Author's Note: Not much. Just read and review! Thanks!
Chapter 4: Breaking and Entering
Mike sped through the streets on his dirt bike with Isis sitting directly behind him and Davy on a second bike following him. Isis had her arms wrapped around his stomach holding tightly as Mike took the corners very quickly. He wove through traffic trying to get to the curators house as fast as he could. He knew that it would only be a matter of time before the curator figured out what they were up to and came after them. He didn't want Micky and Peter to be alone when that happened. He frequently checked the mirrors on his bike to make sure that Davy was safely behind him and that no one else was following them.
He rounded one last corner and pulled onto the street he needed and saw Davy turn the corner behind him. The street was empty and Mike wondered where Micky and Peter were. The museum was only a few minutes away and Mike knew they should have arrived well before Mike and Davy, even though Mike and Davy had been riding very fast. He pulled up in front of the large two-story house they needed and looked around for Micky and Peter. He didn't even see the Monkeemobile. He jumped when Peter and Micky jumped up from behind a bush. They had changed out of their security uniforms and into regular clothes now.
"Mike!" Peter said.
"Don't do that," Mike said.
"Why were you hiding behind the bushes?" Davy asked.
"The curator was right behind us when we crawled out the window at the museum," Micky explained. "Wasn't sure if he was going to follow us or not, so we parked the next street over and hid in the bushes."
"Good idea," Mike said. "We should hide the bikes in the bushes in case he comes home." Davy and Mike both moved the bikes to the spot Peter and Micky had been hiding.
"Peter found an open window we can go in," Micky said once the bikes were sufficiently hidden. "We should hurry though. I don't know if he knows what we're up to or not, but he's definitely on to us."
"Then let's split up," Mike said as they walked toward the window Peter found. It was a window into the kitchen over the sink. "Davy and I search down stairs, you Isis and Peter can go upstairs. Keep an ear out for any cars coming."
"Right," Davy, Micky, and Peter all said together.
"Let's go, Towering Texan," Micky added climbing through the window.
"Move fast and move quiet, Los Angeles Leopard," Mike smiled, knowing Micky was trying to lighten the mood. He climbed in right after Micky.
"No meowing this time," Davy said with a laugh when he came in.
"Where's the fun in that, Manchester Marauder?" Micky asked. Isis crawled in behind Davy, followed by Peter.
"Should anyone run into trouble, then you can meow, how's that?" Mike laughed. "That'll be the signal."
"Got it," Micky laughed. "Connecticut Counterspy and I will be upstairs." Peter and Isis laughed and followed Micky up the stairs. Mike shook his head with a chuckle.
"Davy, you check over there," Mike pointed to the living room. Mike didn't think he'd really find much of anything in the kitchen, but he looked anyway. The cupboards only held food, plates, and cups. Nothing out of the ordinary. The drawers were just as ordinary with silverware and other utensils. Mike moved on to the living room where Davy was searching.
"Find anything?" Davy asked him.
"No, you?" Mike answered.
"No."
"Let's check over here," Mike suggested pointing through an open door. "Looks like an office. Might find something in there." Davy nodded and they both entered the office space. Mike went towards the desk and began looking at the papers stacked upon it. They all appeared to be files pertaining to the museum, however, so he started opening drawers. The drawers were full of pens, highlighters, and various other items that one would expect to find in a desk. One of the drawers looked a little off to Mike, however and he paid it special attention. After a few moments of looking at it, he realized it wasn't as deep as it should be. He thumped around on the bottom until he found a latch. He pulled up and found a large mailing envelope stuffed inside the false bottom.
Mike opened the folder and saw several pictures inside along with lots of paperwork. The papers were mostly names and other personal information for people Mike didn't know. Most of the pictures were mug shots of men, some of whom Mike recognized as having been the men who had surrounded their car that morning. The rest of the pictures were pictures of Mr. Williams and what looked to be members of his crew. There was one picture of the amulet. This was the proof they were looking for.
"Davy!" he exclaimed. "We got it!" Davy ran over to him excitedly. Their excitement was short lived, however, as they heard a car pulling up. Davy and Mike exchanged looks with each other before scrambling out the office to the window in the living room with Mike shoving the contents of the folder back inside and shoved the folder in the waist of his pants against his back. They saw a man pull up to the driveway in the car. Mike assumed this was the curator. Mike and Davy scrambled to the bottom of the stairs to try and get the others to come downstairs so they could leave.
