Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx (5 page)

Jake shook his head and headed back inside. He glared at Morgan. “Great. So you put a little sugar in Randy's gas tank but almost ran me over.”

Morgan leaned to Jake's ear. “Yet somehow you still got here, boy. Next time I'll try unloading a dump truck on top of you.”

Jake stared up at the man. Was that just sarcasm, or was there a slight threat hidden behind his words? It was hard to tell. With that British accent, Morgan sounded like James Bond.

Before Jake could figure it out, a squeal of shock erupted from behind them. Kady stood in the doorway and gaped at the destruction down the hall, seeing it for the first time. “What happened?”

It was a good question.

Jake stared at the broken cabinets, the scatter of treasures.

What exactly
had
happened here?

The knock on the door came at midnight.

Jake had been expecting it. He climbed off his bed, careful not to disturb the piles of paper and books spread across the floor like a minefield. It was all of his research for the past three months, everything from Howard Carter's personal account of the discovery of King Tut's tomb to Stephen Hawking's
A Brief History of Time
(inside, Jake had scribbled a couple of notes where the author got things wrong). He also had books on hieroglyphics, journals covering prehistoric fauna and flora, even scientific articles about the possibility of time travel.

Jake had spent most of the evening rereading the reams of reports and articles he'd collected about Bledsworth Sundries and Industries. Morgan's sudden appearance had renewed his interest in the corporation. It was amazing the number of rumors—most of them nasty—surrounding the company and its history.

Then again, it wasn't unusual considering how much of a recluse its head had become. Sigismund Oliphant Bledsworth IX, well into his nineties, had all but disappeared from the world. Only a few photographs still existed of the man. Jake had found only one, taken when Bledsworth was much younger: a stick figure in a British military uniform. The corporation was an old one, its operations stretching back to medieval times. It was said the Bledsworth family had made their first fortune by selling false potions to protect people against the Black Plague. Since then they continued to prosper in pursuits both legal and less so, growing until their corporation was the richest company in England and the fourth largest in the world.

Jake wasn't comfortable with such a corporation “keeping tabs” on his family.

Like Magellan circumnavigating the world, Jake finally crossed the book-strewn floor and reached the door. He pulled it open to discover Kady standing there in her pajama bottoms and an oversized T-shirt emblazoned with her current favorite punk-pop group, Atomic Vampire Puppies.

She pushed inside his room without waiting for an invitation. “Do you have it?”

“Of course I do. I wasn't about to leave Dad's pocket watch downstairs with Morgan Drummond in the house.”

Uncle Edward had invited Morgan to spend the night
in one of the guest rooms. It was the only polite thing to do, at least according to Aunt Matilda. Jake knew his aunt and uncle had taken a shine to the big man, but Jake remained suspicious.

Still, it had been a long day of police sirens and ambulances. Wounds had been tended to and reports filled out. A squad car was still parked outside with two police officers on duty.

In case those brigands return
, Edward had said.

With the house secure, Kady plopped on Jake's bed, knocking over a teetering pile of research books.

“Careful!” Jake warned, and set about restacking the texts.

This particular pile contained information about Atlantis. Most of the texts were rubbish, pure fantasy; but Jake had a personal interest in the subject matter. He only had to look at his arm to know that Atlantis was real.

A seamless band of silvery magnetite circled his wrist. He couldn't take it off. Etched into its surface were faint lines of Atlantean text. Jake had struggled to decipher the writing, copying it and comparing it to other lost languages.

So far he'd been unsuccessful.

The band had been a gift and a reward from the Elder of the Ur tribe, a group of displaced Neanderthals who also shared the prehistoric valley of Calypsos, a land protected by ancient Atlantean technology.

Kady had a wristband, too—though she'd gotten to calling it a
bracelet
and decorating it with charms of all sorts, using its magnetic properties to hold the trinkets in place. While Jake had frowned at such abuse, Kady's exploration into jewelry making did reveal an oddity. It was not just iron that clung to the bands—
any
metal did: silver, gold, even platinum.

Another mystery among many.

Once done stacking the books, Jake sat cross-legged on the bed and pulled the gold watch out of his pajama pocket. He set it between him and his sister.

