❝you know, you're pretty cute, considering you're 4,000 years old.❞
❝thank you?❞
luna clair loves museums. she loves history, mythology, all that old shit. so when her best friend's dad gets a new job as the night guard of the new york national hist...
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
❝I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.❞
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
✦✧✦
Plan: get down to the Archives, find Ahkmenrah and the others, retrieve tablet, stop Kahmunrah from doing whatever evil and typical spurned villain thing he's planning on doing. Fairly simple to the naked eye, but entirely complex when carried out.
Luna, Larry, and Nicky are running on five hours of sleep and three cups of coffee each, which makes planning this thing a far more cranky affair than any of them would like it to be. Nicky's scanning maps of the Smithsonian and the Archives on his laptop, Luna's researching Kahmunrah (so they know what they're dealing with, and because she's a huge nerd, reader), and Larry's working on how best to get down to the Archives themselves without security clearance.
"Okay, so the Smithsonian is actually nineteen different museums," Nicky says, squinting at his laptop screen, "seventeen of which are in D.C., and eleven of which are on the National Mall."
"Which museum are the Archives in?" asks Larry, looking up from his notepad.
"Not in." Nicky shakes his head. "Under. From what I can tell, the Archives are underneath the National Mall, all the way from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial."
"So if Ahkmenrah's tablet is down there..." Luna suddenly understands the full gravity of the situation. Her heart quickens.
Nicky nods. "The biggest museum in the world is coming alive."
They all look at each other for a moment, understanding and worry passing between them, then Luna taps her pen pointedly on the notebook she's been writing down little bits of information in. "Alright. Kahmunrah, fifth king of Egypt. One of the briefest, bloodiest reigns of any pharaoh ever recorded. Passed over for his baby brother, because his father considered him too violent to rule."
"Shocker." Nicky rolls his eyes and takes a massive bite of the beef jerky stick he's holding.
"He took the throne after Ahkmenrah's 'mysterious' death," Luna continues, making finger quotes around the word "mysterious". She remembers the night Ahkmenrah told her about how he died. She remembers the way he felt in her arms. She remembers the way her skin burned against his, like two fiery stars colliding.
"So that's the guy we're dealing with." Larry sets down his pencil, chewing on his lip pensively.
"He comes to life tonight." Luna nods solemnly. "With everything else in the Smithsonian."
