Beyond the Grave - - 39 Clues 04

by Jude Watson

  "Why is that?" Amy challenged. "Am I supposed to be impressed with concentration camps and atomic bombs?"

  Bae thumped his stick. "That is an emotional reaction! Ekats are not evil. They are not good. They invent. They challenge. They lead.

  Some lives lost? Those are petty concerns. What is important is the discovery.

  The invention.

  Do you understand?"

  "Yeah, we get it," Dan said. "Here's the four-one-one -- you are one creepy dude." Bae Oh moved closer to them, and they backed up a step. "You are Cahills, too. You know that what makes us extraordinary can sometimes make us dangerous. Your ancestors are proof of that. It is your job to learn from their mistakes as well as their triumphs. Isn't that true?"

  Amy didn't want to listen to him. But at last he'd made sense.

  He took another step toward them, holding out one arm in a genial way. They backed

  up again. No way did Dan want to get close to this evil, ancient dude.

  "Come," he said, in a tone he probably thought was warm and fuzzy. Instead, it was a

  total creep-out. "We are all one family. We should be allies. You've come far on the

  search for the thirty-nine clues, but we all need help. How about a simple exchange of

  information? I will tell you what I know of the great Sakhet mystery. You will tell me

  the whereabouts of my nephew. I know he is fond of you."

  "You first," Dan said.

  Bae inclined his head. "Gladly. I will show you trust, and you will do the same, I am sure." He pointed with his cane to the first Sakhet. "Here is what we Ekats know for certain. Our glorious ancestor Katherine, the queen of ingenuity, left Europe for Egypt. Can you imagine what kind of courage it took for a woman to travel alone in the early part of the sixteenth century? We know she came to Cairo and purchased three small statues of Sakhet. One had ruby eyes, one lapis, one emerald. She then disguised herself as a man and left Cairo. We know she met up with a family of tomb robbers and hired them to take her on a trip up the Nile. She hid each Sakhet, and each one hid a secret."

  Bae stared at the statue. "She's beautiful, isn't she? It's no accident that Katherine chose a goddess. She believed she was never given her due as a woman. And she wasn't." He sighed. "We don't know how the other branches found out about Katherine's clue, but we know they have been searching for centuries. That horrid little Lucian, Napoleon, instructed his scholars to keep their eyes peeled for any statue of Sakhet. Some think he decided to invade the country in order to obtain it. Napoleon wasn't known for his intellect." Bae sniffed. "He had another Lucian on the expedition who did the real work. Bernardino Drovetti. He was the one who identified the Sakhet. It was in Napoleon's private collection. The Ekats made numerous attempts to steal it. Finally, Drovetti thought he could keep it safe if he shipped it off in a collection he donated to the Louvre Museum."

  Amy was afraid to look at Dan. Bernardino Drovetti -- could he be the "B.D." who had written the letter they'd found at Sennari House?

  The clue is now en route to the palace of L in Paris ...

  "Luckily, one of our Ekats was an archaeologist hired by the Louvre. He pronounced the statue a fake and was able to get it from the museum. He smuggled it back to us for study. Ha! Right under Drovetti's nose! We found the first piece of the puzzle."

  But maybe there was another Sakhet, Amy thought. One you didn't know about. Drovetti sent it to a palace.

  Bae took a few steps toward the second Sakhet. Amy and Dan were forced to move, too, or they'd be standing close to him. "The search for the Sakhets went on. The word got out, and many Cahills came to Egypt in hopes of finding one. The great explorer Richard Francis Burton, Winston Churchill, Flinders Petrie, Mark Twain ... none of them were Ekats. We prefer to work behind the scenes." "Mark Twain?" Dan asked.

  "Janus," Bae sniffed. "The descendants of Jane are such show-offs. It wasn't until Howard Carter made it his business to search that we found the second. Tomb after tomb, excavation after excavation. He was in competition with Flinders Petrie." "The other great archaeologist," Amy said. "Lucian?" she guessed. Bae nodded. "Naturally, the Ekat won. Carter found it. Here, this one, with the emerald eyes. There was just one problem. The statue is solid. We cannot find a way in. It is identical to the others, but there is no secret catch. We know this for certain. So what is the answer?

