Tombquest: Book of the Dead

The Book Club

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. He could hear the strain in Ren's voice and see the confusion in her eyes. Her world had just turned upside down.

This was easier for him. He'd been raised on stories of ancient Egypt and ancient magic. He just had to accept that those stories were true — and how could he deny that now? He tried to come up with a question that wasn't too head-explode-y. "The guard in the mask. You called him Al-Dab'u? And he could do things — we could all do things ..."

"Not all of us," said Ren, more to herself.

Todtman considered the question.

"Yes, let's start with him. Not a guard, not really — though he had me fooled. He works for an organization out of Egypt, very powerful," said Todtman. "They call him Al-Dab'u — the Hyena. I'm sure you can see why."

Ren nodded. One clear connection, one answer. Todtman continued.

"And the organization, well, I'm afraid they are a secret society. They are called The Order, at least that's how you'd say it in English. In Egypt, people think of The Order like the mafia in Italy, or the yakuza in Japan: powerful, violent, and with strange traditions. And like those organizations, this one is very old. But they are not truly like the others."

"Why not?" said Ren. "We have the mafia here, too, by the way."

Todtman tipped his head, thanking her for the information. "Because they are a death cult," he said. "The mafia, here or there, the yakuza; they exist for the money, the power. The Order serves a man who has been dead for thousands of years. They'd been hunting for the Lost Spells, because their ultimate goal is to bring him back."

"The Stung Man?" said Alex.

"No, but like him."

"A Death Walker?" said Alex.

"How do you know about the Death Walkers?" said Todtman, surprised. "But yes, another Death Walker."

"Think I read one of your books ..."

"Wait, there's a book?" said Ren, sitting up straighter. "Can I read it?"

Alex was about to answer when Todtman held up one finger.

"What?" said Alex, eager for another revelation.

Todtman lowered his finger and pointed it at the door. As he did, there was a loud knock.

"I'll have to get that, I'm afraid," said Todtman. "It's the police."

"Just one minute, please!" he called toward the door.

"Obviously, we have much more to discuss," he said, lowering his voice again.

"Obviously," echoed Ren, shooting him a look that said, And don't you forget it.

"Yeah, like what does this have to do with my mom?" said Alex, hating that his voice broke. "And the amulets? And —"

"I know this is difficult," said Todtman, "but right now, the police will want to talk to us. And you need to listen to me carefully."

"You want to tell us what to say?" said Ren.

"You could put it that way, but please understand. These people — that creature — there is nothing the police can do. Guns, prisons, juries ... They are no obstacles to him. And if we were to say what we saw here tonight, what we did ..."

"We'd be the ones who'd get locked up," said Ren.

" 'Mass psychosis,' " said Alex.

"At the very least, it would get in the way of what we need to do. And we want the same thing."

"To stop them?" said Alex.

"Yes, and to find what was taken."

"And my mom."

"Of course."

Alex looked him in the eyes, and he thought he saw understanding there. This man had said he was his mom's friend.

"You called my mom? Before she left?"

"A friend of ours was hurt, in Cairo. She was upset. We both were."

Alex nodded. He decided to believe him. What choice did he have?

Another knock on the door, louder this time. Todtman and Alex both looked at Ren. She nodded, too. "Okay."

"I'll have to unlock that," said Todtman, looking at the door as if it were a thousand miles away. He glanced down at his own amulet — in the shape of a bird, Alex noticed — then over at the bottle of headache pills. He pushed back his chair. "I think I'll do it the old-fashioned way."

As Todtman got up and walked past them, Ren leaned over to Alex. She wasn't shaking anymore. "Do you believe this?" she whispered.

"What part?" he whispered back.

"They've got a death cult," she said as the door opened behind them. "And we've got a book club."