The Eye of the Serpent (6 page)

Ethan got the engine running and then swept off back the way they had come. Soon they were driving sedately out into the desert again.

‘Uncle Will kept saying,
He's out
,' said Alec.

‘Yeah. Not sure who he's talking about though. Seems to have something to do with the tomb. He didn't want us to open the door. But
that doesn't make any sense. It's what he and Tom worked for all those years.'

‘
He's already out. I've seen him
,' mused Alec. ‘You're sure it's Akhenaten's tomb?'

‘Well, the seals on the outer door sure have his name all over 'em. But until we get into the burial chamber, we can't be certain.'

‘Akhenaten is interesting,' said Alec. ‘He's one of the least known pharaohs. After his death, the people who succeeded him did everything they could to erase his memory. They destroyed his statues, his temples . . . In his official tomb in Amarna, even his sarcophagus was smashed into tiny pieces.'

Ethan frowned. ‘Yeah, why was that exactly?'

‘Well, most people think that it was because he banished all the popular gods that people had been worshipping for years and made them worship only one, Aten, the sun disc. It was the start of monotheism.'

Ethan looked at Alec doubtfully. ‘For a kid, you sure know some fancy words,' he said.

Alec smiled. He was beginning to like the American. He loved the way he didn't try and pretend he knew more than he did. Most adults would have just nodded, as though Alec
was telling them something they already knew.

‘Uncle Will always believed that Akhenaten's followers must have rescued his mummy and had it reburied in the Valley of the Kings, away from harm,' said Alec. ‘Some archaeologists think that his mummy is the one they found in tomb fifty-five in nineteen-o-seven, because all identifying features had been erased; but Uncle Will never accepted that was him. He thinks it's the body of Smenkhkare, another missing pharaoh – and I agree with him.'

Ethan grinned. ‘I ain't about to argue with either of you,' he said. ‘Sounds like you both know your stuff.'

‘Uncle Will kept saying that he was already out . . . Do you suppose he meant that Akhenaten's mummy was gone? Maybe tomb robbers got there before Uncle Will did and stole the remains.'

Ethan shook his head. ‘No. As far as we can see, nobody ever broke into this tomb. It was absolutely untouched.'

Alec stared. ‘But that's incredible!' he said. ‘There's not a tomb been found that hasn't had
somebody
break in and filch some of the treasures. Even King Tut's tomb had been broken
into twice over the past three thousand years.'

‘Yeah, Carter told me that. I spoke to him the other day.'

‘He's a nice chap,' said Alec. ‘Uncle Will introduced me to him on the last dig. It was good of him and Lord Carnarvon to allow Uncle Will to excavate in the Valley of the Kings. He had to approach them for permission, years back. Carter could have said no, but he didn't – he said something about there being no harm in a bit of healthy competition.'

‘You admire Carter, huh?'

‘I was back at school in Cairo when they found Tut's tomb. I would have given anything to have been in on that.' Alec wasn't about to admit it, but Howard Carter was the nearest thing he had to a hero in his life. If he could have changed places with anyone in the world, Carter would have been his first choice.

Ethan smiled. ‘Well, Howard's having a tough time of it now. Since Lord Carnarvon died he can't make a move without somebody shoving a camera in his face. All that baloney about a curse.'

‘You don't believe it, then?'

‘Heck, no! People like to make up that mumbo jumbo – it sells newspapers.'

‘But Lord Carnarvon
did
die back in March.'

‘Sure, but not from a curse – just an infected mosquito bite.'

Alec nodded. ‘Same thing that got my mother,' he said.

Ethan looked uncomfortable. ‘Yeah, I remember Will mentioning it in one of his letters. Must've been tough for you, Alec.'

Alec did what he always did in these circumstances. He ignored the sympathy and pressed on with the point he was making. ‘Llewellyn said something about a curse, back on the
Sudan
,' he said. ‘Not for Tut's tomb; for the one that Uncle Will found. How is it he knows about the find?'

