Chapter 10

Tom’s Mum was surprised with the level of enthusiasm shown that morning, with Tom being up and ready to leave at 830, holding out her car keys and muttering “come ON Mum”.

When they arrived at history club he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then jumped out the car shouting “see you at 4!” and rushed through the door. Tom’s Mum drove away, wondering what had led to this new level of enthusiasm before concluding that maybe there was a new crush in play.

Sal and Sam were in their camp leader disguises, but quickly discarded their itchy wigs once everyone had arrived and they were sure of no other unexpected visitors through the door. The team sat around the main table, and waited for Sal to activate the projections. 

Sal started the discussions. “I think we all agree that this Effendi person, along with the Chaten, are the ones who will have planted the time disruption device, and must have done it before the grand opening of the tomb. I carried on reading Carter’s diary after you had all left yesterday. It says that Carter, along with a few others, including Effendi, went through the second sealed door on Monday 27th November. He describes seeing all the objects in the room, including statues, the throne and the broken golden carriage. The diary says that they crawled under the carriage and could see another door opening in the wall behind it. That door had a small break in the stone that was too small for them to crawl through but it did say that a “small man” would have fit through. That hole must have been big enough for the Chaten to go through, so my bet is that the time-disruption device will be in there”. 

“I think that’s where I would hide something I didn’t want to be found,” agreed Mali. “What do the diaries say about the days afterwards?”

Sal continued. “On the 28th of November it just says ‘much of the day spent preparing for the grand opening on the 29th.’ On the 29th, the diary says that so many people wanted to come and get a look at the tomb that they had crowds coming in and out. They found it really hard to make sure nothing was moved or touched, and actually had to turn people away. It sounds like after that point the place was busy all the time, like Delyth said.”

”So, our best opportunity will be to go in on the 28th then” said Tom. “I assume it will still be guarded though. How will we get past?”

”Distraction!” Said Mali with a smile. “That’s always the key. We will need to work out some way to distract the guards and draw their attention elsewhere until we can get down the passage. Let me have a think about that one”.

”Ok, that’s a job for Mali then” agreed Cai. “We still have the problem of knowing what it is that we are going to be looking for”. 

Mo spoke up thoughtfully. “Whenever I’ve been getting ready for a big football match, our coach always talks about preparation being the key, and knowing as much about the other team as possible before the game. Is there a way that we could try and spy on Effendi and the Chaten and see if we can spot what it is that they are hiding before they hide it?”

”That’’s a really good idea Mo” said Tom. “ But, that would mean being there on the 27th. Won’t our families realise we’re missing if we’re gone for a few days though?”

”Not with the beauty of time travel they won’t” said Sam with a smile. “We could be gone for a year but still jump back to 4pm on the day we left. Other than you being inexplicably taller than when you were dropped off, your parents would be none the wiser.” 

“Ok” spoke Cai, “so, we are going to get to the valley of the kings on the 27th November and try and see if we can spot what the device looks like before it’s hidden. Is there any reason why we can’t get the device before they hide it and save some trouble?”

”We don’t know where Effendi will be before he turns up at the Valley of the Kings, and there will be too many other people around for us to confront them. I think we have to do it in secret after it’s been hidden. It’s too risky otherwise” said Tom. Sal and Sam were nodding their heads in agreement. “You are all already putting yourselves at a lot of risk helping us”, said Sam. “I agree that confronting Effendi and the Chaten in the open should be avoided. We don’t know how dangerous they might be”. 

As everyone contemplated the challenges ahead, Sam brought over some jugs of fresh juices and large plate of fluffy pancakes piled high with fresh berries and thick yoghurt. Everyone quickly dived into their second breakfast of the day, glad of the distraction for a few minutes.

 Tom was the first to break through the sounds of munching. “Something else I was thinking of last night. That photo we looked at showed the group standing in a desert. How do we jump anywhere close to the tomb entrance without being spotted? Surely this portacabin will stand out like a sore thumb?”

