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Even with the extended hours, the museum's only open until around eleven - midnight, during the summer, since that's the only way to make sure people get their money's worth. That still leaves plenty of time for whatever else the exhibits feel like getting up to, with their night. Rexie, for one, usually comes out of the public-entertainment part of the night needing a good romp to work out the kinks of pretending to be animatronic.
But anyway. Larry doesn't hear from Doc for a couple of weeks, after he makes the call out there. When he does, the catching-up thing keeps him up until nearly noon; it's more than a little on the hellish side, considering he's still readjusting from the day shift, but he feels a lot better for having done it. Even if Doc's story is really, really depressing.
It gets him thinking, though, what with one thing and another. Between getting the museum back in line and re-establishing his freelance cred, it's a couple more weeks before he remembers to follow through, and he's not even sure it'll amount to anything. But he has to ask, so he flags down Akhmenrah one night, about an hour after the museum closes for the night.
"I had a question," he says. "About the tablet. How exactly does that... work, with you?"
"How do you mean?"
"Well... obviously, you died at some point. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't look like you ever really got mummified."
Akhmenrah smiles a little. "Not quite, no. The priests had a good go of it, of course, but the tablet made it more trouble than it was worth, in the end. Why do you ask?"
"You remember the guy from California who came out here to sneak a look at the tablet, a while back?"
"Under the circumstances, he would be difficult to forget."
Larry chuckles, but the good humor doesn't stand a chance, really; this is pretty serious stuff, or he wouldn't be asking at all. "He... lost someone. By accident, as far as I can tell, but he's having a hard time putting it behind him, and I think it's partly because he never got to say his piece. But I wanted to know if it'd be worth trying before I suggested the tablet. He's got the means to get her here, that part's not a problem, but... yeah."
"I see." Akhmenrah is quiet for a while after that, to the point that Larry's beginning to wonder if he's going to get an answer any time before sunrise. Then he says, "Considering that you had the... extremely dubious honor of meeting my brother, there's a chance that what you have in mind might work. I can tell you for a fact that he was mummified. That said, if there were no preservation measures taken, the results may not be very pretty, if she died very long ago."
"Yeah, that's what I was worried about. It's been a few months, from what I know." He sighs. "Thanks. Don't know if anything will come of it, but... thanks."
"Of course, Larry."
He really doesn't know what to recommend. Knowing Doc, there just might be some kind of preservation mechanism in effect already - the guy's just crazy enough to think some kind of resurrection scheme could be worth the effort. But if there's not, or if one or both of them is annoyed with how temporary of a solution this would be - that's a whole new can of worms.
But at least he has the answers to offer, if he decides it's worth mentioning. He feels like he owes Doc that much, all things considered.