“Why wait to leave?” Jak asked.
“Akhnaton’s pyramid is very close to completion. You and your friends can escape during the confusion surrounding the ceremony. If we plan it right, you can be many miles from here before your friends are missed.”
“Where go?”
“The gateway.”
“You know about gateway?”
“Oh, yes. In Pharaoh’s tomb.”
“When pyramid ceremony?”
“Tomorrow. Sunset. I will arrange transportation and return your weapons to you.” She paused. There was a rustling sound, and she whispered, “Look at me, Jak.”
Taking a deep breath, he turned, jaw muscles bunched with determination. Nefron’s eyes seemed to hit him with a dizzying force in the center of his chest, in the center of who he was. His breath caught in his throat as he drank in her nude beauty. He felt himself hardening, rising.
“I am baring myself to you Jak, because I need you. I need you to do something for me…for Kela…for your friends.”
His tongue seemed frozen in his mouth, but he managed to ask, “What?”
“Pharaoh and his counselors will be at the dedication ceremony in the pyramid. The King’s Chamber has been designed so that most of the weight of the stone is deflected by the relieving chambers above it. There is a mechanism built into one chamber that will cause the floors to collapse, one by one. The device is built to allow enough time to climb down to an escape shaft. I’ll be waiting for you there with your friends. In the confusion, we will escape the city. Everyone will be trying to dig out Pharaoh and the people trapped inside the pyramid.”
“You need me do this.” Jak wasn’t asking a question.
Tears welled up Nefron’s eyes. Brimming, they flashed like wet black jewels. “If there was any other way to prevent Pharaoh from imprisoning us here, I would take it. What you have to understand is that Pharaoh is a monster, a mutant who cares for no one but himself. If you don’t value your own freedom, then at least value that of your friends. You must do this thing.”
“Who with Pharaoh in there?”
“Toadies who are as bad as he is. Nobody you need worry about, Jak.”
Jak was silent for several moments as he mulled over Nefron’s words. Finally, he asked, “Why me?”
Nefron’s gaze was misted by tears, by love. “Because only you can do it. You’re the only man in this whole corrupt city who isn’t under Pharaoh’s influence. You’re strong and fast and agile.”
She paused, eyeing him keenly. “Just give me another day…and we’re free. I’ll escape with you.”
“Kela, too?”
Nefron smiled. “Kela, too. You won’t let us down, will you? You won’t back out on us after all I and Kela have done for you?”
She gazed unblinkingly into his ruby eyes. A fire seemed to dance in the depths of her own.
Jak stared back. “No. Not let you and Kela down.”
It was the last thing he said before she came into his arms, kissing him passionately, inserting her tongue into his mouth, pressing her body tightly against his so he could feel and respond to the erotic, urgent heat of it. His whole being felt stunned, as if he had been flattened by a concussion gren.
They flowed together down to the floor. Nefron whispered into his ear, “Don’t think. Just feel.”
“Yeah,” he said, and he did as he was told.
Chapter Twenty-Five
As Doc had promised, he met J.B. and Ryan in the dormitory the next morning. Surrounded by a milling crowd of men lining up for breakfast and the toilets, no one gave the three men more than a passing glance.
It was the work of only a few seconds to pass three of the ankhs, including the template original, to Doc. Though he quickly slipped them into his loincloth, he seemed inclined to linger.
“The streets are filling up,” he said. “The festivities are under way.”
“We know,” Ryan said flatly. “We busted our humps yesterday cleaning up the top of the pyramid.”
“Yeah,” J.B. added. “We also found this stuff when we woke up.” He pointed to a stack of clean linen tunics just outside of the shower room. “I guess we’re to look our best today.”