❝death is only the beginning.❞
Mara El-Masri's fascination with the long-ago world of ancient Egypt started with the stories her stepfather would tell her when she was a child. Her brother Talib El-Masri is missing, left after their mother's funera...
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☾ ☽
THOUGH THE WEIGHT OF THE BOW AND ARROWS had gone now that he'd given them to his daughter, the weight of everything else that had occurred tonight beared down on Jamil's shoulders. He should have gotten to Evelyn faster, if he had been just a bit quicker in his movements they would not be outside the British Museum to rescue her. Imhotep's body was inside this building somewhere, the Book of the Dead now in the hands of the curator Hafez rather than still buried in the sand. Any minute the creature would be woken.
And his daughter was caught in the middle of it again.
He had believed she would not be there tonight. He had thought Mara and Jonathan both would have been safe from what happened at the O'Connell house, but they must have left the ballet early only to return to the cultists unaware. The decision, as far as he could ascertain, had nearly cost them their lives. But there was some relief to be found in knowing that they were both unharmed, even if his daughter was a bit angry with him for not telling her about the cultists. She was okay.
Jamil closed the car door now that his bow and arrows were with Mara and went around to the back to join Ardeth and Rick, the latter opening the boot of the car. He was more than correct on being sure there was a gun he could borrow. Rick seemed to drive around with an arsenal in his car judging by the weapons he had stashed in it. It almost surprised him.
"You want the shotgun?" Rick was asking Ardeth.
"No, I prefer the Thompson," declined Ardeth.
Rick nodded and turned to his right, starting to say Jamil's name, but stopped short when he saw that Jamil was already reaching for the other rifle. "Never mind."
Jamil turned the rifle in his hands, looking over it. If he were being honest he'd have preferred a pistol, as he was a far better shot with that than he was with a rifle, but a pistol was small and given what they would be going up against inside the museum, the rifle would be of more use to him. There would be more cultists inside than there were at the house. That strange woman, Meela Nais, would be inside. And Imhotep would soon be awake inside.
Ardeth's inquisitive question directed toward Rick drew Jamil's attention away from grabbing some ammunition for the rifle. "If I were to say to you," he said, "I'm a stranger travelling from the east, seeking that which is lost..."
Rick looked up, brows furrowed, and answered, "Then I would reply that I am a stranger travelling from the west. It is I whom you seek. How...?"
That was the same question Jamil had, among others. How did Rick know the answer to that, and why did Ardeth think he would know? I am a stranger travelling from the east, seeking that which is lost... It was something Medjai said in order to identify one another. Only Medjai knew the response. I am a stranger travelling from the west. It is I whom you seek.
