The Great Tomb Robbery Read online

“The kind of work,” I said dreamily, “that makes you wish you had a bowl of spiced ibex right in front of you.” I closed my eyes, imagining it. “Seasoned with cumin, and just a touch of cinnamon. I tell you, I can practically smell it right now.”

  “That’s funny.” Miu sat up, alert. “I can smell cinnamon, too.”

  “Aha!” Khepri pounced. “Look at this!”

  He waved a tiny crumb above his head.

  “Our first clue,” he announced.

  A Hole in the Wall

  Miu and I sniffed at Khepri’s find.

  “It’s a smidgen of spiced meat. Goose, maybe?” Miu theorized.

  “Yes,” I agreed. “Heavy on the cinnamon, with a dusting of cumin. Not what they’d serve at the palace, but not bad, either. And it smells pretty fresh, too.”

  “If you ask me, it smells disgusting,” Khepri said, backing away from it. “Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can choke that stuff down. Especially when you could be eating dung instead.”

  “Look on the bright side,” I told him. “It means more dung for you.”

  “That’s true.” Khepri brightened. “Hey, I think there’s another bit by the wall.”

  Miu retrieved it, and we took a look. It was just like the other one, only a little bigger and stickier.

  “Well, I think we can rule out Anubis as the thief,” Miu said.

  “Unless Anubis eats cinnamon-spiced goose,” I added.

  “Unlikely,” Khepri said, and I had to agree.

  Miu was sniffing at a half-column in the wall behind the chair. “You know, this smells like cinnamon, too.”

  “What does?” Khepri asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Miu admitted. “It’s almost as if the smell is coming from the place where the column joins with the wall.”

  Khepri and I went over to have a look and a sniff.

  “That’s interesting,” Khepri said. “The mortar’s loose there. See?” He started scrabbling.

  Miu and I were watching him closely when my ears swiveled in alarm.

  I backed away from the wall. “Miu? I’ve got a bad feeling…”

  “Not Anubis again.” She didn’t even look around.

  “No.” My tail twitched. “It’s a—”

  The chamber erupted in barking as a gray beast barreled toward us, shattering a row of canopic jars. A guard pulled at the beast’s leash. “He’s found something!”

  “DOG!” I screeched as the beast sprang forward.

  “No!” Kenamon shouted, leaping up. “Stop!”

  Khepri pulled out of sight. Miu and I leaped onto the back of the chair, claws at the ready. Hisssssssssss!

  As Kenamon jumped in front of us, the gray dog reared up, brought to heel by the leash.

  “It’s just two cats,” the guard said, disappointed.

  “It’s Pharaoh’s Cat,” Kenamon explained to the guard. “And his friend.”

  The dog hung his head. “Whoops,” he muttered. “Guess I got a little overexcited.”

  “Get that dog out of here,” the Captain ordered from the other side of the room. “This place is enough of a wreck as it is. We don’t need any more damage.”

  As the guard dragged at the leash, the dog waggled his perky ears at me in farewell. “Didn’t realize you were Pharaoh’s Cat. Sorry about that.”

  “Whew!” I said to Miu, after the dog had gone. “That was a close call.”

  “I don’t see Khepri,” Miu said anxiously.

  “Khepri?” I leaped down to look for him. “Hey, buddy, are you there?”

  Khepri popped out from behind the half-column, covered with debris. “I’ve found it!” He waved his forelegs in triumph. “I’ve found the way in!” He pointed to the tiny hole in the wall behind him. “There!”

  Miu studied the hole. “A way in for a beetle, maybe,” she said. “But a human’s a little bigger, Khepri.”

  “Wait!” A thought struck me. Maybe I had cracked the case. “What if the robbers were beetles?”

  “Ra, that doesn’t make any sense.” Khepri dusted himself off. “Anyway, I’ve found a way in for humans. This whole big block by the column is loose. Someone’s recently packed it back in. And get this: there’s a hole behind it, and then another loose block. And if you get around that block—which you can, because it’s been moved, too—then you’re in a different tomb. An abandoned one.”

