Curse of the Mummy's Uncle (5 page)

Nick heard a quiet
click-click
,
click-click
. His first thought was that some animal was trying to get into the tent. Then he realized it was coming from inside. “What's that sound?” he asked.

“I'm knitting,” Carter whispered, holding up his needles and ball of yarn. “That doctor dude freaked me out and I can't fall asleep.” The three boys lay stretched out on their cots. A sleeping bag was folded beneath each of their beds, but even with the sun down, it was still too hot to consider climbing into one.

“He reminded me of an evil wizard, with that beard and those beady I'm-about-to-turn-you-into-a-newt eyes,” Nick said. He was just able to make out the
silhouettes of his friends in the dark tent. “What do you think he meant by ‘a place of power'?”

Angelo sat up and put on his shoes. “That is a very good question.”

“Where are you going?” Nick asked.

“Out.” Angelo took a package of testing swabs from under his bed.

Nick glanced toward the flimsy curtain that divided the boys' half of the tent from his parents'. “What if my mom and dad see you?”

“Your dad is snoring like a lawn mower. If your mom is awake, I'll say I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Sure, that'll work,” Nick said sarcastically. “Then you can explain how you always take your swabs to the toilet with you.”

Angelo held up his fingers one at a time. “One, we know that the first party who came here disappeared without a trace—exactly the way they would have if aliens abducted them. Two, we know that the pyramids are aligned to the stars. Coincidence? Three, the government was obviously hiding something by keeping people away from here for fifty years. And finally, they let a group come back that is looking for something powerful. What does that say to you?”

“The Ark of the Covenant,” Carter said. “Like in
Raiders of the Lost Ark
.”

Nick smiled. “How would the Ark of the Covenant end up in
Mexico
?”

“German spies,” Carter said at once. “Everyone knows Hitler was looking for the Ark. What better place to hide it than a pyramid in Mexico?”

Angelo didn't bother responding.

Nick put a hand on Angelo's shoulder. “Even if there
is
alien DNA here, why not look for it tomorrow, when it's light? Dr. Canul said not to go outside. Do you really want to start out this vacation by getting busted for breaking rules?”

“I gotta side with Nick,” Carter said. “I'm not so big on the idea of running into an alien in the dark. Not to mention snakes, giant hairy spiders, and things with claws and teeth.”

Angelo jerked away from Nick's hand. “You two can stay, but I'm going.” He turned and walked out of the tent.

“What's with him?” Nick asked. “It's like he's obsessed or something.” He sighed. They'd probably all get eaten. “I can't let him go alone,” he said, pulling on his shoes.

Carter grabbed his yarn and jumped off the bed. “I'm not letting you two get all the credit for discovering aliens without me.”

Nick was sure his mom would hear them and wake up, but he and Carter managed to tiptoe out of the tent without being noticed.

“What now?” Carter asked, eyeing the shadowy camp.

In the daylight, the tents and equipment had looked sort of like a scout troop setting up to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. But in the dim light of the moon and stars, the camp looked dark and more than a little creepy. The rain forest was so close he could throw a rock into the trees without even trying hard. Anything could be watching them from their hidden depths. The chirping and buzzing was even louder than it had been during the day. But now it sounded like the birds, frogs, and insects were warning the boys to get away while they could.

“Over there,” Nick said, pointing to the shadowy figure of Angelo heading toward the pyramid of the sun.

Nick jogged toward the imposing mound, which was shrouded in swirling mist turned ghostly silver by the moonlight. He could imagine all too well people being dragged up those steps to be sacrificed for some grisly ritual.

He and Carter caught up with Angelo just as he was beginning to climb. “I told you guys you didn't have to come with me,” Angelo muttered.

“Sure. Then I'd have to explain to your mom how we let you get eaten by a snake,” Carter said. “Yes, ma'am, I saw him getting turned into a boa constrictor's midnight snack. His last words were something about the theory of relativity, I think.”

“Very funny,” Angelo said. There was definitely something wrong with him. He could be intense at times, but in all the years they'd been friends, Nick had never seen him act like this.

Nick grabbed him by the backpack and spun him around. “Not another step until you tell us what's going on.”

Angelo tried to pull away. “I told you. I'm looking for DNA.”

Nick refused to let go. “I've faced zombies with you. We've hunted a mad scientist. Shoot, we were nearly killed by our own evil twins together. I've seen you go through a lot of things. But I've never seen you act like a jerk to your best friends. I get that you want to find aliens. But something is different about this.”

“I wouldn't say he's
never
been a jerk,” Carter said. “But never one
this
big. Either you tell us what's going on or I'm waking up the whole camp.”

Angelo looked at the two of them, gulped, and dropped to the ground. He wrapped his arms around
his knees and buried his face in them. His back began to shake.

Nick looked down at his friend, unable to believe what he was seeing.

“Is he crying?” Carter whispered.

Nick sat next to Angelo and wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulders. “Dude, what is it? What's wrong? Whatever it is, you know we'll do anything to help.”

Angelo took several hitching breaths before sobbing, “They don't want me to hunt monsters anymore.”

What was he talking about? All three boys loved monsters, but they were Angelo's life. He'd been tracking monsters and keeping notes on them for as long as Nick could remember. “
Who
doesn't?”

Angelo's body shook again and he wiped his nose on the back of his arm. “My parents,” he managed to gasp at last.

“What?” Carter sat on the other side of Angelo and put an arm around him too.

For the next few minutes the boys sat silently waiting for Angelo to pull himself together. Nick was sure he must have misunderstood. His parents thought his obsession with monsters was silly, and his mom thought he and his friends spent too much time watching scary movies. But they had never suggested that
he give up monsters completely.

