Part 31 (2/2)

'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.

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