'What about Vanessa and the people who love her?' She stepped forward, but the Doctor placed a hand on her shoulder to hold her back. 'What about her life? What about Norris, didn't he have a right to live? What about her father?'

'Her father -' Ra.s.sul stabbed the pistol towards Tegan. Then he stopped mid sentence, stepped back, and regained control of himself. 'Ah yes,' he said. 'I think we can now dispense with the services of her father.' He almost spat the final word with contempt. Then he turned to Vanessa.

'Don't you agree?'

Tegan heard the scuffing footsteps from the other room before she saw Prior shuffle into the main chamber. His eyes were still gla.s.sy and unseeing as he approached them. Then he blinked, and immediately they focused and he looked round himself in surprise. 'Vanessa?' He seemed to latch on to the person he knew best. 'Oh thank goodness you're safe.' He went over to her, looking in bewilderment at the mummies standing beside her.

Vanessa reached out, the back of her hand stroking down his cheek. To his neck. Then she gripped him tightly with both hands, squeezing his windpipe, choking off the coughed gasps that might have been words. Prior sank to his knees, smoke rising from his daughter's hands as she throttled him. A sickly sweet smell drifted across the room, and Prior collapsed to the floor. His eyes were gla.s.sy and unfocused again.

There was silence for a while. In the doorway, Vanessa stood flanked by the two mummies. Prior's smoking corpse lay in front of them. Ra.s.sul stood beside the other mummy, pistol in hand. The Doctor stared open mouthed at Ra.s.sul. Atkins and Tegan looked in horrified fascination at Prior's body.

'It's time to make the final moves,' the Doctor said suddenly in a loud voice.

Everyone looked at him, including Vanessa.

He shrugged. 'Someone had to say something.'

From behind them came a faint rustling sound, almost like a breeze through the trees in a forest. The Doctor ran to the dais, Tegan close behind. Ra.s.sul joined them as they looked down at the bandaged form inside the casket. It was moving slightly, the chest rising and falling, the wrappings on the lower arms creasing and un-creasing as if the hands were clenching into fists. A faint sigh came from beneath the strips of cloth covering the face.

'Oh no,' Tegan said huskily. 'She's waking up.'

Ancient Egypt - c5000BC She was still alive, but Ra.s.sul did nothing.

He watched as they dragged the girl's sagging body towards the tomb. He followed, taking his designated place as the last of the relics were carried after her. The ring of Bastet, born on a velvet cushion; the snake statue of Netjerankh; the scarab bracelet; the figure of Anubis, G.o.d of the rituals of death. Ra.s.sul followed, holding the hourgla.s.s before him like the talisman it was. And at his back he could hear the Devourer of the Dead snapping in frustration as she was cheated of her victim. The girl was still alive as they removed the dress. She could stand alone now, unmoving apart from her eyes. She was still alive as Anubis directed the priests to smear her naked body with bitumen.

She was still alive as they started to smother the bandages round her. And Ra.s.sul did nothing.

As the wrappings reached her face she screamed again, head back and mouth wide, as if to remind them she still had her tongue. A single word, screamed in terror, anger and accusation. A single word hurled at Ra.s.sul as he stood before her. And did nothing. The next twist of cloth cut off her voice, bit deep into her mouth and gagged her.

She was still alive as the bandages covered her forehead, leaving a thin slot through which Ra.s.sul could see her eyes widen. She was watching him, locked on to him. And he could see her pupils dilate, could almost feel her terror.

The opening of the mouth. Her scream had been like a pouring in of energy. His muscles tightened and his whole body tensed. She screamed a single word.

'Father!'

Chapter Fifteen.

They were all standing round the casket now. The Doctor, Tegan and Ra.s.sul had been joined by Atkins. As they watched the bandaged figure's movements become gradually more p.r.o.nounced and emphatic, Vanessa stepped up on to the dais. The mummies grouped behind her, and as she raised her arms high above her head, they mirrored her movements. The chamber seemed to fill with discordant music, perhaps from the organ in the drawing room above, as the wide sleeves of Vanessa's night-gown slipped down to her shoulders, exposing her bronzed arms.

The figure in the casket was struggling to sit up now, the arms still bound to her sides, but working to loosen the wrappings.

