PUHHHHH!

A massive force struck Alex so hard that he flew sideways into the wall.

This stretch was mostly clay, and he left an Alex-shaped impression in it as he slumped down to the floor. A soft sifting of dirt rained down from the ceiling.

“Alex!” called Ren.

She spun around to find the long iron snout of a crocodile mask turned toward her like the barrel of a gun. Black eyes glistened in the green light. Her hands wrestled futilely with an unseen force clamping down hard on her throat, cutting off the blood flow. In a few seconds, she was dizzy; in a few more, out cold.

Ta-mesah stood there considering his prey.

Clinging to the edge of consciousness, Alex became aware of a faint shuffling sound. Two mummies appeared, the wrappings doing little to disguise the lanky bodies of two formerly healthy teen boys. The nearest one grabbed him, and he could do nothing more than clumsily slap at its arms as it dragged him into the side room. Then his hands were bound with coarse rope and he couldn’t even do that.

Ta-mesah relit the room’s candles with the wave of his hand.

Alex’s head slowly cleared and the world came into view: a small living chamber. There was a simple bed in one corner. Across from it was a tall stone altar with two raised columns framing a vertical indentation. A false door, Alex knew, the gateway between the world of the living and the world of the dead that all Egyptian tombs had. The mummies stood rigidly, blocking the doorway.

Alex was propped up against the wall by the entrance, the flashlights in his pack digging into his lower back. Ren was next to him, her head drooping onto his shoulder. He jostled her with a gentle shrug. “Huh?” she said blearily.

“Wake up, Ren,” he said, trying to control his fear. “We’re in trouble.”

“Trouble?” she mumbled, and then she remembered. Her eyes snapped open and suddenly she was throwing her arms from side to side, struggling against the ropes at her wrists.

“Don’t bother,” said Ta-mesah.

She froze and looked up.

“Oh no,” she said, her shoulders slumping. “Another one.”

Alex’s battered ribs told him the same thing: that this was another powerful Order operative, like the hyena-masked psychopath they’d faced in New York. “What do you want?” he said defiantly.

“Watch your tongue, boy,” said Ta-mesah, “or I’ll cut it out.”

“I’ve heard that before,” said Alex, remembering similar words falling from the Stung Man’s lips. “Didn’t end too well for that guy.”

“Who says it’s over for him?” Ta-mesah’s voice echoed slightly through the iron and emerged barely human.

“I banished him,” said Alex.

“Is that what you think?”

“That’s what I know —”

Ta-mesah flicked his hand and a wave of force smashed into Alex, snapping his upper body back against the plaster wall and knocking the wind from his lungs.

“I can hear the fight in your voice,” said Ta-mesah. “But this fight is over. You’ve lost. Now you will answer my questions.”

Alex glared at him. “Why should I? I don’t care what you do to me.”

“I believe that,” said Ta-mesah. “And you’ve already died once. You’ve seen the worst. Alive when so many others have died.” He smiled. “The doctor, of course.”

Alex stiffened, raising his head as Ren lowered hers. “Oh yes,” said Ta-mesah, “she is quite dead.”

Alex took another quick look at the mummies. Ta-mesah followed his eyes. “No, not her. She served a different purpose.”

Alex understood. He knew as well as anyone that the Walkers needed to feed.

“Scumbag,” he said.

Ta-mesah ignored him. “I have two questions for you,” he said. “And I will ask them only once —”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

“Maybe not. But your friend …”

Alex looked quickly over at Ren and saw the fear fill her eyes. “Leave her alone!” he shouted.

A soft chuckle echoed through the iron mask. “She has been much quieter than you, no? Because she’s smarter.” His tone hardened; his voice grew louder. “You will talk or she will die.”

Ren gasped with pain and surprise as her bound hands were yanked over her head by an unseen force.

“Stop it!” Alex shouted, but as he watched, she was dragged up the wall. She struggled to get her feet underneath her.

“First question …”

“No,” said Alex, unable to hide the desperation in his voice.

Ren was standing bolt upright now, her arms straight over her head, but still the invisible force pulled on her hands. She rose to her tiptoes …

“Where is your mother, little boy?”

Alex’s head snapped back toward his interrogator. “What?” he said, confusion flooding his mind. “You have my mom!” he shouted. Is this some cruel trick?

