She was beautiful—there was no doubt about it. At that moment, under the incredible blanket of stars, with her dark eyes flashing at me, I wanted to tell her how amazing she was—but all I said was “Oh. I see.”
What a dork!
I don’t know what it is about me—every time I’m with a girl I like, I trip over my own feet. Just once, I’d love to say the perfect thing, you know? Just once.
Luckily, Leila seemed not to notice, or she didn’t care. Something seemed to be weighing heavily on her mind, and for some reason she’d decided to share it with me.
All I had to do was keep quiet and listen.
“There is great danger—I can feel it,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I wanted her to keep talking—but I could feel it too.
“Ms. Chilton—she is very foolish. She does not realize the evil she brings with her.”
“Evil? You mean the mummy’s curse?”
She snorted. “Mummy’s curse? Don’t be stupid.”
I felt like a total airhead Leila was studying for a master’s degree, so she was obviously intelligent and well educated. But it was her attitude that made me feel so dumb. Like I should know without asking that there’s no such thing as a mummy’s curse.
Well, I did know—and I didn’t. I mean, out there in the dark desert night, you could almost feel the danger closing in.
“The Golden Mummy and his treasure are cursed, all right,” she said. “Cursed by human greed. Some people have no respect for history or culture—and if bad things happen to them, they will have only themselves to blame.”
Uh-oh. Was she threatening somebody? Had I read Leila Abdul the wrong way?
I could feel a deep anger surging behind her eyes. Was she angry enough to hurt someone?
“Is that all you wanted to tell me?” I asked her
She shook her head. “I saw someone … sneaking around Ms. Chilton’s tent.”
“You did? Who was it?”
“Theo.”
“Ah.”
What else could I say? I knew why Theo had been there—he’d been setting up the video surveillance Joe and I had asked for. But I couldn’t tell that to Leila, could I?
“I … wouldn’t be too worried about that,” I said. “It probably has something to do with the video they’re making.”
She made a face. “You don’t believe me! I was wrong about you—you’re just like the others.”
No! I’m not, I wanted to say.
But of course, I didn’t.
“You will see,” she said, “that the closer we get to the treasure, the more the curse of greed will come to haunt us all.” She turned and walked away into the darkness, heading for her tent.
I stared after her until she disappeared behind her tent flap, then went back and lay down on my cot, thinking about all she’d said.
What had she really been trying to tell me? Who did she think was greedy? Who was dangerous?
My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a scream from Samantha’s tent.
“Oh, no!” Joe said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. “Not again!”
He was already up and moving—Joe to the rescue. “If somebody’s laid a hand on her, I’ll—”
I followed him outside. Everyone was rushing toward Sam’s tent. Then she appeared, lifting her tent flap and shouting, “It’s gone! Somebody stole my belly bag!”
She didn’t have to say what was inside the belly bag. Joe and I gave each other a quick look.
The map of the Golden Mummy’s tomb was gone!
I went over to Theo and tapped him on the arm. “Did we get it all on tape?” I asked.
“I’ll go see,” he said, and went to retrieve the hidden camera.
Meanwhile, Tommy was ranting and raving about how he was going to find out who stole the bag and break their neck for them. He seemed to be yelling mostly at Mounir’s group of thugs.
Leila, in turn, was glaring at Tommy. “Leave them alone!” she was saying. “You don’t know it was them. Don’t you dare assume it! It was probably one of you who did it—maybe even you yourself!”
Tommy and Leila started screaming at each other, and Dr. Mounir soon joined in on Leila’s side. I could see Dr. Volsky trying to get a word in, but his voice wasn’t loud enough to be heard.
In the meantime, Joe was trying to get the story of what happened from Samantha. I followed them both inside her tent.
“I guess I fell asleep,” she was saying. “I was dreaming that my map—you know, the one I told you I always keep on me—was being stolen. And then I woke up, and my belly bag was gone!”
