‘What do the hieroglyphs on the chest say?’ she asked the guide.

  ‘Isn’t that interesting,’ said the guide. ‘Another lady asked exactly the same question on the tour before.’

  ‘She did?’ asked EJ.

  ‘Yes, it was rather strange. I told her I wasn’t sure and she stayed looking at the wall for ages. Then, all of a sudden, she rushed out of the room. She was in a great hurry, as if she had forgotten something.’

  Or got something, thought EJ.

  ‘Okay, everyone,’ cried the tour guide. ‘Let’s move onto the next chamber.’

  The group began to move through to the next chamber but EJ hung back. Checking she was alone, she took out her phone and took a photo of the chest. She then ran back outside. Sitting on the steps in the bright sun she took out her code app and worked her way through the hieroglyphics. This was the longest clue yet.

  ‘It’s a guide through the pyramid,’ realised EJ.

  Piinngg!

  It was a message from SHINE.

  ‘Oh, no!’ cried EJ. Had Caterina beaten her to it? But if I am only half an hour or so behind her, it can’t be that far away, thought EJ. She took out her binoculars and, using her compass app, looked due north. There was nothing, just desert. She looked around. The tour group was still inside. EJ switched her boots to speed shoe. She hoped they would be speedy enough.

  EJ began speed walking out of the Valley of Kings, but her steps soon became slower and slower as her boots sank into the sand. And then the little whirr of the motors stopped. EJ switched them on and off but there was nothing. The sand must have got into them. EJ would have to walk in the hot, hot sun. She was already exhausted. How was she going to be able to keep going? How had Caterina done it? Then she saw a woman in a long gown standing in front of a line of camels, all saddled up.

  ‘Camels!’ said EJ. ‘Of course “straight north with hoof”! I bet that’s what Caterina rode.’

  ‘You would like a camel to look around the valley?’ the woman asked. ‘They’re easy to ride and it’s too hot to walk in this heat.’

  ‘Yes, I would, thank you,’ said EJ.

  ‘Take this one. Her name is Hali. Follow the path and have her back by sun down,’ said the woman, taking the money EJ gave her. The woman pulled down on the rope that was attached to the camel’s nose ring. As she pulled, the camel knelt down and the woman beckoned to EJ to climb on. EJ put one foot in the stirrup and swung over, pulling herself up on the saddle. As she sat down in the saddle the camel suddenly stood up, nearly throwing EJ off.

  ‘Whoa!’ cried EJ. ‘How do I ride her?’

  ‘Just pull hard on the rope. Make sure you are the boss. And don’t lead the camels off the path. I have already had one lady do that today.’

  ‘You have?’ asked EJ.

  ‘Yes, I don’t know where she went,’ said the woman. ‘She was very rude, just jumped on a camel and threw some money at me. She took one of my foaling camels and now the baby camel has run off, looking for its mother.’

  That sounds like Caterina, thought EJ. ‘How long ago did she leave?’

  ‘Not long at all, fifteen minutes,’ replied the woman.

  EJ wasn’t too far behind now. She was gaining on Caterina.

  ‘Great, thank you,’ said EJ. And she and Hali headed off. When they had followed the path over a small hill, EJ looked around. Caterina had been clever. EJ didn’t want to disobey the camel driver but she needed to borrow her camel. She hoped it would be okay as she checked her compass app then steered Hali off the path and due north into the desert.

  After a short while, she took the silver jewel charm from her bracelet and activated it. The charm enlarged into a large red ruby-like jewel about the size of her fist with a label and small button on the side. EJ read the label.

  EJ pushed the button. The jewel flashed but there were no beeps.

  ‘Come on, Hali,’ she said. ‘Let’s keep going.’

  Walking through the desert was hot work, even if Hali was doing most of it. It wasn’t long before EJ took out her water bottle and dampened her scarf before wrapping it around her head. That felt a bit cooler but the sun continued to beat down and EJ felt hotter than she ever had before.

