Return of the Mummy (5 page)

I let out a long sigh. Poor Uncle Ben. All that work for nothing. I felt so disappointed.

I glanced around the bare chamber. The spotlights made the thick cobwebs glow like silver. Our shadows stretched across the dirt floor like ghosts.

I turned to Uncle Ben, expecting him to be disappointed, too. But to my surprise, he had a smile on his face. “Move the lights,” he told one of the workers. “And bring the tools. We have another seal to remove.”

He pointed across the empty room to the back wall. In the gray light, I could make out the outline of a door. Another sculpted lion sealed it shut.

“I
knew
this wasn’t the real burial chamber!” Sari cried, grinning at me.

“As I said, the Egyptians often did this,” Uncle Ben explained. “They built several false chambers to hide the real chamber from grave robbers.” He
pulled off his hard hat and scratched his hair. “In fact,” he continued, “we may find several empty chambers before we find Prince Khor-Ru’s resting place.”

Nila snapped a photo of Uncle Ben examining the newly discovered door. She smiled at me. “You should have seen the expression on your face, Gabe,” she said. “You looked so disappointed.”

“I thought —” I started. But the scrape of Uncle Ben’s chisel against the seal made me stop.

We all turned to watch him work at the seal. Staring across the cobweb-filled chamber, I tried to imagine what waited for us on the other side of the door.

Another empty chamber? Or a three-thousand-year-old Egyptian prince, surrounded by all of his treasures and belongings?

Work on the door went slowly. We all broke for lunch and then returned. That afternoon Uncle Ben and his helpers worked for another couple of hours, carefully trying to remove the seal without damaging it.

As they worked, Sari and I sat on the floor and watched. The air was hot and kind of sour. I guess it was ancient air. Sari and I talked about last year and the adventures we’d had in the Great Pyramid. Nila snapped our picture.

“Almost got it,” Uncle Ben announced.

We all started to get excited again. Sari and I climbed to our feet and crossed the room to get a better view.

The lion seal slid free from the door. Two of the workers placed it gently into a padded crate. Then Uncle Ben and the other two workers set to work pushing open the door.

This door proved even more difficult than the last. “It’s … really … stuck,” Uncle Ben groaned. He and the workers pulled out more tools and began prying and chipping away the hard crust that had formed on the doorway over the centuries.

An hour later, they got the door to slide an inch. Then another inch. Another.

When it had slid halfway open, Uncle Ben removed the light from his helmet and beamed it through the opening. He peered into the next chamber for the longest time without saying a word.

Sari and I moved closer. My heart began racing again.

What did he see? I wondered. What was he staring at so silently?

Finally, Uncle Ben lowered the light and turned back to us. “We’ve made a big mistake,” he said quietly.

A shocked silence fell over the room. I swallowed hard, stunned by my uncle’s words.

But then a broad smile crossed his face. “We made a mistake by underestimating our discovery!” he exclaimed. “This will be more important than the discovery of King Tut! This tomb is even grander!”

A gleeful cheer echoed against the stone walls. The workers rushed forward to shake Uncle Ben’s hand and offer their congratulations.

“Congratulations to us all!” Uncle Ben declared happily.

We were all laughing and talking excitedly as we slipped through the narrow opening, into the next chamber.

As the lights beamed over the vast room, I knew I was seeing something I would never forget. Even the thick layer of dust and cobwebs could not cover the amazing treasures that filled the chamber.

My eyes darted quickly around. I struggled to focus on it all. But there was too much to see! I actually felt dizzy.

The walls were covered from floor to ceiling with hieroglyphs, etched into the stone. The floor was cluttered with furniture and other objects. It looked more like someone’s attic or a storeroom than a tomb!

A tall, straight-backed throne caught my eye. It had a golden radiating sun etched into the seat back. Behind it, I saw chairs and benches and a long couch.

Against the wall were stacked dozens of stone and clay jars. Some were cracked and broken. But many were in perfect condition.

A gold monkey head lay on its side in the middle of the floor. Behind it, I saw several large chests.