  “Are you sure?” I crouched down to look, but all I could see was the tiny hole.

  “Of course I’m sure,” Khepri said indignantly.

  “Then we need to let the humans know,” Miu said. “I think Kenamon already suspects something.”

  I looked up and saw the boy staring down at us, and at the tiny hole.

  “Maybe he’ll bring the other humans over,” Khepri said.

  But the boy turned away and said nothing.

  “I think he didn’t understand,” Miu said.

  “Then you two need to bring the other humans over,” Khepri said. “I’ll help, if I can.”

  Miu raced over to the Captain and rubbed against his shins. I sauntered in front of him, pointing my tail toward the wall. He waved us away. Honestly, humans are terrible at communication.

  Next we tried standing by the wall and meowing.

  “Put those cats out!” the Captain ordered. “I’ve had enough of their antics.”

  The next thing we knew, the guards had kicked us out of the tomb.

  * * *

  “Well, how do you like that?” Blinking in the bright sunlight, I nudged down my fur where the guards had ruffled it. “We were only trying to help.”

  Miu was licking herself clean. “I’m afraid those humans don’t deserve us.”

  “No, they don’t,” Khepri agreed. “But we’re not going to let them keep the Great Detectives from cracking this case. Let’s find that abandoned tomb I saw. I didn’t get a chance to check it for clues.”

  We picked our way past the Vizier and the Scribe, who were whispering and glaring at each other.

  “The other tomb should be below and to the north of this one,” Khepri said, urging me down the cliffside. “At least that’s my guess.”

  “There.” Miu bobbed her head. “That cleft in the rocks. Could that be it?”

  I darted forward. “Let’s find out.”

  Sure enough, it was the entrance to a tomb.

  “There’s nothing to stop us just walking in,” Miu said as we entered the dark tunnel. “The seal is missing.”

  “Probably because thieves damaged it beyond repair,” I said. “That’s the usual reason.”

  As we left sunlight far behind, I started to feel jumpy.

  “Don’t worry,” Khepri said. “It’ll get light again when we get to the burial chamber.”

  “No, it won’t.” I set him straight. “The whole point of a burial chamber is that it’s buried, Khepri. As in, underground. As in, no light.”

  “This one has light,” Khepri insisted.

  “Nonsense,” I said.

  But he was right. There was a hole in the burial chamber roof. It had been patched up with a slab of stone that didn’t quite fit, so bright sunlight poured in around the edges.

  Miu climbed up a wide, half-broken ledge to get a better look. “The hole doesn’t look new,” she reported. “I guess that’s how the original robbers got in.”

  “And then they burned the place.” The tomb had been swept out, but I could smell the soot. “They do that sometimes, after they ransack the treasure. It gets rid of the evidence.” Not that I’d ever actually seen a tomb robber set fire to anything. But you learn a lot when you sit in Pharaoh’s lap, listening to his viziers drone on.

  Khepri slid down my back and tail to the floor and scuttled over to the nearest wall. “There! What did I tell you?” He tapped a block that was not quit
e aligned with the others. “That’s the block that was moved.”

  “And here’s another bit of dried meat,” said Miu, her nose to the ground.

  “So many clues!” I was pleased. “We’ll have this case cracked before you know it.”

  “I’m not sure.” Miu sounded worried. “First we have to get the humans in here. And then we have to get them to pay attention. I don’t know how we’re going to do that.”

  I didn’t like to admit it, but neither did I.

  “I’ve got an idea,” Khepri said.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “You’re fast, aren’t you, Ra?”

  “As fast as they come,” I said modestly.

  “And clever?”

  “As clever as they—” I stopped and narrowed my eyes at Khepri. “Wait a minute. What are you asking me to do?”

  An Inside Job

  “You should get the dog to chase you,” Khepri said. “Lure him into the tomb.”

  I blinked. “You want that beast to chase me?”

