Chapter 2: Death Through The Ages
"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."
"King Neferkare Pepi II was the last known pharaoh to rule Egypt during the period of the Old Kingdom." Ms. Tutweiller lectured.
Ms. Tutweiller was lecturing to her history class of Seven Seas school. She was a good teacher but the subject of dead ancient rulers of a desert culture could only be described as 'dry'. Her class was engaging themselves in other academic pursuits.
"After the death of Pepi II, the Old Kingdom went into an inexplicable decline. The scant records from the time indicate that some of the 'tools' or 'technology' they had was no longer available for some reason."
Woody was making a very accurate drawing of his left hand. Maya was pondering who she should vote for on American Idol and how many votes she could afford to send in. London was using her new phone to text a best friend whose name she couldn't remember. She was very proud of her new phone. Her Daddy's company had managed to make the first phone powered by a miniature nuclear reactor, and she could see no way that that plan could fail.
"The tomb of Pepi II was recently discovered in a previously concealed chamber under the Great Pyramids of Giza. His Sarcophagus and other ornaments were on display at the Cairo museum until recently."
Cody was dividing his time between paying attention to Ms. Tutweiller and paying attention to Ms. Pickett. If you love someone long enough the back of their head develops a hypnotic quality.
"The Egyptian Government made a deal with the Museum of Ancient History in Idaho to put Pharaoh Pepi II on permanent display in their facility. Which everyone thought was very odd..."
Cody also spared his twin a glance. It had been less than a day since they had to pry Mr. Moseby off of Zack's throat for the microwave-incident. Mr. Moseby had apologized and given Zack a few days off after it was discovered that the microwave was defective and generally shouldn't function like a hand grenade.
"The entire Pepi II exhibit is in the hold of the S.S. Tipton right now to be transported to the United States."
Still, Zack was in a constantly aggravated state. He had the pale skin tone of someone who didn't know what sunlight was. The intensity of his stare suggested a hardcore caffeine addiction. He had the overall look of someone who expected death was lurking around every corner.
This was preposterous, of course. Death was leaning against the wall behind him.
HELLO AGAIN.
"What are you doing here?" Zack cried.
"Zack, who are you talking to?" Ms. Tutweiller while subtly texting Mr. Moseby that Zack had finally lost it. On the other side of the ship the security guards mobilized.
WELL, SOME IDIOT...
At the word IDIOT Zack dove as far away from London as was possible without breaking through a wall. He then broke through the wall.
At the same time London noticed her phone was getting very hot; burning, in fact. She gave a shrill cry of pain and tossed the cell-phone into the air. It landed with crack on Zack's now empty desk. It shot out a column of sinister green fire and the already panicked class ran for the door.
In the Tipton San Diego Research and Development Office one of the lab workers alerted his bosses that the remote tracker for the new cell-phone they were testing had reported a fatal system error. For the next hour everyone would be scrambling to find the waiver the test subject had signed.