Page 34 of Tomb of the Sun King

“Sayyid Al-Ahmed,” Sayyid replied.

“But what I meant to ask is—have you come across any artifacts in your recent work here that might have referenced something… well, a little Biblical?” Ellie pressed.

“Biblical?” Neil echoed dumbly.

His impossibly present little sister took in his bewildered expression. “I suppose that’s a no, then.” She cast an assessing look at the blocked doorway to the next passage. “But you’ve only gone into part of the tomb?”

“We are working our way through one chamber at a time,” Neil retorted a little defensively. “There is a great deal of conservation work to be done along the way, and…” He paused, shaking himself as if waking once again from a dream. “But do our parents know you’re here? What about your job? How did you even get here?!”

“Not exactly. I don’t have one anymore. And on a boat,” Ellie replied in neat sequence. “Now, if we could please save the rest for later. We only have a few minutes at most before that villain and your amir reach the tomb shaft.”

“Villain?” Neil echoed, paling.

“Is your Peanut always this exciting?” Sayyid asked with a touch of awe.

“What? No. She’s… Well, I suppose maybe a bit…” Neil hedged thoughtfully, and then caught himself. “Hold on—what villain?”

“He is after a clue which will point to the location of an extremely important artifact—one which he cannot be allowed to find.” Ellie looked around the antechamber, her boot tapping thoughtfully on the ground. She eyed the rubble blocking the way to the passage. “Anything of importance to the Egyptians would have been placed with the interred remains of the deceased. If it were possible to find and secure it before Dawson arrived…” She turned to face him, her expression a little apologetic. “How much trouble would it be if we were to push directly through to the burial chamber?”

“What—now?” Neil blurted back, his sense of alarm rising. “But you haven’t explained anything! How are you here? Who are these villains you’re raving about? What does any of this have to do with the Bible?”

Before Ellie could answer, a second intruder hopped into Neil’s tomb, his boots clumping heavily against the floor at the foot of the stairs.

The new arrival had the broad-shouldered physique of a wrestler. He straightened, pushing back the brim of his battered fedora to reveal a sun-kissed complexion—and a pair of very familiar bright blue eyes.

“Hey, Fairfax,” Adam Bates said uneasily.

Neil stared slack-jawed at his friend… who was supposed to be living on the other side of the world. “How are you…” he began helplessly.

“It’s kind of a long story…” Adam started.

Neil whirled to Sayyid. “Do you see him?”

“The large American with the very blue eyes?” Sayyid carefully returned.

Neil put his fingers to his temples. “I am not going mad,” he determined. “But this is… this is too much! First Ellie—who’s supposed to be in London cataloging government documents, and now you—who ought to be in British Honduras surveying land grants! Is everyone I’ve ever met going to turn up in this tomb today? Either one of you would have been an utter surprise, but the sheer coincidence that the two of you show up here at the exact same time…”

Sayyid’s eyebrows lifted skeptically. Ellie and Adam exchanged an uncomfortable look.

“Right, sorry,” Neil said, catching himself. “You haven’t actually met. Ellie, this is Adam Bates, my old friend from Cambridge. Bates, this is my sister, Ellie.”

All three of them—Adam, Ellie, and Sayyid—stared at Neil as if he’d just announced that he was going to marry a badger.

“What?” Neil asked a little irritably. “What did I say?”

“Should I, uh…” Adam began awkwardly, his words addressed to Ellie.

“I suppose we had better,” Ellie agreed grimly. “If we can find a way to do it quickly.”

An odd silence followed. Adam’s gaze drifted to the ceiling of the antechamber.

“Nice crocodile lady you’ve got there,” he commented, nodding at one of the figures painted on the plaster.

“That would be the goddess Ammit,” Ellie explained thinly without looking up. “The devourer of the hearts of the dead.”

Sayyid coughed suspiciously.

At that moment, as if to prove that the day could in fact get even more mad than it already was, athirdintruder burst into the antechamber.

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