Book of the Dead by Northrop Michael

Author:Northrop, Michael [Northrop, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2014-02-08T08:00:00+00:00

Alex and Ren were seated in Todtman’s office, watching silently as Todtman took out a bottle of headache pills and popped two in his mouth.

Alex knew what that was like — he could practically taste the gritty chalk of the dissolving tablets. He looked down at his amulet and then over at Ren. She was still breathing hard, her hands shaking slightly.

He listened to the sound of his pulse in his head. The beats were hard and fast, and every one sounded like a single word to him: Mom.

It was bad enough before, he thought.

It was bad enough when he thought his mom had been kidnapped.

Before he knew the smell of the crypt.

Before he knew that the dead could wake.

There was something much larger going on. And somehow his mother was a part of it. The Spells were gone but her scarab was here, her scarab had powers —

He needed answers.

“Who are you?” he asked Todtman.

Todtman swallowed the pills and pointed to the little sign on his desk: DR. ERNST TODTMAN.

“Yeah, but who are you really?” Ren said. Her eyes were still wide with shock and fear, but Alex could see her fight to push all that aside and focus. He felt a rush of gratitude.

“I can assure you that is my real name,” said Todtman. His tone was measured, but Alex knew he wasn’t unaffected by what had just happened. Ren’s hands weren’t the only ones that were shaking.

“I am associate director of the Neues Museum in Berlin,” Todtman continued, his accent coloring his words just slightly. “I am an Egyptologist and a colleague of your mother’s — and a friend. We are members of a sort of … there is a word for it in German, but I do not think there is quite the right one in English. A sort of … group, perhaps?”

“A secret society?” said Ren, leaning forward.

“Mmmmm, more like … a professional organization. Some call us the Keepers. We are scholars, mostly. We help each other in our studies, share our findings — sometimes we read the same book.”

“You’re … a book club?” said Ren.

Todtman smiled. Alex had seen that smile before: The heavy flesh of his cheeks creased and lifted, the already buggy eyes opened even wider. It had seemed sinister to him when he first met Todtman, but now it seemed less frog-like and more friendly.

“You had his mom’s beetle thing,” Ren accused.

Alex felt a flash of guilt. He should have said that.

“She left the amulet for me,” said Todtman with a shrug. “At least that’s what I think. It was found in a case in the new exhibition. A loose piece, out of place … she had to know it would be brought to me.”

“Wait,” said Alex, determined to get his head around it all. “Is anyone going to talk about the crazy undead mummy that just tried to eat our souls?”

“We’re getting to that,” protested Ren. “We have to start with things I can understand or my head is going to explode, all right?”

“All right,” he said.

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