Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx (7 page)

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.

“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.

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.

The same pattern and colors as the crystals in his apprentice badge.

The four cornerstones of Calypsos.

Jake pointed across the room. “It's here! That's got to be it.”

Kady squinted—then stiffened beside him. “The jewels,” she said, understanding instantly.

Jake rushed forward.

“Wait!” Kady called out, but she wasn't warning him to come back. She wanted to keep up with him.

They circled around the slab to get a better look.

Together they gazed into the cabinet.

“That has to be the lock for Dad's key.” Stepping back, Jake reached to his neck and fished out the pocket watch.

“But how are we going to get inside the case?” Kady asked.

Jake was beyond subtlety. He was ready to smash it open and deal with the consequences later. Turning, he searched the room for something heavy. Breathless with anticipation, he leaned a hand on the slab for support.

Kady called to him. “What about picking the lock?”

Jake turned to tell her that was impossible—

—when cold claws clamped onto his wrist.

Jolting away in horror, he jerked back his arm. The mummy's dried claws remained latched onto his arm.

“Jake!” Kady yelled.

He stared down at the grakyl on the slab. Its eyes had opened and bore into his, full of fire. The claws turned icy on his wrist as faint words filled his head.

“I see you …”

No
! Jake recognized that hoary voice. It was the Kalverum Rex, the Skull King.

“Now come to me …”

Jake's arm was yanked with such force that he was pulled out of this world and into another. Darkness consumed him, swallowed him whole.

Words, louder now, scratched out of the blackness.
“The Key of Time … mine at long last …”

Jake screamed, but he had no voice here.

“With the Key, I'll destroy all you love …”

Jake felt himself still being pulled by his arm, drawn
ever closer to the Skull King. He fought the inevitable pull, but there was no substance here, no toehold to catch himself.

Help me
!

As if hearing his plea, a band of fire snapped around his other wrist like a lasso of fire. It snagged his arm and refused to let go. Jake was soon stretched between the two forces.

Claws of ice on one side, a band of fire on the other.

Thwarted, the Skull King screamed in fury.
“NO!”

Even with his arms about to be ripped from his sockets, Jake still found comfort in that cry of dismay. At last those icy claws ripped loose. Nails dragged across the back of his hand, scratching to grab him again.

Then he was free.

A curse still chased after him.