doesn't go to hell, pardon the pun."
"Pun pardoned."
"Thanks."
"So what do you need to do?"
"Let them do their thing, and that's where I come in."
Anubis sat up and gestured to Hitler and the Nazis. "Proceed, gentlemen."