Beyond the Grave - - 39 Clues 04 Page 8

  They would be stuck in the burial chamber for a good while, she imagined. Long enough to decide that the 39 Clues was a game for adults, not children.

  Irina moved forward silently. Amy took a hesitant step into the chamber. The children were holding hands. Awww. What adorable, sniveling cowards!

  The tomb had gotten to her. She'd been thinking crazy thoughts.

  Blin!

  As her grandmother used to say, she'd almost blown her own roof. Crazy thoughts, that she'd been on a wrong path, that there was another way to go.

  There was only one way to go, and that was over everyone else.

  They were close. She could smell their fear. She smiled as she moved closer. Just

  another millimeter or two ... Her foot hit something.

  "Did you hear that?" Amy squeaked.

  Irina was so close she could reach out and touch her. She had only to extend one finger ... and scratch.

  Her eye twitched. She bent down and touched what she'd hit with the toe of her Nike.

  Her fingers closed around a small book. She put it in her pocket. "Someone's here with us," Dan whispered.

  Yes, I am here, little comrade.

  Irina could make out the gleam of the back of Dan's neck. So vulnerable. So close.

  But wait. Better they should be conscious when the explosion occurred. What was the good of scaring them if they were unconscious? Terror was best experienced when one was wide-awake.

  Reluctantly, Irina drifted past the children like a ghost. Up the stairs toward the door. The side chamber was to her left now. In her other pocket was the explosive. Irina stopped. She set the timer. She held the explosive in her hand, ready to place it.

  She remembered the wall paintings. The queen. The other goddess leading her by the hand. The greens, the golds, the blues. Three thousand years this tomb had survived.

  It should rest in peace.

  What? How did that thought enter her brain?

  She was a Cahill. A Lucian.

  Superior in intellect and cunning. She should do anything to get what she wanted

  Except destroy what millennia of sand and water and thieves did not. Irina turned off the timer.

  That's when she heard the footsteps. There was someone else here. Irina was scared of nothing in life. Except... maybe clowns. She went toward the noise.

  CHAPTER 15

  The door clanged open. Lights went on.

  "Dan? Amy? Kiddos?"

  "It's Nellie!" Amy cried. "We're here!"

  Nellie rushed down the second set of stairs into the burial chamber. She threw herself at them and gave them a fierce hug.

  "Will you just stop doing this?" she demanded. "My nerves are shot! You could have been down here for, like, eternity!"

  Suddenly, Theo came rushing down toward them. "Amy? Dan? Nellie!" Theo grabbed Nellie by the elbows. "Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine," Nellie said.

  "Amy and I are fine, thanks," Dan said.

  "I was looking everywhere for you!" Theo said frantically to Nellie. "Are you certain you're all right?"

  "Perfectly okay," Dan said. "We were just shut up in a tomb. No problem." "What do you mean, Theo?" Nellie asked. "I woke up and saw Amy and Dan were gone. I knew they would head back here. Basically, I just pick the thing that would freak me the most, and they do it."

  Theo wiped at the sweat on his forehead. "I got a text message on my phone that you

  were in trouble. I've been looking everywhere."

  "Did you see anyone when you entered the tomb?" Amy asked Nellie.

  Nellie shook her head. "I just rushed down the stairs when I heard you calling."

  "We heard someone," Dan said. "A sort of shuffling noise."

  Theo tried not to smile. "A mummy?"

  "We didn't imagine it," Dan said, annoyed. "Whoever it was could have hidden in one of the side chambers, then gone out after Nellie came down to the burial chamber." "Oh, no! Grace's guidebook!" Amy said. "I must have dropped it." They searched over the entire tomb but didn't find it. "Are you sure you had it?" Theo asked.

  "Of course she's sure," Dan said. "She never lets it out of her sight. You see?" He looked around the tomb. "Someone else was here."

  "And they took Grace's book," Amy said.

  * * *

  Amy and Dan were silent as they sat in the cabin of the boat after dinner. Theo had

  suggested going to Luxor for dessert -- he knew a "super" rooftop restaurant with a view of the river and the Temple of Luxor. But they couldn't think about dessert or great touristy views.

