Ahmed called in to us through the gap in the rubble. “I shall stay out here and guard our equipment and the camels!” he said.
“You get yourself in here, Mr. Happy Hippie,” Tommy said, scowling. Turning to Sam, he said, “I can just see him burying us all alive in here.”
“Why would he do that?” Sam asked. “Even if he’s the one who stole my map, if he sealed the entrance to the tomb, he’d never get the treasure.”
Tommy blinked several times. “Oh. Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said. “Okay, Ahmed,” he called. “You can stay”
The light on the video camera lit our way down the passage from the entrance. The main hallway turned sharply to the right, heading downward.
Here and there, smaller passages led left and right. The cool breeze was still blowing at us from up ahead.
“I think the map had us turning off the main passage to the right,” Sam said, “but I can’t really remember how far in it was….”
We were lost without the map; that was the simple truth. We were going to have to wander around in here until we stumbled on the burial chamber by accident and sheer luck.
“We should leave markers where we’ve been, so we won’t keep going around in circles,” Frank suggested, using his small pocketknife to tear a piece of cloth off the bottom of his shirt.
It was a good idea. From then on, every time we turned, we left a scrap of cloth, weighted down with a pebble, to mark our way. We wandered into several dead ends and marked them with two pieces of cloth instead of just one. As we went, Frank tried to draw his own map on a pocket notepad.
I don’t know whether I was more scared of the mummy’s curse at this point or of the living people I was surrounded by. At least one of them was a killer who would surely commit murder again to get at the mummy’s treasure.
But which one?
Finally, Sam said, “I think we’ve done enough for today. I’m starving and dead tired. Let’s mark this spot, and we’ll start from here tomorrow morning.”
Nels had been carrying an unlit oil lamp with him, just in case the camera’s light ran out of power. He now placed the lantern on the floor at a three-way junction of passages. He took out a match, struck it on the stone wall, lit the lantern, then threw the match to the ground.
It landed at the side of the wall, in a small shallow trench that I hadn’t noticed until that moment. It ran along the length of the stone wall—and was apparently filled with some sort of oil.
Within seconds it was filled with flames.
The fire raced along the side of the wall, ahead of us, and down the corridor, until it disappeared around another corner. We followed.
The flames led us to a musty staircase leading downward. The line of flame zigzagged down the steps to another, deeper level of the tomb.
The steps were blocked by gigantic spiderwebs—with gigantic spiders still in them. Sam shrieked in disgust until Tommy, Jurgen, and Theo took care of the spiders. I swear, they were the size of silver dollars.
We followed the line of flame around several more corners, until it came to a sudden end at a pile of rocks that totally blocked the passageway.
It looked a lot like the pile outside the tomb entrance, except that this pile was covered with centuries of dust. It looked like no one had disturbed it since it was first put in place.
“It must be the burial chamber of the Golden Mummy!” Dr. Volsky said excitedly. “What an incredible stroke of luck!”
“Yes,” Leila said. “It’s as if someone, or something, was leading us right to this spot … as if it wanted us to find whatever lies behind these stones….”
A shiver went right up my spine.
Leila was right—someone must have been expecting us.
And that couldn’t be good.
I got the strong feeling that we were heading straight into an ancient, deadly trap.
11 The Serpent’s Tooth
It was an awesome moment—you could see it in the eyes of every one of us, reflected by the light of the line of fire that had led us here without a map.
If it hadn’t been for that lucky break, we might have been inside this tomb for weeks, looking in vain for the burial chamber. Now all we had to do was dig.
“We’re going to need the pickaxes and sledgehammers,” Tommy said.
“You folks go on back,” Theo said. “Nels, Jurgen, and I will set up the shoot for tomorrow—then we can leave the heavy equipment in place and just bring fresh batteries when we come back.”
“I’m not leaving this spot until everyone else does,” Tommy said, looking around at the rest of us. “One of you is a killer, and I’m not leaving Sam at a killer’s mercy.”
“Who says you’re not the killer yourself?” Leila told Tommy. “What exactly are your qualifications for this expedition, anyway?”
“Maybe we’d all better help the video guys set up, and then go back outside together,” I suggested, before a fight got started.
“Right,” Joe agreed, backing me up. “We can eat supper, sleep, and come back tomorrow—together. That way, nobody can pull any funny business.”
Everyone looked at everybody else.
“Good idea,” Sam finally said, and that settled it.
In spite of the fact that she no longer had the map, she still seemed to be the boss. I guess it was just the sheer force of her personality.
We retraced our steps. Since the guiding fire had begun to burn out, we marked our way by our usual method, with strips of cloth and pebbles.
We made it back to the tomb entrance and emerged into the glare of the setting sun. Ahmed had been cooking; we could tell from the delicious smells coming from the fire pit he’d made.
“Couscous tonight!” Ahmed said cheerfully “How was the search?”
“We found the burial chamber!” Tommy said, smiling.
Ahmed did not seem happy to hear it. “Already?” he said, looking distinctly worried. “Then, alas, the curse will soon be unleashed.”
“Hey, I thought you were the happy hippie,” Samantha said. “Cheer up! It means we can find the treasure and get out of here fast.”
