Chapter 6- London England, 1933
The O'Connell Mansion, Driveway:
Kat, Alex and Ardeth raced out of the house into the large driveway. The rain had subsided to a light drizzle, but thunder and lightning still lit the sky. In a flash an illuminated dark car drove away into the night. Evie's face appeared in the black window, shouting. A cloth was pressed over her face and she was yanked away.
"EVIE!" Rick shouted, running out onto the drive way with a rather disheveled and dripping wet Jonathon beside him.
"Dad!" Alex called running, up.
"Alex!" Rick pivoted, spying his son. He quickly bent down grabbing his arms, "Are you alright?!"
"Yeah." Alex said, breathless.
He looked up at Kat, who nodded that she too was fine. Rick's eyes landed on Ardeth.
"O'Connell." Ardeth acknowledged.
"What are you doing here?!" Rick grabbed Ardeth by the collar and swung him up against the fountain in the driveway.
"I'm here to help." Ardeth replied evenly, though obviously feeling the fountain digging into his spine.
"Well isn't that just convenient." Rick replied.
"Rick, he saved Alex and me. Evie would've died if he hadn't come in." Kat interjected. Ardeth shot her an appreciative glance with his dark eyes and after a moment Rick loosened his hold, scowling.
Ardeth quickly explained how he had come to be in London, having followed a cult that was planning on raising a mummy from the dead. It was led by a woman who knew things no human could possibly know, such as where the 'creature' was buried.
"Well that's just grand, but what do they want with my wife?" Rick asked.
"My friend, I do not know. But wherever this man is, your wife will surely be." Ardeth unfolded a picture from in his shirt and revealed it.
Alex suddenly yanked the picture from him, "I know him, he's the curator! At the museum!"
"You're sure?" Ardeth asked the boy intensely.
"You'd better believe him, he spends more time there than he does at home." Rick stated.
"What do they want our friend Imhotep for?" Jonathon cut in.
Kat blinked. Imhotep? Why did that name feel familiar?
"They are going to raise the creature to defeat the Scorpion King and take over the world, now that they have the bracelet, there is nothing to stop them." Ardeth replied.
Alex and Kat exchanged a look. Kat cleared her throat, drawing the attention of the men to her and a rather pleased looking Alex.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Alex said, pulling up his sleeve, revealing a rather buttery, gleaming gold bracelet. "I put this on just after we got home and I saw the pyramids of Giza and then whoosh, I was at Karnak."
Ardeth stepped forward, examining the bracelet quickly. He looked down at the boy, eyes boring into him, "Do you realize that by putting this on, you have started a chain reaction that will bring about the next apocalypse?"
Alex blanched, gulping.
"You, chill out." Rick pointed at Ardeth.
"You, big trouble." Rick pointed at Alex.
"You, stay with Alex." Rick pointed to Kat.
"You…get in the car." Rick pointed at Jonathon.
Alex opened his mouth, "Hey, I'm coming with!"
"With your son now carrying the bracelet, it might be a good idea to keep him near." Ardeth suggested.
"Not where we're going. I'm going to get my wife back and that's not something he's going to be around for. Stay. Here." Rick pointed at the ground firmly. Using the dad tone.
Alex groaned as the men raced off into Rick's car.
Kat and Alex watched as they sped off into the night to a rumble of thunder, headlights blaring.
"They'll get your mom back." Kat reassured the boy, feeling her hip throb and butterflies from the adrenaline jumping around beneath her skin.
"Let's get inside and try to get this off you." Kat said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Without saying a word, Alex turned and walked back to the house. Kat frowned keeping up with him.
…
O'Connell's Mansion, Kitchen:
Back in the kitchen of the now lonely feeling house the two had moved from butter to soap to try to loosen the bracelet of the boy's wrist. Nothing seemed to work. After an hour of prying and pulling they finally had to give it a rest.
Kat wiped her sweat covered brow, loose hairs flaying out from her bun, "Maybe we should try something else. Does your dad have any saws?"
"Saws?! You're going to saw my arm off?" Alex shouted, already tired and frustrated from an hour of trying to get the bracelet off. Not to mention his mom being kidnapped and his father gone on a rescue mission with uncle Jon and some sort of warrior called a Medjai.
"No. Not your arm, the bracelet. It's gold right? That's one of the softest metals there is." Kat retorted.
"I don't want a saw that close to my arm!" Alex said.
"Well you don't want to see the Scorpion King either, do you?" Kat replied right back, feeling her patience starting to wane. She took a deep breath, "Look, if we can get this off by the time your parents get back, we might be able to undo whatever we caused to happen with this Scorpion King guy. We'll be careful with the saw, but we have to get that off you."
"I don't think so." A deep voice said.
Kat's eyes shot open wide and her stomach dropped as Alex suddenly backed away. Kat turned her head to see the dark giant, Lock-nah, standing in the dark-wooded kitchen entryway. Before the thought could process that these guys had gotten in once before, so they could do so again, Alex yelled from behind her.