“I assume the map was inside?” I asked.
“Uh-huh. I always wore it under my shirt, so no one could take it.”
“Were you wearing it while you slept?” Joe asked.
“No, that would have been really uncomfortable,” she said. “I put the belly bag under my pillow instead.”
“Bad move,” Joe said. “But don’t worry—we’ll get it back for you. Somebody here’s got it, and we’re going to find it.”
She smiled and stroked Joe’s cheek. “Thank you,” she said, giving him a kiss. “You’re very sweet. Even sweeter than Tommy.”
Now it was my turn to enjoy the sight of Joe acting geeky. His mouth kept opening and closing like a fish, but he couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
Nice moves, bro, I thought. Very smooth.
Theo lifted the tent flap. He held the camera in his other hand. “We’ve got the thief on tape, red-handed,” he said.
He sat down on the edge of Samantha’s cot, and we all watched the monitor as someone sneaked into Samantha’s tent, then, a couple of minutes later, crept back out.
Leila!
I couldn’t believe it. She’d just now come to me to warn me about how greedy people were—and here she was, stealing other people’s property!
Of course, it all made sense. If she didn’t want greedy people to get their hands on the treasure, what better way to prevent it than by stealing the map of the tomb?
But wait …
“Could you run that tape back again?” I asked.
Theo did, and this time I saw that when she emerged, Leila’s hands were empty. “Where’s the belly bag?” I asked.
Theo shrugged. “Maybe under her robe?”
“Why don’t we just ask her?” Joe suggested.
We went outside. Mounir’s men had brought lanterns, and the whole encampment was lit with an eerie orange glow.
“Leila,” I said. “Where’s the belly bag?”
“What?” Her eyes widened in shock. “I didn’t take it!”
“We have you on video,” Theo said, holding up the camera.
“But I swear I didn’t take it! I went into Ms. Chilton’s tent, yes—but only to make sure she was all right!”
Nobody seemed more shocked than Dr. Mounir. “Leila, is this true?” he asked. “Did you steal from the young lady? I cannot believe it!”
“No! No, I didn’t! The bag was still there when I left the tent.”
“How would you know that,” Sam challenged her, “unless you’d looked under my pillow?”
Everyone’s eyes were on Leila, who looked like she was about to panic.
“Search her tent,” Tommy ordered, and three of Mounir’s crew went into action, searching Leila’s tent. A few minutes later, they came out again—empty-handed.
“Sam,” Tommy said, “she’s still got it on her. Search her.”
Sam seemed to hesitate. “Is … is that all right?” she asked Leila. “Can I?”
Leila looked around, at all the men surrounding her. “In private,” she said. The two women went into Samantha’s tent, then came out again.
“She’s clean,” Sam said. “Obviously, she’s telling the truth.”
“It’s her,” Theo insisted. “There’s no denying the tape. She must have stashed it somewhere.”
“Theo,” I said, getting an idea, “maybe someone else also went i
nto Samantha’s tent. Try running the tape farther forward!”
He held up the camera, and everyone crowded around to try and get a glimpse of the monitor. We saw Leila emerge from the tent, empty-handed. Then we saw five minutes of the tent at night—no one going in or out.
“That’s enough of this,” Tommy said. “It’s her, all right. She must have hidden the belly bag somewhere. Come on, let’s tear this whole place apart!”
“Wait!” I said. “Be patient. The tape’s not over yet.”
“How long do you expect us to stand here and—”
Just then, another figure appeared on the monitor: One of Mounir’s camel drivers, the one with the eye patch. He looked around to make sure no one was watching him, then ducked inside Samantha’s tent—and reemerged with the belly bag in his hands.
Everyone gasped and looked around, but the camel driver on the tape was nowhere to be found.
“He’s got to be around here somewhere,” Tommy said. “Check the camels, and see if they’re all still here. If he took off, we can still catch up to him by following the camel’s tracks.”
