Dedication
To Jack, Lizzie, and Grey, who have many monster-hunting days ahead of them
Contents
Dedication
An Ominous Outing
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Back So Soon?
Facts and Myths
Acknowledgments
Back Ad
About the Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Warm beaches, a log cabin in the woods, a theme park filled with roller coasters and cotton candy. These are what most people think of when planning their perfect getaway.
Of course, by now I am well aware that you are not most people. When you think of beaches, you imagine strange and dangerous creatures lurking beneath the surface of an otherwise calm bay. The thrill of a roller coaster is far too tame for you, and woods are only as interesting as the things that come creeping out late at night.
Nick, Carter, and Angelo are leaving for a vacation that may be right down your alley. A cursed pyramid, oddly named demons, and strange disappearances are only the beginning. I’m afraid I won’t be going on this trip. When I fly the night skies I don’t use an airplane.
But I’ve asked a friend to look in on them from time to time and take notes. If you’re in the area, please do the same. I’ll be sure to update everything that happens right here in Case File 13.
And in the meantime: if you find yourself visited by an (incredibly) old friend, wrapped from head to foot in bandages, don’t go crying to your mummy.
Nick grabbed his bags, glanced one last time in the mirror to make sure everything was perfect, and headed down the stairs. He still couldn’t believe his dad had won an all-expenses-paid trip to Mexico. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, they were going to join an archaeology group helping dig out a newly discovered pyramid called Aktun. A name he wasn’t sure he could pronounce, but that sounded totally cool anyway. The best part was Nick’s two closest friends and fellow Monsterteers, Angelo and Carter, got to come too. Although it meant delaying Christmas for a few days, he couldn’t imagine a better way to spend the holidays than looking for mummies.
Whistling the theme song from one of his favorite movies, he jumped the last two steps and headed into the kitchen, where his mom was going over a checklist on her computer. “All packed?” she asked as he dropped his bags next to the back door.
“Checked and doubled.” He walked up behind his mom’s chair, waiting for her to look at him. But her eyes were locked on the monitor.
“Toothbrush and toothpaste?” Mom asked, hovering her cursor over an item called toiletries.
“Electric, nonelectric in case they don’t have outlets we can use, and minty fresh,” Nick said.
Mom highlighted the next item on her list. “Swimsuit, water shoes, and shorts?”
“Like a boss.” He edged around her chair, hoping she would see him from the corner of her eye.
“A clean pair of underwear for every day?”
“Mom!” He groaned. “Do you really have to ask me about my underwear? It’s not like I go around asking you about your . . . you know. Stuff.” The last way he wanted to start his winter break was talking to his mom about underwear.
“We’re going to be in Mexico for a week, and we may not have any place to wash clothes,” Mom said in a no-nonsense voice. “It’s not my fault boys smell like spoiled bologna after a day of doing whatever it is they do.” She pushed back her chair, turned around, and looked him up and down. “What is that on your head?”
Nick grinned, tugged the felt fedora over his forehead, and said in a gruff voice, “It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.”
Mom glared. “Excuse me?”
“It’s from Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Nick said, throwing his hands up in the air. “I can’t believe you didn’t recognize the quote or the hat.”
From the other side of the room came a knock at the door. Nick hurried to answer it, knowing it would be either Carter or Angelo. They’d recognize the hat for sure.
He swung open the door to find Angelo standing outside with his shoulders squared and a sneer on his face. “We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and X never, ever marks the spot,” Angelo said, quoting an Indiana Jones line.
Nick couldn’t believe his eyes. “Who said you could wear a fedora? You are so ripping me off.”
Angelo looked just as surprised as Nick felt. “I told you I was wearing it. If anyone ripped anyone off, it’s you.” He grabbed his bags and carried them into the kitchen.
“You did not.” Nick couldn’t believe they’d both decided to wear their Indiana Jones hats. “What’s that?” Nick asked, noticing something new sticking out of the top of his friend’s backpack.
“Oh, this?” Angelo looked down casually, as if he hadn’t left the piece of equipment sticking out on purpose. Angelo was a total brain. Besides knowing everything there was to know about monsters, monster movies, and anything supernatural, he also invented things. Just a few weeks before, he’d come up with a machine that could track corpses by smell. Nick’s dad called Angelo the Smarticle Particle, although Angelo was nearly as tall as an adult.
Angelo unzipped the pack and removed a weird little device the size of a lunch box. It looked like someone had ripped open a toaster, torn the guts from a microwave oven, and combined them with random test tubes and other pieces from a chemistry kit. Proudly he held out the device for Nick’s inspection. “I don’t want to brag or anything. But you’ve heard of a DNA sequencer, right?”
“Surrrre,” Nick said slowly. Although he thought he’d heard the words before, he wasn’t quite as sure he knew what they meant. “DNA is the stuff in your body that decides what color your eyes will be or if you’ll have hair all over your back. And a sequencer, um . . . sequences things.”
