by Steve Cole
Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One: Mystery, Horror, Suspense!
Chapter Two: Chaos in Egypt
Chapter Three: The Tomb Stone
Chapter Four: Mystery of the Asp
Chapter Five: Cleopatra Coming Atcha
Chapter Six: Queen of Mean
Chapter Seven: Let Battle Commence!
Chapter Eight: Monster Mystery
Chapter Nine: Call of the Crystal
Chapter Ten: Mission to the Red Land
Chapter Eleven: Dreadful Traitor Mummy
Chapter Twelve: Battle to the Last
Chapter Thirteen: All’s Pharaoh Love and War
Mysteries of Ancient Egypt
About the Author
Also by Steve Cole
Sneak Peek
Copyright
About the Book
One boy. One mummy. One mad, bad mission.
Cleopatra’s tomb has never been found – until NOW. And you won’t BELIEVE what’s been hiding inside.
Sam the SECRET AGENT MUMMY must take on:
a statue that bites
an undead empress with unfinished business
terrifying intergalactic lizard-men
an ancient plot that threatens all life on Earth.
Luckily, Sam can call on his best friend and neighbour, Niall Rivers, for help. Together, they’ll save the planet for sure . . . WON’T THEY?
For Caitlin Porter
Chapter One
Mystery, Horror, Suspense!
Niall was having a nightmare.
The giant face of a woman was staring down at him. She wore thick black make-up around her eyes, and her proud features were framed by a blue and gold striped headdress.
She looks like an Ancient Egyptian queen, thought Niall.
The sun rose from behind her huge head, dazzling bright. Then another sun . . . and another . . . until seven suns surrounded her.
Suddenly, Niall heard a creepy, slithering noise close by . . . as if something scary and slimy and horrible was coming for him!
Don’t look! he told himself. You mustn’t look! Don’t! Don’t you dare! Ooooooooh, you’re going to look, aren’t you? Nooooo! Don’t do it, you crazy fool! Don’t!
And yet he couldn’t stop himself.
He was turning . . . turning round . . . turning round and SCREAMING as he found . . .
His little sister, Ellie the Snitch, shaking him awake.
“Wake up, pants-face,” she said. “Breakfast is ready.”
But Niall was still lost in his dream, and the scream that had started there burst from his mouth. “ARGGHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“OWWWW!” The Snitch jumped back, clutching her ears. “You nearly burst my eardrums!”
Niall groaned. “I knew I would see something horrible if I turned round. I just didn’t realize HOW horrible.”
“Right. I’m telling Mum on you.” Blonde bunches shaking, the Snitch ran out of his room. “Mum! Mummeeeeeeeee . . .!”
“Please don’t mention ‘mummies’,” Niall grumbled. Sweaty and shaking, he sat up in bed and looked out at the massive pyramid in next door’s garden.
The pyramid that no one but he could see.
The pyramid that was home to a heavily bandaged detective who’d first walked the Earth almost three thousand years ago . . . and who’d dragged Niall into his world . . .
A Secret Agent Mummy!
Since getting mixed up with this Secret Agent Mummy (or Sam, as Niall had nicknamed him, for short) Niall had seen all kinds of unbelievable things: spells and sorcerers, talking cats and flying dogs, disappearing houses and collapsing hills . . .
It all began when I touched that dusty old Egyptian relic, he remembered. It gave me special powers to see into that crazy, secret mummy world – whether I liked it or not.
Of course, setting eyes on his sister first thing was even worse. He’d forgotten to leave his homemade “Snitch Detector” switched on – using an old toy’s motion sensor and the buzzer from an alarm clock, it went off if anyone entered his bedroom.
Niall sighed. He was good with gadgets – and the mummy magic he’d absorbed had made him a whizz with technology from Ka-Ba, Sam’s homeland – but even he couldn’t invent an alarm clock to save him from bad dreams.
He put his dressing gown on over his pyjamas and went down to the kitchen, where the Snitch was sitting pretending to sob.
Mum, clutching a coffee and looking tired, pushed a bowl of cereal towards him. “Say sorry to your sister.”