  “Yes,” Khepri said cheerily. “If he corners you in here, then the guards will have to come in to sort things out. They’ll see that the block is out of place, and then—”

  “And then I’ll be that dog’s dinner,” I finished. “I can’t believe you’re suggesting this, Khepri. Did you see his teeth?”

  “He’ll never catch you, Ra. You’re too fast for that. And too clever.”

  “I’m clever enough to say no,” I told him.

  Khepri went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “You’d leap up on that half-broken ledge, and the guards would rescue you, and then they’d give you snacks to revive you—”

  “Snacks?” I reconsidered my position. “You think they’d do that?”

  “Of course,” Khepri said. “You’ll be half fainting in their arms, and it will be their dog’s fault. They’ll have to make it up to you. You’re Pharaoh’s Cat.”

  “Hmmm…” I thought this over. “Well, all right then. But I’m not doing this alone, Khepri. You have to sit on my head and be the lookout.”

  “Done.” Khepri scrambled up to my head. “Now let’s plan our attack—”

  “We’ll come in from the side,” I suggested.

  “A head-on attack would be better,” Khepri maintained.

  “Head-on? With a dog? Khepri—”

  “You two are taking too long.” Miu dashed back down the tunnel.

  “Hey, wait!” I wasn’t going to be robbed of my glory—or my snacks. I bounded after her as fast as I could go.

  The momentum carried me out to the cliffside, where I passed Miu and headed straight for the dog.

  “Go get him, Ra!” Khepri hollered in my ear.

  “You bet I will!” I hollered back.

  The gray beast was standing at attention by a clutch of guards. I sideswiped him, kicking up a cloud of dust right under his nose. “Catch me if you can!” I bellowed, and then my feet went out from under me in a scree of loose stones.

  I landed right under the dog’s nose.

  “Yikes!” Khepri shrieked. “Get up, Ra!”

  Dazed, I rolled over, but that only gave me a close-up view of the dog’s mouth, opening wide. I shut my eyes, sure it was the end.

  “Sorry,” the dog said gruffly. “But I can’t.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  The dog looked abashed. “No offense, Great Pharaoh’s Cat. It’s kind of you to offer to play a game with me, especially after the way I treated you earlier. But I have to say no. I’m on duty, you see. And besides, I’m on a leash.”

  “Oh.” I sneaked a look. The rope leash blended in with the cliffside, but it was definitely there. As Miu trotted up, I rolled to my feet, just out of leash range. “Er…no offense taken. I was…trying to be friendly.”

  “Maybe on my off hours?” the dog said eagerly. “I could play then.”

  “Er…” I stalled for an answer.

  “That’s too late,” Miu whispered to me. “We need help now.”

  “She’s right,” Khepri mumbled in my ear. “I think we need a new plan. This one isn’t working.”

  “What’s that you’re talking about?” the dog asked, cocking his head to one side. “Something about a plan?”

  Pharaoh’s Cat is a keen judge of character, and up close I could see that this dog was a very obliging sort of fellow. So, then and there, I decided to take him into my confidence.

  “You’re right, I’m Pharaoh’s Cat,” I said. “And you are…?”

  “Boo,” the dog said proudly. “Faithful servant of the Captain of the Guard and his men.”

  “We have a problem, Boo,” I explained. “We’ve found some clues in another tomb—”

  “The one you just came out of?” the dog interrupted.

  “Yes.”

  The dog nodded wisely. “That was the tomb of Thutmose the Second. It was robbed a couple of years ago, but we tracked down the thieves. Of course, they’d melted everything down by then and set fire to what was left, so nothing could be recovered, not even the mummy. But I still think of it as Thutmose the Second’s tomb.”

  “Well, whatever it’s called,” I said, “we need the humans to go inspect it. Any chance you could help us?”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Boo said, but he didn’t look hopeful. “Truth is, they’re not likely to let me off the leash again today, not after the mess I made earlier. And they’re too strong for me to drag them all the way there.”

