The Cult of Osiris

all up! You know that, you were there when I did it!’

‘When you invoke a god, you make that god real,’ said Shaban, suddenly chillingly calm. ‘You make them all real. Your followers worship you as Osiris, so you are Osiris. I am the brother of Osiris - so I am Set. I am the god of darkness, of chaos, of death - and it is my time to rule!’ ‘You’ve - you’ve gone mad!’ Osir spluttered. ‘What’s happened to you?’

The rage returned. ‘What’s happened to me? Only you could not know, Khalid! All our lives, you have been given everything, and I got nothing. You were the favourite son, I was the inferior. You tricked your way to fame and fortune, and I was forced into the army. You had money and women, and I was burned alive!’ He ripped at his shirt, exposing his chest. It was as hideously scarred as his face, the injuries extending down his body. ‘If Khaleel hadn’t pulled me out, I would have died. And did you even come to see me in hospital? No!’

‘Someone’s got big brother issues,’ Nina whispered to Eddie.

‘Someone’s got fucking lunatic issues,’ he whispered back.

‘I was . . . I was on location,’ Osir said in panicked apology. ‘I couldn’t get away.’

‘For two months?’ Shaban snarled. ‘No! I know what you were doing. You were travelling the world, having sex with whores!’

Osir still had some defiance in him. ‘Oh, now I see. It’s not the money or the fame that made you so jealous. It’s that the fire left you less of a man!’

The rage that flared inside Shaban was so fierce he couldn’t even speak. Instead, he smashed his brother’s face with his gun, sending a spurt of blood across the coffin lid. Macy gasped, and even Eddie flinched.

Osir slumped, clutching his head. Shaban forced his emotions back under control. ‘Get that out of there,’ he said to Diamondback, jabbing a finger at the mummy.

Diamondback and one of the troopers reached into the sarcophagus. Before Nina even had a chance to protest at the desecration, they hauled the body out of its recess and dumped it unceremoniously on the floor. The burial mask was jarred loose, the corpse’s wizened, eyeless face exposed.

Shaban aimed the gun at his brother. ‘Get in,’ he ordered.

Osir stared at him in pained bewilderment. ‘What?’

‘Into the sarcophagus! Now!’

‘Oh, my God,’ said Nina, as realisation struck her. ‘Khalid, he’s playing out the real story of Osiris and Set - how Set tricked Osiris into climbing into a coffin and sealed him in!’

Shaban smiled malevolently at her. ‘I’m glad someone knows the true story.’

‘You going to chop off his knob and feed it to a fish, too?’ Eddie asked.

‘I won’t need to cut him into fourteen pieces this time. My brother has no Isis to resurrect him.’ He looked back at Osir. ‘Get in.’

Osir stood firm. ‘The Osirian Temple won’t follow you, Sebak - they worship Osiris, not Set!’

‘You’re wrong, brother.’ Shaban proudly indicated the troopers. ‘While you were drinking and gambling and whoring, I was finding the true believers in the Temple, and you never even noticed. I did not need to be a movie star - strength and power brought them to my side. They have pledged themselves to me, and the rest will do the same . . . or pay the price.’

‘What price?’ Osir demanded.

‘Kralj and the other scientists have been working for me, not you. The yeast used to make the bread of Osiris can do more than give eternal life to those I decide are worthy. It can bring death to those who oppose me!’

Nina gave Eddie a worried look. ‘The lab, in Switzerland - they were talking about genetically modifying the yeast.’

‘That’s right, Dr Wilde,’ said Shaban. ‘The spores will be spread across the world by my followers. They will put them in crops, animal feed, even the water. Anyone who does not eat the bread of Set,’ a momentary smile of triumph at the new name, ‘anyone who will not worship their new god, will die as their own cells poison them.’

‘You’re insane,’ said Osir quietly. ‘And you wonder why Father preferred me?’

The mention of their father spurred Shaban back to anger. ‘Get in the coffin! Get in! Get in!’ He struck Osir again and again with the gun, then screamed an order. ‘Put him in there! Now!’

