He felt no surprise. No disbelief. This was Egypt, after all. Where the dead were as important as the living. Where the whole point of this life was to prepare for the next one. Egyptians had believed in the afterlife for thousands of years. They believed that the gods and goddesses they’d created had made them, the Egyptians, special. That the gods had bestowed perfection upon the land of Egypt. That the gods had sent the Nile to provide for them. That the Nile gave them fertile soil in which to grow their food. The food that would be offered back to the gods. And that only those who found favour with the gods – those whose hearts were weighed against a feather and found worthy – would enter the afterlife.

He suddenly wondered – how would his heart fare against a feather? Not well, was his honest but unwelcome suspicion.

Suddenly it was very easy to believe in all that belief. Had the thoughts and prayers of all those people over all those millennia given tangible life to their gods? Or had the gods always existed? Were they here before the first man? Which came first – the gods or the belief? Had the gods created man to believe in them or had man created the gods in whom to believe? The gods of Egypt had lived for thousands and thousands of years. Whether they still existed in modern times was a matter of some debate among more learned minds than his, but he wasn’t in modern times. He was here, now, in Egypt, land of magic, in the Valley of the Kings, standing before a desecrated tomb, and the Protector of Graves had turned up. To protect the grave, presumably. And Jane was inside.

Before he could even think about that, the figure raised itself slowly to its feet. In the darkness it was hard to see where mountain ended and figure began, but he was sure it was massive. Tall and slender, with the body of a man and the head of a jackal, its eyes glowed in the dark like a cat’s eyes in headlights. Luke could see starlight glinting on a golden collar and kilt. And then, with its eyes fixed on the white lights in the sky, with one bound, it disappeared. Ordinary night rolled back into the valley and Luke found he could think and move again. He opened his com and steadied his voice.

‘Hey, Jane, it’s all kicked off out here. There’s a huge sound and light show over to the west. Lights in the sky and gunfire. I reckon they’ve found them. Hope Matthew’s OK, although I don’t suppose they’ll let him come to any harm, will they? And it’s all happening here, as well.’