  For over an hour EJ trudged through the desert with her camel slowly but firmly making her way across the desolate desert. There was just sand, yellow, almost white sand that swirled around, moving like waves. EJ’s throat was dry and she had nearly drunk all her water but she pushed on. Every so often she checked the jewel but there wasn’t even the smallest of beeps. And it was hot. It was as if the sun’s rays were cutting into her skin. She felt her eyelids getting heavy and she started to sway in the saddle. For a moment, EJ thought she could see palm trees and pyramids ahead of her but when she blinked and re-opened her eyes there was nothing. With each of Hali’s heavy steps, EJ felt as if she was sinking deeper and deeper into the sand. Her eyes closed again.

  Piinngg!

  EJ opened her eyes wide and checked her phone. It was a message from SHINE, from IJ12.

  EJ took the palm charm, twisted it and laid it on the sand. In seconds a very realistic-looking inflatable palm tree popped up. EJ climbed off Hali and tethered her to the ‘tree’. It was much cooler under the palm and there even seemed to be a breeze. EJ looked up and saw a little fan blowing. Good one, IJ, she thought.

  EJ also noticed the little knob in the trunk and opened it to find the water cooler. She cupped her hands and filled them with water, which she then threw over her face. She took another handful and drank it. She felt much better. She could think straight again but was she hearing things?

  She looked at Hali but she was just standing there, chewing her cud quietly.

  There it was again. It seemed to be coming from over the next sand dune. It was coming closer and closer. EJ wasn’t scared, more worried; the noise didn’t sound happy. And then a little head popped up, a little camel head. The camel was light grey with huge brown eyes and long, long eyelashes.

  ‘You’re so cute!’ cried EJ. ‘But what are you doing out here all by yourself?’

  Then EJ noticed the camel’s little hump looked floppy. She knew from her SHINE animal-aid training that that wasn’t a good sign. ‘You must be starving,’ she said. ‘I can help you.’ This time, she took her camel charm and twisted it and a little dispenser appeared.

  EJ took out the food and offered it to the camel, who gobbled it immediately. ‘That’s good, isn’t it?’ said EJ. As she looked at the baby camel, she remembered what the camel driver had said. Caterina had taken a camel that was still feeding its baby. This must be the baby! ‘You’d better come with us,’ she said, taking the rope charm from her bracelet. She twisted it and a length of rope appeared. EJ then tethered the baby camel to Hali’s saddle. ‘I’ll call you Dromy, short for dromedary, because that’s the sort of camel you are.’ Maybe the camel driver will forgive me for going off the path when I return her baby camel, she thought. The camel seemed to bat its eyelashes in agreement. ‘Okay Dromy and Hali, now that we’re all feeling better, let’s get going. We have to be getting close.’

  EJ deactivated the palm charm and she and her camel team set off again through the hot desert. The rhythm of Hali’s stride had almost put her into a trance when she heard a noise.

  ‘Did you hear anything?’ she asked the camels.

  There it was again, only this time the noise was louder. EJ realised it was her metal detector. As she kept riding, the peeps got louder and more frequent. EJ looked out over the desert with her binoculars again but still she could see nothing but sand.

  EJ rode on for a few more minutes and came over the crest of a large and oddly pointed dune where, to her surprise, she saw a solitary palm. Now the sound from the detector was almost deafening.

  ‘Guys, I think we’ve found our lost pyramid,’ said EJ. ‘And if that long peep is anything to go by, the legend was right, this queen was buried with an awful lot of treasure—and we are standing right on top of it.’

  EJ climbed off Hali and looked around. Besides the one tree, there was only sand. She checked the age readings on the detector.

  Hmmmm, she thought, that’s strange. There are two readings, one showing we are near metals thousands of years old and one showing we are near something aged less than a year. What does that mean? Then EJ noticed that Dromy was spitting something out. It looked like some bark from the palm tree.

  ‘Hey,’ she cried to Dromy. ‘What’s wrong, don’t you like that? I thought camels ate anything!’