Four men grabbed the struggling Osir, forcing him into the recess. It was a good six inches too short to fit him, and narrower. He tried to pull free, but Shaban hammered the gun brutally down on to his chest. Osir writhed in pain, winded.

‘I am Set!’ Shaban shrieked. ‘And I am taking what is mine!’

He released the jacks.

Osir only managed a gasp of terror before the heavy metal lid fell with a thunderous whump . . . and a horrible crack of bones from his protruding feet and arms. Macy screamed and looked away. Blood gushed from the silver coffin.

Shaban continued to beat at the lid, denting the precious metal with his gun. ‘I am Set!’ he roared. ‘I am the god!’

‘No,’ said Nina, shocked and disgusted. ‘He was right. You are insane.’

He whipped round, finger quivering on the trigger as every tendon in his body tensed with fury—

But he didn’t fire.

‘Nina,’ Eddie said urgently, ‘if a guy with a gun says he’s a god . . . humour him!’

Shaban drew in a shuddering breath, then backed away. ‘No,’ he said, forcing himself to calm down. ‘No, my brother was right. This tomb should not be despoiled. Osiris is back in his coffin where he belongs. But you?’ He regarded Nina, Chase and Macy with contempt. ‘You don’t deserve to die in the tomb of a god.’ He moved round the sarcophagus. ‘Take them to the surface and shoot them,’ he told his men as he picked up the jackal-headed jar. ‘Where is the case?’

As Diamondback and the other troopers hustled Macy, Nina and Eddie to the entrance, one man turned to reveal that he was carrying a sturdy case made of impact-resistant composites on his back. He unfastened the harness clip on his chest and shrugged it off, then opened it to reveal a lining of thick yellow polyurethane ‘memory foam’. Shaban carefully pressed the jar into the bottom protective layer, then slowly lowered the lid until the catches clicked shut. ‘Guard it with your life, Hashem,’ he told the trooper. ‘Kralj, stay with him. Don’t let it out of your sight.’ The scientist nodded, waiting as Hashem donned the case and harness like a backpack.

Shaban turned to see Berkeley and Hamdi both still staring at the bloodied sarcophagus. ‘Gentlemen,’ he said. ‘I hope there is nothing wrong.’

‘Not at all,’ Hamdi bleated. ‘You have my full support, as always. I’ll make sure the SCA never learns about this place - it will be our secret. Your secret,’ he hurriedly corrected himself.

‘Good. And you, Dr Berkeley?’

‘Ah, I, er,’ Berkeley mumbled. ‘I’m . . . yeah. I’m on board.’

‘I’m glad to hear it.’ Shaban gave him a menacing smile. ‘Now, go back to the hovercraft. Leave this place for the dead.’ As Berkeley and Hamdi quickly made their exit, he stood before the sarcophagus. ‘Goodbye, my brother,’ he whispered, before turning to leave, returning the tomb to its state of eternal silence.

26

‘He’s completely insane,’ said Nina to Khaleel as the Egyptian officer strode up the passage ahead of her. ‘You can’t seriously believe he’s the reincarnation of Set.’

‘It doesn’t matter what I believe,’ Khaleel replied. ‘It matters what he believes - and he believes a great deal of money will repay the debt he owes me for saving his life. He’s also promised me a position of power if his plan succeeds - and if it doesn’t, then I am still rich. So I thought: why not?’

‘Because he’s a psychopath? If his plan works, millions of people will die!’

Khaleel shrugged. ‘We are always being warned of the dangers of overpopulation these days.’

The group came to a stop. After making their way back up through the pyramid, traversing the pit left by the Lady of Rainstorms on a rope attached to the ceiling by spring-loaded climbing cams, they had reached the top of the enormous vertical shaft. ‘What’re we going to do?’ Macy whispered with growing panic to Nina. ‘We’re almost at the surface, and - and they’re going to kill us!’

‘They’re not going to kill us,’ said Nina. ‘We’ll get out of this.’ But despite her defiant words, she felt as