by Penny Warner
Luke and Quinn nodded, but M.E. was staring at her hand, frowning.
“M.E., what’s wrong?” Cody asked.
She held up her hand. “Look!”
Cody examined her friend’s fingers, then sniffed them. M.E.’s fingertips looked as if they’d been smudged with brown ink, and they smelled like chemicals.
“How did you get your hand so dirty?” Cody asked.
M.E. shrugged. “I don’t know. All I did was pick up that artifact. I don’t remember touching anything else.”
Cody looked at her three code-busting friends. While the other students stood across the room listening to Dr. Jordan talk about one of the artifacts, Cody stole over to the case again. She glanced around, then pulled open the unlocked door, reached in, and ran her index finger over the top of the Eye. Removing her hand from the case, she closed the door, then held up her hand.
Her fingertip was brown. The same shade of brown as the amulet.
“Guys,” she whispered. “I don’t think the color is supposed to come off like that.”
M.E. checked her hand again, then looked at the others.
“Do you think that Eye is a fake?” Luke asked.
Cody shrugged. “What do we do? If we tell the museum people we touched it, we could get in trouble. But if it’s a fake, wouldn’t they want to know? The forger could be a thief, and get away with stealing valuable art.”
“That writing on the bottom was weird,” M.E. said. “An eye for an i?”
“Shh!” Quinn said. “Dr. Jordan is watching us again. I’m sure he thinks we’re up to something. We need to move.”
Cody turned around and saw the museum guy staring at them strangely. A chill ran down her back. “Come on, it’s time to turn in our assignments to Ms. Stad. We’ll figure out what to do during lunch. Follow me.”
Cody led her friends out of the room and into the lobby, where other students had already gathered with their teachers. Luke and Quinn joined Mr. Pike’s group, while Cody and M.E. headed for Ms. Stad’s class. When all the students were seated on the floor, Ms. Stad asked, “So, did everyone find all of the Eyes of Horus in the museum?”
Hands shot up.
“How many did you find, Ryan?” she asked the blond kid with glasses, sitting in the middle.
“Eleven!”
“Good,” Ms. Stad said. “Anyone else find a different number?”
“Our group found twelve,” said Stephanie.
“Nice,” Ms. Stad said. “Anyone else?”
M.E. raised her hand. “We found thirteen.”
“Wow!” exclaimed Ms. Stad. “Are you sure?”
M.E. nodded and held up her paper.
“Well, believe it or not, our parent volunteers only found twelve when they counted them earlier,” Ms. Stad said. “I guess your group found one we missed. Hmm. I wonder if the number thirteen is a coincidence.”
Cody remembered the number of thirteens they’d found on the dollar bill. Interesting how that number kept coming up.
“Did you know that many cultures consider thirteen a number associated with luck?” Ms. Stad asked. “Some say the Egyptians were the first people to become superstitious about the number. They thought it brought good luck and immortality, and was related to the thirteenth stage of life—the afterlife. Later, the number was associated with death. Other cultures think the number brings bad luck. Can you think of some examples of bad luck associated with thirteen?”
Lyla raised her hand. “Friday the thirteenth!”
“Yes!” Ms. Stad said. “Some people believe that’s an unlucky day.”
Bradley raised his hand. “My dad’s office building doesn’t have a thirteenth floor because it’s supposed to be bad luck. It just goes from twelve to fourteen.”
“Great example,” Ms. Stad said. “Many hotels, apartment buildings, and office buildings don’t have a thirteenth floor. Isn’t that interesting?”
The students grinned and nodded.
“By the way,” Ms. Stad continued, “many of you students are thirteen years old. How many of you think it’s a lucky number?”
A few hands went up. But Cody was having trouble paying attention. She looked at the stain on her fingertip and rubbed it with her thumb. The color had dried and wouldn’t come off.
Why is there fresh paint or ink on that artifact? And why is the case loose? Did a thief really steal the Eye of Horus and replace it with a fake?
And if so, then who?