  Is there another Sakhet? There must be. I myself, since I was a young man, have searched and searched. I haunted shops in Cairo, I searched through every auction catalog, I visited every black-market dealer. And then one day I found the third." Bai gazed at the statue reverently. "Blue-eyed and full of treasure." Bae slumped over his cane, suddenly looking old and defeated. "We still were not able to break the code. We've failed at such a crucial point. We've run computer modeling and written programs to solve the mystery. There are hundreds of tombs out there that haven't been discovered yet. Any one of them could be the one. It could be that we misinterpreted Katherine's hint. Or perhaps she had a fourth Sakhet as a backup. It's impossible to say."

  He took a faltering step toward them, pleading in his eyes. "I am head of the Ekats," he said in a hoarse voice. He seemed out of breath. "Alistair is my successor. If he has a Sakhet, they will welcome and honor him. I can retire a happy man. But we've had our differences. He's too proud to let me help him. But I must. For his sake, and the sake of the Ekaterinas. Do you understand?" Bae's face softened. He stepped toward them again. "I do this for him. Tell me where I can find my nephew."

  Dan looked at Amy. Was she actually buying this? Her eyes looked soft. He tugged at her elbow, making her back up. He was suddenly wary of being within striking distance of that cane.

  "Sorry to tell you this," Dan said. "But Alistair is dead."

  Bae looked hard at Dan. Dan stared back at him, never dropping his gaze.

  "What a pity," Bae finally said, "that you lied."

  The weakness was suddenly gone. Bae moved astonishingly fast. He flipped his cane around and aimed it at the far corner of the ceiling. From one of the faceted jewels, a laser shot out. They heard a soft whisper.

  A vitrine the size of a small room slammed down from above. They realized too late that Bae had maneuvered them into a specific spot. They were trapped inside four walls of unbreakable plastic with no door.

  "Until you choose to tell the truth, there will you stay," Bae said. "An exhibit of fools for the descendants of Katherine to enjoy!"

  CHAPTER 7

  Irina Spasky was furious at herself. She'd throw herself into a gulag if she could. She deserved icy weather, thin blankets, one rotten turnip for supper. How could she let two amateurs, two

  children, give her the slip?

  And if she had to eat another falafel, she'd gag. You couldn't find a plain boiled potato anywhere in this crazy country.

  Enough with foreign food. Enough with the tourist disguise. Disgustedly, she peeled

  off the I WANT MY MUMMY T-shirt. Underneath it she wore a plain black T-shirt from the Gap. A little secret known only to her -- she did love that American Gap. T-shirts in every color! She sat in a chair in her cheap hotel room and looked down at the crazy traffic. She pressed a finger against her eye, which had started to twitch. She had to think.

  She had almost had those kids, twice, and she'd lost them! Was she slipping?

  She wanted back on her home ground. She had done some operations in Cairo when she was with the KGB. She didn't operate well here. The people were too friendly. If you asked someone for directions, they'd walk with you and take you there. And it was so hot. Soon the snows would be covering the steppes in Russia, and here it was well over ninety degrees. She turned the ceiling fan to the highest setting.

  She had another pair of brats on her hands -- Ian and Natalie Kabra. They were supposed to be working together, and those two know-it-alls kept trying to double-cross her. Now they were in Kyrgyzstan, not answering their cell phones. She'd finally had to resort to calling their parents. And sh
e never liked to talk to the Kabras. They had a history together, and she trusted them even less than their kids. Those two. Geniuses, but stupid. Just like their parents.

  Their parents ... Irina shook her head, trying to rid herself of the memory. She never thought about things she couldn't change. Things in the past. Except suddenly, here in Cairo, she found herself thinking about Grace Cahill. It had been years ago that the Lucians had called a top-level meeting to discuss the Grace Cahill problem. They knew Grace had collected many Clues. She seemed to have a genius for it. Even the Lucians had to admit that. She had to be stopped. It was Irina who had come up with the idea of the alliance. Just a ruse, of course. But it could be a way to get close to Grace, to learn something. Irina had offered herself to be the go-between. The cheese in the mousetrap. She had met with Grace. Alone, and face-to-face. The conversation had been short. It was clear that Grace hadn't believed Irina for a moment.

  You're trying to play me for a fool, but it is you, Irina, who is the fool, Grace had said.