“Not fast enough,” Ahmed muttered, dishing out portions of food. “Evil is in the air tonight. Ancient evil …”
I was beginning to get the chills myself—not that I’m inclined to believe in mummies coming back to life. But Ahmed was right about evil being in the air. All of us could feel it.
We all said good night and went to our tents, but we all knew nobody was going to sleep that night. Everyone was going to be watching everyone else—and listening with one cocked ear for the sounds of the dead arising.
Joe and I lay in our sleeping bags fully dressed, just in case. We kept still, listening for the sounds of someone moving.
And soon, we heard it. Footfalls, coming closer …
Our tent flap rose—and there was Tommy’s chiseled face, staring in at us.
Well, at least it wasn’t a mummy.
Joe and I both sat up. “What are you doing here?” Joe asked him.
“Just checking on everybody,” Tommy said.
“Oh,” I said.
“So, good night then.” He let down the flap and proceeded on his rounds.
“It’s good somebody’s checking,” Joe said.
“Yeah,” I replied, “but that somebody should be us.”
“Right,” he said. “Soon as things settle down again.”
We waited for Tommy to finish and hit the sack. Then we waited some more.
“Are those more footsteps?” Joe whispered.
“Not sure. I think so, but they’re softer than Tommy’s.”
“That could mean it’s somebody smaller.”
“Or that somebody’s trying to sneak around.”
We both sat up. “I’ll check the tents on the right,” I said. “You get the ones on the left.”
“Right,” answered Joe.
“No, left.”
“Will you cut that out?” Joe said.
He was already crawling out of his sleeping bag.
“Just want you to get it right.”
“Right, so I go left.”
“Right.”
“Cut it out!”
The pitter-patter of sneaky footsteps had faded by then. By the light of the rising, nearly full moon, we could see the big tent of the video crew, our double tent, and the five single tents.
I peered into the tent just to the right of ours. Sam was sleeping peacefully. The next one was Tommy’s.
“What are you doin’?” he asked, sitting up as I peered in.
“Just checking,” I said.
“I already did.”
“I know. Just checking again.”
“Oh. Okay.”
I let the flap down and continued on.
What a dunce that Tommy was! He seemed way too stupid to be the master thief and killer among us—but then again, he could have just been really good at playing dumb.
I lifted the flap of the next tent. Leila’s.
She was lying on her side. Her eyes were closed, and her henna-tattooed hands rested under her cheek.
She was so beautiful, with the moon beaming down on her….
Something was moving on the floor. Moving quickly, and slithering toward Leila’s peaceful, beautiful face.
A snake!
A cold shiver went down my spine as it rose to strike, baring its fangs….
12 The Missing Man
I’d just finished peeking in on Dr. Volsky and Ahmed, both of whom seemed to be sleeping, when I heard Leila’s scream. I got to her tent just in time to see Frank pick up a shovel and bring its sharp edge down hard. Over and over and over again.
Then I saw what it was: a snake! A big one, and poisonous, too, judging by the triangular shape of its head—which Frank had separated from its body, and not a moment too soon.
Both parts of the snake were less than two feet from Leila’s sleeping bag—the end where her head had been before she scrambled out of bed and to her feet.
She was standing now, shuddering and sobbing, staring at the corpse of the animal that had almost killed her—would have, if not for Frank. She reached out and touched his arm, then came forward and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for saving my life.”
In the dim light, I couldn’t see Frank blushing, but I knew he was. That’s just Frank.
Other members of our party came over now, to see what all the fuss was about. I told them to back away, so Frank and Leila could get out of the tent. Then I told them all what had happened.
“Too bad we didn’t get it on camera,” Theo quipped. “It would have made a great scene for the TV show.”
“Hey, man,” Frank said angrily, “this is not some studio set. Somebody tried to kill Leila, okay? Probably the same person who’s already killed two of us.”
“If it was a person,” Theo said, widening his eyes.
Frank shook his head. “Come on, Theo. What does it take before you start to take the danger seriously?”
“Who says the mummy’s curse isn’t real?” Theo asked.
“How else can you explain all the weird things that have happened?” Nels agreed.
“How do we even know that the snake was put there on purpose?” Sam asked. “It could have just, you know, wandered in there on its own, trying to keep warm.”
“That snake did not just wander in there,” Ahmed said, peeking inside the tent.
“Oh, yeah?” Sam said. “What do you know about it?”
“I know this desert,” Ahmed replied. “I have lived here all my life, and I can tell you that that snake was not born in this desert, nor even in Egypt.”
Suddenly there was a chill in the air. It grew colder in an instant, as if the dead were running their bony fingers across the backs of our necks.
“The mummy’s curse,” Jurgen echoed.
As if it needed saying.
I could feel my heart thumping crazily in my chest—and I’m sure I was the least scared of anybody there.
Anybody but Sam, that is. Nothing seemed to faze her. I’m not sure whether she was just born without the capacity for fear, or whether she was just too dumb to realize when she was in danger.
Either way, she wasn’t scared now. “If that snake was put there on purpose, it wasn’t by any mummy. It was by one of you!”
