The Red Pyramid Chapter 1 Summary

A Death at the Needle

• As if one warning weren't enough, this chapter also starts with one: you may be in danger if you're listening to this recording, so find the locker, open the package, and pass it on in a week.
• Our narrator says Sadie is telling him to quit stalling and get to the story, so he drops us this tidbit: it started in London, the night their dad blew up the British Museum. Wait, what?
• Finally, an introduction: our narrator's name is Carter Kane. He's fourteen, and his home is a suitcase.
• Carter explains: his dad, Dr. Julius Kane, is a famous Egyptologist, so they travel the world together. This means Carter was essentially homeschooled, though he also learned a lot about the things his dad loves: basketball, ancient Egypt, and jazz musicians.
• Carter and his dad both keep all their belongings in a suitcase, except his dad also keeps a workbag for his archaeological stuff. Carter's not allowed to look inside the workbag, and he never did… until the explosion.
• Carter informs us that the explosion happened on Christmas Eve, while he and his dad were in London to visit Carter's sister, Sadie.
• Julius is allowed two days a year with her because of a rocky relationship with the grandparents. The result is that Sadie lives with Mom's parents and Carter lives with Dad; visitation happens twice a year.
• Carter notes that on the day he and his father fly in, his dad seems kind of nervous. Normally he's charismatic, in part because he's a big guy. Carter notes that his dad has dark brown skin, piercing eyes and is bald with a goatee, meaning he rocks the evil genius look.
• Carter also notices that his father is clutching his workbag, which tends to happen when there's danger.
• Example: One time, gunmen attacked their hotel in Cairo, and Carter followed the sounds of gunshots only to find his father zipping up his workbag as the gunmen hung harmlessly from the chandelier. Another time, they were caught in a riot in Paris, and every car but theirs was overturned and set on fire. That's some exciting stuff.
• As they travel through London, Carter notices the landmarks, which start to blur together— that's what happens when you travel 24/7. He doesn't feel particularly lucky to get to travel so much, in part because he feels more like a fugitive than a tourist.
• As the taxi pulls up at his grandparents' place, Carter notices a stranger: a guy with dark skin and braids, who's snappily dressed. Julius tells Carter to go on ahead and get Sadie.
• Sadie opens the door, annoyed at Carter for being late. She's holding her cat Muffin, who'd been a going-away gift from Julius six years ago.
• Carter describes Sadie for us. He and she don't look like siblings, since Sadie inherited their mom's fair skin, light-colored hair and blue eyes, while Carter's got darker skin like their dad. Sadie has red streaks in her hair and is dressed like she's going to a concert, in battered jeans and combat boots.
• We see one of many interjections—Carter noting that he must've done a good job of describing Sadie, since she didn't hit him—reminding us that this narration is being recorded.
• Carter notes that there wasn't much to their greeting; when siblings see each other only twice a year, they end up feeling more like distant cousins, without a lot of common ground.
• Sadie accompanies Carter outside, and they see their dad confronting the stranger. Sadie suggests that they sneak up and spy on them.
• Sadie and Carter overhear the stranger—Amos—trying to talk Julius out of doing something, because the Per Ankh is onto them. Julius says that he's got a plan that they won't figure out.
• Amos asks about the children, and Julius says he's arranged for them to be protected. It sounds like the two men might fight, when Sadie pops out and hugs her dad.
• Amos awkwardly exits, but not before Carter notices something familiar about him.
• Julius doesn't answer the kids' questions, but he does say that he has a wonderful evening planned for them at the British Museum.
• Sadie grumbles that her dad only ever thinks of research. Julius protests that that's not true—and Carter believes it, since he's been with their dad all those times he was either looking at pictures of their dead mother or drifting off into space, probably thinking about their mom.
• Carter remembers the story of how their parents met on a dig in the Valley of the Kings. Julius was a young Egyptologist, their mom an anthropologist looking for ancient DNA.
• On the ride over, Julius asks the taxi driver to stop, and he gets out at Cleopatra's Needle. It's an obelisk that the Brits brought back from Egypt, though it has nothing to do with Cleopatra.
• Sadie is annoyed at the stop, but then Julius reveals that this is the last place he saw their mother.
• Carter asks Julius to clarify, since the kids have never learned any details about their mother's death, other than that she'd died in an accident in London and that their grandparents blamed Julius.
• Instead, Julius asks Sadie whether she still has her cat—so random—and whether she still has her amulet. Julius had given them both amulets when they were little. Carter's is an Eye of Horus, a protection symbol from ancient Egypt.
• Sadie, to Carter's surprise, answers that of course she still has the amulet.
• Before the kids can get more answers, there's a flash, and two figures appear near them: a pale man with a forked beard and a girl with coppery skin, both in robes. Then they disappear.
• Julius pushes Sadie and Carter into the cab and gives them a talk about how he needs their cooperation because he's going to make things right.
• When they reach the British Museum, Julius pays the driver and tells him to keep going. When Carter looks into the cab, it looks like there's a man and two children inside already. Weird.
• In retrospect, Carter realizes he should've gotten out of there and taken Sadie with him. But that's not what happened.