Tomb of Doom by H. I. Larry Page B

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!
    â€˜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.

    Zac had a pretty good idea what the symbols might mean. But just to be sure he switched his SpyPad into Code-Breaking mode and scanned it along the rock.
    Seconds later, the SpyPad flashed the decoded message up on screen.
    Knock before entering.
    Could it be that simple to get into the pyramid? It didn’t seem possible.
    Well, it can’t hurt to try, thought Zac. He rapped sharply on the rock.
    Instantly it slid away to reveal a dark cavern. Zac stepped inside. With a thud the rock slid back into place and Zac found himself in total darkness. Time to switch the SpyPad