“Sorry to your sister,” Niall repeated obediently. While Ellie scowled and Mum sighed, he quickly grabbed his bowl and dodged into the living room.
The TV was on – breakfast news, boring. Niall was about to flick to a gadget show he’d recorded the night before, when something in the presenter’s rambling monologue grabbed his attention.
“After more than two thousand years, the tomb of Cleopatra – the last of the Egyptian pharaohs – has finally been discovered. But the strange thing is, no body was found inside! Was it tomb raiders – or have the experts made a grave mistake?” The presenter smirked. “For more on this ancient mystery, we now go live to a press conference in Alexandria, Egypt, where the first treasures from inside Cleopatra’s tomb – buried since 30 BC – are about to be revealed to the world . . .”
The picture changed to show a close-up of a statue of a woman.
Niall spat out his cornflakes in shock. “The woman in the sky in my dream – that’s her!” He stared, wide-eyed and even wider-mouthed. “I dreamed about Cleopatra, and now she’s on TV!”
The picture shifted to a group of smartly dressed people standing behind a table in a large marble hall. Live from the Museum of Alexandria, said a helpful caption. The onlookers were “oohing” and “ahhing” at some old bits and bobs on the table. The camera came in closer to show them off: a large pot, a fancy painted necklace, a gold figurine shaped like a sort of cobra . . .
A smart woman picked up the cobra. “This statue of an asp is unlike any other known Egyptian artefact. Its presence in Cleopatra’s tomb is a mystery. Of course, we know that Cleopatra was killed by the bite of an asp . . .”
Suddenly, a man wearing a fez and a long brown coat burst into view. “GIVE ME THAT, PLEASE!”
Niall watched in horror as the man snatched the golden figurine out of her hand and made off with it.
“Stop, thief!” she shouted.
“That asp is priceless!” cried another expert. “Don’t let him get away!”
“Excuse me! Let me be craving your forgiveness,” The camera zoomed in on the fleeing figure in the coat as he shouted back over his shoulder, “Mummy coming through. Er, MAN coming through, I mean. Definitely a man!”
All at once Niall recognized the bandages beneath the coat – bandages that only his magically charmed eyes could see – and threw his milky cornflakes into the air in shock. He barely noticed as they splattered all over the sofa.
“It’s Sam!” he squeaked, riveted to the TV. “Secret Agent Mummy is stealing Cleopatra’s treasure, live on TV! But why?”
Chapter Two
Chaos in Egypt
“Sam, you nut!” Niall’s eyes remained glued to the screen as his mummy-detective friend was chased out of the door by a mob of police officers, reporters, experts – even some soldiers with rifles at the ready!
Niall shook his head. His mummified mate had magical powers and a big heart, but he was not always the brightest of detectives. Would he – could he – escape his pursuers?
There was a sudden burst of light in Niall’s living room. It faded to reveal a strange creature hovering in mid-air, k
ept aloft by little jets of flame sputtering from all four paws. It looked like a blue metal dog with pointed ears, a sharp snout and a bandaged bottom.
“Mumbum!” Niall greeted Sam’s unusual pet in surprise – and groaned as the bum-part sniffed at his face like an over-eager puppy, the bandaged tail flapping and whacking him round the chops. “Urph! Down, boy!”
Like Sam, Mumbum came from the realm of Ka-Ba, in the next universe but one. In ancient times, Earth and Ka-Ba had been connected by a kind of tunnel through space. The incredible creatures of Ka-Ba had explored that tunnel and found themselves emerging in Ancient Egypt, where the people worshipped them as gods. But when crooks from Ka-Ba escaped to cause trouble on Earth, Secret Agent Mummies were sent to catch them! Mumbum had helped Sam as his sort of police dog – until a terrible accident left him little more than a battered bottom. Even so, once strapped into a robotic body, Mumbum could still help his master in the fight against weirdo wrongdoers . . .
“What’re you doing in my house, Mumbum?” Niall looked nervously towards the door to the kitchen – Mum and the Snitch knew nothing of his secret life helping the Ancient Egyptian detective duo and he definitely didn’t want them to find out. “What’s Sam doing in Egypt? What’s going on?”