"Micky! Peter! Isis!" Davy hissed up the stairs. "He's back! We've got the evidence! Let's go!" Mike and Davy waited for a few seconds for a response, but none came. They didn't even hear any footsteps. They didn't want to shout too loudly in case the curator heard them outside, but that also meant that they probably weren't heard. They heard the car door closing from outside and knew they didn't have much time. The two dashed up the stairs as quickly as they could and rounded a corner just as the curator put his keys in the door to unlock it. The man closed the door behind him and Mike heard him take a few footsteps then stop short. Mike suddenly remembered he hadn't closed the desk drawer.
"Who's here?" the curator called. "I know someone's here. When I find you, I'll kill you." Davy whimpered a little bit, tugging on Mike's sleeve.
"What do we do, Mike?" he asked, clearly terrified.
"Calm down, Davy," Mike whispered, as much trying to calm himself as he was Davy. "We gotta find the others and get out of here." Mike slowly walked toward the nearest room and peeked inside, but found nothing. He listened to the footsteps downstairs to make sure they stayed down there. Upon trying the second door, he found Peter, who jumped nearly three feet in the air when Mike opened the door. He opened his mouth to let out a yelp, but Mike rushed over and clamped his hand over his mouth.
"Ssh!" Mike hushed. "The curator came back. He's downstairs. Where are Micky and Isis?"
"They're in the room down the hall," Peter whispered back. When they exited the room, Peter pointed across the hall to another door. The door was open and Mike could indeed see Micky and Isis rummaging around. The only problem was that they would have to pass the stairs to get to the room and they ran the risk of the curator seeing them. Mike was about to dash across and risk it when they heard the curator begin to ascend the stairs.
"Now what?" Davy asked.
"Micky!" Mike tried hissing, but he couldn't be too loud or the curator would hear him. Unfortunately that also meant Micky couldn't hear him. Peter tried dancing around and waving his arms to try and get Micky's attention but it was no use. The curator had reached the top of the stairs by now, and the three boys had to duck around a corner to avoid being seen. But the curator had already spotted the open door where Micky and Isis where and began walking towards it. Mike, Davy, and Peter all peered around the corner and watched as the curator kicked the door open. He heard Micky yelp out of fear.
"We gotta do something," Peter whispered as the curator pulled a gun from his pocket.
"I know! I'm thinking!" Mike answered. He began looking around for a way to help Micky and Isis, but the long hallway between the boys and the curator was bare.
"Isis," the curator sneered. "Well this makes things much easier for me. You have two choices, darling. Give me the amulet, or say goodbye to fuzzy."
"Fuzzy?" Micky said irritably.
"Shut it," Mr. Manfred snapped. "Isis, you have a decision to make. And don't even try any of your little moves. I'm smarter and faster than my men."
"I don't doubt that," Isis answered very calmly. "Doesn't mean I still can't take you."
"You can try, but are you willing to risk that? If you fail, not only do I kill you, but I kill your friend over here."
"If you kill me, you'll never find the amulet."
"I'm willing to bet you have it on you. Once I kill you, all I have to do is search your body for it."
"That's a pretty high stakes bet, don't you think? Are you sure you're willing to do it?"
"You're saying you don't have it?"
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I may have left it in the care of a friend. I may still have it in my pocket. The important question is: are you willing to make that bet?" Mr. Manfred stood there in silence for a few moments as though he were weighing his options.
"I think you have it," Mr. Manfred sneered after a while. "Because I think I know who you really are. And that means you'd never leave it in someone else's care. I just never thought they'd send a woman to do a man's job. But that doesn't matter. I'll just kill you both. Starting with fuzzy." Mike felt Davy and Peter both grip his shirt tighter as they heard Mr. Manfred's gun cock. Any plan Mike may have had to be sneaky and remain unseen left him. The only thing he could think now is to save Micky. He ran across the hall, not thinking about the fact that there was too much space between him and Mr. Manfred. He heard the shot ring out as he was only halfway down the hall. Mike's stomach dropped at the sound of it. But as soon as the shot rang out, Mr. Manfred fell through the floor. Mike skidded to a stop just before he himself fell through the hole in the floor.
"Wha-?" He sputtered. He looked up at Micky and Isis, both standing there completely unharmed. Micky looked just as shocked as Mike felt, but Isis stood there looking completely unfazed; as though nothing had happened.
"What just happened?" Peter asked behind him.
"Nothing," Isis said, snapping into action and grabbing Micky by the wrist and pulling him from the room. "Let's go!"