'Now it happens,' Ra.s.sul said, his voice barely audible above the rising noise of the organ. 'Now she becomes whole. Now the G.o.ddess Nephthys lives again.'

'And what good does that do you?' Tegan shouted across the coffin.

'My daughter will live again too. When the mind of Nephthys is complete, so too is the remains of my daughter's. Some part of her, however small, will be restored.' The sweat glistened on his forehead as he raised his arms above the coffin. 'That is worth everything. Nephthys is the instrument of my daughter's rebirth.'

The Doctor shook his head emphatically. 'You think you're using Nephthys,'

he shouted. 'But in fact she's using you. She's been using you ever since Horus chose your daughter.' 'No Doctor, you are wrong.'

'Am I? That blind faith that drives you to try to save some vestige of your daughter is how Osiran mental control works, don't you see that?'

'What do you mean?' Atkins asked.

'It's not just thecomplete take-over of the mind that the Osirans use. It's the pa.s.sion for discovering all you can about a mummy in your bas.e.m.e.nt, it's the devotion of a high priest, the impulsive selection of a good round number like a hundred years. It's the love of a daughter.'

Ra.s.sul was shaking his head now. 'No, Doctor, you still don't understand.'

As he spoke, two of the mummies stepped on to the dais. They took up positions either side of the casket, forcing Atkins to move aside. They reached into the coffin and took the writhing, bandaged figure, raising it to its feet with a gentleness that belied their ma.s.sive strength.

'When Nyssa's eyes open from the long sleep, and she sees the G.o.ddess, Vanessa and Nyssa will be joined and Nephthys will be whole again.' The triumph was evident in Ra.s.sul's voice.

Vanessa reached out, working her slender fingers between the bandages round the head. 'Let the universe tremble,' she said, her voice blending into the rhythmic swell of music. 'Let the darkness start here.' Then she tore the bandages from the face of the figure standing in the sarcophagus.

Tegan screamed, and the organ music stopped. Tegan stepped back, hands to her mouth, and almost fell down the step. Vanessa froze, her eyes meeting the gaze returned from beneath the torn remains of the bandages. Atkins looked puzzled, and Ra.s.sul stood open-mouthed in horror and amazement. The Doctor nodded slowly, his face set in grim satisfaction.

The figure standing in the coffin, held either side by an Osiran mummy, her head now almost free of bandages, was recognizably Nyssa. The grey hair hung in ringlets about her neck, the round face was creased and wrinkled round the bright intelligent eyes. The pale lips were pursed slightly as if in defiance.

When Tegan had seen the Doctor unwrap Nyssa's head in 1896, it had been to reveal the young woman she remembered from the previous day.

Now she looked nearer ninety than twenty.

'What is this?' Ra.s.sul screamed. His voice echoed round the chamber.

'What has happened?'

He looked to Vanessa for an answer, but she remained frozen in position, staring at Nyssa.

'I think we're a little late,' the Doctor said. His voice was quiet, but everyone turned to him. Even Vanessa swung her head slightly. 'I'm afraid your calculations were slightly off. As you can see, Nyssa has actually been awake for quite some time. Or at least, in a sort of waking sleep. Just enough to continue the ageing process while she dozed.'

'No,' breathed Vanessa, her voice an exhalation of disbelief.

'You know it's true,' the Doctor told her. 'You just scanned her mind, looking for the reasoning, calculating, intelligent part of your own self.'

'It is not there.' Vanessa's voice was low, despondent.

'So, even at the instinctive level on which you're operating you can tell that the rest of the mind of Nephthys no longer exists. It was freed when Nyssa awoke, and you weren't here. Now it's lost forever.'

'How long ago did she wake?' Atkins asked.

'She woke up in 1926.'

'Seventy years,' Atkins murmured.

The Doctor nodded. 'I like good round numbers,' he said.

'Doctor.' Tegan's voice was accusing, shaking with emotion. Her face was set and she was glaring at him.

'I'm sorry, Tegan. If there had been any other way.'

'How could you?' She was in tears now. 'How could you do this to Nyssa, after - after everything?'

The Doctor smiled sadly. 'Ra.s.sul knows. He asked if I could sacrifice a friend to save the universe, if I could make that choice.'

Tegan turned away. 'He didn't believe you could,' she said through her sobs. 'And neither did I.'