“Or you” Leila said, looking straight at Sam.
“That’s ridiculous,” Sam said. “Why would I try to mess up my own expedition?”
“Why, indeed?” said Leila.
The two women stood stock-still, looking daggers at each other. I thought they were about to go at it tooth and nail.
“Hey,” I said, suddenly realizing there were too few people in our little group. “Where’s Tommy?”
Everyone looked at everyone else, then all around.
Tommy wasn’t there.
“Tommy!” Sam yelled. “Where are you?”
“Over here!” Tommy yelled back from the darkness that hid the entrance to the tomb. He tramped toward us, his face red with anger.
“Where have you been?” Sam asked, annoyed. “Do you know what just happened?”
“Somebody tried to kill Leila,” Frank said.
“Oh, yeah?” Tommy said. “Well then, I know who it was.”
“You do?” Sam asked.
“Yeah—Dr. Volsky.”
Everyone looked around.
Volsky?
He wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere….
Dr. Volsky had disappeared.
“The mummy must have got him!” Ahmed said, the whites of his eyes glowing in the light of the fire.
“Seriously, where could he have gone? Sam asked.
Tommy’s scowl grew even darker. Figure it out,” he said, turning his gaze back toward the entrance to the tomb.
We got our flashlights together and raced into the tomb as a group. Even Ahmed came along this time, afraid to be left alone outside in the dark, in case the mummy showed up looking for more victims.
We got lost almost immediately. The fire in the little ditch by the side of the wall that had first led us to the burial chamber had long since gone out. And the shreds of cloth we’d dropped to mark our way had all been removed by Dr. Volsky.
At least, I hoped it was by Dr. Volsky. I mean, I don’t normally believe in ghosts or mummies or anything like that. But right then, I could seriously imagine a real mummy appearing around the next corner of the passageway.
We wandered around, getting more and more lost. I sure hoped we could find our way out of this maze when we were done looking for Dr. Volsky.
“I think it was this way,” Theo said, as we came to a junction. “To the left here, yes.”
“No, it was farther on that we made the left,” Tommy argued.
Everyone started arguing which way to go. Finally, Leila yelled, “Be quiet, all of you! Just listen.”
It was good advice. The stone walls of the tomb made every sound echo. Once everyone had gone silent, and our own echoes stopped, we could hear something else—something soft and distant, but distinct.
The scraping of stone on stone. Like …
Like the cover of a sarcophagus being pushed open!
I could just picture Volsky in the burial chamber, that little pipsqueak, struggling to push the stone cover off the mummy’s elaborate coffin. He must have already cleared the entrance to the burial chamber!
How big a head start had he gotten? He’d been in his sleeping bag when I checked on his tent. If he’d snuck into the tomb just after Leila screamed, it would have been about an hour ago, what with all our stumbling around down here trying to find the staircase.
I could see Volsky uncovering the chamber in that amount of time, if he worked hard and fast.
We followed the sound, tiptoeing down the passageway, stopping every few feet to listen again. We turned left, then right, then right again, and finally we found the set of stairs leading down to the burial chamber
.
There was no need to listen anymore. We knew the way from here. We ran down the stairs and picked our way through the rubble that had hidden the chamber before Volsky moved it.
I don’t know what I expected to see when we entered the chamber—Volsky had to have heard us coming the minute we hit the staircase, and gave up trying to be quiet—but what we didn’t see was a total shock.
Not only had Volsky vanished—so had the Golden Mummy!
13 A Woman of Hidden Talents
There was no mummy inside the stone sarcophagus. Maybe there never had been. There was no treasure in the room either.
Everyone looked disappointed. “Where’s the famous treasure?” Tommy wondered.
“Dr. Volsky must have been really upset when he realized there wasn’t any loot to steal,” Joe said.
“He must have been even more surprised when there wasn’t any mummy,” I said.
“Maybe there was one,” Sam said. “Maybe he lifted the mummy on his shoulders and ran away with it, farther into the tomb.”
“Or maybe it chased him!” Ahmed said.
“Aw, man,” Theo moaned, “we missed the shot again! Nels, you didn’t bother to turn on that camera when we ran in here, did you?”
“Me? Why was that my job?” Nels shot back. “We were chasing Volsky. No one thought of it—not me, not Jurgen, and not you, either.”
I thought the three of them might start punching each other, they looked so frustrated. Finally, Nels went back out into the passageway, brought the camera inside, and started taping the scene.
Tommy was pounding the stone walls with his fists. That had to hurt, but he didn’t seem to care.
Meanwhile, Samantha was examining the stone sarcophagus itself. She reached her hand inside it and drew out a scroll.
“It is an ancient papyrus!” Ahmed gasped in wonder. “Be careful; it may crumble before you can read it!”
Sam unrolled it, little by little. She stared at the hieroglyphics and shook her head. “What does it mean?” she asked aloud.
Leila and Ahmed were staring at it over her shoulder. “Don’t look at me,” said Ahmed with a shrug. “I am only the Happy Hippie. You are the one who went to university, miss.”
The Mummy's Curse Page 8