Sam looked thoughtful. “ Well, the portacabin front is just a shell really. The ship has an ability to slightly mold to things that are around it and blend in. You are right though, in the desert there would be no where for it to hide”

“What about in another Tomb?” asked Bert. “Are there any that would be big enough for the ship?”

“I really don’t like the idea of hanging out in old Egyptian Tombs!” said Mo. “Won’t they all be full of Mummies and traps anyway?”

”I think most of the tombs were pretty empty by 1922” said Delyth thoughtfully. She walked over to to the back of the room and grabbed another of the large leather books. She found a page which showed a plan drawing of the various tombs within the valley of the kings. The picture showed the natural valley, with numerous entrances opening up from the valley walls. The plan showed the corridors, chambers and tombs that led from these entrances and spread into the rocks of the hills. Lots of the chambers seemed to have pillars marked out, and all seemed to be connected by corridors and steps. 

“The largest Tomb complex within the valley is that of the sons of Ramesses II. It’s famous for having over 100 chambers. The problem is that it hadn’t been discovered in 1922, so if we jumped into one of those chambers, we wouldn’t have a way out.” 

Delyth frowned and continued flicking through the book. After she had read through another few pages she nodded and continued talking. 

“Here is another large tomb. It belonged to Seti I, and it’s marked on the maps as KV17. It’s one of the deepest ones. It has lots of large rooms, but most of those are halls with pillars supporting the roof, so those won’t be any good for us. But the burial chamber itself has a barrel vaulted ceiling, so I think that could give us enough room? It says here that the Tomb was discovered in 1817 and the sarcophagus was removed to a museum, so the burial chamber should be empty in 1922. Another good thing about it is that the entrance to Seti’s tomb is pretty much opposite the entrance to King Tutenhkhamun’s, so it should give us a good place to keep watch without being noticed.”

Sal was looking at a plan of the Tomb that he had brought up as a projection. “I think this would work. Like I said, the ship does have the ability to sort of morph itself into a space as long as it’s nearly the right size. I’ve never set the coordinates for an underground jump before, but I’m sure it will be fine.” 

Tom looked at Sal who seemed to be nodding, apparently convincing themselves of how “fine” it would be while sweating slightly. “What happens if you don’t get the coordinates right Sal” Tom asked with some concern. 

“Oh, well, I don’t think we really need to worry about that… it’s not THAT likely to be an issue…”

”Sal, tell us!” Repeated Tom a little more firmly. 

Sal looked a little flustered and looked to Sam for back up. Sam started looking at a book page with renewed interest, clearly not wanting to get drawn into a tricky conversation. Sal huffed and replied “well, I’ve only known of it happening once, but well, the ship still follows some of the laws of physics. If the ship jumped into the middle of solid rock, well, the rock would have to go somewhere, and that somewhere would probably be the inside of the ship.”

”So, we’d basically be squashed by a tonne of rock appearing inside this room?” Concluded Mo.

” Uh, well basically yes” conceded Sal. “But the good news would be that we wouldn't know about it because we would have been killed almost immediately”. 

“Well, that’s just GREAT!” Exclaimed Mo. 

“How do we avoid this happening” asked Tom, feeling a bit panicky and starting to think that taking the chance in an apocalypse might be a better option than becoming the filling in a rock sandwich. 

“I just need to get the coordinates right” said Sal trying to be reassuring. It’s just that, like I said, I’m a junior officer. I was still learning all this stuff. Numbers aren’t really my strong point.” Sal looked down at the floor, clearly feeling the pressure of expectation. 

Bert stepped forward and put a hand on Sal’s shoulder. “ I can help. I’m good with numbers. You just show me how it works and we can solve the maths together.” Sal looked at Bert with a grateful smile. 

Tom took a deep breath. “Looks like that’s a job allocated to Bert and Sal then. What’s next”.