"No way," Tavak said coldly. "You killed my friend, you son of a bitch. You tried to kill us. You're not going to get off the hook. It stops here. You stop—"
The roaring in the walls abruptly ceased.
Rachel stiffened. The sudden silence was heavy as a hammerblow.
Then there was a low rumbling from below. The ground shook beneath their feet.
Dawson's panicky gaze darted around the burial chamber. "What's wrong? What's happening?"
Tavak's wristwatch beeped. He looked at it, then smiled at Dawson. "You read the instructions. 'A quarter of a summer hour… ' I don't think that was just a request."
The ground shook with even greater intensity, and large chunks fell from the ceiling of the burial chamber.
"I don't have time for you now, Dawson." Tavak grabbed Rachel's hand and leaped for the door. "We have to get out. Now!"
The ceiling at the rear of the burial chamber collapsed, crushing Oba and knocking Meti to the ground. Dust and debris filled the chamber.
Sorens bent down, grabbed Oba's gun, and spun around. He was aiming at Allie, who was running for the doorway. Nuri was suddenly behind him, gripping the man's head. With one twist, he snapped Sorens's neck.
The ground shook harder. Tavak was at the entrance, shoving the others through ahead of him. He called, "Out, Nuri."
As he was about to jump through himself, he glanced back to see Dawson at the sarcophagus tearing the stone tablet from its place.
"You bastard." Dawson cradled the tablet in one arm as he turned, his eyes blazing with triumph. "I've got it. The game's not over. I'll get out of here and I'll—"
A huge chunk of the wall next to him collapsed. Dawson screamed as the barrage of stone blocks threw him against a pile of debris and pinned him upright.
Dawson stared at Tavak and started to speak. But only blood came from his mouth.
Tavak's gaze was on Peseshet's cure, still clutched in Dawson's arms. "She really didn't want you to take her tablet, did she, Dawson?"
"Tavak." Rachel grabbed his arm and pulled him out as more of the burial chamber fell. "Forget him. Get the hell out of here. Hurry! The whole place is going down."
"Tavak!" They heard Dawson's scream as they ran through the large entrance chamber.
The sculptures lining the walkway fell and shattered as the ground roiled. Chunks of the ceiling rained down like bombs from the sky.
Tavak pointed ahead. "Look!"
He was indicating the stairs, which were crumbling fast, Rachel realized. As she watched, a large section of the ceiling fell on them, completely obliterating one side.
Allie and Demanski were hesitating at the base.
Rachel pushed them forward. "Go! It's our only way out!"
The stairs crumbled further with each step, and the deep rumbling below the tomb grew even louder, filling Rachel's ears until she could hear nothing else.
Up ahead, through the clouds of debris, she could make out the hole they had made. Just another few yards.
The next step disappeared beneath her! Then there was nothing but the blackness of space.
She was falling.
Falling, then choking, from her shirt bunched up around her neck and chin.
She looked up. Tavak was on the crumbling stair above, holding her from the back of her collar.
"Cross your arms across your chest so that your shirt won't slip over your head," he shouted.
She complied, and he lifted her up until she could grip the jagged stairs. She almost lost her balance as another chunk of the ceiling fell beside her.
"I'm coming down for you."
"No!" she shouted. "Get your camera out of here. Dammit, it's the final piece of her cure."
"I'm not leaving without you."
"Do it! I'll get out on my own."
Tavak cursed, reached into his shoulder satchel, and pulled out his camera. He turned and hurled it through the opening in the wall. "There. Now I'm coming down."
The staircase buckled and tilted to one side. Tavak inched down and grabbed her wrist, but Rachel desperately held her grip on a chunk of railing. "I'm not going to let you go. Not ever. You'll have to stop holding on to that railing sooner or later. You trust me, remember?"
"Yes." Rachel took a deep breath and released her grip.
"Good." Tavak pulled her up and together they scrambled up the stairs as the cavernous room collapsed entirely. A hurricane of dust and debris blasted all around them; their faces and arms were being cut by the blast. Rachel threw herself through the opening, followed by Tavak.
Tavak bent over to pick up his camera as he and Rachel staggered for the exit. Incredibly, Donkor's mastaba was virtually untouched from the mayhem in Peseshet's tomb, though the collapse was still sending shock waves beneath their feet.
They twisted and turned through the narrow passageways.
The opening was up ahead. Rachel could see stars sparking the darkness.
A few more yards.
They burst out of the tomb.
Cool night air.
Where was Allie?
There she was right ahead of them with Demanski, Nuri, and Abu.
"Keep on running," Tavak called to them. "Don't stop until you reach the crest of the next dune. You have to put distance between you and the tomb."
When they reached the dune, Allie whirled away from Demanski and ran back to Rachel. "Are you okay, Rachel? It was like a nightmare."
Rachel nodded, trying to get her breath. She turned to look back at the tomb, then glanced at Tavak.
His gaze was on the tomb but he reached out and his hand closed on Rachel's. "Yes, a nightmare. Dawson's nightmare."
The ground had not stopped shaking, and they could still hear the low rumbling.
Peseshet's voice calling like a triumphant clarion from the past?
Or the sound of distant thunder, echoing across the ages.
* * *
Dawson turned his head as another piece of the ceiling fell. He choked on blood, and his ears throbbed from the roar all around him. From somewhere in the chamber, a single flashlight still blazed, sending bizarre, angular shadows on the rubble.
He tried to move. He couldn't. There was no feeling in his legs or left arm, and his right arm was pinned under a section of the fallen wall.
He had to move. He had to get out of here.
More of the ceiling fell, splintering the sarcophagus and knocking it off its pedestal. It tumbled across the rubble, just feet away from Dawson.
Then, slowly, something emerged from the box.
Peseshet.
Dawson held his breath as the mummified remains slid headfirst down the sloping pile of debris.
Directly toward him.
The flashlight beam lit Peseshet's face, brown and leathery, as the ancient ban dages caught on the edges of the broken sarcophagus and tore away. Her face drew ever closer, now inches away from Dawson's own.
God, was she smiling?
She was taunting him, he realized. Laughing at him. Mocking his helplessness. Mocking his defeat.
And there wasn't a damned thing he could do about it.
He screamed.
He was still screaming when the entire chamber collapsed on him.
EPILOGUE