Cody thought Dr. Jordan was the most likely person. He was the one working on a similar artifact in the conservation room. He had access to the displays in the museum. Plus, he knew all about creating forgeries. And he seemed to enjoy riddles, like that hieroglyphic tattoo on his neck. “An eye for an i” sounded like a riddle to Cody.
He’d also been watching the Code Busters when they gathered around that plastic case. Cody wondered if he had ink stains on his fingertips. No, she remembered he’d been wearing latex gloves. But Ms. Cassatt said he was an expert on forgeries.…
“Cody?” Ms. Stad said, interrupting her thoughts.
M.E. nudged her and whispered, “She asked you a question.”
“Oh, sorry, Ms. Stadelhofer. What did you say?” Cody said.
“I asked you a riddle. ‘If you see my face, you can see twelve but not thirteen. What am I?’ ”
Cody tried to think. A face? Without thirteen? It made no sense. Hands shot up around her. She finally shrugged and said, “I … I don’t know.”
Ms. Stad called on Lyla, who said, “A clock!”
“Correct! Students, I want you to keep your eye on the clock. It’s time for lunch—and more conundrums, enigmas, and riddles. Please take a handout, then gather your lunch bags, go outside to the courtyard, and return in half an hour with your solutions to these questions. After you’ve solved them, we’ll talk about how mummies are made—and more.” She smiled mysteriously as she passed out a sheet of paper to each student.
Cody and the other Code Busters headed outside and found a bench where they could eat their lunches. While Quinn, Luke, and M.E. read over the questions and brainstormed answers, Cody noticed the two guards talking to each other. She overheard the man say to the woman, “… losing money if they don’t get that tunnel cleaned out … may have to close …”
She wondered if the museum was in some kind of trouble. Was the tunnel really that important for attracting visitors?
“Earth to Cody!” M.E. said, bringing her back to the moment. “Come on. We need help solving these.”
Cody blinked several times. “Sorry. I just can’t help thinking about that unlocked case and the Eye of Horus inside.”
“We’ll deal with that when we’re done with the assignment, okay?” Quinn said. “We got the first one—it was easy. But we’re stuck on the second one.”
Cody read over the first coded question written in hieroglyphs to see what she missed:
1.
“Rap music?” Luke suggested. “Get it? Wrap and rap?” They wrote down the answer on their handouts. Cody liked jokes and riddles because they played with words and had double meanings, although at the moment, she was finding it hard to concentrate. Quinn read the rest of the questions aloud and they all jotted down the answers.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Code Buster’s Key and Solution found on this page, this page-this page.
By the time they finally finished the questions, it was time to return to the museum. Cody couldn’t stop thinking about the fake Eye. She had to tell Ms. Stad.
Ms. Stad and Mr. Pike called the kids to attention in the lobby. As Ms. Stad gave the answers to the assignment, the students groaned and laughed at answers. Then it was time to return to the Conservation Lab and learn about mummies.
Cody decided to check on that Eye of Horus one last time before she talked to Ms. Stad, so while the other students fi
led into the lab, Cody glanced around to see if anyone was watching, then slipped away.
She tiptoed into the empty room and over to the display case. Placing her hand on the door, she tried to pull it open.
It didn’t budge.
She tried again. Nothing.
Then she tried tapping it.
It was stuck tight.
It was locked now. But who had locked it?
The thief, covering his tracks?
If so, how could she and the other Code Busters prove it?
Cody pulled out her cell phone and took a picture of the object … just in case.
Dr. Jordan was in the middle of talking to the students about mummification when Cody slipped into the back of the workroom. Matt the Brat spotted her, and made a face. She ignored him. Cody saw Ms. Cassatt fiddling with her pendant again, while she watched from the sidelines, her eyes darting around the room. Cody noticed how fidgety Ms. Cassatt seemed, while Dr. Jordan appeared completely at ease.
Strange, Cody thought, then she returned her attention to the presentation.