  You offer an alliance as a ruse instead of a reality. It is the curse of the Lucians to think they can do everything alone.

  Irina had walked away furious. Nobody called her a fool. Nobody. Talks resumed on the Grace Cahill problem. Plans discussed and discarded. Overtures to others. Shaky alliances agreed to in order to attack a shared problem. All to the good. Except ... the plan had been agreed on, and everything had gone wrong. Horribly wrong. Grace's daughter and son-in-law had lost their lives in that fire. She would never forget the day of the funeral. Irina knew it was not her place to go, yet she couldn't stay away. It hadn't been to gloat, no matter what Grace thought. Grace's face had been so white and still. The loss other beloved daughter, her treasured son-in-law, the tragedy of her orphaned grandchildren -- she had seemed years older. She moved like an old woman and her eyes held limitless grief. Her hands shook as she tossed roses onto the caskets as they were lowered into the earth.

  Irina had wanted to say, J too have known such grief. But she didn't.

  She wanted to say, I walked the streets of Moscow like a ghost. I lost my soul, I lost my heart. She wanted to say,

  They think that grief is noisy, Grace. They think you'll cry and wail. But I know that grief is as silent as snow.

  I too have lost a child.

  She said none of these things. Her memories were her own. She had sealed them off. The only relic of that time was an eye that twitched when she was under emotional stress.

  That day she had blamed Grace for forcing her to recall her memories. She had been brusque and chilly. She had said to Grace, "Fate has no scruples. These things happen."

  These things happen, she had said to a mother who had just lost a child. She'd heard her own words echo and been shocked at their coldness. She'd wanted to turn back. She'd wanted to show compassion, to be a person with blood in her veins.

  But she hadn't. Instead, she had felt Grace's contempt run over her, like wave after wave from the cold Bering Strait. Then, in a flash, contempt turned to suspicion. Irina had not been able to meet Grace's eyes.

  So, to say the least, she had been surprised to be invited to Grace's funeral. It was only

  when she knew the other Cahills were invited that she decided to go.

  All of them in one room. All those ancient hatreds. And Grace as the puppet master. Had Grace set a trap that she couldn't see? Who was the cheese? Who was the mouse?

  What is your plan, Grace? You always had a plan.

  Those grandchildren -- why did Grace include them? They couldn't possibly beat the rest of the Cahills for the Clues. They were years behind in knowledge and training. Too late to catch up. They had been lucky so far. Only that. Two children without anyone to help them, running on fear and loss ...

  Fear.

  Loss.

  The things I've known. The things I've seen ...

  She felt her eye twitching. She clapped a hand to her face, trying to halt the shivering nerve. The past was past.

  Except here she was in Egypt, and everywhere she turned, the very air seemed to

  whisper that the past was very much alive

  CHAPTER 8

  It had to happen. After all these years of hating museums, he'd turned into a

  permanent exhibit. Dan pressed his palms against the wall. "Help," he whispered.

  "How much longer do you think he'll leave us here?" Amy asked.

  "Until we crack," Dan said.

  "How can we crack? We don't know anything."

  "I know I'm hungry," Dan said. "If Oh offered me a pizza, I'd think of something." "Nellie will start to wonder where we are," Amy said.

  "She'll never find us."

  "She'll tell the front desk. Maybe they'll call the police "

  "Don't you get it? He owns the hotel. They're not going to do anything." "He can't just leave us here." Amy's voice quavered, and she swallowed hard. She had been in worse spots, she told herself. But somehow this Plexiglas cube made her feel panicked. Like she was a thing on display, not a person. She tried to take a breath. "How much air is in this thing?"

  "I don't know," Dan said. "Maybe ... maybe we shouldn't talk." Now she had scared her brother. Losing his breath was a real issue for him. Amy straightened her shoulders. She wasn't going to lose it. She'd freaked out in front of Dan before, and she wasn't going to do it again. Ever.

  "I'm sure there's enough." For how long?

  The thought rose and she batted it away. The panic eased a little. She could do this. She knew now that the trick to being brave was not thinking of the worst thing that could happen. It was a weird thing -- if you acted brave, you could almost feel brave.

  She'd just have to work at it. As hard as she could.