  When we told Boo what the clues were, he was even less optimistic. “It’ll be a job getting them to notice that,” he said. “They’re not the brightest bunch, humans. And they’re worse than usual today, after feasting and drinking so late into the night.”

  “Did you see what happened?” Miu asked.

  “Last night?” Boo scratched himself. “No, I can’t say I did. I took advantage of their party to catch up on my sleep. The Captain’s had me out on night duty for weeks.”

  “What about this morning, during the hunt for the missing guards?” Khepri followed up. “Did you notice anything then?”

  “Nope. It was just the same old cliffs. There wasn’t much to see—”

  “Or smell?” Miu asked.

  “Not after that sandstorm last night,” Boo said. “Blew away all the evidence, I guess. Anyway, I’m not really a scent hound. I’m a sight hound. I track things with my eyes.”

  “So you didn’t smell the meat in the tomb?” I asked.

  Boo licked his muzzle. “There was meat?”

  “Only a little,” Miu said.

  “Goose spiced with cinnamon and a touch of cumin,” I added.

  “Hmmm.” Boo thought this over. “Sounds like the stew from our feast.”

  “Aha!” Khepri slid down my nose and hopped onto the rocks. “This may be our breakthrough. Who made the stew?”

  “The villagers,” Boo said. “Goose with cinnamon and a bit of cumin is a Set Ma’at specialty. On big feast days, they always cook up enough for the guards, too. They bring it up to us in big pots. We always finish it all, every scrap.”

  “So the stew’s a village specialty?” Khepri said thoughtfully. “That suggests the tomb robbery is an inside job.”

  “Yes,” I agreed, then whispered to Khepri, “Doesn’t it have to be? I mean, you can’t rob the outside of a tomb.”

  “Inside job is just an expression, Ra,” Khepri whispered back. “It means that the robbers come from inside the village. They aren’t from somewhere across the Nile or the desert.”

  “It figures,” Boo said glumly. “Lots of tomb robberies are inside jobs. The workers know all the secrets. They remember the layout and location of the tombs, and the treasures inside them, and the traps. Sometimes they even try to copy the traps in their own tombs in the cliffs by the village. But their operations
aren’t run as well. If they put in a pit to catch thieves, they never make it deep enough, and their spikes are never sharp enough—”

  I cut across his mournful tones. “This is great.”

  “Great?” Miu echoed doubtfully. “I don’t see why, Ra.”

  “We’ve got this case almost cracked,” I said. “All we have to do is find out who had leftover stew, and we’ll have our tomb robber. Ta-dah! I bet we’ll be back at the palace for midafternoon snacks.”

  “It might not be that simple, Ra,” Khepri said anxiously.

  Poor Khepri. He’s a worrier by nature. He’s lucky he has someone like me to cheer him up.

  “It’ll be simple, believe me,” I said. “All we have to do is get back to the village—”

  I glanced around and frowned. The Vizier was nowhere in sight, and neither was his litter.

  “Our ride,” I said in alarm. “It’s gone!”

  Stay Away from the Tombs

  “That’s right,” Boo said, beating the ground with his tail. “The Vizier left just before you came over to visit me. He’s headed back to Set Ma’at. The Scribe and his man Huya and the boy went, too.”

  “Without us?” I was scandalized.

  “The boy went looking, but he couldn’t find you. And the Vizier said he wouldn’t wait, and that you’d find your own way back.” Boo pointed his muzzle down the Valley. “If you look down there, you can see the litter.”

  They were so far away that the litter was tinier than one of my toes. But at least it was still in sight.

  “Come on!” I scooped Khepri up with my paw and deposited him on my head. “We don’t want to miss our ride.”

  I raced down the cliffside. My paws burned, but I didn’t care. It was either this, or walk the whole way back.

  “Ra, you forgot to say good-bye,” Miu said, bounding down after me.

  I turned and waved to the dog. “Thanks for the help!”

  “Come back anytime!” Boo howled after us. “Maybe you…”

  I didn’t catch his last words. I was running too fast.