Tomb of Doom (2 page)

If Agent Track Star had already been inside the pyramid for two hours, that meant he had until midday tomorrow …

Zac was already behind time!

CHAPTER
TWO

Zac wanted to set off straight away. But there was one small problem.The CAMEL-TRONIC 9000 was in no state to go anywhere. Luckily Agent Peterson seemed to know what Zac was thinking. He shook his leaves again and a set of keys fell into Zac's hands.

At first Zac didn't know what the keys were for. Then he spotted a cool looking car behind Agent Peterson. It was painted a sandy colour so it blended in with the desert. It had a roll bar instead of a roof and on the back was a big solar panel.

Awesome! A solar-powered dune buggy!

Zac jumped in and started it up.

‘There's a Pyramid-Pack in the back that Agent Tech Head put together for you,' said Agent Peterson. ‘It's full of useful gadgets for a mission like this.'

‘Great,' said Zac. ‘Now, which way do I go?'

‘North, I think,' replied Agent Peterson. ‘Or maybe east.' He didn't sound very sure.

I'll head north-east,
decided Zac as he revved the engine and set off. It was strange not having proper directions but Zac wasn't worried. Surely it couldn't hurt to go for a short joy-ride first!

The dune buggy was excellent. It zipped around palm trees and screeched around boulders. Zac even drove it on two wheels. Then he flew over the sand dunes, making huge sand clouds behind him as he bounced back down on the big fat tyres.

After a while, Zac started getting hungry. Was there any food in the buggy? Zac couldn't find any. But then he noticed a button on the dashboard with a picture of a hamburger on it. Curiously, Zac pushed it. With a whirr the buggy's bonnet folded up. Underneath was a barbecue grill.

As Zac watched, the left windscreen wiper slapped a meat patty onto the sizzling grill while the right wiper chopped up lettuce and tomatoes. Ten minutes later Zac was eating a delicious burger. There were even some chips on the side.

The dune buggy's clock beeped.

He'd been on this mission for two hours and didn't even know where he was heading yet. Time to talk to Agent Tech Head.

‘Hi, Leon,' said Zac when his brother's face appeared in the SpyPad's satellite phone screen. ‘Any idea where to find this Tomb of Doom?'

‘I haven't been able to find the exact location,' Leon admitted, ‘but I'll send you what I know. There are some sunglasses in the Pyramid-Pack. Put them on.'

The sunglasses were much less stylish than the ones Zac was already wearing. But when he put on them on he understood why Leon wanted him to wear them.

Head Up Display sunglasses!

Any information Leon sent was beamed directly onto the inside of each lens.

Leon sent through a message straight away.

The Vanishing Pyramid is located somewhere around 27.66o latitude and 28.25o longitude.

Zac entered the coordinates into the SpyPad's GPS. Then Leon sent another message.

What did that mean?

But there was no time to wonder.

Zac had to keep going. He found his favourite driving music on his iPod: Jet's
Get Born
. Then he slipped the buggy into cruise control and settled back. He still had a long way to drive.

The sun was setting when Zac finally spotted a building on the horizon.That
had
to be the Vanishing Pyramid! Zac jammed his foot on the accelerator. But instead of speeding up, the dune buggy slowed down and then stopped altogether.

Zac looked at the battery meter and groaned. He was out of solar power! He was going to have to make the rest of the journey on foot.

Even though it was evening the sand was still burning hot. When Zac tested it with the tip of his sneaker it instantly started turning into goo. There was no way Zac could walk across here!

Quickly he checked the Pyramid-Pack. In it he found a pair of daggy sandals and some white knee-high socks. Zac put the socks back straight away. There was
no way
he was wearing socks and sandals. That was something Leon would do!

But Zac took a closer look at the sandals. They were Track Changers. A dial on the side of each shoe allowed him to choose what kind of animal prints he wanted them to make. He didn't need to disguise his footprints but Zac slipped the shoes on anyway. He remembered from spy training that Track Changers were heat-proof!

Zac chose ‘Camel' and headed towards the Vanishing Pyramid.

CHAPTER
THREE

Zac trudged through the moonlight for what felt like hours until the pyramid was just up ahead. And then the Vanishing Pyramid … vanished!

‘Whoah!' said Zac. ‘Where did it go?' He spun around and there it was behind him. Zac ran towards it. But when he got close the pyramid disappeared again. It reappeared a few moments later in a new spot. Then Zac remembered Leon's final message:
Don't believe everything you see
.

Could there be some kind of mirage generator protecting the pyramid? Zac knew that mirages often looked so real that people imagined they could see water when there was nothing but hot air. Perhaps that was what was happening now.

Zac needed a way of telling the difference between the real and the imaginary. Then he remembered the latest plug-in that he had downloaded for his SpyPad: the Mirage Filter.

He switched the SpyPad into Mirage Filtering mode. When he held it up to the pyramid that kept disappearing, all he could see was an outline. This meant that the pyramid was a mirage.

Then Zac scanned around the desert and a pyramid appeared clearly on the screen in area where there was nothing to see at all. Zac smiled. That had to be the real Vanishing Pyramid!

Zac checked his watch.

He'd wasted a lot of time chasing mirages. Better get moving.

Zac raced towards the true location of the Vanishing Pyramid. At first he couldn't see anything. But as he got closer the Vanishing Pyramid began to appear, like it was coming out of a fog. The closer Zac got the more solid it became.

Finally the pyramid was right in front of him. Zac reached out his hand. It was a big relief to feel the solid rock beneath his fingers.

But now Zac faced a new problem.

How do I get in there?

He walked around the outside looking for clues. Halfway around he saw some hieroglyphics and his spy senses started tingling. Maybe this would tell him how to get in.