  Misery hung over Amy like a cloud. Dan knew just how she felt. The book was gone. It was the same way he'd felt after he lost the photograph of his parents back in the train tunnel in Paris. It was like he'd lost a piece of them. Now they'd lost a piece of Grace. A crucial piece.

  They kept losing piece after piece of their old lives. Falling down, falling away. Until you felt like you were on a world without gravity, and soon you'd have nothing to hold on to. Tonight, the motion of the boat made Dan feel almost dizzy. It was time to work, not think. Thinking about stuff too much didn't get you anywhere, no matter what his sister thought.

  Dan pushed a piece of paper toward Amy. "Here." He'd written out the hieroglyphs they'd found on the stairs of Nefertari's tomb.

  Amy didn't bother asking if he was sure he remembered them right. She sprang up and went over to the crammed bookshelves. She slid out a heavy book. "I saw this before. It's a hieroglyphic dictionary."

  They flipped through the book. It took them awhile to find the explanations for the hieroglyphs. Dan copied them down.

  [proofreader's note: the hieroglyph that is two long lines separated by two short ones is labeled River, the hieroglyph that is a long rectangle with a half moon carved out of one of its long sides is labeled Cliff, the hieroglyph that is a long rectangle is labeled Island, and the obelisk hieroglyph is labeled Obelisk]

  "River, cliff, island, obelisk," Dan said, pointing to each. "These are easy. But we can't find this last one."

  [proofreader's note: the hieroglyph that looks like a side view of a throne]

  "Okay, here we are in Luxor," Amy said. "There's a river. There are cliffs. Islands in the

  river. Obelisks. But Katherine can't just be listing random things."

  "If Katherine made those glyphs," Dan said. "We don't know that for sure. She wouldn't know how to decode hieroglyphs in the sixteenth century. Hieroglyphs weren't translated until a couple of centuries later, when they found the Rosetta Stone."

  "These are pretty simple, though," Amy said. "They're pictograms -- they mean what they are. She would have figured them out. We could, even without the dictionary. Except for this last one."

  "Things just aren't adding up," Dan said. "Maybe there is

  a fourth Sakhet. Remember that note we found from that guy Drovetti? He said the clue had been shipped to the palace of L."

  "Louis the Fourteenth, maybe," Amy said. "Versailles is right outside Paris." "Maybe we shouldn't be here at all," Dan said. "Some Lucian shipped the most important hint to Paris. This feels like it could be a dead end."

  Amy's gaze wandered to the porthole. "Dan? Did you notice that the lights of town are

  ... kinda far away?"

  Dan stood up. "Our line came loose! We're going toward the middle of the river!"

  "Excellent work, homies!" Jonah Wizard's head appeared at the top of the steps leading to the deck. "Good lead. Paris is my city! They love me in Paris!" Amy and Dan charged toward the stairs. Jonah stepped back and let them come up on deck. They were in the middle of the river. The lights of Luxor seemed far away. Mr. Wizard was at the helm. Jonah collapsed in a chair with a laugh, pointing at them. "You should see your faces!" he said. "Hysterical. Anyway, what can I say? If only you agreed to be my homies when I offered you the deal. Yo, Dad, book us two first-class tickets to Paris. Love that Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. So much of moi to see!"

  "I can't get service out here
," Mr. Wizard said, his thumbs trying to work his BlackBerry. "You know what?" Jonah threw his legs over the arm of the deck chair, one sneakered foot swinging. "You both look beat. Maybe you need a vacation. Say, on a nice tropical island?"

  Mr. Wizard brought the boat around. He crossed to the small gangplank on the side. "Oh, c'mon," Dan said. "You've got to be kidding. You're going to make us walk the plank?"

  Jonah chortled. "Tru dat, me hearties. I always wanted to be a pirate!"

  "I'd suggest you go now," Mr. Wizard said. "We've got a plane to catch."

  The gangplank thudded down on the sand of the small island. It was uninhabited. All

  Amy and Dan could see were thick trees and undergrowth. Amy was glad she had the

  Sakhet in her waist pack.

  "We'll get you for this!" Dan said to Jonah.

  "Yeah, whatever."

  "And those stupid warnings didn't scare us a bit."