‘Not sure. I've only told a few people and I swore them all to secrecy. I guess somebody must have blabbed.'

‘Hmm. You have to admit that it's strange that nobody has been near that tomb since it was first sealed. Have they found much in the way of artefacts?'

‘Are you kidding? So far, we've only been in the antechamber and that is stacked with goodies. Jars, scrolls, statues, chariots. You name it!'

‘Which makes it even more odd. We know that tomb robbers usually turn out to have been
in cahoots with the people who organized the burial. Why didn't somebody come and loot this one?'

‘Well . . . maybe it was just better hidden than most. From what I read in Will's journal, it was a complete accident that somebody chanced upon it when they did. He said that— Oh, great!'

‘What's the matter?' Alec looked up in surprise. Ethan was staring at something in the rear-view mirror. Alec turned to look over his shoulder. The sky behind them was darkening to an ominous gunmetal grey; below, a shifting, stirring brown mass was whipping around in the air.

‘Sandstorm coming in,' said Ethan. ‘Travelling pretty fast, by the look of it.' He glanced round. ‘We can't turn back. We'll just have to keep on for the camp and hope we can outrun it.' He looked at Alec and grinned. ‘What were you just saying about a curse?'

He pushed his foot down on the accelerator and brought the Crossley up to its top speed, the metal chassis juddering as the wheels raced across the uneven dirt surface. Already the wind was picking up and Alec could see little flurries of sand gusting across the surface of the road.

‘How far is it to camp?' he asked anxiously.

‘Maybe twenty miles.' Ethan turned to the boy and winked. ‘Not a very nice welcome, Alec. But don't worry, we'll be OK.'

Alec hoped the American was right. He hunched down in his seat and stared out at the seemingly endless ribbon of road unwinding in front of them. Whenever he glanced over his shoulder, he could see that the storm was getting closer by the minute.

THEY HAD JUST
made it back to the fork in the road where they had parted company with Mickey and Coates when the storm began to close in on them, the sound of the wind rising to a howl. Ethan and Alec had already put up the roof and secured it in position and now there was nothing to do but bring the Crossley to a halt and wait for things to improve. Visibility had already dropped to just a few yards and it was hard to even see the road through the rising blizzard of sand. Then the storm struck and Alec could feel the heavy vehicle shifting beneath the force of it. It felt as though it might flip over at any moment.

With the windows closed it grew intolerably hot and Alec and Ethan sat side by side, sweating profusely.

‘This is screwy,' muttered Ethan, having to shout over the noise of the wind. ‘Damned storm just seemed to come out of nowhere.' He glanced apologetically at Alec. ‘Sorry, kid. If we'd headed straight for the dig, we'd be there by now.'

‘It's all right,' Alec assured him. ‘I'm glad we went to see Uncle Will, even though he wasn't on great form. How did you come to know him?'

Ethan smiled, remembering. ‘It was after the war,' he said. ‘I'd seen some bad things and I guess it affected me more than I knew. I went off the rails for a while. I had trouble sleeping. Got a little too fond of hard liquor and gambling – couldn't seem to hold down a steady job. My debts got so bad in the end, I had to get out of the country fast. I took work as a deck hand aboard a cargo ship bound for Cairo. I ended up hanging around the docks doing odd jobs to get enough money to eat.'

He shook his head. ‘I was at rock bottom,' he went on. ‘Then I met Will. He was in town to take care of some business. He weighed me up pretty quick – must have realized I was in a bad
way. He said he could always use more help over at the dig. So I figured, what the heck, I'd give it a try.' He shrugged. ‘I knew nothing about ancient Egypt, and Will realized that, but he was prepared to give me a chance when everybody else had given up on me, so I'll always be in his debt for that.'

‘That's Uncle Will,' agreed Alec. ‘Always likes to help others.'

