‘Looks like there’s even more security than yesterday,’ said Nina.
‘We are taking no chances,’ said the Egyptian as he approached the gate. Unlike the previous day, the Mercedes was waved to a stop. He pressed the boot release so one of the ASPS could check the back of the car, while another cast a stern eye over its occupants before waving to a comrade. The gate was opened; Deyab waited for the boot to be slammed shut, then drove into the compound.
More ASPS stood watch inside. Deyab pulled up. ‘There is Dr Assad.’
The Egyptian official was talking to Habib outside the cabins. ‘Ah, good morning!’ he called as the visitors emerged from the car. ‘This is a very exciting day.’
‘It is,’ Nina said, greeting him. ‘Thank you for letting me be a part of it. A small, non-interfering part,’ she added as Banna came out of the cabin. The bearded young man gave her a dirty look, but said nothing to the new arrivals, heading straight for the shelter.
‘Dr Schofield and Dr Rashad are already inside,’ Assad told her. ‘Did you have a good evening?’
‘It was… interesting,’ she said as they moved towards the entrance. ‘But yes, we did, thanks.’
‘Good, good. There is no hospitality like Egyptian hospitality!’ He reached the ladder. Banna had already descended, but did not wait for the others, instead stalking away down the tunnel. ‘Mind your step.’
Assad went down first, Nina following. ‘How long before they open the door?’ she asked him.
He glanced after the retreating Banna. ‘Not long. Ubayy was working down here very early this morning. If I had not told him to wait, I am sure he would have opened it himself by now!’
‘The lad’s keen,’ said Eddie.
‘It is how he has reached such heights so quickly. I am sure you were once the same, Dr Wilde.’
‘It seems such a long time ago, I can hardly remember,’ Nina replied wistfully.
‘Ha! Wait until you get to my age,’ said Assad as they started walking. ‘That is when the achievements of your youth seem so far away!’
Eddie gave his wife a reassuring squeeze as he saw her downcast expression, then they followed the Egyptian through the antechamber and around the twisting passage to the great bronze door. Schofield and Dina were already talking with Banna. More equipment had been set up since the previous day; a motorised winch was braced by scaffolding against the floor and ceiling, and the dig’s leader was fussing with a contraption mounted on a bench.
‘Christ,’ said Eddie. ‘Looks like it was built by Professor Branestawm.’
Nina didn’t get the reference, guessing that it was excessively British, but it was easy to guess what he meant from the device’s makeshift appearance. A set of thin steel arms rose from a geared mechanism with a crank handle and entered a narrow slot at one side of the barrier, the endoscopic camera’s flexible lens tube also disappearing inside the opening. The monitor screen had been duct-taped to the door beside the apparatus. ‘That’ll open the lock?’
‘It will,’ said Banna, not deigning to look around at her. ‘Unlike some people, who gain entry to sealed archaeological sites by crashing helicopters into them, I do not want to risk damaging the tomb’s contents.’
‘Hey, that only happened once,’ Eddie objected. ‘Or was it twice? You lose track after a while.’
‘Thanks for the help, hon,’ said Nina with a thin smile. ‘Bill, hi. Seems you’re all set here.’
‘Just about,’ Schofield replied as he finished typing on a laptop. ‘I know that thing looks a bit Rube Goldberg, but it should lift the latch. Once that’s done, we can start winching the door open.’
‘How much does it weigh?’ Macy asked.
‘We reckon about two tons. I wouldn’t stand in the way while it’s swinging open!’ The sandy-haired man chuckled, then became more serious. ‘Have you heard anything more about this potential threat?’ he asked Nina. ‘Are we still safe to proceed?’
‘We will open the burial chamber this morning,’ Banna insisted before she could answer. ‘The site is like a fortress now. Nobody could possibly get in.’
‘Let’s hope nobody even tries,’ said Eddie. ‘Sooner whatever’s inside is safe, the sooner we can go home and get on with our lives again.’
Nina decided to ignore his pointed remark, settling instead for watching the final preparations. Banna tweaked his elaborate lockpick for a good fifteen minutes, examining the endoscopic display with laser-beam intensity until he was satisfied. He spoke in Arabic to Assad, Dina and Habib, then added as an afterthought: ‘I am ready.’
‘Don’t let me hold you up,’ said Nina.
‘I won’t.’ He looked at Schofield, who had set up a video camera on a tripod. ‘Are you recording?’ The American nodded. ‘Good. I shall begin.’
Banna reverted to Arabic, giving a short speech to the camera for archaeological posterity, then turned with a theatrical flourish to his apparatus. He took hold of the crank handle and carefully rotated it, delivering a hushed running commentary as he watched the screen. The display showed pristine steel gently shifting amongst dull bronze.
Everyone stared, the observers holding their breath in anticipation…
One of the bronze levers shifted upwards. A faint clink came from within the door.
‘Wait, that’s it?’ Eddie complained after Banna smugly reported success. ‘All that bloody build-up just to move a little piece of metal? I could’ve done it with a coat-hanger.’
‘Archaeology is not all about exploding airliners and crashing submarines,’ said Banna. ‘Now we can use the winch.’
The next twenty minutes was spent dismantling the lockpick so that the winch’s steel cable could be secured to the door. At last, Banna concluded his careful examination of the hook and spoke to Schofield’s camera again. Dina used a cell phone to record events from a second viewpoint. ‘You might need to move back a bit,’ Eddie whispered to her, getting a puzzled look in return. ‘So you can fit his ego in.’ She tried to suppress a smile.
Banna kept talking. ‘Ubayy?’ Assad gently interrupted. ‘The door? It is perhaps time to open it.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said Banna, flicking a dismissive hand. ‘This is a great and very proud moment,’ he announced to the camera. ‘The tomb of Alexander the Great has been lost for centuries, and we are the ones who will open it again. The hidden secrets of one of the most important figures in history shall again be revealed to the world.’
With that, he activated the winch.
Nina had half prepared herself for something awful to happen, but the machine started up with a muted electric whine and slowly began to wind in the cable. It did not take long for the slack to be drawn up and the line to become taut.
Macy cringed at a scraping rasp from the ceiling. ‘That’s not going to come down, is it?’ she asked as the end of a scaffolding pole crunched against the ancient stone.
‘That bracing should hold up to four tons,’ Schofield assured her.
‘It’s still causing some damage,’ said Nina as dust dropped to the floor.
‘Not as much as if we had blasted the door open with explosives,’ Banna sniped over the winch’s noise. Assad sighed and said something in Arabic; from the younger man’s irked expression, Nina guessed it had been a rebuke.
But she was no longer interested in Banna’s snide remarks, all her attention now on the door. A deep moan echoed through the passage, the noise of metal reluctantly sliding over stone. Puffs of dust wafted from the edges of the great barrier as, with almost painful slowness, it began to move.
‘It’s coming!’ said Schofield unnecessarily. Unpleasant shrills filled the tunnel as the door ground over the floor.
‘Christ,’ Eddie grumbled, putting his fingers in his ears. ‘I’m already half deaf, and that’s not bloody helping.’