  EJ touched the tree trunk. ‘No wonder you didn’t like it—it’s plastic! Is there another SHINE agent out here?’

  EJ examined the tree. There was no water cooler and no fan: this wasn’t SHINE-issue. She knelt down by the trunk and then she saw it.

  ‘Cover-Up?’ said EJ, leaning against the tree. ‘Covering up what?’ Then, as she leant back further, the whole tree tipped over on its side. EJ fell to the ground, right next to a large hole.

  ‘I think we’ve just found Caterina and Amber’s secret entrance,’ said EJ as her torch shone down on a very modern steel ladder. Once again she took her palm charm and twisted it. When it had inflated, she tethered the two camels to the trunk.

  ‘You guys stay here in the shade,’ said EJ. ‘I’m going down.’

  She dropped down and held on to the ladder. She pulled the palm-lid shut, took a deep breath and began to climb down. What was she going to find? It was one thing to enter a tomb with lights and a tour guide but quite another to be the first—correction, the third—to discover one. Caterina and Amber were already here somewhere. EJ wasn’t sure if that made things better or worse. But then her thoughts were interrupted as her foot met air; she couldn’t find the next rung of the ladder. There wasn’t one. The ladder had stopped but EJ could see that the hole dropped a lot deeper so she took her rope charm again and twisted it to get more rope. She then tied one end to the ladder in a slipknot and pulled hard to test its strength.

  Slowly she began to lower herself. Soon her arms were aching with the effort, but she kept going. Thank goodness for all those gymnastics exercises, she thought. She was working so hard that she didn’t notice a small red light flashing on the side of the wall. A small, red light with the words SHADOW Inc engraved on the side.

  Finally EJ’s heavy boots hit the ground.

  EJ winced. What if Amber and Caterina had heard her? She shone the torch around and was relieved to see that no one else was there. She also saw that the hole she had just climbed down now opened out into a short corridor and at the end was, and EJ felt her heart begin to race when she saw it, a stone door. As she got closer she could see there were hieroglyphics engraved large in the stone. EJ’s heart pounded when she recognised the letters of the queen’s name.

  But the hieroglyphics that followed them also looked familiar.

  It was the same message SHINE had intercepted. This was the door to the lost queen’s tomb. Amber must have taken a photo of the door and then sent it to Caterina, to tell her that she couldn’t open the door. Now EJ had to find the way in. The safe way. She remembered the last lines of the decoded message and shivered. ‘Those who evil bring will remain forever here.’

  It was the curse that was on the pyramid door, a warning to those who would enter the tomb to steal—and who tried to enter without Hasina’s clues.

  EJ gulped, her mouth feeling dry. One false move, and I remain forever here. She took out her notepad and looked at the first lines of the clue from the king’s tomb.

  ‘This must be the humble door,’ said EJ, ‘but how do I open it?’ ‘“Press our queen to enter there”,’ she went on. EJ studied the door. The queen’s name! Was she supposed to push on that? EJ placed her hand over the symbols and pressed hard. She heard a creak then a grinding noise and the door began to open slowly. As it did, and just in time, EJ remembered the next line: ‘Bow low in respect as you pass.’

  ‘That’s telling me something too,’ said EJ. ‘Quick think, EJ. “Bow low to the queen”, bow low to keep low, keep my head down, I wonder ... Uh, oh!’

  Just as the door was opening fully, EJ dropped to her knees then pushed herself flat on the ground.

  She flashed her torch up in the direction of the sounds. There was nothing there but two scratches on the wall. EJ then shone the torch along on the ground and gasped: there, lying in the dust were two daggers.

  ‘They could have hit me,’ said EJ to herself. ‘That was close, too close.’ She didn’t want to move. She shone the torch around and saw two more daggers lying nearby. And next to them, a boot print. EJ wasn’t the only one to have had a close shave.

