Alex rushed toward the door and closed it as quickly and quietly as he could. He listened closely as the noise grew louder and angrier. “It’s coming from the hall,” he whispered.
“It’s one of those bugs, isn’t it?” said Luke.
Alex tried to think of something — anything — else it could be. But he couldn’t. He nodded slowly, his eyes on the frosted glass panes alongside the door.
The buzzing grew louder, closer.
A shadowy shape flashed past out in the hallway, and Alex gasped. He looked over at Ren, asking the question with his wide-open eyes: Did it see us?
The buzzing grew softer and then, very suddenly, louder. Alex turned back toward the door — where a dark shape was hovering on the other side of the frosted glass. The spirit wasp flew back a few inches and then rammed its body into the pane. WHUMP!
Alex’s hand fumbled beneath his shirt for his amulet.
It tried two more times to break the glass, but then seemed to reconsider. For a long moment, it just stared in at them with dark, malevolent eyes. Then it turned and disappeared back down the hallway.
“Oh no,” said Ren.
“What?” said Alex. “Isn’t it a good thing it went away?”
Ren shook her head. “It’s a scout,” she said. “It found us.”
“Oh, snap!” said Luke. “It’s going back to snitch.”
The three friends took off after it, but by the time they reached the hallway, they’d lost the speeding spirit.
“We have to stop it before it goes back through the portal!” said Alex urgently.
With his amulet, Luke was more than fast enough to catch the bug as it bugged out — but he didn’t know his way around the museum. Instead, he ran alongside the others as they navigated the twisty interior, taking every shortcut they knew. They finally caught sight of the thing in the Great Hall. “There!” called Alex.
“Give me something to throw over it!” called Luke. But they had nothing. Luke tried to strip off his Under Armour top while at a full run and wiped out on the slick tile, sliding across the polished floor with his shirt over his head.
It darted through the ticket booths, utterly ignoring the “suggested donation” sign.
A few moments later, Alex and Ren sprinted into Room 100 just in time to see the infernal bug enter the big tomb.
Ren tried to blast it with her ibis, but the bug was already inside the stone entryway.
“No!” cried Alex as the thing flew full speed into the false door. The buzzing disappeared instantly.
Whoomp! Luke appeared by their side, holding his shirt in one hand and his amulet in the other. “Where’d it go?”
Alex lifted his chin toward the ancient portal.
The only sound in the quiet room was the three friends, breathing hard.
“I think we’re going to have company,” huffed Alex.
A man’s voice boomed through the room: “Oh, but you already do.”