The Great Tomb Robbery

by A. B. Greenfield

  “Go, go, go!” Khepri shouted, clinging to the top of my head.

  “Stop!” The thief abandoned Kenamon and chased after us. “Put that down!”

  Miu and I raced ahead, the thief close behind us both. When we came to the pit, Miu soared over it, but I stopped in my tracks. A snarling shadow was leaping over the pit in the other direction, coming straight toward me.

  Miu dropped her jewel and called out, startled, “Sabu?”

  The thief tried to slow down, but we were too much of an obstacle. As I swerved to avoid Sabu, the man stumbled over me and lost his balance.

  “No!” Sabu leaped to save him. Tail and feet tangled.

  The man and the cat went hurtling into the pit, screeching and screaming.

  In the Pit

  “Sabu?” Miu called down into the deep pit. “Cousin?”

  “Don’t waste your sympathy, Miu,” Khepri said. “They’re both guilty.”

  “What do you mean?” she said. “Sabu is on our side…”

  I was just as confused. Taking care not to fall over the edge, we peered into the pit. In the deep shadows, you could just see them both: Bek breathing but unconscious next to the cracked Anubis mask, and Sabu licking his face.

  “Sabu, don’t!” Miu cried. “He’s a thief and a kidnapper.”

  Sabu looked up and snarled at her. “And he almost got away with it, too—until you poked your nose in.”

  “You mean, you knew he was guilty?” Miu said uncertainly.

  “Of course I knew,” Sabu bragged. “We’re a team. I helped him. I was there in the tomb with him, and I put together an alibi—”

  “You lied?” Miu said.

  “—and I got that goose to back me up,” Sabu went on.

  “How?” I wanted to know.

  “Blackmail,” Sabu said, preening over his cleverness. “I told her I’d keep her goslings safe—no cat would touch them—but only if she did what I told her to do.”

  That explained why the goose had threatened to report me to Sabu.

  “And that wasn’t all,” Sabu went on. “When Lord Fancypaws and his beetle started asking too many questions, I’m the one who pushed the brick onto them.” His green eyes glittered balefully at me. “Too bad I missed, but it shut you up for a while. Just not long enough. That’s why I had to plant that earring in Pentu’s paint box.”

  Miu’s ears flicked in disbelief. “And here I thought you were our partner.”

  “Partner to Lord Fancypaws?” Sabu sneered. “Never. I was hoping the jackals would finish you off. I told them they’d find a good meal at the tombs tonight—”

  “You told the jackals where we were going?” I was floored.

  Sabu laughed. “Sure. They’re old friends of mine, and they’d do almost anything to please Bek. They love the meat he feeds them.”

  “So that’s how Bek got the jackals on his side,” Khepri murmured to me. “I bet it’s why we found bits of spiced goose in the tomb.”

  Miu let out a plaintive meow. “Sabu, that’s practically murder.”

  “I’d do it again if I could,” Sabu said coolly. “Not just for Bek’s sake, but for my own.” Far below us, his tiger face twisted. “Why should Lord Fancypaws get a perfect afterlife, when I don’t? That golden sarcophagus should be mine.”

  He spat at us, and Miu gazed down at him in dismay.

  “Ignore him,” I said to her. “We need to look after Kenamon.”

  Miu crossed over to our side of the pit and joined us at the boy’s side.

  “You’re limping,” Khepri said to her.

  “I twisted my paw,” she said, “but it’ll be okay. I’m more worried about Kenamon.”

  I was, too. The boy’s eyes were barely open.

  “His breathing doesn’t sound good,” Miu said. “Maybe that gag is choking him.”

  “Let’s chew through the ropes and free him,” I suggested.

  As Sabu yowled and swore at us from the bottom of the pit, we worked in turns.

  When I took over from Miu, she tucked herself by Kenamon’s shoulder. “I never thought a cousin of mine would do something so terrible.”

  “He had us fooled, too,” Khepri said. “At least for a while—until Ra found the vital clue.”

  “And what was that, Ra?” Miu asked.

  Thankfully I was chewing the rope, so I just pointed my tail to Khepri. Let him answer that.

