The Mummy's Curse

by Penny Warner

  Cody retrieved the pair of gloves from the top of the pile. The fingertips were smudged brown. She stuffed the gloves into her hoodie pocket and returned to the lobby with the others to rejoin their classes.

  “Listen up, everyone,” Ms. Stad called out. “Mr. Pike and I have reviewed all your answers to the codes, questions, and riddles from earlier. And we have a grand prize winner! The group that had the most correct answers and now gets a sneak peek at the next planned exhibit with Ms. Cassatt is … the Code Busters!”

  “Yes!” Quinn and Luke’s fists shot in the air. Cody and M.E. high-fived each other.

  Winning this reward lifted Cody’s spirits. At least she and her friends would get to see something the other students wouldn’t until their next visit to the museum. She hoped Ms. Cassatt would show them some cool artifacts, and maybe even a mummy.

  “Quiet down, please,” Ms. Stad continued after her announcement. “Not only did they find the most Eyes of Horus throughout the museum—thirteen, one more than the parent volunteers found, in fact—but they also solved all of the puzzles! Great job!”

  Wait a minute, Cody thought. Something’s wrong. An alarm sounded in her head.

  She did the math again to make sure. Ms. Stad said there were originally twelve Eyes. But they had found thirteen. Maybe the parent volunteers didn’t count wrong. Maybe another Eye of Horus had been added to the collection. A fake? If so, maybe the real one wasn’t hidden in the workroom. Maybe it was hidden right in front of their eyes!

  “All right, students,” Ms. Stad announced. “Now that Cody, M.E., Quinn, and Luke are back from their preview, it’s time to reboard the bus and head back to school. Find your buddy and line up, please.”

  Cody shot a panicked glance at M.E. It had been cool seeing the upcoming exhibit, but she’d hoped to get a chance to search the museum for the extra Eye. She finger-spelled a message so no one would overhear her:

  M.E. frowned at her friend and finger-spelled:

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

  Cody ignored her friend and signed, “Hurry!” then went to find her teacher while M.E. passed the message along to the boys.

  “Ms. Stad!” Cody called, elbowing through the crowd of students who were lining up for the bus.

  “What is it, Cody?” Ms. Stad asked, as she counted heads. “You and M.E. need to get in line. We’re leaving in five minutes.”

  “I … I,” Cody stammered. She couldn’t tell Ms. Stad her suspicions without proof. Her teacher would think she was crazy. But she had to check out the rooms again to make sure she was right. “I … left my cell phone in one of the rooms. I need to find it! M.E. and Luke and Quinn said they’d help me. It’ll only take us a few seconds. We’ll be right back!”

  Before Ms. Stad could respond, Cody raced to meet her friends at the entrance of the Daily Life room. She hoped her little white lie would buy her enough time.

  “Find all of the Eyes you can!” Cody ordered the puzzled Code Busters. She held up the cell phone snapshot of the Eye that was in the unlocked case. “Look for one that’s the same as this.”

  “Why are we doing this?” M.E. asked, while the boys began searching.

  “I think there’s an extra Eye somewhere that doesn’t belong. Remember when we counted the Eyes and found thirteen, when Stad said the parent volunteers only found twelve? Well, the thirteenth one has got to be the real Eye of Horus, added after the parents counted them. If we find it, then maybe we can prove the one in the case is a fake. I think Dr. Jordan hid it with the other artifacts, figuring it would blend in and no one would notice it. I’m sure it’s been right in front of our eyes the whole time.”

  The girls joined the boys in their search, but none of them found a match in the Daily Life room.

  “Follow me,” Cody said, racing to the Burial Practices room. After a quick but thorough search that turned up nothing, they moved on to the Gods and Religion room, and finally to the Kings and Pharaohs room.

  And then, inside a case filled with jewelry worn by Egyptian royalty, Cody spotted a statue of a cat painted with hieroglyphs and covered in jewelry. “Look!” she said, alerting the others. “See that cat?”

  M.E. peered into the case. “The one with all the necklaces, and earrings, and a tiara? I wish I had all that stuff. What about it?”

  “Look closely.”

