“Ah, there you are, you limey buzzard!” He gave Edward a huge hug. “How long has it been? Ten years?”
“Thirty,” Edward corrected, but his usual stern resolve melted into something more boyish. “As I recall, it was at the twenty-fifth reunion of our old unit.”
Edward turned to the others and made introductions, ending with Kady and Jake. “And these two are Katherine and Jacob Ransom.”
The man’s eyes grew huge. “By golly, these can’t be Battle-ax Bart’s grandchildren!”
“They are indeed.”
Jake lifted an eyebrow. “Battle-ax Bart?”
Edward explained, “A nickname for your grandfather. Bartholomew got the moniker from the hatchet he carried with him through the desert campaign in Africa.”
Jake had heard stories of those battles, but he’d never heard this one.
Edward clapped his friend on the shoulder. “And this is Professor Henry Kleeman. A leading Egyptologist. He still spends most of his time out in the field. Apparently he liked the desert so much during the war, he never left it.”
Henry waved away his words. “Enough! Come on inside. Let’s get out of this heat. I get enough of that in Egypt.”
The professor led them into the entry hall, through the main rotunda, and past a massive skeleton of a barosaurus.
“We’re setting up the Egyptian show on the fourth floor, so we have some climbing to do.” Henry hurried them along. “The main museum opens to the public in another two hours. I wanted to give you as much private time to explore the exhibit as possible. And there’s lots to see! We’ve got artifacts dating back to the earliest Egyptian dynasties. From jeweled scarab beetles to massive sarcophagi. But the true showstopper is a tomb discovered last year. It was painstakingly taken apart to preserve it against a new highway that’s being built, then shipped here in pieces. We reassembled it on site. It’s quite dramatic.”
Jake had to restrain himself from hurrying the man along. Instead he just cut to the heart of the matter. “Professor, I was wondering if you had any Egyptian ankhs in the exhibit.”
“Ankhs? My dear boy, we have them in every shape and size. Carved out of stone, sculpted out of gold, encrusted in jewels. You name it, we’ve got it!” The professor must have caught some whiff of Jake’s excitement, because he put an arm around Jake’s shoulder. “But let me tell you, the veritable crown of the exhibit landed in our laps today. An amazing mummified specimen. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Jake nodded politely, but he was more interested in searching for the ankh that matched the one inside his father’s watch. He had the timepiece hanging around his neck. Even now he felt it ticking against his breastbone, urging him onward.
Reaching the fourth floor, Henry pointed down the hallway. “Here we are. Just up ahead.”
The professor led them to a pair of tall doors locked and cordoned off by a red velvet rope. They skirted around the barrier, and Henry used a passkey to unlock the doors. He ushered them all inside, then closed the doors behind them.
It was like entering an Egyptian theme park, with statues, carved obelisks, and display cases forming an elaborate maze, winding through massive sarcophagi. Beyond the standing coffins, Jake spotted a full-sized wooden riverboat made of woven reeds.
As he watched, workmen raised the scow’s square sail. Jake pictured the boat floating down the ancient Nile. For a moment, he imagined he felt a cool river breeze.
“Ah,” Henry said, lifting a palm, “the air-conditioning finally kicked in. About time.”
So maybe not a Nile breeze …
Jake’s attention finally settled to the center of the room. Massive red sandstone walls formed a room within the greater hall.
Henry noted his attention. “That’s the tomb I was telling you about. Truly amazing artwork inside, depicting an entire funeral procession. Why don’t we head over there first?”
As Jake followed the others, he scanned to either side, watching for anything that matched the symbol inside his father’s watch. He saw Kady doing the same thing. Good. If they both stayed focused, they could cut their search time in half.
“Oh, look!” she blurted out, stopping ahead of him.
Jake’s heart leaped to his throat. Had she already found the ankh?
She leaned closer to one of the glass cases. “Those butterfly earrings would look perfect with my blue dress!”
Jake groaned and pushed her forward. So much for staying focused.
Ahead, Henry led the group to the rectangular tomb entrance and stopped. “Inside, we’re prepping that new mummy. I thought it was the perfect location to display such a specimen. You should really see it, then I’ll leave you to explore on your own.” He winked back at Jake. “I can tell someone is getting anxious to look around.”
Morgan grumbled behind Jake. “Guy’s a crackpot.”
Jake grinned and began to follow the others into the tomb, but something caught his eye near the entrance. A sign. He stopped dead. Shock and disbelief make it hard to focus. He had to read it three times.
Oh, no …
Jake’s gaze fixed on the griffin symbol at the bottom, picturing the monstrous grakyl of Pangaea. Furious, he twisted toward Morgan. “Did you know about this?”
The Brit’s face had gone oddly dark, his brows knitted low over his eyes as he read the sign himself.
“No,” he finally mumbled—then, like a cloud passing, his features returned to their usual disinterested granite. “The corporation funds thousands of projects around the world. Half the museums in the world have signs like this.”
Henry interrupted their discussion, his eyes huge behind his round glasses. “What luck! Hurry! The mummy’s just arrived. You’re in time for its unveiling.”
Morgan herded Jake over the threshold.
Stepping inside, a chill of dread traveled up from Jake’s toes. He pictured the rearing griffin. Something was definitely wrong about all of this.
With the roof closed over, the tomb was unusually dark inside. A few glowing display cases held an assortment of funerary objects. Small floor lights illuminated great panoramas of wall art, including a life-sized Anubis. The Egyptian god of death had the body of man and the head of a jackal. His crimson eyes made Jake shiver, and Jake tore his gaze away.
In the heart of the tomb rose a slab of stone, an altar. A shape wrapped in sheets rested atop it like an offering. Two white-smocked workers with griffin logos on their lapels stood to either side.