Uncle Ben and one of the workers carefully pulled back the lid of one of the chests. Their eyes grew wide as they gaped inside.

“Jewelry!” Uncle Ben declared. “It’s filled with gold jewelry!”

Sari came up beside me, an excited grin on her face.

“This is
awesome!”
I whispered.

She nodded agreement. “Awesome!”

We whispered in the heavy silence. No one else talked. Everyone was too overwhelmed by the amazing sight. The loudest sound was the clicking of Nila’s camera.

Uncle Ben stepped between Sari and me and placed a hand on our shoulders. “Isn’t this unbelievable?” he cried. “It’s all in perfect condition. Untouched for three thousand years.”

When I glanced up at him, I saw that he had tears in his eyes.
This is the greatest moment of Uncle Ben’s life,
I realized.

“We must be very careful —” Uncle Ben started. But he stopped in midsentence, and I saw his expression change.

As he guided Sari and me across the room, I saw what he was staring at. A large stone mummy case, hidden in shadow, stood against the far wall.

“Oh, wow!” I murmured as we stepped up to it.

Made of smooth gray stone, the heavy lid had a long crack down the center.

“Is the prince buried inside it?” Sari asked eagerly.

It took Uncle Ben a moment to reply. He stood between us, his eyes locked on the ancient mummy case. “We’ll soon see,” he finally replied.

As he and the four workers struggled to move the lid, Nila lowered her camera and stepped forward to watch. Her green eyes stared intensely as the lid slowly slid away.

Inside was a coffin the shape of the mummy. It wasn’t very long. And it was narrower than I thought it would be.

The workers slowly pried open the coffin’s lid. I gasped and grabbed Uncle Ben’s hand as the mummy was revealed.

It looked so tiny and frail!

“Prince Khor-Ru,” Uncle Ben muttered, staring down into the stone case.

The prince lay on his back, his slender arms crossed over his chest. Black tar had seeped through the bandages. The gauze had worn away from the head, revealing the tar-covered skull.

As I leaned over the case, my heart in my throat, the tar-blackened eyes seemed to stare helplessly up at me.

There’s a real person inside there
, I thought, feeling a chill run down my spine.
He’s about my size. And he died. And they covered him with hot tar and cloth. And he’s been lying in this case for three thousand years.

A real person. A royal prince.

I stared at the cracked tar that covered his face. At the gauzelike cloth, all frayed and yellowed. At the stiff body, so frail and small.

He was alive once
, I thought.
Did he ever dream that three thousand years later, people would open his coffin and stare at him? Stare at his mummified body?

I took a step back to catch my breath. It was
too
exciting.

I saw that Nila also had tears in her eyes. She rested both hands on the edge of the case and
leaned over the prince’s body, her eyes locked on the blackened face.

“These may be the best-preserved remains ever found,” Uncle Ben said quietly. “Of course, we will have to do many tests to determine the young man’s identity. But, judging from everything else in this chamber, I think it’s safe to say …”

His voice trailed off as we all heard sounds from the outer chamber. Footsteps. Voices.

I spun around toward the doorway as four black-uniformed police officers burst into the room. “Okay. Everybody take one step back,” one of them ordered, lowering his hand to the gun holster at his side.

Startled cries filled the room. Uncle Ben spun around, his eyes wide with surprise. “What is happening?” he cried.

The four Cairo police officers, their features set in hard frowns, moved quickly into the center of the room.

“Be careful!” Uncle Ben warned, standing in front of the mummy case as if protecting it. “Do not move anything. It is all terribly fragile.”

He pulled off the hard hat. His eyes went from officer to officer. “What are you doing here?”

“I asked them to come,” a voice boomed from the doorway.

Dr. Fielding entered, a pleased expression on his face. His tiny eyes danced excitedly.

“Omar — I don’t understand,” Uncle Ben said, taking a few steps toward the other scientist.

“I thought it best to protect the contents of the tomb,” Dr. Fielding replied. He gazed quickly around the room, taking in the treasures.