After a while Angelo raised his head, took off his glasses, and wiped his eyes. “Sorry about that. It's just the thought of giving up monster hunting with you guys . . .” He brushed his hair out of his eyes. “I probably sounded like a total baby.”

Carter gave Angelo a pat on the arm. “Dude, if my parents made me stop hanging out with the Monsterteers, I'd bawl like a two-year-old. I'd probably poop my pants like a two-year-old at the same time.”

“How can they do that?” Nick asked. “Monsters are everything to you. What kind of jerks would make you stop doing what you love?”

“It's not like that,” Angelo said. “They're trying to help me. You know how I've always wanted to be a scientist?”

Nick nodded. “Of course. With your brain, you'll probably be the next Einstein or Marie Curie, except, you know, if she was a guy.”

Angelo put his glasses back on. “They know I'm smart enough, and I definitely have the grades.”

“A-plus-pluses,” Carter said.

“But, the thing is, they're both scientists too, and they know how important your reputation can be. They think it could hurt my chances of getting the right
position when I'm older if I keep insisting monsters and aliens are real.”

“Um, hello.” Carter knocked on Angelo's forehead. “Monsters
are
real. We've seen them ourselves.”

“
We
have. But
they
haven't.”

It took Nick a second to understand what Angelo was saying. Although they'd come across zombies, living beings stitched together out of dead body parts, and much more, none of their parents had ever seen them. “They think it's all make-believe.”

Angelo nodded miserably. “I want to be a scientist more than anything. But I also want to hunt for aliens. So I thought if I could just find some proof that aliens are real on this trip, maybe get their DNA . . .”

“You wouldn't have to give it up.” Nick squeezed his friend's shoulder. “Why didn't you tell us earlier?”

Angelo exhaled. “I guess I was afraid you wouldn't understand. I know you love monsters as much as I do. But for you two it's more like a hobby. I want to make monsters my career. That's why I've always kept the notebook. I had this dream that one day it could be a new branch of science.”

“Monsterology,” Nick said. “I could totally see that.”

Carter stood and grabbed Angelo's hand to pull him
up. “What are we waiting for then? Let's go find some monster skin.”

“Are you serious?” Angelo said. “You'll come with me?”

Carter snorted. “Dude, we will bring E.T.'s head back in a bottle if that's what it takes.”

Nick took Angelo's other hand and together the boys pulled him to his feet. “Monsterteers don't let other Monsterteers stop doing what they love. Did you remember to bring a flashlight?”

Angelo patted his belt, where not one but two thin silver flashlights were tucked. “Don't worry. I'm prepared.”

“Good.” Carter wiped his damp palms on the legs of his pants. “Because I want to help you find what you need. But going into a pyramid in the dark would totally freak me out.”

Angelo started the steep climb up the side of the pyramid with Nick and Carter at his sides. “Why are we going up the steps?” Nick asked. “I thought we were going
inside
.”

“We are,” Angelo said. “The entrance is at the top.”

“Say what?” Carter puffed, already a little out of breath. “I've seen tons of pyramid movies. And all of
them have doors in the bottom with tunnels that lead to treasure and stuff.”

Angelo kept climbing, pausing only occasionally to look behind him. “You're thinking of Egyptian pyramids. Like Dr. Canul said, to the Mayans, pyramids represented mountains. They considered caves sacred passages to the underworld, so they dug them down into the mountain from the top. The passageways were often decorated with the gods and demons they expected to face after they died.”

Nick felt his heart racing, and it wasn't just from the climb. “Did you say
demons
?”

“Lots of them,” Angelo said, as if he was talking about math grades or what they were having for lunch. “There was Ahaltocob, the Stabbing Demon, and Ahalpuh, the Pus Demon, who caused people's bodies to swell up. Xiquiripat, the Flying Scab, and Patan, who caused people to die while coughing up blood.”

Nick smiled uncertainly. “You're joking.” No way was there a demon called “the Flying Scab.”

Angelo rubbed his glasses on his shirt. “I'm completely serious. They all worked with the gods of death, One Death and Seven Death, setting traps and tests for people to pass on the way to the underworld. From what I've read, the traps were supposed to be pretty
intense, like a river filled with scorpions, and a bench to sit on that was actually a burning-hot griddle. If you made it past all the tests, you got to go to the underworld called Xibalba. Most people think it translates as ‘The Place of Fear.'”

Carter grabbed Angelo by the back of his shirt, nearly pulling both of them back down the side of the pyramid. “Dude, tell me you're just making this up. If you're seriously taking us down some tunnel to a river full of scorpions, I am so out of here.”

For the first time, Angelo seemed to notice how Carter and Nick were reacting to his words. “I think the river of scorpions might have been an illusion.” He put his glasses back on and scratched his nose. “It's all written in that book I was telling you about—the
Popol Vuh
.”

“I'm confused,” Nick said. “I thought we were looking for aliens. Now you're saying we're searching for something called the Place of Fear that's filled with a bunch of demons.”

The three of them stopped about three-fourths of the way up the side of the pyramid. Angelo opened his pack and took out his iPad. “What if Xibalba wasn't the name of the underworld, but the aliens' home planet?”

It sounded like the kind of thing you'd hear in a
science-fiction movie.
I come from the planet Xibalba, twenty parsecs from your home planet.

“What about the demons?” Carter asked.

“I'm getting to that. Remember that powerful device the king's aunt and uncle were guarding for him? If it was something the aliens had left here, they'd want to keep it safe too. And what better way than to tell people it was protected by a river of scorpions, a bunch of demons, and a room filled with killer bats?”