Later that night, after Khalid and Amina had crawled into bed, Leah gathered the others on the sand dunes outside of the tent. As soon as the sun had sunk beneath the horizon, a chill had crept over the camp, making Leah’s arms prickle with goosebumps. Draping herself in a thick blanket, she announced to the others, ‘We need a plan.’

‘For what?’ George asked.

‘Everything,’ Mimi answered. ‘But mostly, we’ve got to work out how we’re going to stop Travers doing . . . whatever it is he’s going to do.’

‘And Simons, too!’ Leah added. ‘I don’t trust him.’

‘We need to make sure none of them can get to Amina,’ Leah said firmly. ‘Travers might have her folder of research, but like Khalid said earlier, he doesn’t have the map. And he’s going to need it if he wants to get past the booby traps.’

‘How are we going to stop him?’ William asked. ‘We can’t just sit and watch Amina sleep all night.’

A light went on in Leah’s head and she grinned wildly. ‘William! That’s it!’

‘Er, no it isn’t?’ William answered.

‘Yes! It is!’ Leah sat up straight and looked at her friends. ‘We can take it in turns to make sure no one comes into our tent and steals the map from Amina’s bag.’

‘That would stop Travers from getting the amulet before us!’ Mimi said with a smile.

‘It’s our best shot,’ Leah said, and one by one, the others nodded, too.

‘I can take the first watch,’ William volunteered and when Leah stared at him, he shrugged self-consciously. ‘What? I want to get home too, you know. And I’m not that tired anyway.’

Silence fell between them. Leah’s mind whirled busily and she couldn’t shut off her thoughts. She leaned back against the sand, staring up at the inky sky above. Idly, she picked out a few constellations. Her dad was a big fan of star gazing, and they’d often sat out in the garden on summer nights, trying to spot Orion or Ursa Minor. She’d always loved pretending to join the stars up with her finger like she was doing a dot-to-dot.

Now though, she couldn’t find anything familiar in the sky. Occasionally, she thought she might be able to see the hint of a constellation, but then it was gone. Just like the thoughts swimming around in her head. Amina’s lost folder, Travers, Simons, the lost Pharaoh’s Fortune. So much had happened but she couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something. Like there was an itch between her shoulder blades that she couldn’t quite reach. If only she could join all the dots up, she’d be able to see the full picture.

Finally, Mimi yawned, stretching. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s get to bed. I’m exhausted!’

Leah was too, and she let her friends pull her to her feet. As they headed back towards the tent, she glanced back at the stars shining high above them, and the moon bathing them all in a milky glow. By the time the sun had risen to take their place, it would all be finished. They only had one night in the desert. Either they would have stopped Travers and returned back to the future or . . . Leah gulped nervously. Or they’d be stuck in the past.