  “When Ra felt the ‘breath of Anubis’ in Bek’s tomb, he was sitting near the secret entrance to this much grander tomb,” Khepri explained. “The chill he felt was the air from the ancient tomb flowing out. That was the first clue that it was Bek.”

  “Goodness.” Miu blinked. “How clever of you to figure that out.”

  “Um-hmmmmmmmph,” I said, gnawing at the rope.

  “Well, you had other things on your mind,” Khepri said to Miu. “You were trying to save us from the jackals.”

  “I thought we’d ruled Bek out,” Miu said. “He wasn’t a suspect because he wasn’t part of the crew that cleaned out the abandoned tomb.”

  “That was our mistake,” Khepri admitted. “We didn’t consider that there might be another way to work out how to get into Setnakht’s tomb. But when we first came here, we heard that Bek’s father and forefathers had been sculptors in the Valley of the Kings, working on all the pharaohs’ tombs. That means they would have worked on Thutmose the Second’s tomb when it was first made, and on Setnakht’s tomb, too. And since they were sculptors, working with stone, they were more likely than most to notice a loose block—or to engineer one.”

  The rope that held the gag was starting to give way.

  “My guess is that they passed the secret on, from son to son,” Khepri said. “Maybe it was a joke at first, or simply an observation. But with Bek, it became the start of a plan. He thought the gods were calling to him. And Sabu agreed with him when he saw that cat sarcophagus.”

  I bit down hard on the rope. Poor Pamiu! He hadn’t stood a chance.

  Khepri waved his foreleg at the golden case, still glowing in the fading light of the torch. “That was the other clue. Most thieves would have melted the sarcophagus down, or shoved it in with the rest of the treasure. Instead it was set carefully aside, as if it was being saved for a one-of-a-kind cat. That sounded like Sabu to me. After all, he’s the leader of the cats in Set Ma’at. So I started thinking about all the obstacles and dangers we’d faced in solving the case, and I realized that Sabu could have been behind them all.”

  As Miu shook her head sadly, I nipped at the last strands of rope that held the gag tight. “There!”

  The rope snapped, and Kenamon spat out the gag. As soon as he croaked out his thanks to us, his eyes shut and his head slumped back on the floor.

  Miu brushed her tail over his face, but that didn’t revive him. “Oh, dear.”

  “We have to get him out of here. But how?” Khepri sounded as worried as I felt.

  Miu pulled her tail back. “We need some humans to help us.”

  “And that means getting past the jackals,” I pointed out.

  There was a long silence.

  Miu couldn’t go, not with her sore paw. Khepri wouldn’t get there till next week. So that left me. But after the worst day of my life—and the scariest night—was I up to facing the jackals again?

  Pharaoh’s Cat would volunteer. Pharaoh’s Cat was braver than brave. But I didn’t feel much like Pharaoh’s Cat anymore. Once all the fancy trappings were gone, maybe all that was left was a not-very-brave cat.

  Kenamon opened his eyes and struggled to smile at me.

  Then again, maybe I was braver than I thought. What was it Miu had said earlier? What matters is how we treat others in this life. That’s the true memorial. Much as I hankered after a marvelous tomb, I suspected she was right.

  I brushed
against Kenamon’s cheek. His face pale with effort, he breathed, “Ra…the…Mighty.”

  Well, that settled it. The boy needed me. Me, Pharaoh’s Cat. Even if I felt like a not-very-brave cat on the inside.

  I rose. “I’ll go to Set Ma’at now.”

  “And the jackals?” Miu said, eyes wide with concern.

  I was already headed out. “If they try to stop me, they’ll be sorry.”

  Follow the Cat

  I only realized that Khepri was with me when I made it to the other side of the pit, headed down the tunnel that led outside.

  I stopped. “This is a dangerous job. You don’t have to come with me.”

  “Oh, yes, I do,” Khepri said calmly. “Miu’s going to look after Kenamon, and I’m going to look after you.”

  He was smaller than my paw, and he was going to look after me? Ridiculous, of course, but I couldn’t shake him.

  “I’m sticking with you,” he kept saying, and since I couldn’t pry him off my ear, we continued down the tunnel together.