  M.E. blinked. “Wow. I didn’t even notice it before.”

  “What?” Quinn asked.

  M.E. pointed. “Look what’s hanging around that cat’s neck. A bunch of necklaces, including an Eye of Horus!”

  “Yes!” Cody said. “And it’s identical to the one in the case. It probably wasn’t there when the parents checked. I’ll bet none of the other kids saw it because that cat is wearing so much jewelry. It just blends in.”

  Cody held her cell phone picture up to the display case to double-check.

  The amulet was identical.

  “That’s it!” M.E. squealed. “We found it!”

  Before Cody could respond, she heard footsteps behind them. She lowered her cell phone and froze.

  “Found what?” came a deep voice.

  The Code Busters turned around slowly. Standing in the doorway was Dr. Jordan.

  There was no smile on his face this time. His eyebrows were drawn together.

  “What are you kids doing in here?” he said, ominously, his dark eyes reflecting his sudden dark mood. “I thought you’d left.”

  Thinking fast, Cody suddenly lifted her arms out like an airplane, then jerked them up to form a giant Y, and finally dropped them down as if framing a full skirt. She was signaling her friends.

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

  They all raced from the room.

  The Code Busters ran up to Ms. Stad and breathlessly began to explain the situation.

  “The Eye is a fake …,” Cody said.

  “We found the real one …,” M.E. continued.

  “We know who switched them …,” Luke added.

  “He’s after us!” Quinn blurted.

  “Whoa, whoa!” Ms. Stad said. “Slow down! What are you talking about? I thought you went into the museum to look for your phone, Cody.”

  “I was …,” Cody stammered. “I mean, I … I was looking for something …”

  Cody realized she’d been caught in a lie. It was a small lie, but now Ms. Stad might not believe anything else she said.

  The teacher crossed her arms and looked at each of the four kids, disappointment etched on her usually pleasant face. But before she could say anything else, a voice bellowed from the doorway of the museum.

  “Hold it right there!” Dr. Jordan stood on the top step, his hands on his hips, his dark eyebrows scrunched together menacingly.

  Ms. Stad looked up at the man, then back at the kids.

  Uh-oh, Cody thought. We’re in deep trouble now.

  Dr. Jordan stepped down and headed for the small group.

  “Is something wrong?” Ms. Stad asked him. The Code Busters moved behind her for protection.

  Dr. Jordan peered at them before addressing Ms. Stad. “I’ll say there is. I believe these kids have something that belongs to the museum. Isn’t that right, kids?”

  Cody stepped forward, frowning at the accusation. “No, we don’t. You’re the one who took the real Eye from the case and switched it with a fake.”

  Dr. Jordan’s mouth dropped open. He suddenly looked more puzzled than angry. “What are you talking about? I saw you kids over by the Eye of Horus in the Daily Life room. You were acting very suspicious. When I went to check on the display after you left the room, I found this. It’s a fake. Do you kids know anything about this?”

  “No,” M.E. said. “We thought you took it.”

  Dr. Jordan frowned at M.E. “What’s that on your hands?” he asked.

  M.E. turned her hands over to look at them, then quickly put them behind her back.

  “Why are your
fingertips stained?” Ms. Stad looked at M.E. “What is he talking about, MariaElena? What’s that on your fingers?” M.E. reluctantly withdrew her hands from behind her back and showed them to Ms. Stad, who inspected them closely. She turned to the other Code Busters. “Let me see your hands, too.” Quinn, Luke, and Cody held up their hands. Ms. Stad looked at Cody. “What’s that stain on your fingertip?”

  By now a crowd of students had gathered around the scene, wide-eyed and openmouthed. Embarrassed by the drama, Cody felt her neck turn hot, and she broke out in a sweat. She almost wished she could crawl into a sarcophagus and disappear.

  Quinn began explaining. “Listen, Ms. Stadelhofer. M.E. and Cody got those stains when they touched the fake Eye in that case, but they didn’t steal anything. Cody accidentally bumped the case and the door popped open. That’s when we realized it wasn’t locked. Then M.E. reached in—”

  “But I wasn’t going to steal the Eye!” M.E. exclaimed, interrupting Quinn. “I just wanted to see it. I put it right back.”

