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

Bach’uuk must have heard them talking and hiked the distance to join them. Which worried Jake. Who or what else might be drawn here by their commotion?
    Bach’uuk crossed to one of the rocks and sat down, exhausted, maybe even dehydrated. He wore a loose toga-like robe, belted at the waist. He lifted his arm, showing his wristband.
    â€œAll of us are one,” he intoned. So he had also figured out what had happened.
    Bach’uuk removed a pair of leather objects from his toga pocket and tossed them to the sand at Pindor’s feet.
    The Roman’s expression flashed from sullen to joyous. “Sandals!”
    Pindor shoved his feet into them and did a half jig on the hot sand.
    â€œWhy do you have extra sandals with you?” Marika asked.
    Bach’uuk explained. “Mer’uuk came to me at sunrise. Gave them to me. Told me to carry them. Not say why, only say that they would be needed.”
    Marika brightened and clutched Jake’s arm. “The Ur Elder must have known all of this would happen.”
    Jake didn’t doubt it. The Ur had a strange affinity for time, marking it in long and short counts. He remembered his own heightened intuition back at home after his exposure here. The Neanderthal tribes had been living in the shadow of the great temple far longer than anyone else.
    â€œThen why didn’t Mer’uuk send the rest of my clothes?” Pindor picked at his shirt. “Or weapons?”
    Bach’uuk licked his dry lips. “Or water.”
    Jake shook his head, mystified as usual by the Ur Elder’s ways.
    â€œWell, we can’t just sit here.” Jake pointed toward the rocky pinnacles. “We should make for one of those. At least there’ll be shade. Maybe water, too.”
    Jake tossed his backpack over his shoulder.
    Marika remained silent, her gaze contemplative.
    â€œWhat is it?” he asked.
    â€œWe’re forgetting something.” She looked at the others,then down to her wrist. “When we were given these bands,
five
of them were handed out.”
    Jake nodded. “To the four of us and to my sister, Kady.”
    â€œThen where is she? Where is your sister?”
    Jake appreciated her concern, but he put her fears to rest. “She’s back in my own time.” He remembered Kady’s scream as the mummified grakyl grabbed his arm. Luckily she’d kept away and not been transported with him. “Don’t worry. She’s safe.”
    From out of the desert, a girlish cry of terror rang out like a crash of cymbals, echoing from far away.
    Okay, maybe not.

7

A PRICKLY SITUATION

    Jake sprinted up the highest dune and searched the desert in the direction of the scream. The rolling sands looked like a storm-swept sea. Beyond the dunes, he again noted a strange blurriness to the horizon. But he saw no sign of his sister. As near as he could tell, the cry had come from the direction of the largest rocky peak. The pinnacle was shaped like a giant flat-topped mushroom. They could use that strange landmark to keep them on track.
    â€œHurry!” Jake said, and took off.
    His friends raced behind him.
    He bounded down the far side of the dune, half sliding in the loose sand. His fingers clutched the stone he’d picked up earlier. It was his only weapon.
    Another scream echoed over to them, more angry than terrified now. Jake knew it had to be Kady.
    With the sun beating down, he raced toward the mushroom-shaped rock. As he led the others, he quicklyfound out it was faster to run
between
the dunes than up and over them. The valleys offered firmer footing but also forced them to take a zigzagging path. The four of them ran in a line like a snake slithering across the blasted landscape.
    Jake made tiny corrections with each cry from his sister. Finally, he skirted around a dune and discovered a bowl of sand ahead, as wide as a soccer field.
    Kady danced in the middle. She had shed her pack and held her fencing sword,