All the camels were still in camp. If the driver had run away, he’d gone on foot—a suicidal move, considering civilization was a full day’s camel ride away, and he had no camel.
“Find him!” Dr. Mounir ordered, and his men scattered, carrying their lanterns high.
Soon enough, there was a shout from one of them. We followed the sound of his voice to a nearby gully. He stood at the bottom, his lantern held up high, so that we could see his find.
It was the camel driver who’d been caught on video. And there was no doubt about it….
He was stone cold dead.
8 The Shadow of Death
There’s something about a dead body that gives you the creeps. Almost always, it’s lying in a position that no living person would ever be in.
The guy with the eye patch looked like he was lying down, doubled over. When we got closer we could see that the back of his head had a huge bump on it where he’d been hit with something big.
His hand, frozen in death, was still clutching Sam’s belly bag.
For a moment nobody moved—I guess none of us wanted to touch the body. Then Tommy broke out of it. He grabbed the bag from the dead man’s hand and looked inside. “It’s empty.”
Whoever killed the camel driver now had the map of the Golden Mummy’s tomb. We had no idea who the murderer could be, and we were in the middle of a vast desert.
We were in trouble.
Mounir’s four remaining guides and drivers took away their dead comrade while Tommy started yelling. “Now what are we supposed to do?” he asked over and over again, without waiting for an answer. “We’re totally finished!”
“Shut up, Tommy!” Sam yelled at him. “Just zip it, okay? We’re going ahead with this no matter what, okay?”
“Dr. Mounir is behind all this!” Volsky yelled, pointing his finger at him.
“Me? It is you, Volsky! You have been trying to sabotage my career for years. You’ll stop at nothing, I see—not even murder!”
Leila stood by, listening to them all shouting at one another, her eyes and expression hidden by her scarf What was she thinking?
Theo had grabbed his camera. He, Nels, and Jurgen were recording the whole crazy scene for reality TV Their show was going on, no doubt.
Tommy was now cursing and threatening anyone who would listen—mostly the film crew and poor Ahmed, who was trying his best to sympathize with everyone.
“You!” Sam suddenly shouted, pointing to me and Frank. “You two!”
She marched toward us, backing us up until we were all standing in front of her tent, out of earshot of the rest of the party. “You said you were reporters, but I know you’re lying,” she said, fuming with anger.
“Us? Lying?” I said, trying to sound innocent. “What do you mean?”
“Yeah, what makes you say that?” Frank asked.
“For one thing, you never take any notes. You don’t even carry pens and pads!”
Oops. I guess we’d kind of overlooked that part.
Sam wasn’t done with us. “Who are you, really? And what are you doing here? Don’t lie to me—I can see right through you.”
I looked at Frank, signaling him to say something. After all, he’s supposed to be the brainy one.
He sighed, and his shoulders sank. “Guilty as charged,” he admitted.
I rolled my eyes in disbelief. What was he doing?
“Aha!” Sam said, pointing her finger at us. “I knew it!”
Frank looked around. “Could we, um, go inside the tent and talk about this?”
Sam frowned, but she held open the tent flap for us to go inside.
“We were sent here to protect you,” Frank continued once we were inside.
Sam’s mouth fell open. “Tommy said my mom sent you here to spy on us. Is that true?”
“Not exactly,” Frank said, not mentioning ATAC. “Your mom was worried about you, all right, but that isn’t how we came to be here. Samantha, as we told you earlier, there is a threat to your life.”
Sam blinked, startled. “But who would want to hurt me? Everybody loves me!”
I couldn’t help thinking that Sam, for all her fine qualities—including her fantastic looks—just wasn’t all that bright.
“Lots of people would love to get their hands on the Golden Mummy’s treasure,” Frank pointed out. “If someone knew that Roger Corson gave you the map …”
“But … but nobody knew I had the map,” Sam said. “Nobody except me, my mom, and Tommy, and … you two guys!”