“Wonderful! This is wonderful!” he cried. He stepped forward and shook my uncle’s hand enthusiastically. “Congratulations, everyone!” he boomed. “This is almost too much to believe.”

Uncle Ben’s expression softened. “I still do not understand the need for them,” he said, motioning to the grim-faced officers. “No one in this room is about to steal anything.”

“Certainly not,” Dr. Fielding replied, still squeezing Uncle Ben’s hand. “Certainly not. But word will soon get out, Ben. And I thought we should be prepared to guard what we have found.”

Uncle Ben eyed the four officers suspiciously. But then he shrugged his broad shoulders. “Perhaps you are right,” he told Dr. Fielding. “Perhaps you are being smart.”

“Just ignore them,” Dr. Fielding replied. He slapped my uncle on the back. “I owe you an apology, Ben. I was wrong to try to stop you before. As a scientist, I should have known better. We owed it to the world to open this tomb. I hope you’ll forgive me. We have much to celebrate — don’t we!”

“I don’t trust him,” Uncle Ben confided that evening as we walked from the tent to dinner. “I don’t trust my partner at all.”

It was a clear night, surprisingly cool. The purple sky was dotted with a million twinkling white stars. A steady breeze made the palm trees sway on the horizon. The big campfire up ahead dipped and shifted with the wind.

“Is Dr. Fielding coming with us to dinner?” Sari asked. She wore a pale green sweater pulled down over black leggings.

Uncle Ben shook his head. “No, he hurried to phone Cairo. I think he’s eager to tell our backers the good news.”

“He seemed really excited when he saw the mummy and everything,” I said, glancing at the pyramid rising darkly to the evening sky.

“Yes, he did,” my uncle admitted. “He certainly changed his mind in a hurry! But I’m keeping my eye on him. Omar would like nothing better than to take over the project. I’m going to keep an eye on those police officers of his, too.”

“Daddy, this should be a happy night,” Sari scolded. “Let’s not talk about Dr. Fielding. Let’s just talk about Prince Khor-Ru and how you’re going to be rich and famous!”

Uncle Ben laughed. “It’s a deal,” he told her.

Nila waited for us by the campfire. Uncle Ben had invited her to join us for a barbecue. She wore a white sweatshirt over loose-fitting jeans. Her
amber pendant caught the light from the half-moon just rising over the tents.

She looked really pretty. She flashed Uncle Ben a warm smile as we came near. I could tell by his face that he liked her.

“Sari, you’re taller than Gabe, aren’t you!” Nila commented.

Sari grinned. She loved being taller than me, even though I’m a little older.

“Less than an inch,” I said quickly.

“People are definitely getting taller,” Nila said to my uncle. “Prince Khor-Ru was so short. He’d be a midget today!”

“It makes you wonder why such short people built such tall pyramids,” Uncle Ben said, grinning.

Nila smiled and took his arm.

Sari and I exchanged glances. I could see what Sari was thinking. Her expression said: What’s up with those two?

We had a great dinner. Uncle Ben burned the hamburger rolls a little. But no one really minded.

Sari downed two hamburgers. I could only eat one. That gave her something else to boast about.

I was really getting fed up with my bragging cousin. I found myself trying to think of a way to get back at her.

Nila and Uncle Ben kidded around a lot.

“That burial chamber looked like a movie set,” Nila teased my uncle. “It was all too perfect. All that gold. And that perfect little mummy. It’s all a fake. That’s what I’m going to write in my article.”

Uncle Ben laughed. He turned to me. “Did you check out the mummy, Gabe? Was this one wearing a wristwatch?”

I shook my head. “No wristwatch.”

“See?” Uncle Ben told Nila. “No wristwatch. So it’s
got
to be real!”

“I guess that proves it,” Nila said, smiling warmly at my uncle.

“Daddy, do you know the words to bring the mummy to life?” Sari broke in. “You know. The words on the tomb that Dr. Fielding was talking about?”

