She crossed to the trunk of the car and fetched her other bag. It was pink and shaped like the barrel of a bazooka. The long tube held her fencing sword.

Uncle Edward stared at her with his hands on his hips. “I still don’t know why you had to bring that thing with you, young lady.”

Kady shouldered her bag. “Because I’m shopping for a new sword. It’s not like I can find one in North Hampshire. And I needed my old one to compare the weight and balance to the new one.”

“But yours is only three months old.”

“Exactly. Definitely time for a new one.”

Edward shook his head and gave up. Morgan stared at them, his arms folded, his eyes pinched with suspicion.

“Let’s go,” Uncle Edward said.

As a group, they climbed the steps.

A giant banner hung over the entrance, heralding the upcoming exhibit. It depicted King Tut’s golden mask hovering above the Great Pyramid of Khufu. The show wasn’t due to open for another two days.

At the doors, a small figure pounced out to greet them. He wore a huge welcoming smile and was dressed in a brown waistcoat with midcalf boots. His jowls were fringed by shaggy gray sideburns, spreading like wings to either side of his head. He also wore round glasses. His look and large belly reminded Jake of an older Teddy Roosevelt.

“Ah, there you are, you limey buzzard!” He gave Edward a huge hug. “How long has it been? Ten years?”

“Thirty,” Edward corrected, but his usual stern resolve melted into something more boyish. “As I recall, it was at the twenty-fifth reunion of our old unit.”

Edward turned to the others and made introductions, ending with Kady and Jake. “And these two are Katherine and Jacob Ransom.”

The man’s eyes grew huge. “By golly, these can’t be Battle-ax Bart’s grandchildren!”

“They are indeed.”

Jake lifted an eyebrow. “Battle-ax Bart?”

Edward explained, “A nickname for your grandfather. Bartholomew got the moniker from the hatchet he carried with him through the desert campaign in Africa.”

Jake had heard stories of those battles, but he’d never heard this one.

Edward clapped his friend on the shoulder. “And this is Professor Henry Kleeman. A leading Egyptologist. He still spends most of his time out in the field. Apparently he liked the desert so much during the war, he never left it.”

Henry waved away his words. “Enough! Come on inside. Let’s get out of this heat. I get enough of that in Egypt.”

The professor led them into the entry hall, through the main rotunda, and past a massive skeleton of a barosaurus.

“We’re setting up the Egyptian show on the fourth floor, so we have some climbing to do.” Henry hurried them along. “The main museum opens to the public in another two hours. I wanted to give you as much private time to explore the exhibit as possible. And there’s lots to see! We’ve got artifacts dating back to the earliest Egyptian dynasties. From jeweled scarab beetles to massive sarcophagi. But the true showstopper is a tomb discovered last year. It was painstakingly taken apart to preserve it against a new highway that’s being built, then shipped here in pieces. We reassembled it on site. It’s quite dramatic.”