The Mummy's Curse

by Penny Warner

  “Figure out the message yet?” M.E. asked as they trudged up the densely forested hill.

  “No, you?” Cody asked, pulling out her phone to look at the picture. “I thought maybe it was a rebus—one of those messages written mostly in pictures. Like, the eye could stand for the letter i. But what would the triangle stand for?”

  M.E. shrugged. “Maybe we can do a Google search for the different meanings of the word triangle when we get to the clubhouse.”

  Cody nodded. She took one last look at the puzzling picture, then returned her phone to her pocket for the rest of the short climb. “Come on. I’m sure the guys are already waiting for us. They always beat us there.”

  “That’s because they run here right after they get out of Mr. Pike’s class,” M.E. said. “I’m too tired after school to run anywhere.”

  Several minutes later, they arrived at the small shack the Code Busters had made out of old wooden billboard panels. Over the top they’d spread a camouflage parachute, which formed the roof and disguised the rest of the clubhouse.

  Cody gave the secret knock, tapping out her initials in Morse code, followed by M.E.

  Code Buster’s Key and Solution found on this page, this page.

  Then she said that day’s password: “Yadnom.”

  Code Buster’s Solution found on this page.

  Cody heard scuffling behind the door. Finally, Quinn opened it, letting Cody and M.E. inside before replacing the board that kept out snoops, mountain lions, and Matt the Brat. The girls unloaded their backpacks and joined Luke and Quinn on the newly carpeted floor. They’d found the large remnant behind the school and had carried it up the hill to place over the cold sheet-metal floor.

  The boys appeared to have been working on some kind of picture puzzle. Quinn held his cell phone over a sheet that featured both sides of a dollar bill.

  “What are you guys doing?” M.E. asked, glancing at the paper that lay in front of them.

  “Homework,” Luke said. “We’re studying steganography. Our teacher wants us to find all the hidden symbols on a dollar bill. Quinn’s using the magnifying glass app on his phone.”

  “We’re studying steganography, too,” Cody said. “But Ms. Stad gave us a different drawing to figure out—not a dollar bill. We’re hoping you can help us crack it.”

  “Sure, after you help us with ours.” Quinn pulled out a real dollar from his pocket and held it up to the light coming in through the thin fabric roof.

  “What are you doing?” M.E. asked.

  “Just checking to see if this has a watermark. It’s one of those invisible images you can only see when you hold paper up to the light. That way, you can tell if it’s counterfeit.” He stared at the bill. “This one doesn’t have a watermark. It doesn’t even have a security thread.”

  “What’s a security thread?” M.E. asked.

  Quinn pulled another bill out of his pocket, this time a five. He held it up to the light. “There’s the watermark,” he said, pointing to a faint circle that had been pressed into the bill. “See that line down the side? That’s the security thread.”

  “Cool!” M.E. said, holding up the bill and examining it. “I never knew that was in there!”

  Quinn nodded. “My dad showed me. I guess it’s only in bills that are worth more than a dollar, because dollar bills don’t have them.”

  “But we did find some hidden stuff on the one-dollar bill,” Luke said. “Like this hidden spider.” He pointed to a tiny dot near the number 1 in the upper right corner of the illustration.

  “I think it looks like an owl,” Quinn said. “And the number thirteen is hidden all over the place. See? The eagle on the back is holding thirteen arrows. The branch in its right foot has thirteen leaves. The shield has thirteen stripes, and there are thirteen stars over the eagle’s head. Even the pyramid has thirteen steps.”

  “Why are there so many thirteens?” M.E. asked. “Isn’t that supposed to be an unlucky number?”

  Quinn shook his head. “Our teacher said it represents the original thirteen colonies.”

  “Wait a minute!” Cody said, raising her head. She’d been studying the back of the one-dollar bill intensely. “Check out the pyramid. There’s an eye at the top, inside a triangle! Just like the one in that picture, M.E.!”

  She tapped the photo icon on her phone to retrieve the snapshot she’d taken of the mysterious drawing. “M.E., get the picture you drew of that triangle/eye.” While M.E. pulled out her drawing, Cody showed the boys the photo of the puzzling artwork. It still had her stumped.

