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Chapter 1
A female mummy from ancient Egypt lay
outstretched inside a hospital scanning machine.
The British Museum had brought the mummy to St.
Thomas’ Hospital for a non-invasive examination of the body beneath its
wrappings.
“We’ll begin by doing the head and neck in
two millimetre slices. I’m just relieved that nobody will have to give this
patient the bad news that she’s terminal.”
The radiologist had made the joke to bridge
the jarring disconnect between ancient death, wrapped up in magical spells, and
the modern day machinery of medical imaging.
The radiation scan - at a dose lethal for
the living - blasted through the linen windings. It was like a penetration of
sunlight warming the bones after the ache of the desert night.
The machine hummed. A spinning cylinder
curved around the mummy’s head like a night sky arching over Egypt.
The sand-dry cells of the body, spread out
in an undulating landscape on the CT tray, stirred in a sudden breath.
Life!
Resurgent life! It eddied, thickened, mounted in force, blowing, gusting, then
blasting through the mummy like a desert sand storm.
She opened one green eye to look out through
a small gap in her wrappings.
“Shall we pipe in some comforting music for
the patient?” a voice said outside the chamber.
A man laughed.
UPDATE: WHOLE SERIES ON AMAZON
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Now a trilogy |