  Truth to tell, I was glad he was there with me, especially when we slipped from the tunnel into Bek’s tomb. (Just as Khepri had predicted, there were some loose blocks by the ledge where I’d felt the “breath of Anubis.” Bek had pushed them back so that he could crawl through.)

  “Do you see any jackals?” I asked as we peered out of the tomb.

  “I only see stars,” Khepri said. “Wow, they sure are bright out here in the desert.”

  “They are.” Then I looked down to the east and saw Set Ma’at aglow with tiny lights.

  “See that?” I said to Khepri. “They’re awake, even though it’s the middle of the night. Something’s going on.”

  “Maybe they’re searching for Kenamon,” Khepri suggested.

  “Probably for the wrong reason,” I said.

  “It’s a good thing they’ve got us to set them straight.” Khepri settled himself more firmly between my ears. “Let’s go, Ra!”

  Ears and eyes on the alert for jackals, I clambered down the cliffs. When we reached the bottom and no jackals had appeared, I felt more confident. I picked up the pace as I crossed the desert sands. Ahead of us, Set Ma’at shone brightly.

  “So what’s the plan?” Khepri asked.

  “It’s simple. I get someone to follow me back to the tomb.”

  “Who?” Khepri wanted to know.

  “The Scribe, maybe—”

  “But he thinks you’re a stray,” Khepri pointed out. “He’ll just shoo you away.”

  Hmmm…I hadn’t thought this part through. But Khepri was probably worrying over nothing. He often does that.

  “It will work out,” I said. “If need be, I’ll tackle the Vizier when he comes to get me. He’ll be here first thing in the morning.”

  “What if he isn’t?” Khepri said.

  “He won’t have a choice. Pharaoh must have figured things out by now, and he’ll be furious with the Vizier for bringing back an imposter.”

  “Unless Pharaoh thinks the imposter is you,” Khepri said.

  “He wouldn’t,” I said. “You said so yourself, Khepri. There’s no cat like me.”

  “Well, I know that, and you know that. But the humans are more easily fooled than we are—”

  “Not Pharaoh,” I insisted. “We have a special bond. He’ll send the Vizier for me. And the Vizier will be in big trouble for mistreating me, so he’ll have to do what I want. I’ll lead him to the boy.”

  “If you say so,” Khepri said doubtfully.

  He didn’t argue after that. But he didn’t have to. As I padded through the dark toward the walls of Set Ma’at, tiny doubts pricked at me. What if Khepri was right? What if Pharaoh had accepted the imposter? I’d seen enough to know that, for many humans, all cats were alike. Maybe Pharaoh, at heart, thought one cat was as good as another. Maybe the special bond between us wasn’t really so special after all…

  “Ra?” Khepri clutched at my ear. “There’s someone on our trail.”

  “Anooooooooooooooooobis!”

  The howl came from close behind us. I bounded forward as fast as my paws would take me.

  “Jackals!” On the top of my head, Khepri was rotating and shrieking. “Two of them. No, three…four…”

  “Counting doesn’t help!” I yowled.

  I thought I’d been running fast. Now I discovered I could go faster. But so could the jackals. As I streaked toward the village gates, their baying came closer and closer.

  “Ra, the gates are closed!” Khepri yelled in my ear.

  “Then I’ll climb straight up the wall!” My shriek echoed across the sands, so loud everyone in the village must have heard it.

  I heard a familiar shout. Or was it just that my senses were failing me? I had never run so fast in my life, and my whole body was pounding from the effort.

  The village gates began to open, ever so slightly.

  Could it be? I wondered.

  “Faster, Ra!” Khepri begged.

  I didn’t think faster was possible, but then a jackal nipped at my tail.

  “Anooooooooooooooooobis!”

  I yowled and darted through the tiny gap in the gates. They slammed behind me, locking the jackals out. With Khepri holding tight, I ran to the man with the familiar shout…

  “Oh, Ra!” Pharaoh raised me in his arms. “Praise the gods, you’re safe.”

  * * *

  As a crowd gathered, I heard Khepri’s stunned voice in my ear. “Pharaoh recognized you, Ra. Even without your collar, and with the mud and grit in your fur, he recognized you.”