Ethan nodded. ‘Well, things finally started to work out for me. Will and Tom gave me more responsibility; I finally felt like I was doing something worthwhile. Oh, we weren't having much success back then, just a few small finds. I worked with them for the first year and a half, but then something came up back in the States. My dad was pretty ill and I needed to go back and settle his affairs. Will made me promise to come back just as soon as I could and even lent me the money to get back to the States. It took a while to straighten things out.'

Alec gave him a questioning look. ‘Your father died?' he asked.

‘Yeah.' Ethan looked sad for a moment. ‘He was a good age, and I guess it wasn't unexpected but . . . well, it's a sad time in anyone's life.'

‘And your mother?' asked Alec.

‘She was long gone.' He glanced warily at Alec, remembering that the boy had recently lost his own mother. ‘Anyhow, I didn't get back to Egypt for a long time. I went up to Wyoming for a year and worked as a cowboy.'

‘Wow! Honestly?'

‘Sure. There's still big herds of cattle out there, need taking from place to place. It's a hard life, but it can be satisfying. After that I headed down to Mexico and took a post as a mercenary, helping the government put down a revolution.'

‘A mercenary . . . that's like a hired gun, isn't it?'

Ethan grimaced. ‘I'm not particularly proud of it, but I still had debts to pay off and I knew I couldn't think about heading back to Egypt until they were taken care of. Through it all Will kept in touch. He kept writing me to say there was always a place for me on the team and when was I coming back? Finally, just a couple of months ago, I could see my way clear to do it. I agreed to join up with them for the next season, even let them put my name down on the insurance form, just in case anything should happen to Will or Tom. Then I arrived here three weeks ago to
discover that Will had suffered a complete breakdown and Tom had disappeared.' He shook his head. ‘Quite a welcome!'

‘So that's how you came to be in charge?' said Alec.

‘Pretty much. Heck, I'm sure there are plenty of people more qualified to do it, but nobody else on the team seemed willing to shoulder the responsibility. Believe me, I asked them!' He shrugged. ‘I feel I owe it to Will to take care of this amazing find that he's made and make sure everything goes as smooth as I can make it.'

He seemed to make an effort to change the subject. ‘Devlin's an Irish name, isn't it? I always meant to ask Will, but I never got around to it. Neither of you seem like any of the Irishmen I've ever met.'

Alec smiled. It was a familiar question. ‘My great-grandfather came from Mayo,' he said. ‘A little place called Westport.'

Ethan grinned. ‘I know it,' he said. ‘Wonderful people.' He raised his eyebrows. ‘Wonderful pubs too.'

‘I'll have to take your word for that. My great-grandfather emigrated to London in the early nineteenth century. He made the family fortune
in the building trade. We don't have much of a connection with Ireland now, though I believe Dad has some money invested in horse-breeding in County Kildare.'

Ethan shook his head. ‘Poor little rich kid, huh?' he said.

Alec nodded. ‘I suppose we
are
pretty well off,' he admitted. ‘But I'd trade it all to have my mother back.'

He glanced awkwardly at Ethan, surprised by his own words. He didn't usually give so much of himself away to somebody he hardly knew.

Ethan was about to give an answer when something inexplicable happened. There was a last cataclysmic rush of wind and then the sky began to clear as the storm raced on past them across the sand. In just a few moments, everything seemed to be back to normal.

‘Well now, if that don't beat everything,' exclaimed Ethan. ‘I never saw a storm come and go so fast!' He threw open the door and stepped out into the blazing sun, beating some of the sand off his legs with his stetson. Alec got out too and stared after the fast-disappearing clouds of dust on the horizon.

‘Storms like that usually last for hours,' he said.

‘Yeah, ain't we the lucky ones?' Ethan got back into the Crossley and hit the self-starter. All that emerged was a dry rattling cough. He tried a few more times, with the same result, and then got out again, walked round to the front and unlatched the bonnet. He tinkered with the engine for a while, then stepped away from it with a grunt of exasperation. ‘That's what I was worried about,' he said. ‘Looks like sand has choked up just about every moving part.' He slammed the bonnet down and put on his stetson.