With a muffled woof, a curl of paper came spooling out of Mumbum’s metal lips:
“Huh?” Niall frowned. “But . . . he’s on another continent. I’m not even dressed—”
He stopped suddenly as the door was pushed open. Quickly, he bundled the hovering Mumbum behind the nearest curtain and stood in front of it, just as the Snitch walked in.
“What’re you watching the boring old news for?” she asked. Then she saw the mess of milk and soggy cornflakes all over the sofa and her face lit up. “Oooooh, Niall, you doofus-head! Mum is going to KILL you for this!”
As the Snitch fled the room to tell on him, Niall pulled back the curtain and looked at Mumbum. “OK, boy, I’ve changed my mind – let’s get out of here!”
Mumbum woofed, already trembling with power. His ragged tail spun round like a propeller and he emitted a silvery glow that engulfed both him and Niall. The familiar surroundings of the living room disappeared in a WHOOSH! Niall found himself spinning through space and darkness, clutching onto the robo-dog, tumbling through the unknown until—
WHOOMPH!
Niall lay flat on his back with a bandaged bottom on his chest. As he pushed Mumbum off, he felt the sun’s strong heat through his cotton pyjamas. With a shock, he found he was lying on a concrete plaza outside a grand old building marked MUSEUM OF ALEXANDRIA. Crumbling pyramids peeped out along the horizon.
“We did it, Mumbum!” Niall breathed. “We’re actually in Egypt!”
Thousands of miles had slipped by in a few moments. But his awe and wonder were forgotten when he heard running footsteps and angry voices coming his way. Mumbum woofed, as Niall turned . . .
To find a familiar bandaged figure in fez and coat running madly towards them, pursued by the same crowd Niall had just seen on TV!
“Ah, Niall! My young friend.” As he joined them, puffing for breath, Sam waved the golden asp he had stolen. “And Mumbum, my dog of wonder! A thousand welcomes to you both.”
“Skip the welcomes, let’s get straight to the goodbyes!” Niall jumped up. “Come on, Mumbum!”
Sam grabbed hold of Mumbum’s left ear, and Niall quickly held onto the other. With a scorch of rocket jets the robo-hound took off across the Egyptian plaza at terrific speed.
“WHOAAAAA!” Niall clung on for dear life. For a few moments he was flying behind Mumbum like a kite – so fast that his pyjama bottoms almost fell down!
“Good boy, Mumbum!” called Sam, his fez blowing away. “We must escape with this relic!”
“Why?” Niall yelled. “Why are you stealing it, anyway?”
“I had no choice!” Sam cried.
Before Niall could learn more – BANG! With four fizzles of smoke, Mumbum’s jets went out and he crashed to the ground. Niall and Sam were thrown helplessly through the air, then crashed into a market stall full of watermelons. The whole thing collapsed in a mushy heap.
“Ugh!” Niall groaned through a mouthful of mashed melon. Wiping his eyes, he saw Mumbum’s bum scurrying towards them, dragging the metal body behind. “What happened, Mumbum? You’ve got to take us back home!”
Mumbum woofed sadly with a shake of his tush.
“He cannot!” Sam sighed. “Like me, he has used up his power in travelling such a great distance. It will take time for it to return.” Paper curled out of Mumbum’s mouth:
“You mean we’re all stuck here and it’s down to me to get us out?” Niall looked back anxiously at the mob of soldiers, reporters and guards still on their tail. By now, the watermelon-stall owner was shouting at them too, attracting a growing crowd of angry market traders.
Niall gulped at all the glowering faces. “What now?”
“I must pay for this damage, of course!” Sam tucked the asp statue under his coat, reached inside his bandaged ribs and took out a pile of gold coins. “Here, my friends . . . catch!”
He threw the coins in all directions. At once, the stallholders scattered, trying to gather up the gold pieces. Other passersby joined the scrum, forming a barrier between Niall, Sam and Mumbum and their pursuers.
“Great distraction!” Niall cheered.