  ‘They kept going and so can I,’ EJ told herself firmly, shining her torch ahead of her. She was about to get up but stopped as she saw what was ahead. There, in the glow of the torch, were spiders, lots of large, hairy spiders, crawling towards her. EJ froze but the spiders kept coming. Slowly reaching for her charm bracelet, EJ took her ladybug charm, twisted it and tossed it towards the spiders. It let out a cloud of smelly smoke. The spiders scattered, heading back into the cracks of the walls.

  Slowly, EJ stood up. She looked down the narrow corridor and saw stone steps leading upwards. ‘Go up to go down on scarab step to follow path,’ says the clue so I suppose I go up, she thought. She began to climb the steps, shining her torch in front of her, at her feet and above her, looking for more booby-traps. After twenty safe steps she came to a wall, a complete dead-end.

  ‘Okay, I’ve gone up so now I’ll go down and look for a beetle,’ said EJ.

  EJ walked back down the stairs, flashing her torch, searching for a scarab beetle on the walls but there were none and she was soon back where she started. It has to be here, somewhere, she thought. I must be looking in the wrong place. Where do beetles come from? And then, remembering where the spiders had come from, she had an idea. EJ began looking in the corners of the steps. After checking each step, she found it, in the corner on the bottom one, almost too small to be seen, etched into the stone: a black scarab beetle. EJ pressed on the beetle and again there was a grinding noise, this time from the floor. EJ jumped back and the stone slid to one side to reveal another hole. This one, however, was not so deep and it was easy for EJ to jump down. As her boots hit the ground with another nerve-wracking thud, EJ heard another noise as well, a noise she hadn’t made.

  ‘I don’t like the sound of that,’ said EJ as she shone her torch and began to walk slowly down the new corridor.

  EJ flashed her torch again. She saw a door at the end of the corridor. That was good but what was in front of the door was not so good. There were snakes, deadly cobras, sliding out of a large pot and coming towards EJ. As the long, menacing snakes began curling towards her, rising up into their attack position, EJ remembered her cobra charm. She took it from her bracelet, placed it on the ground and activated it. Within seconds there was a metretall metal cobra standing in front of her. EJ took out her phone. She pressed 2 and the cobra moved towards the snakes, which now stopped and raised themselves up in attack position against EJ’s cobra. As they did, EJ moved backwards and then hit the star key on her phone. Gas sprayed out of tiny holes all over the cobra and, within seconds, the real cobras were flat on the ground. EJ wasn’t quite ready to walk up to them. She pressed 8 and her cobra nudged against one of the sleeping snakes. It didn’t move. Feeling more confident, she walked up, tiptoed around the sleeping snakes and deactivated her cobra. But one thing bothered EJ. How had Caterina and Amber got past the snakes, and if they had, why were the snakes still there, ready for her?

  She went up to the pot the snakes had come out of. There was another boot print beside it. Did they catch them somehow and put them back in the pot, leaving them for me? Do they know I am coming? wondered EJ, suddenly realising that it might not only be ancient traps she needed to watch out for. EJ took a deep breath and stepped towards the stone door. She checked the clue.

  EJ studied the door. This one was covered with ornate decoration and writing. Right in the middle, with its golden rays spreading out, was a big sun. EJ pressed it and the door slid up. EJ jumped back as she found herself looking straight into the black, beady eyes of a large eagle.

  The golden statue was taller than EJ. With the body of a human and head of an eagle, it stood watch at the entrance to the chamber. All four chamber walls were painted with a series of ornately decorated archways and scenes depicting Egyptian life. In each, larger than the other painted figures, EJ recognised the image of Queen Ankh. In the centre of the room was a large golden chest, surrounded by golden statues of women, one on each side. They were like guards protecting the chest.

  To one side was a row of four urns, each topped with a different pottery head. There was a baboon, a dog, a person and a falcon. A row of large, black, dog-like statues lay crouched on the wall behind the chest. EJ saw that there were also smaller chests around the room. She was horrified to see that some of the chests had their lids ripped off. EJ looked in one and saw just a single ruby in the corner. There must have been treasures, she thought. Did Caterina and Amber take the rest? How dare they!

 

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