  “It stained my fingertip, too,” Cody said to Ms. Stad. “But I promise, we left the Eye there in the case. We thought maybe it was a fake, so we were going to tell you about the unlocked door, but when we went back to check, the case was locked up again.”

  “I’m confused,” Ms. Stad said, shaking her head. “You found the case open, so you picked up the Eye, and then you put it back and closed the case? Why didn’t you tell me before you went back to check on it?”

  Cody sighed and looked at the others. “We … we wanted to make sure it was a fake first. But then it was locked up again, and we had no way to prove anything.” She turned to Dr. Jordan. “We thought maybe you switched them, because we saw you working on the Eye in the lab earlier. You said you’d been cleaning it, but when we went back to the lab, we found the gloves you’d been using in the trash. The fingertips were brown, like you’d been staining the Eye.”

  Dr. Jordan looked down at his fingers.

  “We have proof.” Cody pulled out the gloves from her hoodie pocket and held them up. “See the stains? You were wearing them when you were working on the Eye. But you weren’t wearing them when you replaced the Eye in the case with a fake.”

  “Let me see those,” Dr. Jordan said. Cody hesitated to pass over their proof, but Ms. Stad nodded. Dr. Jordan examined them closely. “These aren’t mine.”

  “But you were wearing gloves earlier,” Quinn protested. “And you’re an expert in making forgeries. You could easily have made a fake Eye and switched it with the real one.”

  “Wow,” Dr. Jordan finally said. “You kids are something. Well, at least I know you were listening to my lecture. Unfortunately, you’ve let your imaginations run away with you. I really was cleaning that Eye of Horus. I would never use a stain on an authentic artifact. In fact, I thought you kids bought a replica and tried to make it look real by staining it, then switched them. I only checked the case because I saw you kids hovering around it. When I unlocked it, I found the fake.”

  “Do other staff members at the museum have keys for the displays?” Ms. Stad asked.

  Cody looked at her teacher appreciatively. Was she beginning to believe their story?

  “A few people …,” Dr. Jordan replied, drifting off in thought.

  “Is it possible someone else made the switch and accidentally left the case unlocked?” Cody asked.

  “I suppose,” Dr. Jordan confirmed, “but even so, that doesn’t mean the real Eye was replaced with a replica. And the real question is, where is the real Eye now?”

  Cody looked at her friends. As if reading her mind, they nodded.

  “We have something to show you,” Cody said. She glanced at her teacher, who nodded her permission. “Come on!”

  Ms. Stad asked Mr. Pike to watch the rest of the students while she accompanied the Code Busters and Dr. Jordan back into the museum. Cody led the way back to the Kings and Pharaohs room, where they’d found the thirteenth Eye draped around the neck of the cat statue. When they reached the display case, Cody peered in.

  She gasped.

  The Eye was gone!

  “But … but it was right here!” she stammered.

  “What was?” Dr. Jordan asked, looking closely at the display.

  “The thirteenth Eye of Horus!” she exclaimed. “It was mixed in with all that jewelry around the cat’s neck.” She turned to Ms. Stad. “Remember we found thirteen Eyes—one more than you thought?”

  Ms. Stad frowned at Cody. “Hmm. Maybe you miscounted after all? I never got a chance to verify your numbers.”

  “No,” Cody said. “We all saw it! It was identical to the other one in the open display case. It was right here!” Suddenly, she wished she’d taken a picture of the cat. That would have been proof.

  Dr. Jordan raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Obviously, he thought she was either lying or crazy.

  Or maybe there was another reason Dr. Jordan wasn’t speaking up.

  “What’s going on here?” Ms. Cassatt said, approaching the group. The woman seemed to appear out of nowhere. She brushed up against Cody, bumping her slightly, then patted her on the back as if apologizing. “I thought you students were on your way back to school.”

  Dr. Jordan turned to Ms. Cassatt. “Someone’s stolen an Eye of Horus from the Daily Life room. I thought maybe one of the kids—”

  “Stolen!” Ms. Cassatt said loudly. “What do you mean?”