“Close enough.” Angelo held out the lunch box thing, clearly proud of his invention. “This isn’t a full-on DNA sequencer. That would be crazy. Although I’d like to try making one sometime. This is a thermal cycler that uses a polymerase chain reaction to—”
“Dude!” Nick held out both hands. “Any more of that scientific blibbity-blabber and my head is going to explode—ruining a perfectly good Indiana Jones fedora, which I decided to wear long before you ever did. Get to the point. Using sixth-grade words, what does that science fair project on steroids actually do?”
Angelo looked like someone had insulted his baby sister—if he’d had a baby sister to insult. He gave the lunch box a loving pat and sighed. “It tests DNA. Just like the police do when they want to prove who committed a crime.”
“Uh huh.” Nick bit the tip of his tongue for a second, trying not to hurt his friend’s feelings any more than he already had. Like Spider-Man’s superpowers, Angelo’s genius was both a gift and a curse. “Look, that sounds totally . . . legit. I mean, I couldn’t have made something like that in a hundred years. But do you really want to spend our winter break going around testing people’s DNA?”
“It’s not for testing people’s DNA,” Ang
elo said, clearly mortified. “I mean, it could. But what would be the point?”
Now Nick was totally confused. “If you’re not going to use it to test people’s DNA, whose DNA are you going to test?”
Angelo’s eyes gleamed like he’d been waiting for that exact question. “Aliens’!”
Before Nick could respond, the kitchen door flew open, and Carter came bursting through wearing an Indiana Jones hat of his own. “Verrugas,” he said with a terrified look on his face. “¿Por qué tengo que tener verrugas?”
Nick could only shake his head. Was he really going to spend a week in a foreign country with these two? “What in the world are you talking about?”
Carter grinned, tossing a couple of duffel bags onto the kitchen table. “It’s Spanish, amigo. It means ‘Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes?’”
“Hate to break it to you,” Angelo replied, “but that’s not what you just said.” He would know; his mom was from Puerto Rico and his dad was from Chile. Angelo had been raised speaking both Spanish and English, although his mom usually spoke English when they were around other people.
Nick’s mom smiled at Carter. “He’s right. What you said was ‘Warts. Why do I have to have warts?’”
Nick stared at his mom. “When did you learn Spanish?”
Mom got up from the desk and flicked the brim of his hat. “My great-grandfather on my father’s side was from Mexico. My grandfather taught us all to speak Spanish when we were little. My speaking skills are a little rusty. But I’m positive verrugas means warts.”
Nick looked at his mom like he was seeing her for the first time. Next thing he knew she’d be telling him she hunted vampires in high school.
“Warts?” Carter yelped. “How can that be? I’ve been practicing that phrase for weeks.” For the first time, he seemed to notice that Angelo and Nick were wearing the same hat as he was. “Hey! You two stole my idea!”
“Stole your idea?” Angelo and Nick said at the same time.
“Yeah.” Carter frowned. “The Indiana Jones hat is like my trademart. I’ve been wearing one for as long as I can remember.”
“I think you mean trademark,” Angelo corrected. “And I’ve never seen you wear one before. In fact, it looks brand-new.”
“I’ll bet you don’t even remember where Indy got it from,” Nick said.
“He took it from Garth, a treasure hunter,” Carter snapped back.
“He didn’t take it,” Nick said. “Garth gave it to him after Indy stole the Cross of Coronado on a scout trip.”
“Who cares?” Carter stamped his foot, his face turning red. “I look the best in it, and I’m not taking it off.”
“This is my vacation. So that means I get to wear it,” Nick said.
“We can’t all bring it,” Angelo said. “We’d look stupid wearing the same thing. Like those kids in the Sound of Music movie who had to wear matching clothes made out of curtains.”
Nick had no idea what Angelo was talking about. But this was an even worse way to start winter break than discussing underwear with his mother.
Mom took Nick’s hat off his head and held out her hands to Carter and Angelo. “I’ll settle this argument. None of you are taking the hats. Have any of you considered how childish you’d all seem wearing a costume from some movie on an archaeological excavation? How many tourists do you think show up, trying to look like Indiana Jones?”
Nick looked sheepishly at his friends. It was a pretty dumb thing to fight about. And his mom was probably right. Even though they thought the hats were cool, he guessed they’d make them look like total losers to the real archaeologists. “Okay. I’ll leave mine here.”
“Me too,” Angelo said. “Besides, fedoras aren’t nearly as cool on anyone but Indy.”
Nick and Angelo looked at Carter.
“Fine!” Carter said, yanking off his hat and slamming it on the table. “But I think I look amazing in it.”
“Dude!” Nick said. “What did you do to yourself?” Carter was always dyeing his spiky hair a different color. But this time he’d gone overboard. The left side of his head was green, the right side was red, and the middle was white.
Carter patted his head. “I colored it last night. It’s in honor of the Mexican flag.”
“Very . . . patriotic,” Mom said. She gave her computer one last check before powering it down. “Now, where’s your father? We need to get on the road.”