"What do you mean 'nothing'?" Mike asked as she and Micky ran past them. Mike took one last glimpse at the hole in the floor and saw the curator lying in a crumpled heap below them. The floor looked really sturdy to Mike, so he was confused as how suddenly a hole could have just appeared allowing him to fall through. He knew he couldn't stick around though as Peter and Davy had already started running down the stairs. Once they were outside, Isis turned back on all them.
"I'll go with Micky and Peter in the car," she said. "You two take the bikes back. Split up to make it harder for him to follow us." She barely finished speaking before she was dragging Micky through the street to where he had told them the car was. Peter shrugged and ran off after them. Mike and Davy ran to the bushes and jumped on the bikes.
The whole ride home, Mike couldn't stop worrying about his friends. He didn't exactly think splitting up was a good idea, but that was more because he didn't like not knowing if his friends were ok or not. His stomach was in knots the whole way. Finally he turned the corner onto their street and saw Davy just ahead of him and the Monkeemobile turned in behind him a second later. He finally breathed a sigh of relief as he turned off the bike and waited on the front porch with Davy. Peter had been driving the car, and Micky sat in the back seat with Isis. When Peter parked the car, all three got out and the five walked into the pad with Mike closing and locking the door behind them. Locking the house was something they usually never did, which only now struck Mike as odd considering all the times they'd been kidnapped. Sure one of those times was on purpose, sort of, but the Chinese men who had taken Micky in the middle of the night wouldn't have been able to do that if they had locked the door.
"Alright, wanna tell us what the heck happened now?" Peter asked turning on Isis. Micky sank into a chair and was staring off into space.
"What are you talking about?" Isis answered.
"You know darn well what he's talking about!" Davy exclaimed.
"Just when Micky is about to get shot, he's suddenly saved by a hole opening up in a perfectly sturdy floor in just the right spot to swallow the curator?!" Peter exclaimed.
"Coincidence," Isis answered.
"You're crackers!" Davy exclaimed.
"What do you want me to say," Isis sighed. "I magically opened a hole in the floor? Mike said it himself earlier; there's no such thing as magic."
"No, he said there's no such thing as being psychic," Davy corrected.
"Is there a difference? I mean, do you believe in magic?"
"Yes," Peter and Davy both answered.
"No," Mike said. Micky was still and quiet.
"What do you mean 'no', Mike?" Davy asked.
"You know I don't believe in that kind of stuff! It's silly!"
"Silly?" Davy sputtered. "What about when I was turned into a vampire and Micky into the wolfman and we both tried to kill you?"
"Or when Micky lost his voice because of that monkey paw?" Peter added. Mike really didn't have an explanation for any of that.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But there has to be a rational explanation for all that."
"Like what?" Davy asked.
"I don't know, Davy. I still have nightmares about Micky eating my hand."
"That doesn't matter anyway," Peter said ignoring Mike and turning back to Isis. "Now I know for sure there's something you aren't telling us. He said that he knew who you are. What does that mean?"
"I have no idea," Isis said.
"Stop lying to us," Peter snapped. Mike had never seen Peter look angry like this before. "Look, my best friend was almost just shot. I take issue with that. You can't un-involve us from this. These guys are going to come after us no matter how much we know. They were ready to use us as bait back at the museum. And this guy obviously has no qualms about killing people. We are as involved as we can possibly be now. He said they sent a woman to do a man's job. You are way too calm for someone face to face with a gun. Now tell us what's going on now, or we'll solve this whole problem by calling the police and telling them everything we do know, including you stealing the amulet and slipping it in Micky's pocket."
"Alright, alright," Isis sighed. "The artifact is rare and valuable because of its owner. Sort of. He was a high priest named Ramose. The Egyptians worshipped all the gods, but some more than others. Ramose was a priest of Seth, the god of darkness and chaos I told you about earlier."
"The one who killed his brother to steal the throne?" Davy asked.
"Yes," Isis answered. "Ramose went a little far with his worship. He tried finding multiple ways to bring Seth back to the throne and defeat Horus. He was imprisoned, but broke out and went underground so to speak. He began hatching plots to kill multiple priests, thinking it would weaken the powers of the other gods. He was able to kill about 13 high priests before he was stopped."
"I thought high priests were extremely well protected back then," Peter said.
"They were. They were about as protected as the pharaoh's own wives and children were. It was nearly impossible to gain entry into the priests' chambers in the temples."
"So how did he do it?" Mike asked.