Her eyes widened in sudden fear.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “It wasn’t us. Like Frank said, we’re here to protect you. And we didn’t tell anyone about it either.”
“But somebody clearly figured it out,” Frank added. “Samantha, you say you told Tommy?”
“I don’t know why I should trust you two,” Sam said, “after the way you’ve lied to me already”
“We had to lie,” I protested. “You would never have let us come along with you if we’d told you the truth!”
“I guess you’re right about that,” Sam admitted. “Say, who sent you anyway? My mother?”
Frank and I looked at one another.
“I knew it!” Sam said, and we didn’t argue with her.
“Besides,” Frank said, “you have to trust us. We’re the only ones here with no reason to try and cheat you out of finding the treasure.”
“Not to mention the fame that comes with it,” I added.
“So … I can’t even trust my Poopsie?” Sam’s voice was small and soft, like the voice of a wounded child.
“Especially not him,” I said. “Sam, you’ve only known the guy, what, three weeks? He could easily be interested in you just for your family’s money.”
“Not to mention the chance to get at the mummy’s treasure,” Frank said.
Sam blinked back tears. She seemed really shaken up. I could tell that our words had gotten to her. “I … I just can’t believe he would steal from me. Let alone kill somebody.”
“Well, we don’t know that he did,” Frank said. “But from here on in, we’d better be careful—that is, if you still want to keep going.”
Sam blinked in surprise. I could tell she hadn’t even considered the possibility of turning back. “Why wouldn’t I?” she said. “I mean, I remember enough about the map to get us to the Valley of the Serpents and find the tomb entrance.”
“And once we’re inside the tomb?” Frank asked.
Sam frowned. “Well, I guess at that point we’ll have to take our chances and trust our luck. But no way am I going to turn back and let whoever stole my map steal everything!”
There were shouts from the gully where the body had been discovered. Men were yelling, and I heard Leila shouting back at them.
Frank looked worried. “I’d better go see if she’s all right,” he said, and left.
&
nbsp; Sam and I were alone together, for the first time. She was crying softly, wiping the tears from her eyes. I wanted to take her in my arms and kiss her, but I wasn’t sure she felt the same about me. So I chickened out.
I pulled a clean hanky out of my pocket and offered it to her. She took it and dried her face off. “Thanks,” she said, letting out a little half laugh, half sob.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I guess.”
“You know, you could just give up, and we could all go home and forget the whole thing.”
“Are you suggesting I do that?” she asked.
“It would be safer for you. My job is to keep you safe, remember.”
“But if you were me?”
I smiled. “If I were you? I’d keep going, just to stick it to whoever killed my ex-boyfriend and that thieving camel driver.”
Now she was smiling. Her eyes glistened up at me gratefully. “See?” she said. “Thank you for understanding.”
She reached over and kissed me on the cheek.
I felt my knees get suddenly weak, but I steeled myself. I had to keep my distance, even if I was passing up the dating opportunity of a lifetime. I had a job to do.
“I’d … better go see how Frank is doing,” I said, backing away from her slowly.
As I reached the tent flap, I picked up a heavy flashlight and tossed it gently to her. “If anyone comes in, just bop them over the head with that and yell for help. I’ll come running.”
“Thanks, Joe,” she said, giving me a warm smile. “I won’t forget this.”
“Me neither,” I said, lifting the tent flap and going outside.
OOOF!!
No sooner had I let the flap drop than a ton of bricks rammed into my side and knocked me to the ground.
Next thing I knew, Tommy was pummeling my gut with both of his humongous fists.
“Lay off my girlfriend, you scum!” he grunted, socking me over and over again.
I wanted to explain things to him, but it’s not easy when you’ve had the breath knocked out of you. Man, this guy had fists of steel. His punches hurt!
I had no choice but to deliver a hard-driving kung fu combination to his solar plexus. It sent him reeling ten feet backward.
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