Dr. Jordan stood behind the counter where, earlier, he’d been cleaning the Eye of Horus amulet. In front of him lay a small wooden container the size of a shoe box, covered with faded hieroglyphs that looked as if they had lost their vibrant colors over time.
Cody shivered. She wasn’t sure she wanted to see what was in the box after all.
Too late.
Dr. Jordan lifted the top and tilted the box toward the students. Cody glanced inside and saw the small mummified body of a cat. It looked black, bony, and stiff—and totally creeped her out.
“This is Ta-Miewet,” Dr. Jordan announced proudly, as if he were introducing an old friend. “He’s a mummified cat who was buried with his owner about six thousand years ago. Back then, Egyptians thought cats were magical and could protect them. They even adorned their cats with expensive, ornate jewelry. Believe it or not, all domesticated cats are descendants of Egyptian cats—even yours.”
Cody thought of her cat, Punkin. Was he magical? Did he protect her? No, she decided. Just another superstition.
M.E. whispered in her ear, “You need to get some earrings for Punkin!”
Cody smiled at how ridiculous that sounded. But it was definitely something that M.E. would do for her pets. She was a big fan of jewels, sequins, and glitter.
“Would you like to know how mummies are made?” Dr. Jordan asked.
The group responded eagerly. Cody’s stomach tightened.
“All right, but this might be a bit gruesome.” He grinned. The light glinted off his nose ring.
“First, the body is washed and cast with magical spells for protection. All the organs are removed, except for the heart. Wine is poured over the body to disinfect it. The organs are covered with salt and baking soda, and set out to dry. Then they’re placed in vessels called canopic jars. The body is perfumed and wrapped up tightly, and good-luck amulets are added. Finally, the body is placed in a coffin—called a sarcophagus—that is often painted to look like the deceased and adorned with hieroglyphs. Once the process is finished, the body can stay intact for centuries.”
“Why did they do all that?” asked Jodie from Mr. Pike’s class. “Why not just bury them like we do now?”
“The Egyptians believed this process would ensure them a happy afterlife,” Dr. Jordan said.
“Weird,” Jodie mumbled.
“Well, certainly different from our customs today,” Dr. Jordan said. “The Egyptians never cremated bodies. They preserved them in preparation for the afterlife. And not everyone was allowed in. You had to serve some purpose, like the pharaoh. They believed he became a type of god after he died.”
Dr. Jordan pointed to the mouth of the cat. “After the mummy was prepared, a priest touched its mouth with a blade, to ensure the mummy could breathe and speak in the afterlife. This part of the ceremony was called reanimation.”
“I saw a movie about that,” Matt said. “This mummy came back to life and started going after all the people.”
Dr. Jordan didn’t seem to hear Matt. He continued explaining the burial ritual. “After they recited prayers and burned incense, the mummy was placed inside the pyramid, along with lots of food, clothes, jewelry, and even furniture, to make the afterlife more comfortable. Then the pyramid was sealed, never to be entered again. That is, until tomb raiders came along.” Several students murmured excitedly at the mention of tomb raiders.
“Any questions?” Dr. Jordan asked the group.
When no one raised a hand, Cody started thinking about the open display case and the still-wet coloring on the Eye of Horus. The Code Busters didn’t have any proof that the Eye was a fake—only circumstantial evidence. Her dad was a lawyer and he’d talked about circumstantial evidence a lot. Basically, it meant that there were clues leading to a fact, but nothing concrete that could absolutely prove that fact. It was like if your little sister had a chocolate milk mustache but swore she didn’t take the last carton. It was possible that she got her mustache drinking the milk at a neighbor’s house. That’s circumstantial proof. But if her fingerprints were found on the fridge and the empty carton, that would be what her dad called “corroborating evidence.” That plus the mustache might prove the crime.
Fingerprints.
That gave Cody an idea.
If she could prove that Dr. Jordan’s fingerprints were on the Eye and the case, wouldn’t that mean he could have switched the artifacts?
No, she decided glumly. He obviously touched the Eye and the case when he went to get the amulet for cleaning. In fact, his fingerprints would be all over the place.