  * * *

  "Kiddos?" Nellie called from the bedroom. "There'd better be food out there waiting for

  me!"

  No answer. "Dudes?" Nellie knotted the sash of the thick hotel robe. "Munchkins?" They hated when she called them that. But no howl of dismay came from the other room. Nellie pushed open the door. The room was empty. A robe lay on the floor next to a broken umbrella. The kids had flown the coop.

  Well. Who could blame them? They were in a five-star hotel, and they wanted to explore. Nellie flopped on a sofa and gave herself up to a luxurious perusal of the room service menu.

  Twenty minutes later, she'd plowed through quite a bit of the delicious assortment of small dishes called meze.

  But even with the last bites of sabanikhiyat, she realized that her stomach was more full of worry than spinach.

  Something was up. It had taken her way too long to realize it. Alarm bells should have been clanging way before this. She was getting sloppy. Blame it on hunger or jet lag, but there was no excuse.

  You've got some explaining to do if you don't kick your brain into overdrive, Nellie.

  She had been schooled not to show panic, so she didn't. She sprang up and inspected the room. For the first time, she took note of the robe on the floor by the door. At first she'd assumed that it was Dan's usual sloppy habits, but when she studied it again, she realized that the way it was lying meant that someone had flung it off in a hurry. While standing facing that connecting door ...

  Nellie sprang forward. She examined every inch of the door. Then she looked at the broken umbrella on the floor. And everything suddenly made sense.

  * * *

  She saw them before they saw her. Her heart squeezed. Just clapping her eyes on them gave her a nice rush of relief. But how was she going to get them out of there?

  She took a breath and composed herself. She had to keep them calm. Amy heard the slap of flip-flops and whirled around. The fear in her eyes turned to relief. "Nellie!" She could hear her clearly. The cube must have been wired for sound.

  Nellie took a bite of her pita. "What is this place?" she asked.

  "Nellie? Uh, notice something?" Dan asked. "Like, we're trapped in a cube?"

  He was trying to act casual, but she could hear his breath
was short. She had tucked his inhaler in her robe pocket in case he needed it. But it would be better if he didn't. Nellie took another bite. Even while she chewed, she assessed the situation with a cool glance. Saladin appeared and brushed against her ankles. "You two are an au pair's worst nightmare. This could be a way for me to keep tabs on you. It's, like, a method." "NELLIE!" they shouted. "He could be back any minute!" Dan said.

  "Who?"

  "Bae Oh! He's the one who put us in this thing." "That old dude you told me about? What did he do, arm wrestle you?"

  "NELLIE!"

  Nellie walked around the cube. She tapped it with a fingernail. "Any suggestions?"

  "Look up in that far left corner," Amy suggested. "The circuit is up there." "He pointed a laser at it," Dan said.

  Nellie slapped the pocket of her robe. "Whoa, I think I left my laser pointer back with my PowerPoint presentation."

  "Nellie!"

  She walked directly over to the corner and peered up. "I see it," she said. She reached into her pita, then bent down and fed it to Saladin. "He loves hummus," she said. "Who

  knew?"

  "Well, he is an Egyptian Mau," Dan said. "Maybe this is home cooking for him." "This is no time to feed the cat!" Amy exclaimed.

  Saladin licked his cat lips and began to rub against Nellie's legs, begging for more. Nellie scooped out another blob of hummus. She looked up at the corner again. She aimed and fired the blob up at the ceiling. One of her many skills, besides making the best grilled cheese sandwiches on the planet, was perfect aim. Saladin followed her gaze. "Go ahead, kitty. Go get it!" Nellie urged.

  Saladin leaped up on a vitrine. He gathered himself to spring. He flew up to the ceiling and landed on the metal fretwork that held the lighting system. He casually stepped to the end of a beam, leaped over to the circuit, and began to lick the activator. The cube shuddered a bit, then slowly began to rise.

  "Get out of there!" Nellie roared. "Once he finishes the hummus, you're cooked! The beam will reactivate."

  Amy pushed Dan through the opening and rolled out herself. She snatched her foot away just as Saladin lazily jumped to the floor and the cube slammed back into place. "Cat tongues are awesome," Nellie said with satisfaction. Amy stood and dusted off her knees. "How did you know where we were?"