  "What warnings?" Jonah asked. "Just walk the walk, Peter Pan. You first, Tinker Bell," he said to Amy.

  Dan followed Amy down the plank.

  Mr. Wizard hauled it up after they were on the island. The boat began to glide away.

  "Have a slammin' time!" Jonah called out. "I'll be betting that someone will come by... sooner or later. Oh, but there's just one thing."

  His voice sailed over open water. "Watch out for the crocodiles!"

  CHAPTER 16

  Amy decided she was never watching Animal Planet again. Once you'd lived Animal Planet, it lost its charm.

  She edged away from the bank of the river. Behind her, the trees and foliage looked thick and impenetrable. Without the sun, the river had taken on a dark and oily look. "Crocodiles have the strongest bite of any animal on earth," Dan said. "Five thousand pounds per square inch. That's, like, twelve times stronger than a great white shark. They move fast, even on land. But the best way to run away from them is straight ahead, not zigzaggy. Just run really fast." "Dan! Zip it," Amy said.

  "They hunt at night. They wait in ambush for their prey." "This isn't helping."

  "They drag you underneath the water and roll around and around with you and drown you before they chomp you. If you're lucky. You've got to get your hands around their jaws and hold them closed -- "

  "Dan, get lost!" "I am lost!"

  There was a short silence. Across the dark river, the lights of Luxor glittered. Behind them on the west bank of the river, the ancient kings and queens slept in the limestone cliffs, the mummies still undiscovered, the hills cradling their spirits. The sky overhead was thick with more stars than Amy had ever seen. It would have been beautiful if only Amy could stop worrying about getting clamped in crocodile jaws. "I'm just trying to be helpful," Dan said.

  "If we can attract a boat's attention, someone will see us," Amy said. She could see the individual lights on the ends of boats -- feluccas, Theo had called them -- out on the river. "How do you say yoo-hoo in Arabic?"

  "I believe that yoo-hoo could be part of a universal language," Dan said. "Like ow.

  Or -- you're stepping on my foot."

  "That's universal?"

  "No, you're stepping on my foot. Ow." Amy moved.

  "Yoo-hoo!" Her voice sounded thin. It was swallowed up by the darkness. She tried to

  remember if crocodiles hunted by noise. She decided not to ask Dan.

  "YOO-HOO!" she shouted. The tiny boat lights stayed on their courses, tacking lazily

  back and forth. "Well, Nellie and Theo will come looking for us," she said.

  "How will they look for us?" Dan asked. "Jonah stole the boat!"

  "They'll hire a boat, and -- "

  "Shhh," Dan stopped her.

  "Just because I told you to be quiet before -- "

  "Shhh! Listen."

  Amy didn't hear anything. Then she heard a soft splash. She froze. "Do you see anything?" she whispered.

  "I thought I saw... two eyes," Dan whispered. "Out there ... by those reeds. Crocodiles stay submerged until they attack "

  Amy looked. She didn't see anything by the reeds. What she did see was a giant log floating close to the riverbank. Then she saw that the log had two eyes and a snout. The crocodile turned and began to glide toward the beach.

  "D-d-d-d ... " "What?" "C-c-croc... "

  The crocodile lumbered onto the beach, and Amy forgot how to move. It looked like a walking dinosaur. Something primitive and evil and hungry for flesh. Every impulse had been driven from her brain except for terror. The crocodile opened its mouth. Amy felt mesmerized by what looked like hundreds of sharp, pointed teeth.

  Crocodiles have the strongest bite of any animal on earth

  "Run!" Dan hissed. He yanked at her arm.

  Amy wheeled, stumbled, and took off, running across the beach toward the center of the island. The sand sucked at her shoes. It was like running in a nightmare. Amy looked back. The crocodile was following them! "Don't zigzag!" Dan shouted.

  But she wasn't zigzagging. She was stumbling. Her legs were shaking so badly that she couldn't run.

  They crashed into the underbrush, following a narrow path that snaked through the trees. Amy's T-shirt snagged on a branch but she ripped it free and kept running, jumping over roots and ducking under branches.

  Over the sound of their gasping, they heard the actual thump of the crocodile hitting the path. The swish as its gigantic tail hit the greenery.

