“Come closer,” Henry said, and waved to Jake. “It’s a spectacular specimen. Researchers would yank out their own eyeteeth to be here. Even the museum has the specimen only for the opening week of the show. A gift from our sponsor before it’s returned to Egypt.”
A gift from our sponsor …
Jake glanced to Morgan. The Brit kept his face impassive.
Henry motioned for the two workers to unwrap the protective shroud from the mummy.
Jake moved closer. Kady stood on the far side next to Uncle Edward.
Henry’s eyeglasses reflected the dim light. “There is no other mummy like this in the world. We’re guessing the Egyptians had been attempting to create a sculpture of one of their gods. We know they loved to depict their deities as half animals. Like our jackal-headed Anubis over there. Or the goddess Bast, who is often sculpted with the head of a cat. In this case, I think the Egyptians were trying to honor their god Horus, to create his likeness. But rather than using stone or paint, they used body parts.”
Body parts?
Jake frowned as the sheets billowed up and away. He recalled that Horus was the Egyptian god of the sky.
The professor continued. “Horus was usually depicted with the head of a falcon or sometimes just as a bird. So of course such a re-creation of Horus would need wings!”
The sheets fell away to reveal a gnarled figure curled on the slab as if in agony. Leathery skin had dried long ago to the bones of its arms and legs. Ribs stuck out like fish bones. But it was not a man on the slab—at least not any longer. Grisly wings were folded over most of its body, forming some monstrous cocoon. Its bald head appeared more porcine than human. Jagged yellow teeth, like broken glass, shone from lips peeled into a death’s-head grin.
“And look at the hands and feet,” Henry continued. “They must have replaced the man’s fingernails and toenails with the claws of a bird. It’s pure genius the way they stitched these various animals together to create such a unique mummified specimen.”
Henry droned on, but Jake had stopped listening. A roaring filled his ears as blood drained to his feet. Kady had also gone as white as a burial shroud. She recognized it, too. This was not some Frankenstein mishmash of body parts.
This creature was real.
Jake had battled monsters like this back in Pangaea.
Here was the mummified remains of a grakyl.
5
ANKH OF GOLD
Across the slab, Kady let out a loud groan. Her eyes met Jake’s, then rolled back into her head. The shock must have been too much for her.
Before Jake could react, she swooned to the floor. Uncle Edward barely caught her before she crashed headlong into one of the display cabinets.
On his knees, Edward cradled her. “Katherine, are you okay?”
She nodded, blushing, holding herself up with one hand. “Sorry. It’s just so … so disgusting.”
“Oh, my dear,” Henry said. “I’m sorry. What was I thinking? Of course it’s too gruesome for the faint of heart.”
Kady placed a hand to her forehead. “I could use a glass of water.”
Henry turned. “There’s a drinking fountain by the stairs.”
“I’ll get it,” Morgan said, and headed off.
Irritated and plainly embarrassed, Kady waved everyone aside. “I need some air. A moment to collect myself.”
Henry looked stricken and mortified. “Certainly. I have matters to attend to anyway. Again, I’m so sorry.”
He ushered out the workers with him.
Kady watched them leave. “Uncle Edward, I feel so stupid.” She pointed after the professor. “Please go after him. Tell him I’ll be fine. Otherwise I’ll feel terrible.”
“I understand.” Edward rose to his feet. “Jake, why don’t you come with me? Give your sister some privacy.”
“Jake, wait!” Kady said. “You have an extra energy bar, don’t you?”
He nodded as Edward left.
Jake hurried back to her side, fumbling in his pocket for a granola bar. He offered it to her.
She knocked his arm away. “Those things are disgusting.”
“Then why did you—?”
Kady hurried to her feet. “To get everyone out of here, Brainiac.”
Now it was Jake’s turn to feel stupid. Kady had faked the entire thing so they could talk. He should have known.
“What is a grakyl doing here?” she asked, staring down at the monster. “What does it mean?”
“I don’t know. But did you notice the sign out front? The name of the exhibit sponsor. Bledsworth Sundries and Industries. They funded this tomb and sent that mummy. If Morgan was telling the truth about the corporation keeping tabs on us, then they also knew we’d be here today.”
“What are you saying?” Kady asked.
Jake ran everything through his head and came to only one conclusion. He was suddenly all too conscious of the ticking watch against his chest.
“If someone wanted to steal Dad’s watch, a good way to get it out of hiding might be to stage a robbery attempt. Scared by the burglary, we’d be forced to take it from its hiding place and keep it with us for safekeeping.”
Kady looked sick—and she wasn’t faking it this time. “Which is exactly what we did.”
He nodded. “After that, all our enemy would have to do is to lure us somewhere. Set up a trap.”
Jake stared at the four walls of the tomb. The chamber seemed to go darker as his fears grew.
“We have to get out of here,” Kady said.
“But the ankh is here. I swear I can almost feel it.”
“Never mind that. We can come back later. The professor said this mummy was heading back to Egypt next week. Let’s wait until then. The ankh should still be here.”
Kady headed around the slab toward the exit.
Jake recognized her logic, but his heart railed against it. Still, he followed her. She was right. They needed to get out of here. Jake joined his sister at the exit. He gave one last glance back into the dark tomb.
That’s when he spotted it.
He froze like a statue.
On the far side of the slab, his eyes caught on a glint of gold. He’d missed it before, his attention drawn too quickly to the altar and its macabre offering.
He stared into the display cabinet across the room. The object rested on the middle shelf. A palm-sized ankh made of gold. An exact match to the one inscribed on the watchcase. Under the cabinet’s bright halogens, Jake also spotted jewels imbedded in the gold: a diamond in the center, surrounded by a ruby, an emerald, and a sapphire.