“Don’t toy with me. I will kill the girl!”

Ren’s feet left the floor. She groaned in pain as her shoulders took all her weight.

“She must be in the Black Land,” shouted Ta-mesah. “Tell us where!”

Alex couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The Black Land was Egypt, named for the fertile soil along the Nile. It made no sense.

“I don’t know!” screamed Alex. “Leave her alone!”

He reached up for his amulet but could only paw at it with the rope of his heavily tied hands. Ren’s feet were a foot off the ground. Alex watched in helpless horror as her shoulders and arms strained. Her face was a mask of pain and despair. She opened her mouth and screamed.

It was a ragged cry, broken only when she gulped for more breath, but in the brief pause, a new sound filled the room.

“Mma-RACK?”

Standing in between the two rigid mummies was a third, much smaller one. The little cat looked from the girl hanging in the air to the man in the mask. In the narrow gaps between the wrappings on her back, what was left of her hair stood on end. She opened her mouth and released a dry, angry HISS!

“What is that … thing?” said Ta-mesah. His concentration broken, Ren dropped to the ground, landing in a limp crouch.

Pai hissed again, gathered her haunches underneath her, and jumped. She covered the twelve feet to her adversary in one impressive leap. Ta-mesah put his hands up, but it was too late. He got a Pai in the face. He stumbled backward and smacked into the wall, then reached up and frantically attempted to pry the hissing whirlwind from his head.

Pai swiped down repeatedly, her bony front paws landing like turbocharged drumsticks on the iron mask: TLAK! PRANG!

“Help me, you idiots!” Ta-mesah called.

The mummies sprang into action, rushing toward the epic hissy fit. Alex and Ren suddenly found themselves in front of the unguarded doorway. “Let’s go!” urged Alex.

“We need to help Pai!” countered Ren.

A tightly wrapped arm — an arm! — flew past them end-over-end and out into the tunnel.

“I don’t think so!” said Alex.

They took one last look back into the candlelit room. Pai was still pummeling Ta-mesah’s head, while one mummy struggled to get ahold of the squirming feline and the other gaped down dumbly at the place where its arm had been.

“Thanks, Pai!” Ren called as the friends rushed out of the room, a wave of gratitude briefly washing away her fear. “You rock!”

Hands still tied, amulets bouncing at their necks, they barreled down the tunnel.

They ducked around the next corner. Alex turned around so Ren could fish a small Swiss Army knife out of his backpack. Then she opened it with her teeth and sawed away Alex’s ropes. Once free, he returned the favor.

If there was ever a time for action, this was it, but for a long moment Alex just stood there, gawping down at the dirt. He couldn’t believe The Order didn’t have his mother. All this time … Every decision he’d made … Were they playing with him? Or was it true?

“Alex!” said Ren, drawing it out so that it sounded like two names: Al, Lex.

He shook it off — literally — shaking his head hard and forcing himself to focus. “Okay,” he said. “Which way? Use the amulet.”

“Nuh-uh,” she said. “That thing almost got us killed. It led us right into that trap.”

Alex gaped at her. He was focused now. “That’s not its fault!”

“What is it, mine?”

“No, but …”

“Whatever, I never would’ve been that dumb without it. Just standing there. I’m done with seeing things — that’s what crazy people do, Alex.”

Alex stared at her. He was sure anything he said now would just make her more determined. He knew how rational she was.

“Anyway,” she said, “unless we want to go back, there’s only one way left.”

Alex definitely didn’t want to go back. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”

As they hustled forward, Alex reached into his backpack and unzipped a little compartment built to hold books. He touched the edge of the folder inside, just to confirm that the spell was still there. It was time to cut the head off the snake.

They turned another corner and a brightly lit doorway came into view. “I think that’s it,” said Ren. “The center of the tomb.”

“The tomb chapel,” said Alex.

“Sure,” said Ren. “That, too.”

Alex wrapped his hand around his amulet and his internal radar lit up with a signal so strong it could only be one thing: Captain Willoughby.

They crept closer, Ren’s hands balled into fists at her sides, far from her ibis amulet. They moved carefully, even though so far this tomb had none of the scorpions, pits, and blades they’d encountered in New York.

But there were other perils.

A single word greeted them as they crossed the threshold. The sounds were stretched and torn but clear enough: “Welcome.”