  “You’re right,” Luke said. “It does look like the same symbol as the one on the dollar bill. What do you think it means?”

  “That’s a good question,” Cody said. She clicked a search engine icon on her phone, then typed in the words triangle eye. After reading the information, she looked up at the other Code Busters. “It’s Egyptian!”

  “That’s weird,” M.E. said. “We’re studying Egyptian stuff right now. What else does it say?”

  “It says here the symbol is called the All-Seeing Eye of Providence or the Eye of Horus. We learned about that in class. It’s like a lucky charm that’s supposed to watch over everyone.”

  “That doesn’t tell us much,” Luke said.

  “Look up ‘Eye of Horus,’ ” Quinn said to Cody. “Maybe that will give us more information than what our teachers told us.”

  Cody typed in the words, then read from the entry. “It says, in ancient Egypt, the Eye of Horus was a symbol of protection, power, and good health. They used to make amulets—jewelry—in the shape of the Eye, and bury them with people to protect them in the afterlife and ward off evil spirits.”

  “Wow,” M.E. said. “Kinda creepy.”

  Cody read on. “It says Horus was a sky god who looked like a falcon and that the eye is supposed to look like a falcon’s eye. When Horus got in a fight with another god, his eye got poked out, so he gave it to his dad to save his life.”

  “Weird,” Luke said.

  “The Eye of Horus was even used to measure fractions,” Cody added.

  “Yeah, I remember Ms. Stad told us that Horus was some kind of sky god,” M.E. said.

  “His right eye represented the sun god, Ra,” Cody continued.

  “And the other eye represented the moon,” Luke added.

  “Hmm,” M.E. said. “So the eyes have hidden meanings, sort of like the Mona Lisa’s eyes.”

  “What are you guys talking about?” Luke asked, frowning.

  Cody explained what they had learned about the initials hidden in the da Vinci painting.

  “But what does that have to do with the Eye of Horus? And the stuff on a dollar bill? I still don’t get it,” Luke said, looking back and forth between M.E.’s drawing of the Eye and the picture on the dollar bill.

  “You think it’s some kind of code?” Quinn asked Cody.

  “It has to be,” Cody said. “We just have to figure out what it means. Ms. Stad said we get extra credit if we can solve it.”

  Cody checked the Internet dictionary on her phone for a definition of the word triangle. “It says here, ‘A triangle is a plane figure formed by connecting three points not in a straight line by straight line segments.’ ” That’s not helpful, Cody thought. She searched and found several more definitions, all containing the word three. Then she found a link to the phrase third eye.

  She felt a tingle down her back and clicked the link.

  Cody’s eyes lit up. “Guys, listen to this. A triangle with an eye in it can mean ‘third eye.’ ”

  “So what’s a third eye?” M.E. asked.

  “It means seeing something more than what’s right in front of you,” Cody replied.

  “Like a ghost?” Luke said, grinning and wiggling his fingers.

  Cody smiled. “Very funny. Seriously, if you think about it, art is also about seeing more than what’s right in front of you. It’s seeing the real meaning of a picture or sculpture or whatever.”

&nb
sp; “Sort of like a hidden message?” Quinn suggested.

  M.E. grinned. “Like steganography!”

  By Friday, the day of the field trip to the museum, Cody was still puzzling over the mysterious picture of the triangle/eye. Did it really represent a third eye? Or was she way off track and letting her imagination run away with her?

  She and M.E. had talked about the picture puzzle the whole way to school. By the time they reached the school grounds, Cody couldn’t wait to find out what the puzzle actually meant and hoped Ms. Stad would tell them right away. Maybe it had something to do with their field trip.

  Ms. Stad greeted the girls at the waiting bus and checked their names off her list as they got on. Cody and M.E. found seats at the back of the bus, in front of Luke and Quinn.

  Cody turned around to look at the boys. “Did you guys figure out the puzzle yet?”

  “Nope,” Quinn answered.

  Luke shook his head. “You?”

  Before she could answer, Ms. Stad called for everyone’s attention. Maybe now she’d reveal the secret.