  “Of course he did.” I aimed for a lofty, confident tone, but I was too relieved to sound anything but delighted. “I told you: Pharaoh and I have a special bond. I never doubted it.” Well, not really.

  Pharaoh stroked my cheeks and fed me chunks of spiced ibex from his very own hand. “Forgive me, Ra. I was so busy yesterday that I didn’t realize till midnight that the Vizier brought back the wrong cat.”

  “O Ruler of Rulers.” The Vizier’s voice floated up from the ground, where he was lying flat by Pharaoh’s feet. “I abase myself.”

  Cradling me in his arms, Pharaoh took a step away.

  “I’ll bet he won’t be Vizier for very long,” Khepri whispered to me.

  “Let’s hope not.” I gulped down another morsel of ibex.

  “I came to Set Ma’at to search for you myself,” Pharaoh told me. “I turned the whole village upside down—and then I heard you out in the desert.” He hoisted me up, so that we were eye-to-eye. “What on earth were you doing out there?”

  I almost choked on my ibex. In the excitement of the moment, I’d nearly forgotten about Kenamon. I leaped from Pharaoh’s arms and ran to the gate.

  “Catch him!” the Scribe cried, and the crowd began to chase after me.

  “Stop!” At the sound of Pharaoh’s deep voice, everyone froze. “Let him be.”

  Pharaoh strode up to me. “What is it, Ra? It must be something important, if you’re willing to brave the jackals again.” He stared down at me, his dark eyes thoughtful, and then gave orders to his guards:

  “Open the gates. Bring your torches. And follow that cat!”

  I Can Explain

  What was the best part of that night?

  If you guessed the spiced ibex, you would be wrong. Not that it wasn’t delicious. But the best part came later, after we reached the tomb.

  Pharaoh followed me in, his guards close behind, trailed by the Scribe and the Vizier. They were startled to discover Bek and Sabu in the pit with the Anubis mask, and they gasped when they saw the stolen loot. But Pharaoh looked most shaken when he saw Kenamon.

  “The boy trapped me!” Bek shouted from the pit. “He’s the real thief.”

  “And Pharaoh’s Cat helped him,” Sabu yowled.

&nb
sp; Ignoring this, Pharaoh ordered the guards to untie Kenamon. His breathing eased once he was freed from the tight wrappings, and after he drank medicine the guards gave him, he was strong enough to talk. At first, he was so overawed by Pharaoh that he could hardly find the words to say what had happened. But then Miu and I climbed onto his lap and purred, and soon the story poured out of him.

  He had indeed seen the meat in Setnakht’s tomb, and the loose block, but he had been afraid to tell anyone.

  “Why were you afraid?” Pharaoh’s voice was as gentle as it was with his own children.

  “I was afraid they would call me a troublemaker, and that Father and I would lose our jobs,” Kenamon explained. “The Scribe calls Father a troublemaker because he’s complained about the cuts in our wages. He even threatened to dismiss him. When the Vizier came, Father hoped he would set matters right, but he didn’t. He got angry with Father, too.”

  Pharaoh’s impressive eyebrows lowered in a frown. “There have been cuts in wages?”

  The Scribe had been over in a corner having a quiet word with the Vizier, but now he bustled forward. “O Ruler of Rulers, the dear boy has misunderstood the situation—”

  Pharaoh silenced the Scribe with a look.

  Kenamon glanced nervously at the Scribe.

  “You are under my protection,” Pharaoh told Kenamon. “Answer freely. Your wages were cut?”

  Kenamon nodded. “Last year they were cut for almost everyone in the village, and again during flood season.”

  “Not by me,” Pharaoh said grimly.

  “I can explain,” the Scribe babbled.

  The Vizier looked panicked. “So can I.”

  “Hold them both for questioning,” Pharaoh commanded his guards.

  “Well, that explains why Pentu told Kenamon that things were going to get better, and why his little sister hoped they’d be rich enough to get a cat,” Khepri murmured in my ear. “Pentu thought speaking to the Vizier would help. He didn’t know it would only make things worse.”

  Pharaoh spoke gently to Kenamon again. “So how did you come to be here?”