Jekyll & Hyde Inc.

Edward smiled happily at Daniel. “I do so love to see the moral outrage in your eyes, Daniel. The way it motivates you to get the job done, no matter what the risk. Dear Tina is an excellent field agent, but she lacks your drive.”

Daniel looked at him thoughtfully. “Why do the mummies need money?”

“To fund their researches. They’re still searching for the drug that will give them true immortality so they can walk the world freely, instead of being trapped inside withered little bodies wrapped in miles of specially treated bandages. Now . . . this mission will be a little different. You don’t have to kill everyone in the organization; in fact, I would very much prefer it if you didn’t. All you have to do is kill the nine mummies. Cut off the organization’s head, so my people can step in and take over. I’ve always had an interest in chemicals.”

“Hold everything and stamp on the brakes,” said Daniel. “You want to continue what the Clan of Mummies has been doing?”

“Unfortunately, the drugs they’ve created will die with them,” said Edward. “Because only the mummies know the formulas. My people will steer the organization into more standard pharmaceuticals. Don’t look so shocked, Daniel. You’re not a police officer anymore, you’re a Hyde. And addicts will always be with us—isn’t that right, Tina?”

“The weak will always be weak,” said Tina. “And the strong will always dominate them. It’s the way of the world.”

“Exactly! And spoken like a true Hyde,” said Edward. He leaned forward across his desk. “This evening, the mummies will be holding court in one of the Egyptian Rooms. You won’t have to worry about innocent bystanders, because the rest of the Museum will be closed all night, officially for essential cleaning and repair work. Fortunately, my inside man found a way for you to enter the Museum unnoticed by any of the guards.”

“Okay . . . now it’s my turn to say hold it and shoot the horses,” said Tina. “What guards?”

“Are we talking armed guards?” said Daniel.

Edward smiled. “The mummies have surrounded themselves with a small army of heavily-armed mercenary soldiers, inside the Museum and out. Is that going to be a problem?”

“You expect the two of us to take on a whole army?” said Daniel. “Are you kidding?”

Tina glared at him. “We can do this; we’re Hydes.”

“Do this right, and the army won’t even know you’re there,” Edward said calmly. “Your mission file includes a floor map of the Egyptian Rooms, along with the exact locations for every man standing guard. All you have to do is sneak up on them, and enjoy yourselves.”

Daniel sat back in his chair, and thought hard. Was this really any more dangerous than taking on a whole Clan of Frankensteins and their creations, or a gathering of vampires and their victims? At least this time they wouldn’t have a bomb hanging over their heads . . . 

“Why the Egyptian Rooms?” he said. “Because the artifacts remind the mummies of home?”

“Presumably,” said Edward. “After all, there’s nothing left of the world they were born into. A whole civilization, gone back into the sand.”

“What do they even have to live for?” said Daniel. “What keeps them going, in a world that probably makes no sense at all to their antique minds?”

“They go on because they’re afraid of dying,” said Edward. “That’s what led to them becoming mummies.”

“They wanted to be mummies?” said Tina.

“Hardly,” said Edward. “Remember, they were scientists of a sort, uninterested in anything but the creation of drugs that would let them live forever. However, the priests of ancient Egypt saw what they were doing as blasphemy, and had the nine men mummified alive and entombed. But, of course, they couldn’t die, after the drugs they’d already taken. And so they waited out the passing of centuries, locked away in the dark, until their tombs were rediscovered and broken into.”

“It’s a wonder they didn’t go mad,” said Tina.

“Who’s to say they didn’t?” said Edward. He leaned back in his chair, smiling easily. “Think of all those brave scholars and adventurers, trekking into the depths of Egypt, searching out forgotten tombs with nothing to guide them but scraps of maps and hints of history. Now, imagine them breaking down the door of some newly rediscovered tomb, intent on treasure and the thrill of discovery—only to find something in there waiting for them. The bandage-wrapped hand that shoots out of the darkness, to crush a throat or crack a skull. And then . . . the first faltering steps out of the dark and into the light, as something from the distant past emerges into the modern world . . . ”

“You’ve clearly put a lot of thought into this,” said Daniel.

“Know thy enemy,” said Edward.

“What do these mummies look like?” said Daniel. “Are we talking about the bandage jobs from the old horror films? Stumbling along with one outstretched hand, in pursuit of tana leaves or some reincarnated long-lost love?”

“I always thought those movies were very romantic,” said Tina, just a bit unexpectedly.