  It was so dark under the trees that it was like running underneath a black hood. Amy's heart banged against her chest. She could already feel the hot breath of the beast. Any moment it would snatch her from behind and whirl her in the air as its jaws cut her in two.

  The path suddenly ended, spilling them out on a beach. Moonlight silvered the sand. It

  was as if someone had turned on the lights.

  "Where to now?" Amy asked, whipping her head around.

  Down by the water, a shadow slipped away from a palm tree. A man stood, dressed in the white galabia that many Egyptian men wore.

  "Help us!" Amy screamed.

  "Amy ... " Dan stopped short. "He's got a knife."

  Moonlight glinted on the blade the man held at his side.

  Amy turned around. Behind her on the path she saw the green eyes of the crocodile coming toward them. Faster. "I don't care," Amy said. "Come on!" They ran down the beach toward the man with the knife. Better that than a crocodile's jaws.

  The man sheathed the knife as they approached him. The crocodile was running across the beach now. The man suddenly backed away, then scrambled toward a small felucca they hadn't noticed before. "No, wait! Please!" Amy cried.

  He jumped in gracefully and began to paddle. Amy sobbed out loud. Terror squeezed her heart. There was no hope left. No place left to run.

  But the man was paddling toward them, not away. He was shouting something in Arabic.

  They ran to him, faster than they'd ever run in their lives. They waded through the water, feeling like their legs were lead. The crocodile was gaining the edge of the water. If it made it in the water, they were dead. Amy knew that clearly. She could see by Dan's terrified face that he knew it, too.

  The man reached out. He grabbed the edge of Dan's T-shirt with one hand, Amy's with the other. Amy felt like a fish as he hauled them up and over the side.

  They lay in the boat, gasping. The sail furled as it caught a breeze. They all heard a plop as the crocodile entered the water. The man didn't speak. His mouth was a grim line as he reached for the rudder.

  He tacked away, and the boat glided over the water, straight out toward the middle of the river. They caught a current and whirled away. They all held their breath, waiting for any movement near the boat.

  Suddenly, the man smiled. He nodded at them. "Okay," he said. "Okay." Amy's entire body was trembling. She looked at Dan. That had been way too close. She pushed off the deck to sit up straight. Her hand landed in something wet and sticky. She brought it up to see. Blood.

  They were out in the middle of the Nile with a str
anger with a very big knife and blood on the deck of his boat. "We ... we come in p-peace," Amy said.

  The man leaned forward. His gaze was dark and blank. He reached out a strong hand and pointed at Dan. Amy threw herself over her brother to protect him. "No!" she screamed.

  "Yes!" the man shouted. "Red Sock!"

  "R-red ... what?"

  He pointed at Dan's T-shirt. "Boston. 2004 World Series champs!" the man said. "Fenway Park!" He pointed to his own chest. "Game Two!" Dan sat up, blinking as the man's words registered. "You were there? Awesome!"

  "Curt Schilling!"

  "Manny Ramirez!" Dan beamed and turned to Amy. "Baseball. Another universal language."

  "What about that knife?" Amy hissed.

  Dan began to laugh. It had finally happened. Her brother had lost it. "Can't you smell it?" he said. "He's a fisherman. Look!"

  Yes. Now she could smell it. Right next to her was a bucket of fish. He'd been cleaning them when they'd first spotted him.

  "Luxor?" the man said. Now Amy could read the friendliness in his smile. She nodded. The river was a dark, inky blue. Amy caught her breath as her heartbeat slowed. She tilted her head back. She picked out the Big Dipper in the cluster of stars. A sense of comfort trickled through her. From here she could see the moonlight on sand on the Thebes side of the river. It looked like a snowfield extending to the cliffs. As they sailed, the lights of the great Temple of Luxor twinkled. "Amazing," she said.

  "Amazing," the fisherman said.

  Apparently, amazing was part of the universal language, too.

  * * *

  The fisherman left them on the dock close by the Luxor temple. With a huge grin and a friendly wave, he called, "Bye-bye, Bostons! See you later, alligators!" and sailed off. " 'We come in peace'?" Dan mimicked her. "Did you think he was an Egyptian or a