"Magic. Peter and Davy are right. Magic is real. All priests had some sort of magical ability. They called it a gift from the gods in thanks for their worship. I'm not saying the gods are real. I don't know. Some priests were more powerful than others. Ramose unfortunately was extremely powerful. The bodyguards tried killing him with spears, tried stabbing him, he was even trampled by a horse, but he wouldn't die. So the high priestess who worshipped Isis, Osiris's wife, decided that Seth must have given him the gift of immortality, so she stopped him by imprisoning his soul. She imprisoned him inside this amulet." She pulled the amulet out of her pocket and set it down on the table.
"What?" Peter asked incredulously.
"She stripped his soul from his body and trapped it inside this amulet. His followers tried to get their hands on the amulet and free him so he could finish what he started and bring about more death and destruction. But the priestess stopped them every time. Her sister was the queen at the time, so the queen deemed that a group of men would protect the amulet from harm. If it were ever broken or destroyed, Ramose's soul would be restored. Over time people discovered the amulet itself had residual powers too. Probably Ramose's power leaking out. As the generations grew, the amulet was always handed down as was the knowledge to keep it safe. The group of protectors grew in size, but eventually, as Egypt began to fall, the amulet was lost. The group of protectors dwindled, but was never lost. Each generation is trained in the old ways in case the amulet was ever found. There were always people trying to find the amulet. Some still wanted to resurrect Ramose, some wanted to use its power."
"So Mr. Manfred wants to do what with it?" Davy asked.
"I don't know exactly, but I know he can't get his hands on it."
"Even if Ramose was immortal, don't you think his body would be dust by now?" Mike asked very skeptical of this story. "If his soul is released, where's it going to go?"
"From what I understand, it can go into any nearby body," Isis answered.
"This is ridiculous. You want me to believe that a 3,000 year old soul is trapped inside that thing?"
"It's probably more like 4,000."
"And how exactly do you know any of this?"
"My name isn't 'Isis' by accident. My father is a descendant of the high priestess who imprisoned him. Which means so am I."
"So you did cause that hole in the floor," Peter said.
"Yes," she answered. "I've been trained never to use my magic in front of others unless absolutely necessary. That's also why I was learning to fight when I was 10. Everyone in my family can do it. Mr. Williams taught me most of what I know how to do."
"You guys really believe this?" Mike asked.
"I do," Micky said, speaking up for the first time since they'd left the curators house. "I…I saw the bullet. It was right in front of my face, but then it just…disappeared."
"I made it change trajectory," Isis said. "I couldn't let you get hurt. I reacted too slowly. He never should have been able to fire that shot."
"Come on, Micky…" Mike started, still refusing to believe any of this. He wasn't really sure why. Peter and Davy had brought up good points with the wolf man and monkey's paw thing.
"Mike, there's no other explanation that makes sense," Peter argued. "We've seen a lot of crazy things over the last few years, and you're questioning this? I mean I sold my soul to the devil! We met Attila the Hun and Billy the Kid!"
"You did what?" Isis asked.
"I didn't do it on purpose," Peter explained. "He sold me a harp on credit. I didn't read the contract."
"But don't worry," Davy added, "We won Peter's soul back."
"I believe her, Mike," Micky said. "The night she slipped that thing into my pocket I had a really weird dream. All I remember is hooded figures chanting, sand, and a woman screaming."
"That's also how Micky was able to predict the mailman at the door and your landlord on the phone," Isis added. "I guess when I slipped the amulet in his pocket he started picking up some of the magic in it. It should be worn off by now though. I didn't really think that was going to happen. My dad warned me that if someone spent too much time in close contact with it, it could do that, but I thought he meant more like days in contact with it. He said that there were rumors that direct contact with it can cause a lot of physical problems, too. But no one ever really knew for sure because it hasn't been seen for thousands of years until it was accidentally dug up. One of the students on the trip dug it up and showed it to Mr. Williams. It was catalogued because he didn't immediately recognize it. It wasn't until I handled it that I felt its power and knew what it was. But by then it was too late. We had already listed it as an artifact and couldn't abscond with it."
"You've had it in your pocket all day and it hasn't done anything to you," Davy pointed out.
"It doesn't affect me the same way because I'm descended from the person who made it, so to speak. Micky, making those predictions probably gave you that headache and is what made you so dizzy when you went to get it out of your pocket. I'm really sorry about that. I didn't think it would be that bad."
"It's ok," Micky said. "I don't blame you for that."
"Ok," Mike said, "suppose all this is true. What do we do now?"
"Well, we still have to stop Mr. Manfred," Peter said. "We still need evidence to give the police."
