The door chirped and slowly began to open. Mr Geoffrey’s alarmed shouts were added to the din. Jane felt Luke slip his arm through hers and gently ease her out of the way as the two crew members struggled with a frantic Terence.
The first officer pulled him away from the door and applied the hypo as the captain smacked the switch and the door closed.
Together, they heaved Terence into a chair, where he continued to thrash around for a few seconds until finally whatever was in the hypo took hold and he slowly subsided.
Jane pulled herself free of Luke and joined the captain who was still bending over Terence. No one was assisting Mr Geoffrey to his feet.
The situation was not yet under complete control. Heather was crying and everyone was talking at once. Panic hovered in the corners of this suddenly tiny space – all ready to pounce.
‘I’ve got this,’ said Jane. ‘You see to the other passengers.’
The captain’s solution was to break out more alcohol. ‘Because in a crisis alcohol is definitely the way to go,’ said Luke, approvingly.
Jane pretended not to hear.
Bottle after bottle was opened. Drinks were poured and passed around. There was no stinting on the hospitality. Jane suspected a deliberate policy to get them tipsy.
Gradually everyone settled down. At some point they’d turned down the thermostat. The temperature dropped. Fresh air circulated, along with vast quantities of food and drink. Especially drink.
Despite sedation, Terence was still not calm. His chest rose and fell and his eyes were flickering wildly from side to side. Jane bent down and picked up his notebook which had fallen to the floor. ‘Is this yours, sir?’
He nodded.
‘It looks fascinating. May I see?’
He nodded again. Sitting next to him, Jane slowly leafed through the book. Most of his handwriting – in true academic style – was unreadable, but Jane could see sketches of sphinxes, hieroglyphs, and what looked like a stele. For one mad moment she wondered how he would react if she told him she’d been inside the tomb of Tutankhamun.
‘This is so interesting,’ she said, pointing. ‘What’s this?’
He sat up a little straighter and pushed his glasses up his nose. ‘That? That’s a gateway pylon. Outside the temple of Karnak.’
‘Fascinating,’ said Jane. ‘Have you actually seen it?’
‘Not in . . . in contemporary time,’ he said sadly. ‘I saved so very hard for this trip and I had great hopes but . . . but now I’m not sure I’m cut out for this type of . . . travel.’
‘Oh no,’ said Jane. ‘That would be such a shame. Should you arrange a second trip, you might find you experience no difficulties at all. You’ve got it out of your system, so to speak. And next time, of course, you’ll know what to expect. I really wouldn’t give up if I were you.’
‘Do you think so?’ he said, pathetically eager.
‘I do indeed. Oh, this is a beautiful drawing. What is it, exactly?’
They worked their way slowly through his notebook and after a while his breathing and colour returned to normal.
‘That was so . . . embarrassing,’ he said.
Jane felt very sorry for him. ‘No, no,’ she said. ‘I must admit, for a moment, I too felt a little . . . strange.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. I expect this sort of thing affects people in different ways.’ She raised her voice. ‘For example, my companion is making valiant efforts to drink this pod dry. It’s his way of ensuring he never has to face up to life’s difficulties. I find the way he thinks I haven’t noticed particularly amusing.’
Across the pod, Luke pulled a face at her and then turned back to Mr Geoffrey.
Terence had turned his attention back to the screen.
Jane said, ‘May I watch with you? And will you mind if I ask questions?’
He blushed. ‘Oh, no, no. I mean, yes. I mean, no.’
They both laughed.
‘I would be honoured,’ he said.
They settled down to watch the scene outside. All the Egyptians were male, Jane noticed. No women anywhere. Small boys, almost naked, scampered around with waterskins and a wooden cup. All the men wore either kilts or loincloths. Many were bare-headed which, given the sunshine, she found surprising. One man did wear a headdress and he stood apart. He performed no labour, but simply watched. He carried a staff – some sort of badge of office, she assumed. He had been burned brown by the sun and his linen tunic was crisp and white.
‘I think he must be an overseer,’ murmured Terence. ‘Because of the khat – his headdress.’
‘Is he holding his staff of office?’ asked Jane.
‘I think so. It’s so exciting to see actual people . . . in the flesh . . . such a wonderful opportunity . . . to compare what we thought we knew to what we can actually see. We’ve got so much wrong, you know.’
By now, however, he and Jane appeared to be the only people still paying attention to the outside. The captain was dispensing alcohol on a heroic scale.
Jane smiled and glanced at the screen again. She leaned forwards in her seat, staring. And then she frowned. With a murmured apology to Terence, still scribbling in his notebook, she got up to join Luke. Who was also staring at the screen. She wondered if they were looking at the same thing.
Mr Geoffrey had oozed away on damage limitation duties.
Jane said softly, ‘Luke . . .’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I saw it.’
‘I wondered,’ she whispered. ‘Something was missing. Couldn’t put my finger on it. It seems . . . sterile.’
‘That’s because we’re not actually here,’ he said. ‘When you do this for a living, Jane . . .’
‘It was only for a moment – I don’t think anyone else noticed.’
‘Yeah.’ He nodded at the screen. ‘It’s gone now.’
Under cover of pointing at something on the screen she leaned in close and breathed, ‘We know they’re genuine, so why?’
He shrugged. ‘Something else for us to find out.’
Now that calm had been restored, Mr Geoffrey judged it time to return home. Rightly judging that however fascinating the subject, interest would wane either after about ninety minutes or when the drink ran out – whichever came first – he tinkled his glass and informed everyone they would be leaving Ancient Egypt in five minutes.
‘Are we allowed on the . . . er . . . flight deck?’ Luke asked the first officer, who was just clearing away the last of the refreshments. ‘I’d love to see.’