Kat whipped her head to see a red man grab the boy up in his arms.
"No!" Kat cried out, reaching for him. Suddenly she too was grabbed from behind. Large, heavy, dark arms entrapped her, squeezing the breath from her lungs. She wriggled and fought, but she could have been fighting against a rock and boa-constrictor's offspring for all her efforts. Lock-nah had her trapped in his large muscles. Without so much as a hesitation he lifted her up off the floor as her and a fighting Alex were walked out of the house and stuffed in the back of a car idling in the drive way with its headlamps off. Another red man was in the backseat and first Alex was crammed in, followed by Kat. Kat bounced against the black leather seat as she hit it, scrambling over to grab and hold Alex close to her. Lock-nah quickly got in himself as the car started to drive down into the night.
...
The car was dark inside and Kat didn't even peak to see what the rest of her kidnappers looked like. But she could smell them as her heart raced in fright. They smelled like sweat and sun-baked-cloth soaked in dust. Instantly it reminded her of one of her many trips to the hotels in Cairo. They smelled like Egypt.
Holding tight to Alex in silence as they drove, no one said anything but Kat's heart kept racing. What was going to happen to them?
Kat felt her legs and sides brush up against Lock-nah as the car took turns and bumps, and she tried to scoot closer in to Alex as this happened. After an eternity, they were pulling up into a familiar damp parking lot.
"We're at the train station?" Alex spoke, breaking the silence.
Kat looked out the window, how could this be? She had checked the train schedules while planning on picking up the O'Connells that night. They had been on the last train of the day.
The car stopped smoothly and Lock-nah's door was open as he grasped Kat's upper arm with his massive hand. His grip was like a vice and he half lifted Kat out of the car before she could scramble herself. Her feet hit wet pavement and she stared up at the station, a few lights left on in the large building's windows. The night air was cold and wet as it breezed around them in the second it took for the other man to push Alex out into the opening, behind Kat. Lock-nah began to pull Kat's arm, his fingers burrowing into her skin painfully as he hurried her up the steps of the station. Alex tugged and jerked several times away from the man holding his arm, but followed up the steps without as much resistance as he could have. Even if he managed to wriggle away and outrun his kidnappers, what would happen to his nanny?
Pushing through the doors their steps echoed across the shining, empty station floor. They approached a train docked in the station, steam billowing up from the front. Kat took in the color and size of the train, it looked old and small-not like the trains that usually pulled into the station.
She looked around as Lock-nah painfully pulled her arm towards the middle of the train, Alex following after. There wasn't a single soul in the station that she could see.
Kat glanced back at Alex as they were shoved hurriedly to board the train. Once they got on the train, who knows what would happen to them?
Lock-nah pushed Kat up the step of the train, where an open door led into the compartment. His hand squeezing so tightly that Kat let out a little, involuntary shriek.
Lock-nah looked down at her as he took a step up on the train as well. His hand loosened and instead he guided her through the door with his other hand pressing against her back, keeping her moving. Inside the compartment a couple of red men sat in open seats, guns on their laps as they watched Kat and Alex with dark eyes. Three lamps lit the compartment on each wall, but it was still plenty shaded inside and Kat had to squint to ensure she didn't trip over anything as Lock-nah guided her down the aisle. The train jolted and started to slowly roll out as Alex followed behind them, still squirming under the hand the pushed him along.
She could feel the wheels churning under her shoes as the train began to leave the station. Lock-nah's hand let go of her arm and grabbed her shoulder, forcing her into one of the open seats. Alex was thrust into the seat with her and Kat quickly placed a protective arm over his shoulders.
Lock-nah gestured to them with his turbaned head, "Watch them, I will inform lord Imhotep we have the bracelet."
The red man beside him nodded, taking a stand in the seat kitty-corner to them, gun in hand. Lock-nah, smirking, disappeared into another compartment.
Kat hugged Alex close to her. There was that name again: Imhotep. Jonathon and Rick had known him, and Ardeth had called him a 'creature', a 'mummy'. Apparently the stories about the O'Connells were true. What would happen to them?
"Do you think Dad got Mom?" Alex looked up at Kat as the train picked up speed, windows darkening as the completely left the station.
"Of course and if I know your parents, they'll both be coming for you next." Kat smiled down at him, "We're not the ones who have to be worried, this lord Imhotep should be."
Kat blinked. The name came out of her mouth differently than she'd meant it to. Without trying an accent developed, changing the sound of the 'mummy's' name slightly.
Alex nodded, "Yeah."
Kat's eyes flickered up to the red man with the gun, he stood watching them expressionlessly. Keeping a tight arm on Alex she looked out the black window, not seeing anything but the outline of her own reflection. Her hair was fraying from the bun.
The train rolled faster now, it's wheels chugging rhythmically, filling the compartment with a steady beating sound.
