The Case That Time Forgot (13 page)

“Why not tonight?” Xena asked.

“It will take them some time. The mummy is quite fragile. They have to call in experts and remove it to the museum's lab, which is climate-controlled, and take some other precautions as well. I'll drop you at home. Get a good night's sleep, and I'll ring you when they're getting close.”

 

The call didn't come until late Saturday afternoon. Xena and Xander's parents drove them to the Carberry Museum. There, a guard ushered the Holmes family through the old house where Greek vases were crammed into cases, silver coins on black cloth gleamed on tables, a huge stone bull's head loomed over a doorway, and a set of what looked like ancient armor stood in a corner, its sword raised and its narrow eye slits seeming to conceal a threatening face. In a room filled with Egyptian statues, wall paintings, and the mummy of a cat, one long glass case lay empty, with a sign on it reading
REMOVED FOR RESTORATION
.

The guard unlocked a door marked
PRIVATE
and gestured at them to enter. Karim and his
parents were already sitting in a sort of waiting room, along with an elderly man in a wheelchair.

“This is my grandfather,” Karim said.

As Xander shook hands with him, he saw that Karim bore a strong resemblance to his grandfather.

The old man's handshake was firm. “Thank you, children,” he said. “I'm glad I lived to see this day.”

“You'll see many more!” Karim's father said. The adults chatted while Xena and Xander told Karim everything that had happened since they went to Big Ben.

“It was Jake all along?” Karim asked. “But he's so nice!”

“I know.” Xena was still trying to get over her disappointment about Jake's involvement. “I was sure it was Shane.”

They waited for what seemed like hours. Occasionally a sound came from behind a door marked
LABORATORY
, and once Dr. Bowen came out to tell them that they were making progress. She was wearing a surgeon's mask and a hat like a shower cap, and explained that it was important to keep modern germs from contaminating the mummy.

More time passed. They heard visitors inside the museum talking about the exhibits and exclaiming over the empty case. Someone brought them sandwiches and tea, and Xena leafed through a stack of magazines. Karim challenged Xander to a game of noughts-and-crosses, which turned out to be tic-tac-toe.

“I don't understand why Amin wrote that last message in real hieroglyphs,” Karim said. “In all the other ones, he used them to stand for English letters.”

“That was the most important message,” Xena said. “He had to be sure that whoever read it was someone who was really serious about finding the amulet and not just someone visiting Big Ben who stumbled on the writing.”

It was late when the door to the lab finally opened and Jake's mother beckoned them to come in, handing them surgeon's masks and head covers as they entered. They crowded around the table where a shriveled brownish body lay, somehow looking both pathetic and regal.

A man whose name tag read
DR. ASANO
was delicately picking up the fingers of the mummy's right hand with a small metal tool and putting them into a white box. “They were broken some time in the modern era,” he said as a younger
man scribbled down what he was saying. “Replaced quite cleverly, but you can see the evidence here”—he pointed with a gleaming instrument—“and here.” The younger man put down his paper and snapped some photographs.

All the people in the room appeared to hold their breath as Dr. Asano straightened up, revealing the mummy's hand. In the palm lay a beautifully carved figurine of an ibis-headed man. Its eyes were of red stone that glittered coldly, and its kilt was inlaid with stripes of turquoise.

“Oh!” Xena breathed. “It's the amulet!”

“I think you're right.” Dr. Bowen's voice was almost reverent. “It's Thoth, carved in the right style, the right material. A lovely thing.” She reached in to touch it and then withdrew. “May I?” she asked Dr. Asano.

“Of course,” he said. “Without you we never would have found it.”

“It wasn't me.” She put her hand behind her back, as though the temptation was almost too strong for her. “It was these two.” She nodded at Xena and Xander.

“We wouldn't have known about it without Karim,” Xander said.

“Well, somebody take the credit and pick it up!” Mrs. Holmes said. “I'm dying to see it better.”

Karim's father said, “Go ahead, son. I'm sorry I didn't believe you.”

“Yes,” his grandfather added, “you hold it, Karim.”

Karim picked up the amulet gently. For a moment he wrapped his fingers around it and closed his eyes. Xena could see that his hand was trembling.

“Let me take a picture,” the young man said, and Karim opened both his hand and his eyes. While the photographer asked him to hold it first this way, then that, Karim looked at Xena and Xander.

“Didn't work,” he said.

“What?” The young man took another picture. “Of course it did. I'm not using a flash, is all. It could damage the old gentleman here.” He nodded at the mummy and took another picture.

But Xena and Xander knew that Karim wasn't referring to the flash.

“Can I hold it?” Xena asked. Karim passed it over. She closed her eyes and thought fiercely,
Stop, time! Stop now!

Nothing. She had never really believed in the magic, but she couldn't help being disappointed.

Then it was Xander's turn. After a moment he shook his head and passed it back. Was the
story of the magic amulet just that—a story? Had Sherlock Holmes been right when he called it “poppycock”?

Xena glanced at her watch. It was only six in the afternoon. “What time is it in Egypt?” she asked Jake's mother.

“Two hours later than London.”

Eight o'clock, then. Still Saturday! So what was the problem?

Then Xander smacked his forehead. He beckoned to Karim and Xena, and they went back out into the waiting room while the adults continued admiring the amulet. “Of course the ancient Egyptians didn't mean ‘midnight to midnight' when they said ‘one day,' ” he explained. “They meant sunup to sundown. The sun must have set in Egypt hours ago!”

They all let the truth of this sink in.

“Or maybe that thing about time standing still never was true to begin with,” Xena finally said.

“Maybe it was,” Karim said.

“I don't know,” Xander said. “But I do know one thing!” The other two looked at him. “I know exactly where I'll be fifty years from today!”

“Me too!” Karim said.

“No question,” Xena agreed. “We'll be right here! In the Carberry Museum!”