Chapter 1

BEYOND THE GRAVE JUDE WATSON

CHAPTER 1 If Amy Cahill had to list what was wrong with eleven-year-old brothers, their habit of disappearing would be numero uno. Or maybe the fact that they existed in the first place. And then there was the whole burping the alphabet thing…. Amy stood in the middle of the Khan el-Khalili market in Cairo, her head swiveling frantically, trying to find her brother, Dan. The blur of jet lag was interfering with normal brain function. Dan had just been at her side a moment ago. Then she turned for two seconds to buy a Nefertiti pencil, and when she turned back, Dan was gone. The air was thick with heat and music and the calls of shopkeepers. Bright banners waved

overhead. Tourists weaved through the streets, wearing their backpacks on their chests to safeguard against pickpockets and stopping to take pictures every few minutes. A woman in a head scarf dodged a row of turquoise chairs to follow after her two boys. A man with a crate full of oranges balanced them on his head with one hand. A tourist in a baseball cap and a T-shirt proclaiming I WANT MY MUMMY strolled past Amy, her camera held up in front of her face. Amy felt the heat like waves against her skin. She hoped she wouldn't faint. Colors swarmed, faces dissolved, unfamiliar noises pounded against her ears. She had never liked crowds, and Cairo seemed like the city that had invented them. She turned, her hand on her waist pack. Their au pair, Nellie Gomez, was just down the alley, bargaining over spices. Amy could just catch a glimpse of her crazy half-blond, half-black hair. Less than an hour ago, they'd been in a taxi, riding into Cairo from the airport. Then when the cabdriver had casually pointed out the window and said, "The Khan market starts here, very good place," Nellie had suddenly yelled, "Stop!" Before

they knew what was happening, they'd landed in the market with luggage and cat carrier. Saladin had meowed furiously when Nellie promised, "Just ten minutes, that's all I need, and then we'll go straight to the hotel…. Cool! Cardamom pods!" For Nellie, every new city was just another opportunity for weird food. Finally, Amy spotted Dan through the crowd. He was pressed against a shop window crowded with souvenirs. She had a feeling he was captivated by the King Tutankhamen pencil sharpener, but it could have been the flashlight in the shape of a mummy. As she crossed the alley, Dan kept appearing and disappearing through the meandering crowd. The hot sun was blinding. She hoped that air- conditioning was in her future. The tourist in the I WANT MY MUMMY T-shirt drifted closer to Dan. She pushed her white sunglasses down her nose. Some small alarm chimed inside Amy. A man in a straw hat blocked her view, and she dodged to one side. The tourist bent her index finger back at the

first joint, as if she had a cramp. The hot sun glinted on something protruding from her nail. "Dan!" Amy screamed. The music and the calls of the shopkeepers— Five dollars, five dollars!— drowned her out. She darted past a man balancing a dozen neon-colored soccer balls in a net. The hypodermic needle protruded out of the tourist's clawlike finger. Dan leaned closer to the window…. "Dan!" She screamed the name. In her head. But it came out like a strangled croak. Amy threw herself forward. At the very last second, she flung out her hand. The needle jammed into the Nefertiti pencil and stuck. For one swift second, all Amy could do was stare down at the glint of sunlight on metal. In slow motion, a drop of something lethal fell from the tip and hit the dust. Amy looked into the face of Irina Spasky. Former KGB agent. Spy. Cousin. Irina's left eye twitched. "Blin!" She twisted her hand, but the needle remained stuck in the pencil. The shopkeeper hurried over. "Beautiful lady, it

is stuck on you. Here, I have more pencils for you!" Irina turned on him fiercely. "I don't want your fancy pencils, shopkeeper of things!" Amy and Dan didn't wait another second. Dan moved like a midfielder through the crowd, and Amy followed in his wake. Legs pumping, they ran until their lungs burned, dashing through the maze of twisting alleys. Finally they stopped, bent over at the waist, and tried to catch their breath. When they looked up, Amy realized they were lost. Badly, stupidly, irredeemably lost. "Nellie will be looking for us," Amy said. She flipped open her cell phone. "No signal. We'll have to find our way back." "And hope we don't bump into Comrade Irina," Dan said. "I can skip the family reunion." By now they were used to meeting family members with mayhem on their minds. Just weeks ago they'd had a hard time coping with the fact of their grandmother's death. After their parents died, Grace had been the most important person