Douglas Preston - The Book of the Dead

“Is someone there?” she called out.

A figure materialized from the dimness, first the outlines of a face, then a closely trimmed beard with silvery-white hair-and Nora relaxed. It was only Hugo Menzies, chairman of the Anthropology Department and her immediate boss. He was still a little pale from his recent bout with gallstones, his cheerful eyes rimmed in red.

“Hello, Nora,” said the curator, giving her a kindly smile. “May I?”

“Of course.”

Menzies perched himself on a stool. “It’s so lovely and quiet down here. Are you alone?”

“Yes. How are things up top?”

“The crowd outside is still growing.”

“I saw them when I came in.”

“It’s getting ugly. They’re jeering and hectoring the arriving staff and blocking traffic on Museum Drive. And I fear this is just the beginning. It’s one thing when the mayor and governor make pronouncements, but it appears the people of New York have also been aroused. God save us from the fury of the vulgus mobile.”

Nora shook her head. “I’m sorry that Bill was the cause-”

Menzies laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Bill was only the messenger. He did the museum a favor in exposing this ill-advised cover-up scheme before it could take hold. The truth would have come out eventually.”

“I can’t understand why someone would go to the trouble to steal the gems and then destroy them.”

Menzies shrugged. “Who knows what goes on in the mind of a deranged individual? It evinces, at the very least, an implacable hatred of the museum.”

“What had the museum ever done to him?”

“Only one person can answer that question. But I’m not here to speculate on the criminal’s mind. I’m here for a specific reason, and it has to do with what’s going on upstairs.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ve just come from a meeting in Dr. Collopy’s office. We made a decision, and it involves you.”

Nora waited, feeling a creeping sense of alarm.

“Are you familiar with the Tomb of Senef?”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“Not surprising. Few museum employees have. It was one of the museum’s original exhibits, an Egyptian tomb from the Valley of the Kings that was reassembled in these basements. It was closed down and sealed off in the thirties and never reopened.”

“And?”

“What the museum needs right now is some positive news, something that will remind everyone that we’re still doing good things. A distraction, as it were. That distraction is going to be the Tomb of Senef. We’re going to reopen it, and I want you as point person for the project.”

“Me? But I put off my research for months to help mount the Sacred Images show!”

An ironic smile played over Menzies’s face. “That’s right, and that’s why I’m asking you to do this. I saw the work you did on Sacred Images. You’re the only one in the department who can pull this off.”

“In how long?”

“Collopy wants it fast-tracked. We’ve got six weeks.”

“You’ve got to be kidding!”

“We face a real emergency. Finances have been in a sorry state for a long time. And with this new spate of bad publicity, anything could happen.”

Nora fell silent.

“What set this in motion,” Menzies continued gently, “is that we just received ten million euros-thirteen million dollars-to fund this project. Money is no object. We’ll have the unanimous support of the museum, from the board of trustees to all the unions. The Tomb of Senef has remained sealed, so it should be in fairly good condition.”

“Please don’t ask me to do this. Give it to Ashton.”

“Ashton’s no good at controversy. I saw how you handled yourself with those protesters at the Sacred Images opening. Nora, the museum is in a fight for its life. I need you. The museum needs you.”

There was a silence. Nora glanced back over her potsherds with a horribly sinking heart. “I don’t know anything about Egyptology.”

“We’re bringing in a top Egyptologist as a temporary hire to work with you.”

Nora realized there was no escape. She heaved a huge sigh. “All right. I’ll do it.”

“Brava! That’s what I wanted to hear. Now then, we haven’t gotten very far with the idea yet, but the tomb hasn’t been on display in seventy years, so it will obviously need some sprucing up. It’s not enough these days to mount a static exhibition; you need multimedia. And of course, there will be a gala opening, something every New Yorker with social aspirations will have to get a ticket for.”

Nora shook her head. “All this in six weeks?”

“I was hoping you might have some ideas.”

“When do you need them?”

“Right now, I’m afraid. Dr. Collopy has scheduled a press conference in half an hour to announce about the show.”

“Oh, no.” Nora slumped on her stool. “Are you sure special effects will be necessary? I hate computerized window dressing. It distracts from the objects.”

“That is what being a museum means these days, unfortunately. Look at the new Abraham Lincoln library. Yes, on a certain level, it’s a bit vulgar perhaps-but this is the twenty-first century and we’re competing with television and video games. Please, Nora: I need ideas now. The director will be bombarded with questions and he wants to be able to talk about the exhibit.”

Nora swallowed. On the one hand, it made her sick to think of putting off her research yet again, working seventy-hour weeks, never seeing her husband of only a few months. On the other hand, if she was going to do this-and it seemed she had no choice-she wanted to do it well.

“We don’t want anything cheesy,” she said. “No mummies popping up from their sarcophagi. And it’s got to be educational.”

“My feelings exactly.”

Nora thought a moment. “The tomb was robbed, am I right?”

“It was robbed in antiquity, like most Egyptian tombs, probably by the very priests who buried Senef-who, by the way, was not a pharaoh, but vizier and regent to Thutmosis IV.”

Nora digested this. It was, she supposed, a huge honor to be asked to coordinate a major new exhibition-and this one would have exceptionally high visibility. It was intriguing. She found herself being drawn into it, despite herself.

“If you’re looking for something dramatic,” she said, “why not re-create the moment of the robbery itself? We could dramatize the robbers at work-show their fear of being caught, what would happen to them if they were caught-with a voice-over explaining what was happening, who Senef was, that sort of thing.”

Menzies nodded. “Excellent, Nora.”

Nora felt a mounting excitement. “If done right, with computerized lighting and so forth, it would give visitors an experience they’d never forget. Make history come alive inside the tomb itself.”

“Nora, someday you’ll be director of this museum.”

She blushed. The idea did not displease her.

“I’d been thinking of some sort of sound-and-light show myself. It’s perfect.” With uncharacteristic exuberance, Menzies seized Nora’s hand. “This is going to save the museum. And it will make your career here. As I said, you’ll have all the money and support you’ll need. As for the computer effects, let me manage that side of things-you focus on the objects and displays. Six weeks will be just enough time to get the buzz going, get out the invitations, and work the press. They won’t be able to trash the museum if they’re angling to be invited.”

He glanced at his watch. “I’ve got to prepare Dr. Collopy for the press conference. Thank you so much, Nora.”

He bustled out, leaving Nora alone in the silent laboratory. She turned her eye regretfully to the table she had so carefully arranged with potsherds, and then she started picking them up, one at a time, and returning them to their storage bags.