Uncle Ben swallowed the last bite of his hamburger. He wiped the grease off his chin with a napkin. “I can’t believe that a serious scientist would believe such superstition,” he murmured.

“But what
are
the six words to bring the mummy to life?” Nila demanded. “Come on, Ben. Tell us.”

Uncle Ben’s smile faded. He shook his finger at Nila. “Oh, no!” he declared. “I don’t trust you. If I tell you the words, you’ll bring the mummy back to life just to get a good photograph for your newspaper!”

We all laughed.

We were sitting around the campfire, its orange light flickering over our faces. Uncle Ben set his plate down on the ground and spread his hands over the fire.

“Teki Kahru Teki Kahra Teki Khari!”
he chanted in a deep voice, waving his hands over the flames.

The fire crackled. A twig made a loud popping sound that made my heart skip a beat.

“Are those the secret words?” Sari demanded.

Uncle Ben nodded solemnly. “Those are the words of the hieroglyphs over the entrance to the tomb.”

“So maybe the mummy just sat up and stretched?” Sari asked.

“I’d be very surprised,” Uncle Ben replied, climbing to his feet. “You’re forgetting, Sari — you have to chant the words five times.”

“Oh.” Sari stared thoughtfully into the fire.

I repeated the words in my mind.
“Teki Kahru Teki Kahra Teki Khari!”
I needed to memorize the words. I had a plan to scare Sari.

“Where are you going?” Nila asked my uncle.

“To the communications tent,” he replied. “I have to make a phone call.” He turned and made his way quickly over the sand toward the row of canvas tents.

Nila let out a surprised laugh. “He didn’t even say good night.”

“Daddy’s always like that,” Sari explained, “when he has something on his mind.”

“Guess I’d better go, too,” Nila said, climbing to her feet and brushing sand off her jeans. “I’m going to start writing my story for the paper.”

She said good night and walked quickly away, her sandals making a slapping sound against the sand.

Sari and I sat staring into the crackling fire. The half-moon had floated high in the sky. Its pale light reflected off the top of the pyramid in the distance.

“Nila is right,” I told Sari. “It really did look like a movie set in there.”

Sari didn’t reply. She stared into the fire without blinking, thinking hard. Something in the fire popped again. The sound seemed to snap her out of her thoughts.

“Do you think Nila likes Daddy?” she asked me, her dark eyes locking on mine.

“Yeah, I guess,” I replied. “She’s always giving him this smile.” I imitated Nila’s smile. “And she’s always kind of teasing him.”

Sari thought about my reply. “And do you think Daddy likes her?”

I grinned. “For sure.” I stood up. I was eager to get back to the tent. I wanted to scare Sari.

We walked toward the tents in silence. I guessed that Sari was still thinking about her dad and Nila.

The night air was cool, but it was warm inside the tent. Moonlight filtered through the canvas. Sari pulled her trunk out from under her cot and got down on her knees to search through her clothes.

“Sari,” I whispered. “Dare me to recite the ancient words five times?”

“Huh?” She gazed up from the trunk.

“I’m going to chant the words five times,” I told her. “You know. See if anything happens.”

I expected her to beg me not to. I expected her to get scared and plead: “Please, Gabe — don’t do it! Don’t! It’s too dangerous!”

But instead, Sari turned back to her clothes trunk. “Hey. Give it a try,” she told me.

“You sure?” I asked her.

“Yeah. Why not?” she replied, pulling out a pair of denim shorts.

I stared across the tent at her. Was that fear I saw in her eyes? Was she just pretending to be so casual about it?

Yes. I think Sari was a little scared. And trying hard not to show it.

I took a few steps closer and chanted the ancient words in the same low voice Uncle Ben had used:
“Teki Kahru Teki Kahra Teki Khari!”

Sari dropped the shorts and turned to watch me.

I repeated the chant a second time:
“Teki Kahru Teki Kahra Teki Khari!”

A third time.

A fourth time.

I hesitated. I felt a cold breeze tingle the back of my neck.

Should I chant the words again? Should I go for number five?