  Dr. Jordan opened his hand. “I found this Eye in the case. It’s a fake. We need to call the police.”

  “Are you sure it’s a fake?” Ms. Cassatt said. “We haven’t had a theft here since you started, Malik.”

  “Of course I’m sure,” Dr. Jordan said. “I can run tests on it if you need proof.”

  “How do you test it?” Cody asked.

  He turned to her. “It’s very simple, really. When we test an amulet like this, we use a microscope to check for something called natron, which is a mixture of sodium products used in the embalming process. Since most amulets were buried with their owners, who were mummified, we find traces of these minerals on them.”

  “Give me that!” Ms. Cassatt commanded, snatching the amulet from Dr. Jordan’s palm. She studied it closely. Then she looked up at Dr. Jordan. “I can already tell it’s a fake. But if we call the police, word will get out and the museum could lose a great deal of funding. We have to deal with this ourselves. After all, that’s why I hired you, Malik.”

  Cody looked at her friends, sensing something was up with Ms. Cassatt. Protecting the museum’s reputation was more important than calling the police and finding the thief? Suddenly, she saw what was right in front of her. She whispered to the Code Busters in phonetic alphabet code: “Charlie, Alpha, Sierra, Sierra, Alpha, Tango, Tango!”

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

  What do you mean, don’t call the police?”

  Dr. Jordan asked. “A valuable artifact has been stolen from the museum! We can’t just do nothing!”

  Ms. Cassatt didn’t respond. Instead, she turned to Cody, who was still standing next to her.

  “I think you took it!” Ms. Cassatt announced.

  Cody couldn’t believe her ears. “What?”

  “Uh-uh!” M.E. said, eyes wide.

  “No way!” said Quinn.

  “Are you kidding?” Luke said in disbelief.

  Cody was too stunned to speak. She stared at Ms. Cassatt, her mouth open. Finally, she blurted, “None of us took it. We’re the ones who told you about the fake!”

  “Really?” Ms. Cassatt said, tapping her foot. “The security guard told me you kids were hanging around that case. Empty your pockets.”

  “I’m telling you,” Cody said, protesting, “I didn’t take it!”

  Ms. Cassatt reached for Cody’s hoodie.

  Cody moved back. “No way are you touching me!” She turned to Ms. Stad for protection. Her teacher stepped in and blocked Ms. Cassatt.

  “Show me
what’s in your pocket, young lady,” Ms. Cassatt commanded.

  “This is stupid!” Cody protested, but she reached into her right pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper and a scarab the size of a walnut. She handed everything to Ms. Cassatt. The woman examined the amulet, and then the small paper, which turned out to be the receipt for the scarab. “I bought that in the gift shop! There’s the receipt to prove it.”

  Ms. Cassatt continued to frown as she returned the items to Cody. “Now the other one.”

  Cody rolled her eyes, but to prove her innocence once and for all, she dug into the left pocket of her hoodie. Withdrawing her hand, she held up her cell phone. “See!”

  “Is that all?”

  “Yes!” Cody said, raising her hands.

  Ms. Cassatt suddenly reached into both of Cody’s pockets.

  “What are you doing?” Cody squealed.

  Ms. Cassatt’s frown melted into an evil smile as she withdrew her hands. She opened one palm to reveal the Eye of Horus.

  Cody froze. She felt her face flush hot. This can’t be happening, she thought, glancing at the other Code Busters in panic.

  “Well?” Ms. Cassatt said. “I’ll bet you don’t have a receipt for this! So what do you have to say for yourself, young lady?”

  Cody felt her entire body get warm. Her eyes burned with oncoming tears. This is a nightmare come true, she thought. How did that Eye of Horus get into my pocket?

  M.E. reached for Cody’s hand. She began squeezing it off and on. Cody realized M.E. was sending her a message in Morse code. Cody quickly deciphered the short and long squeezes.

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

  “I’m sure that there’s a logical explanation, Ms. Cassatt,” Ms. Stad said, wrapping a protective arm around Cody. “These are good kids. They would never steal anything.”

  “Then how do you explain the fact that this precious artifact was in her pocket?” Ms. Cassatt asked.