"We got evidence!" Davy exclaimed. Mike remembered the folder of evidence he had shoved in the waist of his pants and pulled it out to lay on the table for everyone to see.
"These are the men he sent after us," Peter said looking at the mug shots. "These must be their names and contact information."
"What's this?" Micky asked, pulling a photocopy of what looked to be an old piece of parchment paper out of the file that Mike hadn't seen earlier. The writing on the parchment in the photocopy was in hieroglyphics so Mike had no idea what they were. Isis pulled the paper from Micky's hand.
"It's a spell," she said. "It releases the soul from the amulet. Guess we know what he wants to do with it now."
"Why would there be a spell?" Davy asked. "You said it just needed to get broken."
"Well, that is one way to do it," she answered. "But you have almost no control over the soul when you release it that way. If you release it through a spell, you can control where it goes and have some sort of pull on it. He could at any time put the soul back in the amulet, thereby almost blackmailing Ramose into doing what he wants."
"Wonder what his ultimate plan is then," Peter mused.
"I have no idea," Isis answered.
"We can turn this stuff over to the police for now," Mike said. "Let him get arrested; then the amulet will be safe."
"For now," Isis said. "He's not the only one who wants this. There have always been people chasing it."
"So what do you do?" Peter asked.
"I don't know now. It's already been listed as an artifact pulled from a dig. If it goes missing, they'll investigate its disappearance. But if it goes on display in a museum somewhere, it'll be a sitting duck. My people have ways of hiding it, but they'd have to bring it back to Egypt. Trying to smuggle a stolen artifact out of the country is next to impossible."
"Well, let's deal with one issue at a time," Mike said. "Let's get this to the police."
"And tell them what, exactly?" Isis asked. "That we broke into this man's house to steal evidence that he was trying to steal an artifact that I already stole?"
"Well when you put it that way…" Mike said.
"Why didn't you bring that up earlier?" Davy asked. "You know, maybe before Micky got shot at?"
"I didn't think we'd find anything, honestly," Isis answered. "And I wanted you off my back."
"I have an idea," Micky said. "We make a replica of that, set it up so that Mr. Manfred steals the replica, then go to the police. They'll search him and find the amulet. Case closed. Then it'll be easier to smuggle that wherever it needs to go because they won't be looking for it."
"That could work," Isis said. "But how are we going to make a good enough replica?"
"Peter." Micky answered.
"What?" Peter asked.
"That painting you made a replica of at that other museum was so good that the curator couldn't tell the difference when we tried to tell him it was being replaced."
"That was a painting, Micky, not a piece of jewelry."
"Yeah but it shouldn't be too hard to make a replica of that," Micky said. Peter reached for the artifact, apparently forgetting what happened to Micky when he touched it, but Isis slapped his hand away.
"Don't touch it!" she exclaimed.
"How can I replicate that if I can't even figure out what it's made of?"
"I can help you with that. You touch it and who knows what's going to happen. I already feel bad for what happened to Micky; I won't be responsible for something like that happening to you."
"I wasn't really hurt," Micky argued. "There's nothing to feel bad for. It was just a quick dizzy spell."
"It never should have happened," Isis answered.
"Ok, so buy me a new lamp and we'll be even." Isis smiled a little. "But she's right. No one else touches that but her." Mike heard a loud crashing noise. All four men jumped from the sudden noise. Mike looked around and saw the glass in the bay window had broken as if someone had thrown something through it. Sure enough, Mr. Manfred was standing on the other side.
"Mr. Manfred!" Mike, Davy and Peter yelled. "Run!"
"Isis!" Micky yelled, jumping up and running to her. It was only then that Mike noticed she had fallen to the ground. They didn't have much time to do anything as Mr. Manfred came running in the broken window. So much for locking the door. Peter shoved the table across the room so that it cut off Mr. Manfred and he tripped, buying them a few seconds. Mike ran over to help Micky grab Isis from off the ground.
"Peter, get the car ready!" Mike ordered grabbing Isis. Micky and Mike hoisted her up and carried her on either side of them. Micky grabbed the amulet and shoved it quickly in his pocket as Davy kept throwing furniture at Mr. Manfred still trying to slow him down. Once they were outside, Mike was grateful to see Peter had started the car. Micky and Mike helped her in the car before jumping in themselves followed by Davy.
"What happened?" Peter asked as he sped off.
"I don't know…" Mike answered. Just as he said it, however, Isis rolled over into Micky's lap and Mike saw a small knife sticking out of her back.