Read Online The Icarus Project by Laura Quimby - Free Book Online Page A

I asked.
    “Hardly ever.” He swallowed a bite of chili. “I was really glad when I heard that you were coming with your dad.”
    “Really?” My pulse raced. I had no idea he would be excited for company.
    “Sure. My mom works all the time, which is cool, but I get bored. You have to make your own fun in these places.” He shrugged and stuffed a roll into his mouth. “It’s tough meeting people and making friends—real friends in person, not just on the computer.”
    “Well, now you have a real-life friend,” I said.
    “What do you think they will find out there?” Kyle asked.
    “
Mammuthus primigenius,”
I said with a raised chin. “Or as it is more commonly known, a giant hairy elephant.”
    He snorted. “Then they’ll lug it back and study it. Take pictures, measure it, record every little detail.”
    “Then the poor mammoth will probably go to a museum. So more scientists will be able to study it up close and personal,” I said.
    “My mom told me that lots of indigenous people believe that removing bones and creatures from their resting place is bad luck and that to do so brings a curse.”
    “You mean like the mummy’s curse in Egypt? Many of the Egyptian tombs were said to be cursed and anyone who opened them would die a terrible death.”
    “Do you believe in curses?” Kyle asked.
    “Maybe. Lots of archaeologists died after opening King Tut’s tomb, so it could happen.” It didn’t seem very scientific, but I had to keep an open mind.
    Kyle’s eyes went wide. “Do you think mammoths bring curses? Do you think this site is cursed?” Suddenly, he jumped up and ran out of the room.
    After a minute or two, I heard moaning. Then the lights shut off.
    Kyle came back into the room with a flashlight held under his chin, casting a creepy glow over his face. Hishead and arms were loosely wrapped in toilet paper that
kind of
looked like the decaying bandages of a mummy. “You have entered into my tomb. You are under the mummy’s curse.” He held out his arms and lurched toward me, groaning like the walking dead. “I’m going to eat you.”
    I dodged his mummy arms as he tried to grab me. “You make a great mummy,” I said. “Not very scary, though.” But then I sat down and let him wrap a roll of toilet paper around my head and shoulders.
    “Join us … join the extraordinary league of mummies.”
    A shiver went down my spine as he continued to wrap me in toilet paper. I decided to play along and stood up, taking the stumbling mummy position with my arms outstretched in front of me. Groaning, I followed Kyle. We stumbled around the room for a while, then headed down the hall to the rec room, where we finally collapsed onto the sofas.
    I pulled toilet paper off my face. “I think we’ll find a mammoth and everyone will be happy.” Wishful thinking, perhaps. Excavation digs could take weeks to uncover real results. But Randal had brought us all out here for a reason, and we were going to find something big. We had to.
    Filled with that good feeling, as well as a bunch of freeze-dried beans, I decided to tell Kyle about Katsu sneaking out of Randal’s private room.
    He listened to my story intently, and when I was done, he said, “Sounds like we have only one option.”
    “And what’s that?” I asked.
    “We get inside that private room and see what Katsu found that was so convincing.”
    I hesitated, knowing that once I agreed, I couldn’t turn back.
    Kyle wiggled his eyebrows at me.
    “I’ll do it, but we really shouldn’t try to break in.” But I couldn’t keep from smiling. “Who knows? The private room might be cursed like a king’s tomb,” I said, and we both laughed.
    I was relieved. I didn’t have to investigate this alone.

 
    Kyle and I were on a mission. Break into the secret room like two black-clad, stealthy panthers. Except we weren’t wearing black, unless we counted our boots, and the boots were not stealthy—more like clunky.
    The plan was set. Unlike