Cairo Jim and the Secret Sepulchre of the Sphinx: A Tale of Incalculable Inversion (The Cairo Jim Chronicles Book 6) by Geoffrey McSkimming

Author:Geoffrey McSkimming [McSkimming, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2016-10-28T14:00:00+00:00

Inversion!

‘BUT IT’S NOT a hoax,’ said Cairo Jim in the smallest of voices.

He, Doris, Brenda and Jocelyn had been listening to the evening radio news in the Sanctuary Room of the Old Relics Society. They had learned that the marauding media had earlier that day destroyed the campsite, ripping apart the tents and smashing Jim’s table and chair and Doris’s perch and all their other belongings.

‘Never mind, my lovely,’ Jim said to Brenda, who was sitting silently in the corner. ‘I’ll buy you all the Melodious Tex western novels you want when all of this blows over.’

‘Quaaoo,’ she snorted sadly.

Jocelyn sat next to the Wonder Camel, wondering if the crowd had vandalised the montgolfier Persephone. There had not been time to go back to find out, as Jocelyn had to fly out with Valkyrian Airways in less than two hours’ time for a three-week trip to the Ivory Coast and Belgian Congo. She had phoned the balloon’s owners and advised them of its location. She wanted to spend her last few valuable hours in Cairo here with her friends.

‘Rark,’ Doris rarked. For once, there was not much more she could say.

‘What really upsets me,’ Jim said, ‘is that we can’t go back. I really thought we might be onto something there, digging down from the edges of the slabs. Even though we hadn’t yet uncovered anything under them, there was the possibility. Now what do we do?’

‘Let me answer that one for you.’ Perry bustled into the Sanctuary Room, his eyes filled with dismay but also with a small twinkle of hope.

‘Have you heard the news?’ Doris asked him. ‘It’s on all the radio stations, everywhere. We even picked up the short-wave frequency to Outer Mongolia. They’re calling Jim a fraudster!’

‘Hmm.’ Perry sat and rubbed his moustache. ‘Forget about all of that, Jim. You know this isn’t a hoax, and I know it isn’t. Let all of this just die away. Give it a bit of time … ’

‘But my reputation,’ Jim said.

‘Your reputation is more solid than this sandstorm in a teacup,’ said Perry.

Jim looked doubtful as he fiddled with his pith helmet in his lap.

‘Now listen, I’m sending you back to work.’

‘Rerark! We can’t go back there! We’ll get attacked by all those press people!’ Doris was spluttering, her beady eyes blinking rapidly. ‘And we heard on the news that the public are waiting for us, with big sticks and—’

‘No, no, no,’ Perry hushed her, ‘not to work at the stones of Amehetnehet. Goodness gracious, Doris, I may be getting on, but I’m not daft. No, I firmly believe that in a situation like this, the best thing to take your minds off all the nastiness is good, solid work. Especially for an archaeologist. It’s the best remedy, you’ll find.’

Jim sighed. He didn’t seem very enthusiastic.

‘What are you suggesting?’ Jocelyn asked.

‘Well,’ said the elderly man, ‘for some months now the Society here has been thinking of mounting a small-scale dig inside the Great Sphinx at Giza. There’s some

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