A series of footsteps sounded from the stairs and a second later, Nick’s dad bounded into the kitchen. He was wearing a felt fedora and a leather jacket. In his right hand was an actual bullwhip. With a wide grin, he held out the whip and said, “Fortune and glory, kids. Fortune and glory!”
Dad drove most of the way to the airport with his hands locked on the steering wheel and his lips pressed tightly together.
“You’re not still upset that that I wouldn’t let you wear your costume, are you?” Mom asked.
“I told you, it wasn’t a costume,” Dad said, staring straight ahead. “It was a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes, and a jacket to . . . to keep the bugs off.”
“I’m sure a heavy leather jacket would be comfortable in the middle of a rain forest,” Mom said. “Let me guess—the whip was for mosquitoes?”
Dad glared at her. “Wait until a tiger is running straight for you, lady. Then you’ll wish I’d thought to bring a weapon.”
“Technically,” Angelo said, “tigers live in—”
“Shhh,” Nick hissed. He’d seen his mom and dad disagree enough to know that they’d go on like this for a few more minutes. Then one of them would crack a joke. And the next thing you knew, they’d be all lovey-dovey again, like they’d never been arguing. It was one of the things he liked best about his parents. Plus, he wasn’t about to mention that he’d seen his dad sneak the whip into his suitcase when Mom wasn’t looking.
“I was just going to say that tigers live in Asia,” Angelo said softly. “There could be jaguars or pumas where we’re going, and plenty of dangerous snakes, but no tigers.”
Nick was pretty sure that if his mom overheard Angelo talking about all the dangerous animals they could encounter, this trip would end before it ever got started. So he quickly changed the subject. “What was that you were saying back at the house about aliens?”
As soon as the word alien left Nick’s mouth, Angelo pulled out his monster notebook. He took the thick binder with him everywhere. It was filled with information about unusual things they’d seen in the past, and things he thought they might run across in their travels. After all the weird stuff that had happened to them, it was getting almost too thick to carry.
Angelo flipped through the pages until he reached a map of different pyramids with lines drawn from one to the other, and lots of scribbled notes. “A lot of people think most, if not all, of the pyramids were built by aliens. The hieroglyphs carved into the walls could be their writings.”
Carter guffawed. “So if you unwrap one of the mummies you’d find little green guys with three arms and antennas? And the hyro-whatchamacallits actually translate into ‘Take me to your leader’?”
“Very funny,” Angelo said, clearly not amused. “Maybe you don’t believe it. But scientists still aren’t sure how some of the biggest rocks in the pyramids were moved there. And I read somewhere that the mortar used in the Great Pyramid of Egypt is so unusual no one has been able to reproduce it, even with modern technology.”
Nick was impressed, but still not convinced. “Why would aliens want to build pyramids?”
“There are lots of theories.” Angelo thumbed through the pages. “Landing sites for the spaceships, markers to guide them from space—kind of like lighthouses. Maybe they were used as some sort of interstellar communication towers.”
“I don’t know,” Nick said. “That seems like kind of a stretch.”
“Does it?” Angelo sounded unusually edgy. He snapped open a map of an Egyptian pyramid and tapped his finger on a circle. “This is the sp
ot where the Egyptians dug up most of the rocks they used to build the Great Pyramid. Remembering that some of those stones weighed as much as seventy tons, and had to be pushed or pulled to the site without modern machinery, where would you build your pyramid?”
“As close as I could get,” Carter said.
“Yeah,” Nick added, studying the map. “Somewhere easy to get to. With no hills between it and the—what’s the place where you dig called, a quarry?”
“That’s what most people would do.” Angelo pointed to another spot on the map. “But whoever built the Great Pyramid dragged more than two million stones here, hundreds of miles away—even though there were other locations just as good much closer.”
Dad glanced at Angelo in the rearview mirror. “That’s all well and good, but we’re not going to Egypt. The Mexican pyramids were built by the Mayans.”
“Maybe they were and maybe they weren’t,” Angelo said. He reached over the seat to touch his DNA tester. “The builders of Aktun could have moved it a few miles north or south and chosen a spot much easier to reach. Instead they erected it in the middle of a thick rain forest. Why would they do that?”
“To be near McDonald’s?” Carter joked.
Angelo didn’t even bother responding to that.
Nick didn’t have an answer. And after some of the things they’d seen in their own town during the last couple of months, he wasn’t willing to say anything was impossible. “Maybe the pyramids were like huge garages for their spaceships,” he suggested. “Do you think we could find evidence of ETs in the pyramid we’re going to? Like, you know, alien bodies or flying saucers?”
“I doubt it,” Angelo said. “They were too smart to leave much behind. If not, people would have discovered something by now. But they may have left evidence too small to see. Bits of alien skin, or hair, or even blood. That’s why I brought my DNA-testing kit. If I can find tissue samples that don’t belong to any earthly humans or animals, that would prove ETs were there.”
Up front, Dad chuckled. “I don’t think you’re going to find any aliens. But there are some pretty cool things about the Mexican pyramids. Things that might keep you awake late at night.” He said the last part in a creepy-movie voice.
Curse of the Mummy's Uncle Page 1
