Jake could not take his eyes off the brochure. A finger traced the curves of the two-headed snake. Surely his parents had also touched it, unearthed it with their hands.
“I have to go,” Jake said with a fierce determination in his voice.
Uncle Edward placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
Who knew when he’d get another chance before the relics were all locked up again? Jake felt tears begin to well. To be that much closer to his parents.
The crunch and squeal of tires sounded from the front of the house. Laughter and shouted good-byes echoed to them. A moment later, the door swung open and Kady swept inside. She turned and waved to her departing ride, using her whole arm.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Randy!”
She came in and discovered Jake and Uncle Edward staring at her. Seeing the expressions on their faces, a single line of worry etched her perfect forehead.
“What?” she asked.
“Well, I’m not going,” Kady declared.
Jake watched her tick off her reasons on her fingers.
“I have Jeffrey’s pool party on Sunday. Then there’s cheer practice on Monday…followed by another party. And that doesn’t even count the two parties on Tuesday.”
She finished with a slight stamp of her heel. “And I’m certainly not giving up all that just to babysit Jake at some boring museum.”
Jake felt his face growing hotter. She had hardly taken a breath to listen to them. His heart pounded. He knew that if Kady didn’t go he wouldn’t be going. Uncle Edward would not let him travel alone.
“Kady! It’s Mom and Dad’s artifacts!”
She swallowed. Her eyes darted to the brochure and away again. Kady was far better at drawing and art than Jake. She had studied their mother’s sketchbook at length. Or at least she had when the books first came in the mail. For the past two years, she hadn’t bothered to look at them again.
But Jake had noticed the slight tremble to Kady’s hands when she’d first looked at the brochure. She also had recognized the double-headed snake.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I still have too much to do.”
Jake turned to Uncle Edward with a pleading expression.
His uncle only shrugged. He plainly still questioned whether they should go. Especially without Kady’s cooperation.
“Are these first-class tickets?” Kady suddenly asked. She shifted the papers in her hands. “And a penthouse reserved at the Savoy?”
Sensing a chink in her armor, Jake changed his approach. In all his excitement, he’d forgotten with whom he was dealing here.
“It’s…I’m sure, a big deal,” Jake said cautiously. He waved to the tickets. “Look at the expense. And they even timed it to the solar eclipse. I guess it’s all just a stupid publicity stunt. Still…”
He noted how her shoulders twitched at the word publicity.
“I’m sure there will be cameras,” he pressed. “News crews, television stations, possibly celebrities.”
Her eyes grew brighter. She took another look down at the invitation.
As Kady took the bait, Jake set the hook. “Besides,” he said, “think of all the shopping…all the newest European fashions that haven’t reached the North Hampshire Mall. You’ll be the first to wear them.”
Kady glanced down to her shoes. “Wellllll, maybe a short trip. It might not be that bad.”
Jake glanced at Uncle Edward.
The man shook his head. Uncle Edward knew when he was defeated. He might succeed in stopping Jake, but he’d never be able to come between Kady and a camera.
“Then I guess I’ll have to check into the arrangements,” he said.
Kady nodded, and Jake sighed with relief.
There remained only one last holdout.
Watson still sat near their father’s desk with his hackles raised. The basset hound’s eyes remained fixed on the discarded yellow envelope. From the old dog’s throat a low growl still flowed.
3
MR. BLEDSWORTH’S SHOW
Jake had never been in a limousine before. He never imagined the sheer size inside. It felt like he was in the belly of a black jetliner, flying low over the ground.
The limousine whipped through the narrow avenues and confusing roundabouts of London. Car horns blared and a few pedestrians shook fists at the massive vehicle. They were running late.
Jake pressed his cheek against the darkly tinted window. He tried to get a peek at the sky.
“Don’t worry,” Kady said next to him. With her iPod’s earbuds in place, she shouted a bit to be heard. “You won’t miss the eclipse.”
Kady returned her attention to the tiny compact mirror in her hand. She was checking her face again after an entire morning in their suite’s bathroom, performing unfathomable experiments with lip gloss, moisturizers, hair gels, eye shadow, lash curler, and a blow dryer—and even something that left glittering dust on the bathroom’s marble counter. Still, like any good scientist, Kady was never done tinkering with her work.
Jake ignored her and searched the blue sky. The sun shone like a yellow bruise through the tinted window. The moon waited, ready to begin its inevitable sweep across the sun’s face, turning day into night.
Jake’s left knee jumped up and down with excitement.
Also a little worry.
There was another force just as unstoppable as his sister.
Near the horizon, black clouds stacked high into the sky. Flashes of lightning sparked deep within the heart of an approaching thunderstorm. It was a race against time. If the storm blotted out the view of the eclipse, Jake would be crushed.
The limousine bumped around an especially sharp turn. Tires squealed. Jake was thrown away from the window. Ice clinked in a crystal glass. A huge hand caught Jake and righted him in his seat.
A rumbling voice scolded with a clipped English accent. “Young sir, if you’d like to see the sky, perhaps I can assist you before you break your neck.”
Jake had almost forgotten Morgan Drummond shared their limousine, which was surprising considering the man’s size. His body filled the entire front half of the limousine’s passenger cabin. He was all muscle with craggy features. He wore a double-breasted black pinstripe suit, a veritable tent of a suit, but still his biceps strained the fabric with every motion. He looked more like a drill sergeant than the head of security for Bledsworth Sundries and Industries, Inc., the sole sponsor for the Mayan exhibit.
Drummond tilted toward Jake. He reached a thick finger to a row of buttons near Jake’s elbow and pressed one. The limousine’s moonroof glided open. Through the glass, the sky appeared.