  “All right, students! Quiet down, please, and take your seats. We’re about to leave, and I want everyone to be safe. Matthew! Sit down!”

  Cody rolled her eyes at Matt the Brat, who was standing up and sticking his head out the window. She was surprised he’d been allowed to go on the trip, since he’d been to the principal’s office twice this week. She just hoped he didn’t ruin the trip for everyone.

  Cody loved going to museums with her dad. Since her parents were divorced, her dad always came up with something fun to do on their weekends together. She’d seen an entomology exhibit (bugs), a paleontology exhibit (dinosaurs), and a vertebrate exhibit (snakes), but her favorite one had been called “Bodies.” The exhibit was made of displays showing the insides of real human bodies—the skeletal, muscular, nervous, respiratory, digestive, and circulatory systems. Somehow they’d managed to preserve the bodies, sort of like mummies. The bodies were weird, creepy, and awesome, all at the same time. Cody wondered if the mummies at the Egyptian Museum would be as creepy and cool.

  The Code Busters spent the hour’s drive creating hieroglyphic codes for each other to decipher. Cody’s message read:

  M.E. wrote:

  Quinn wrote:

  And Luke wrote:

  Code Buster’s Key and Solutions found on this page, this page.

  Before they knew it, the bus had pulled up to the museum parking lot. Ms. Stad and Mr. Pike reviewed the rules about conduct and safety, and offered some information on the museum, then let the students off the bus.

  “Students, as you know, the museum houses over four thousand artifacts,” Mr. Pike said. “There are four major rooms to explore—the Daily Life room, the Burial Practices room, the Gods and Religion room, and the Kings and Pharaohs room. And there’s even a dark, underground tunnel with twists and turns and hidden alcoves that simulates an ancient Egyptian tomb, with a real mummy at the end. So be warned.”

  The students buzzed. Cody knew Quinn and Luke would be excited to see a real mummy, but she also knew M.E. wanted nothing to do with what she called “dried-up dead people.” M.E. was afraid of everything, from mummies to monsters to mutant zombies. As for Cody, she was curious, but wasn’t sure how she’d react when she actually saw a mummy.

  A student from Cody’s class, named Jack, raised his hand. “When are we going to find out what the picture means?”

  Good question, Cody thought.

  Ms. Stad eyed the group mysteriously. “Soon, I hope. Now, gather your backpacks, stay with your buddies, and we’ll meet just inside the lobby.”

  Cody tried to visualize what a mummy looked like as she and M.E. followed their paired classmates past a labyrinth garden, a water fountain flanked by two human-headed lions, and an adobe building painted with Egyptian hieroglyphs. Would it look like a person? A body wrapped in a white sheet? A “dried-up dead person,” as M.E. said?

  And how did they even make a mummy, anyway?

  The students filed into the building in pairs under the steely eyes of two security guards at the door. Cody read their name tags—SIMON WOOD and DEBORAH WEINSTEIN—and wondered if they ever had any problems at the museum with people stealing stuff. Or were they there just to let visitors know they were being watched? The man eyed Cody as she passed by, a frown on his face, as if he suspected she was going to cause a problem. But then maybe he did that to everyone who entered the museum.

  She glanced around at the large entry area, which featured a ticket counter in the middle, filled with brochures, maps, books, and bookmarks. The place smelled old—like her grandmother’s dusty old attic. That’s pretty much what a museum was—a big attic full of old, really cool stuff.

  As the two teachers and four parent volunteers led the students toward the back of the museum, Cody glanced at some of the exhibits, keeping an eye out for a triangle/eye. She noticed what looked like a dark tunnel off to the side, but the entrance was blocked with a rope and a sign that read, NO ADMITTANCE. UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

  Ms. Stad held up a hand as they reached a door marked CONSERVATION LAB.

  “Students, I’m sorry, but it looks like the tunnel Mr. Pike mentioned is closed for repairs.”

  The students groaned. Cody couldn’t help but be disappointed. Even though it was scary, she still wanted to see a real mummy.

  “We’ll have to come back some other time and see it,” Ms. Stad continued. “But today I have a special treat for you. Before we visit the other Egyptian exhibits, we’ve been invited to the Conservation Lab for a behind-the-scenes peek at some of the museum’s most interesting secrets. Not many people get to see this part of the museum, so watch and listen, and perhaps you’ll be able to solve those puzzles Mr. Pike and I gave you earlier.”

