Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow Read Online Free PDF

shoes. “Wellllll, maybe a short trip. It might not be that bad.”
    Jake glanced at Uncle Edward.
    The man shook his head. Uncle Edward knew when he was defeated. He might succeed in stopping Jake, but he’d never be able to come between Kady and a camera.
    “Then I guess I’ll have to check into the arrangements,” he said.
    Kady nodded, and Jake sighed with relief.
    There remained only one last holdout.
    Watson still sat near their father’s desk with his hackles raised. The basset hound’s eyes remained fixed on the discarded yellow envelope. From the old dog’s throat a low growl still flowed.

3
MR. BLEDSWORTH’S SHOW
    Jake had never been in a limousine before. He never imagined the sheer size inside. It felt like he was in the belly of a black jetliner, flying low over the ground.
    The limousine whipped through the narrow avenues and confusing roundabouts of London. Car horns blared and a few pedestrians shook fists at the massive vehicle. They were running late.
    Jake pressed his cheek against the darkly tinted window. He tried to get a peek at the sky.
    “Don’t worry,” Kady said next to him. With her iPod’s earbuds in place, she shouted a bit to be heard. “You won’t miss the eclipse.”
    Kady returned her attention to the tiny compact mirror in her hand. She was checking her face again after an entire morning in their suite’s bathroom, performing unfathomable experiments with lip gloss, moisturizers, hair gels, eye shadow, lash curler, and a blow dryer—andeven something that left glittering dust on the bathroom’s marble counter. Still, like any good scientist, Kady was never done tinkering with her work.
    Jake ignored her and searched the blue sky. The sun shone like a yellow bruise through the tinted window. The moon waited, ready to begin its inevitable sweep across the sun’s face, turning day into night.
    Jake’s left knee jumped up and down with excitement.
    Also a little worry.
    There was another force just as unstoppable as his sister.
    Near the horizon, black clouds stacked high into the sky. Flashes of lightning sparked deep within the heart of an approaching thunderstorm. It was a race against time. If the storm blotted out the view of the eclipse, Jake would be crushed.
    The limousine bumped around an especially sharp turn. Tires squealed. Jake was thrown away from the window. Ice clinked in a crystal glass. A huge hand caught Jake and righted him in his seat.
    A rumbling voice scolded with a clipped English accent. “Young sir, if you’d like to see the sky, perhaps I can assist you before you break your neck.”
    Jake had almost forgotten Morgan Drummond shared their limousine, which was surprising considering the man’s size. His body filled the entire front half of the limousine’s passenger cabin. He was all muscle with craggy features. He wore a double-breasted black pinstripe suit, averitable tent of a suit, but still his biceps strained the fabric with every motion. He looked more like a drill sergeant than the head of security for Bledsworth Sundries and Industries, Inc., the sole sponsor for the Mayan exhibit.
    Drummond tilted toward Jake. He reached a thick finger to a row of buttons near Jake’s elbow and pressed one. The limousine’s moonroof glided open. Through the glass, the sky appeared.
    As the limousine barreled past a double-decker bus, the passengers on the upper deck glanced down over the top rail and into the limousine below. Jake found himself staring up at the faces like a goldfish in a fishbowl. Hands pointed. Jake waved back, but there was no response.
    “Privacy glass,” Morgan Drummond explained. “They can’t see you.”
    The large man settled back into the shadows of his seat. For someone so mountainous, he had a strange ability to fade into the background. Jake did note a tiny flash out of the darkness as Drummond leaned back. It came from the man’s tie tack. It was a chunk of polished gunmetal steel fashioned into the symbol for