And besides, she still didn’t know for sure if the Eye in the case was real or not. She thought it was a fake because of the brown stain that came off on their fingers. Now that the case was relocked, the Code Busters couldn’t even prove it had ever been open.
That brown coloring had to be proof of something. But Dr. Jordan could argue that the girls must have touched something on the work counter in his lab.
Thoughts bounced around in Cody’s head like pebbles during a sandstorm. She was getting nowhere. All this talk of mummies, and forgeries, was feeding her already active imagination.
“Students!” Ms. Stad called out after Dr. Jordan was finished answering questions about mummies. “Let’s give Dr. Jordan a round of applause for his wonderful presentation! That was fascinating.”
The group clapped enthusiastically.
“I still want to see a real mummy,” Matt grumbled. Ms. Stad hushed him.
“Now, turn in your papers, if you haven’t already. Then you’re free to go to the gift shop. Those of you who won the prize, come see me. I’ll have something special for the group that solved the most puzzles when we gather in half an hour.”
Ms. Stad gave each of the Code Busters a rolled-up sheet of paper. Cody unrolled hers and smiled at the painting inside. “These are hand-painted pictures on real papyrus,” Ms. Stad explained. “Each one is different.”
Cody held hers up for the others to see. It was a painting of the Eye of Horus. M.E. unrolled hers to find a painting of a sarcophagus. Luke showed his—a picture of a pyramid. And Quinn got a picture of the Rosetta Stone.
“Awesome,” Quinn said. The others nodded, pleased with their prizes. They rolled them back up and stuck them carefully in their backpacks. As Ms. Stad stood there talking to some other students, Cody opened another compartment in her backpack and pulled out her Code Busters notebook. She wrote a message in Morse code, added her code name at the end, then tore it out and passed it to M.E. It read:
Code Buster’s Key and Solution found on this page, this page.
M.E. read the note, then passed it on to Quinn, who passed it to Luke. While Ms. Stad and the other students browsed the gift shop for Egyptian trinkets to buy, the Code Busters slipped away and headed for the workroom in the back of the museum.
Cody glanced around to make sure no one saw them. She tried the knob. It op
ened. She waved the others to follow her inside.
The room appeared empty. No sign of Dr. Jordan.
Cody whispered, “If the Eye of Horus in that case is fake, then maybe the real Eye is in here somewhere. Dr. Jordan could have hidden it for safe-keeping, planning to come back for it later when the museum closes. Maybe he’s going to sneak it out and take it with him when he leaves for the day, like that thief Ms. Cassatt told us about. We have to find the real Eye if we’re going to prove that the one in the case is a fake.”
“Cody, we could search this place all day and not find anything,” M.E. whined. “There are too many places to hide something that small. It could be anywhere.”
“She’s right,” Quinn said. “We have to think about this logically. Where would we hide something like that if we stole it?”
Cody looked around at all the tables, cupboards, shelves, and desks. There was no way they’d find the Eye if it was hidden in this room. There were just too many places to search, and no time to do it. This was hopeless. Talk about a riddle that was impossible to solve: Where would you hide an Eye that can’t see?
She thought about the riddle that was written on the bottom of the artifact: “an eye for an i.” Was that a clue? Dr. Jordan said that many forgers were proud of their fakes and left a “calling card”—a symbol or message meant to brag about their expertise, and even possibly identify them. Ms. Cassatt said that like Leonardo da Vinci, one forger used to leave his initials hidden in the artwork. Another one always wrote the names of his children in the picture, and then disguised them. And another used to sign his name, then paint over it so no one could see it. Dr. Jordan said it was detected by using infrared and ultraviolet fluorescent light.
Cody heard Ms. Stad calling all the students from the lobby.
“Uh-oh. Time to go back,” she said, disappointed they hadn’t solved their mystery. She was just about to follow the others out when she had an idea and ran back to the counter where Dr. Jordan had been working. Behind it was a wastebasket, filled with wrinkled papers, soiled cloths—and latex gloves.