“How did those thieves know we had it?” Kady asked. “Did you tell anyone?”

“Of course not! How about you?”

Kady rolled her eyes.

So no
.

Her eyes settled back on him. “You're supposed to be the brains of this outfit. You don't have any theories?”

“Only that Bledsworth must somehow be involved. Back in Calypsos, lots of people knew we'd found Dad's watch. Maybe word got out, reached ears here in our time. That's all I can think of.”

“If so, can we trust Drummond?”

“I don't know.”

Jake had mixed feelings about the man. He knew Morgan must be lying—or at least was not being totally honest—about how he came to be in the house so conveniently. Yet Jake could not discount his gut reaction. He sort of liked the big guy.

Jake took a deep breath and continued. “Which brings up another question: why did those thieves come here for the watch
now
? We've been back for three months. So why come today of all days?”

Neither of them had a clue. A silence spread over them, both lost in their own thoughts.

Kady finally picked up the watch and turned it around in her fingers. Her gaze grew wistful. “I remember when Mom gave this to Dad. I was only five. He let me sit on his lap and wind it up.”

She opened the case and stared at the watch face. None of the hands moved. After sitting in the cabinet for so long, the watch had run down.

Kady began to turn the stem of the watch, winding up
the mechanism. Jake didn't try to stop her. They'd both done everything they could to manipulate the watch, to see if they could use it to transport them back to Pangaea to continue the search for their mother and father.

But nothing had worked.

They needed to find another way to go back.

Kady stopped winding the stem and let the watch tick away in her hand. Her voice grew as tender as a young child's. “I remember how he used to carry it in his vest pocket, and I'd place my ear against it and hear it tick. To me, this was always Daddy's heartbeat.”

Jake saw the pain mixed with happiness in his sister's eyes.

“Let me,” he said, and took the watch from her.

He placed it against his ear and listened to the soft click of the precise mechanism. He closed his eyes; but instead of his father, Jake pictured the machinery inside the watch. He couldn't help it. He'd read volumes on watches as a part of his study of horology, the science of the measurement of time.

Jake knew there was something important about watch-making and the movement of time, something just out of his grasp. He continued to listen to the ticking, straining for insight. He pictured the clockworks inside the watch, the precise movement of wheel, shaft, gear, and pivot. And it wasn't all metal inside the case. To create less friction, watchmakers used jewels for some of the moving parts:
rubies, sapphires, emeralds, even diamonds.

As Jake listened, a picture popped into his head. He again stood inside the Astromicon atop the castle of Kalakryss in Calypsos, staring into the mechanism that filled the dome overhead. As the watch ticked in his ear, the copper gears in the Astromicon dome turned, and a parade of crystals orbited around. Sunlight drove the movement. Powered by solar energy, it was a clockwork masterpiece.

Suddenly Jake lowered the watch, twisted around, and reached under his bed where he kept a backpack always prepped. He yanked it free and unpinned a square badge fixed to the outside.

“What are you doing?” Kady asked.

“Let me think,” he said, teetering on a realization.

The silver badge was the size of his thumb, with four crystals mounted on it. In the center rested a white crystal as bright as a diamond. Positioned around it in the shape of a triangle were three other stones: a ruby, an emerald,
and an icy blue sapphire. They represented the four main crystals of Pangaea, the four cornerstones of that land's alchemy.

He turned to Kady. “Do you remember when I placed my flashlight in the Astromicon along with a blue crystal, and they fused together?

“Yeah, you created some sort of freeze ray.”

Jake picked up his father's timepiece. “Watches like Dad's also have crystals in them. Jewels, actually. Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds. What if Dad put his watch inside something like the Astromicon? Maybe that's what gave his watch the power to open the gateway back here. If so, Dad's watch may be a key to
other
portals.”

Kady scrunched up her brow. “But we've tried everything with it. Nothing's worked.”

“I said it's a
key
. Before we can use it, we have to find the
lock
that it fits.”

Jake stared down at the open watch. On the inside of the case, someone had inscribed a picture.

An
ankh
, the Egyptian symbol for “life.”