Ra.s.sul too was shaking with anger. 'Doctor, I shall kill you for this.'

The Doctor returned his stare. 'I don't care,' he said levelly. 'The universe is safe now. All you have is a woman who hardly knows who she is and can't make a decision beyond the next instinctive moment. She can respond to circ.u.mstances, make impa.s.sioned speeches from the heart of the evil G.o.ddess she once was, but longer term than that she can never make up her mind.' He grinned suddenly. 'I hope you'll excuse the choice of phrase.'

'She will be whole,' Ra.s.sul insisted. 'We shall find a way.'

Vanessa stood watching them, listening to the exchange but taking no part.

Her face was impa.s.sive.

'Not without going back to 1926, you won't.' The Doctor frowned, as if surprised at his own words, and bit his lip. He turned away, went to comfort Tegan.

Ra.s.sul's brow creased in concentration. '1926, of course. Nephthys must be there when your friend wakes. Must have been waiting for her first moments of this waking sleep. Then, her mind will meld and be one.'

He looked across at Vanessa, and she in turn reacted, nodding to the nearest mummy. The mummy let go of Nyssa, who sagged, still held by a second mummy. She had been paying careful attention to what was happening, but said nothing.

The mummy lurched towards the Doctor, grabbing him by the shoulder and spinning him round. Then it pushed him towards Ra.s.sul.

'You will take us, Doctor,' Ra.s.sul said. 'You will take us back to 1926.' He pointed the gun at the Doctor's head to emphasize the demand.

But the Doctor shook his head. 'Oh no. No I won't. And threatening my friends here will make no difference, either,' he said as Ra.s.sul moved the gun to point at Tegan. 'By now you must realize that I value even their lives below the imperative of keeping Nephthys subdued. The past is over and done with, dead and buried in a box. And you can't change it.'

Ra.s.sul considered for a moment, then suddenly he smiled and lowered the gun. 'But we can,' he said. 'Thank you for the suggestion, Doctor. We shall use the sarcophagus. It can open a vortex tunnel to 1926 as easily as it transported Nyssa to ancient Egypt.'

The Doctor's jaw dropped, and for a second he was speechless. 'No!' he cried, his arm flung out in appeal to Ra.s.sul, an almost theatrical gesture.

But Vanessa was already turning to the mummies. 'Go,' she said, and her voice was like the cracking of h.e.l.l.

The mummy still holding Nyssa's arm released it, and she fell back into the casket. Atkins and Tegan went to help her out, as two of the mummies turned and lumbered towards the staircase. The third stood beside Vanessa, a silent bodyguard. Ra.s.sul moved to join his G.o.ddess.

'Where are they going?' Tegan asked the Doctor.

'To fetch the sarcophagus, I imagine. If they bring it here, then Vanessa or Nephthys or whoever she now is can use it to travel back to 1926 and be in this room when Nyssa's consciousness returns.'

'And Nephthys will live again, complete,' Vanessa said, her eyes now alive with menace.

'Where is the sarcophagus?' Atkins asked.

Nyssa sat down on the edge of the dais, and the Doctor rested his hand on her shoulder. It was a strange gesture, comforting yet distant. 'I imagine it's still in the British Museum. It's a bit of a walk, but who's going to argue with those two at four o'clock in the morning?'

It was the quietest time of the night in a city which is never completely silent. Aldwych was deserted, and Drury Lane had already shed its last theatre-goers. The two mummies kept to the darkest shadows as they lumbered across London. The instinctive force of Nephthys which guided them knew intuitively that avoiding confrontation would make for the quickest journey.

Even so, several meetings were unavoidable. A drunk stirred in the gutter as one of the ma.s.sive figures stepped over him. He stared in fuzzy horror at the shape moving above him, then dragged himself to his feet and fled noisily in the opposite direction.

As they neared the end of Drury Lane, a police patrol car drew alongside.

'Good party?' the driver called at them, but the robots ignored him. The patrol shadowed for a while before receiving a call about a hit and run in

[image]

Bloomsbury. It wailed off into the night and the mummies continued their ponderous progress towards the north entrance to the British Museum.

Henry Edwards was making his routine tour of the ground floor when he heard the crash. It sounded as if the north door was being smashed open.

The penetrating scream of the burglar alarm echoed round the museum.

Henry reached for his radio as he ran down the corridor.