  The students shuffled through the door and into a large, brightly lit area that was filled with tall tables, stools, and supplies. Cody recognized Ms. Cassatt, again dressed all in black and again wearing the Eye of Horus pendant around her neck. She was talking to a man in a white lab coat, wearing latex gloves and thick magnifying glasses. He sat perched at a table, hunched over what looked like an identical copy of the pendant Ms. Cassatt wore. The only difference was this Eye of Horus was blue, while Ms. Cassatt’s Eye was green, matching her eyes. The man dusted off the Eye, sprayed it with something, and set it aside. Cody wrinkled her nose at the smell of chemicals wafting around the room. She hoped it wasn’t the smell of mummified bodies.

  The man stood up, removed the glasses, and turned to the students. Under the open lab coat, he wore a T-shirt featuring a lion’s body with a human head, plus faded blue jeans and Birkenstock sandals. His hair was black and spiky like Quinn’s, he had black eyebrows and dark stubble on his face, and he sported a gold nose ring. Cody noticed he had a tattoo that encircled his neck. She recognized some of the symbols from class: an upside-down hook, a square, a zigzag, a cup. His tattoo was in hieroglyphic writing.

  Code Buster’s Key and Solution found on this page, this page.

  Hmm, she thought, quietly pulling out the hieroglyphic decoder card Ms. Stad had given the students. I wonder what that means?

  Using her decoder card, Cody began to translate the symbols tattooed on the man’s neck. The first letter was familiar—it was the same first letter of the word they’d had for homework: s for steganography. When she was finished decoding the rest of the symbols, she recognized the word from one of Ms. Stad’s lessons. In fact, it was the name of the human-headed lion on the man’s T-shirt.

  Ms. Stad interrupted her thoughts. “Students, you remember the curator of the museum, Ms. Cassatt, who visited our classroom? And this is Dr. Malik Jordan. He’s an art conservationist and forgery expert here at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. He’s going to tell us a little about how he restores damaged art and how to spot a forgery. Please give Dr. Jordan your full attention.”

  The students applauded as Dr. Jordan gave a slight bow. Meanwhile, Ms. Cassatt stepped back and watch
ed as he addressed the group. Cody noticed one of the security guards—Simon Wood—standing in the shadows at the back. The frown had not left his face. She wondered where the other guard was.

  “Thank you kindly, students from Berkeley Cooperative Middle School! Welcome to my laboratory. I’d like to show you a few things I do here that help preserve antique paintings, sculptures, and artifacts, so they won’t be further damaged by age or improper handling.”

  Cody’s mind wandered as the man talked about his techniques, and she glanced around the room to see if she could spot any mummies. But as soon as he mentioned the word forgery, her ears pricked up.

  “Believe it or not,” Dr. Jordan said, “almost every priceless painting in every museum has at one time or another been copied. By studying paints, brushwork, tools, and even wormholes in panels, we can tell whether a painting is authentic or a forgery. And surprisingly, many forgers are so proud of their fakes that they leave a ‘calling card’—a symbol or message bragging about their expertise.”

  “Cool!” “Wow!” “Sweet!” the students whispered.

  Dr. Jordan continued. “Forgers often try to ‘age’ their copies by dipping them in special chemicals. But we can usually spot those, too. See, we also use chemicals to determine what the paints are made of. Sometimes, we use X-rays, infrared, carbon dating, and even computers. The work I do is sort of the CSI of art—we use a lot of forensic techniques.”

  Awesome! Cody thought. These people were doing police-type stuff, just like her mom, only they were doing it to find out if art was real or fake.

  “Have you ever discovered a forgery at the museum?” Jack asked.

  “No—” Ms. Cassatt was quick to answer.

  Dr. Jordan interrupted her. “That’s not quite true, Mirabel. We had one guy try to sell us a fake piece of jewelry, but it didn’t take long to figure out it was a forgery. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t more lurking around here somewhere. Perhaps we just haven’t found them yet.”