Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx by James Rollins Read Free Book Online Page A

three times.

    Oh, no …
    Jake’s gaze fixed on the griffin symbol at the bottom, picturing the monstrous grakyl of Pangaea. Furious, hetwisted 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.
    â€œNo,” 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.
    â€œCome closer,” Henry said, and waved to Jake. “It’s a spectacular specimen. Researchers would yank out theirown 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!”
    The sheets fell away to reveal a gnarled figure curled on the slab as if in agony. Leathery skin had dried long ago to the bones of its arms and legs. Ribs stuck out likefish bones. But it was not a man on the slab—at least not any longer. Grisly wings were folded over most of its body, forming some monstrous cocoon. Its bald head appeared more porcine than human. Jagged yellow teeth, like broken glass, shone from lips peeled into a death’s-head grin.
    â€œAnd look at the hands and feet,” Henry continued. “They must have replaced the man’s fingernails and toenails with the claws of a bird. It’s pure genius the way they stitched these various animals together to create such a unique mummified specimen.”
    Henry droned on, but Jake had stopped listening. A roaring filled his ears as blood drained to his feet. Kady had also gone as white as a burial shroud. She recognized it, too. This was not some Frankenstein mishmash of body parts.
    This creature was
real
.
    Jake had battled monsters like this back in Pangaea.
    Here was the mummified remains of a grakyl.

5

ANKH OF GOLD

    Across