Jake grinned and began to follow the others into the tomb, but something caught his eye near the entrance. A sign. He stopped dead. Shock and disbelief make it hard to focus. He had to read it three times.

Oh, no …

Jake’s gaze fixed on the griffin symbol at the bottom, picturing the monstrous grakyl of Pangaea. Furious, he twisted toward Morgan. “Did you know about this?”

The Brit’s face had gone oddly dark, his brows knitted low over his eyes as he read the sign himself.

“No,” he finally mumbled—then, like a cloud passing, his features returned to their usual disinterested granite. “The corporation funds thousands of projects around the world. Half the museums in the world have signs like this.”

Henry interrupted their discussion, his eyes huge behind his round glasses. “What luck! Hurry! The mummy’s just arrived. You’re in time for its unveiling.”

Morgan herded Jake over the threshold.

Stepping inside, a chill of dread traveled up from Jake’s toes. He pictured the rearing griffin. Something was definitely wrong about all of this.

With the roof closed over, the tomb was unusually dark inside. A few glowing display cases held an assortment of funerary objects. Small floor lights illuminated great panoramas of wall art, including a life-sized Anubis. The Egyptian god of death had the body of man and the head of a jackal. His crimson eyes made Jake shiver, and Jake tore his gaze away.

In the heart of the tomb rose a slab of stone, an altar. A shape wrapped in sheets rested atop it like an offering. Two white-smocked workers with griffin logos on their lapels stood to either side.

“Come closer,” Henry said, and waved to Jake. “It’s a spectacular specimen. Researchers would yank out their own eyeteeth to be here. Even the museum has the specimen only for the opening week of the show. A gift from our sponsor before it’s returned to Egypt.”

A gift from our sponsor …

Jake glanced to Morgan. The Brit kept his face impassive.

Henry motioned for the two workers to unwrap the protective shroud from the mummy.

Jake moved closer. Kady stood on the far side next to Uncle Edward.

Henry’s eyeglasses reflected the dim light. “There is no other mummy like this in the world. We’re guessing the Egyptians had been attempting to create a sculpture of one of their gods. We know they loved to depict their deities as half animals. Like our jackal-headed Anubis over there. Or the goddess Bast, who is often sculpted with the head of a cat. In this case, I think the Egyptians were trying to honor their god Horus, to create his likeness. But rather than using stone or paint, they used body parts.”

Body parts?

Jake frowned as the sheets billowed up and away. He recalled that Horus was the Egyptian god of the sky.

The professor continued. “Horus was usually depicted with the head of a falcon or sometimes just as a bird. So of course such a re-creation of Horus would need wings!”