“It is also a great pity, though,” said Sam, scooping up Mumbum. “That was my pocket money for the next two centuries!”
As the museum mob tried to force their way through the gold-grabbing throng, Niall and Sam ran for it. “You’re normally full of special powers,” Niall panted. “Don’t you have any magic left?”
“Wait! Perhaps some of my strength has returned . . .” Sam squeezed shut his eyes and made a “Gnnnnnnnnnnn” sound. Finally, something large, round and shiny rolled out of his bandaged trouser leg. “Aha! Success – I have made an ostrich egg appear from nowhere!”
“What use is that?”
“Er . . . ostrich eggs are full of goodness.” Sam cracked the egg on his head and gulped down the gloopy insides. “A big egg a day keeps the Egyptian doctor away.”
Niall slapped a hand to his forehead. “It’s that angry mob we need to keep away! Come on, let’s go . . .”
Sam led the way into an older part of town, a complicated maze of gloomy alleyways. First he darted left, then right, then left and left again, then straight on . . .
“You know where you’re going?” Niall panted.
“No,” Sam admitted cheerfully. “But if I do not know, those who chase us do not know either! Good plan, hey?”
The next moment they came to a dead end.
“No . . .” said Niall.
Gasping for breath, they doubled back and took the next narrow alleyway – but that too ended in a blank wall. The angry shouts were getting closer.
“The people chasing us know their way round this old city,” Niall realized. “We don’t.”
Sam nodded grimly. “Soon they will be upon us!”
Chapter Three
The Tomb Stone
“If only I could boost Mumbum’s power somehow. Then we could get away!” Niall pulled open a panel in the metal dog’s side and peered at the circuits inside. Any other human would have just seen a baffling jumble of reeds, stone and pottery, but the system made sense to Niall – mummy magic had boosted his natural flair for gadgetry to the max.
Sam looked hopefully at Niall from the opening of the alleyway. “Well?”
Niall nodded. “If I divert the back-up system’s energy to his main drive, it should give us the boost we need.”
“Can you do that in fifteen seconds?”
“No way!”
“Then I must buy you more time!” Draining the last bits of ostrich egg, Sam strained and grunted and groaned until – WHOP! – a small, black pointy thing appeared in his palm. “There.”
“A pit-amid!” Niall grinned. Pit-amids were useful gadgets: if
you stepped on one, it made an instant pit in the ground. “It’s a bit titchy, though. Will it make a big enough hole to catch all those people chasing us?”
“It is not meant for them, my friend!” Sam’s eyes gleamed as he dropped the object beside Niall and Mumbum. “It is for US!”
Before Niall could object, Sam had stamped on the pit-amid. Sure enough, a hole opened up in the ground beneath them, and all three fell helplessly into thick darkness . . .
And went on falling!
“Hey!” Niall shouted. “How deep is this pit, anyway?
“Something is wrong!” Sam yelled back. “Hold on . . .” There came a frantic swishing, unwrapping sound. “If I can take off my bandages in time . . .”
Niall groaned. “Sam, you crash-landing in the nude isn’t going to help us!”
“These bindings are tough!” said Sam brightly. “Let me hurl them down beneath you. They have protected my body for thousands of years – perhaps they will protect you too—”
WHUMP!
Niall landed heavily on a dusty layer of fabric. Sam and Mumbum thumped down on the bandages beside him.
“Whoa . . .” Clambering shakily to his feet, Niall knew it was a miracle he had survived. “Thanks, Sam. You saved my life.”
“I am glad,” said Sam. “I am also glad it is dark. Otherwise I would be showing my pants right now!”
Niall shivered as he peered around in the thick gloom. The only illumination came from a distant circle of light high above their heads. He could see figures milling around it in confusion.
“That’s the hole we fell through,” he murmured. “They’ll never get to us all the way down here. But . . . where is here?”
“Ah! I remember now . . .” There was a rustling as Sam slipped his bandages back on. “The city above was built on the site of ancient catacombs.”
“Catacombs?”
“Underground tunnels,” Sam explained, “in which people were buried, along with their possessions.”