by Peter Glenn
I pulled on my face. “All right. What is it you want me to steal for you exactly?”
Allie’s lips curled upward into a sinister smile. “It’s a small trinket, really. An old-fashioned rubber ball that’s a little bigger than your hand. It should have some faded markings on it, but otherwise, it will be relatively unremarkable.”
“Unremarkable, huh?” She nodded. “And you expect me to be able to find it amidst hundreds of other artifacts buried in the back of a museum I’ve never visited? Just like that?”
Allie patted my cheek, which only made me like her even less. I really didn’t need someone flirting with me right now. “I’m sure a big strong man like yourself can manage the task. It’s not like they have a bunch of other rubber balls back there or anything. You’ll identify it quick enough. I have faith in you.”
My eyes narrowed, and I shot her a dirty look. “And just how do you know so much about what this museum does and does not have, anyway?”
Allie shot me a mischievous grin. “Does it really matter?”
I groaned. She had me there. “Fine,” I said in a pouty voice. “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with so we can get back to hunting for the jaguar.”
Allie patted my leg. “That’s my boy.”
She sure was physical. In hindsight, I probably should have told her to stop. Although something told me that would have just made her do it all the more.
I shook my head a few times and scooched myself even further away from her. Why did Allie grate on me so much, anyway? What was it about her that I didn’t like, exactly? I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it was like all her attempts to be flirty were more condescending than attractive.
“So where are we going, then?” Isaiah called back from the front seat.
Finally, he jumped into the conversation. I’d been feeling quite alone there for a bit.
“Yeah,” I said, glaring at Allie. “Where to?”
Allie eased into her seat, a smug smile on her face. “Can we eat first? My stomach is growling.”
My stomach roared once more at the mention of eating.
“I’d rather just get it over with,” Isaiah said.
Great. Just great. Now I was agreeing with Allie instead of Isaiah. Just what I needed.
“Pretty please?” Allie begged.
I bit my lip. I was going to regret this, too. “Yeah, can we?” I asked in a voice barely over a whisper.
Isaiah growled. “Fine. But we’d better make it quick.”
It had taken about three hours to get to the museum. First, we’d stopped off and grabbed some food at a hole in the wall restaurant called Señor Pepe’s. The outside hadn’t looked like much, but the food was pretty good. They’d had a steak for me, which came served with a side of beans and rice. Overall, it was tasty and not too Mexicany, which I’d appreciated.
The fact that it had been Allie’s suggestion had soured the meal just a little bit, but I tried not to let it get to me too much. I’d asked for something homecooked and neutral, and she’d delivered.
I guess that earned her a couple points, even if I was still mad at her for flirting with me earlier.
We were now parked a hundred feet or so from the museum proper. It was fully dark out, and the place looked to be deserted. I didn’t even see any signs of a security guard at the front gate or anything. Which only made my nerves increase. If they didn’t feel the need to employ a security guard, just what measures were they taking to guard their artifacts?
“So, what’s the plan?” Isaiah asked, turning around in his seat to face us.
“I’ll go in first and case the joint,” I told him. “Check for traps and such. Then the three of us will head in and look for the artifact.”
“The two of you, actually,” Allie interrupted. She smoothed down the fabric of her blouse and sat up straight. “I’m not going with you.”
“What?” I felt heat rising to my cheeks. “Hey, this is all your idea. I’m not going in there without you, too.”
She put her hands solidly on her hips and stuck up her chin a little. “Well, then you’re going to be waiting a very long time, señor, because I’m staying out here.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood on edge. This whole thing had kind of felt like a trap before, but now it really felt like one.
“But you’re the only one who knows what the thing even looks like!”
Allie reached one hand forward like she was going to pat my leg, but I shot her a death glare, and she retracted it. She let out a humph. “I gave you a solid description. You shouldn’t need more than that.”
My face was so red it could have doubled as a tomato. I wagged a finger at her. “You’re coming with us and that’s final!”
“Oh, just quit it, you two!” Isaiah broke in. “It’s fine, I’m sure the two of us can manage just fine, and it’ll be good to have someone stay back in the car anyway so we can make a quick getaway if we need to.”
Allie looked over at Isaiah, and her face broke into a wide smile. “See? Your friend here has a good head on his shoulders. You should listen to him.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s just get this whole thing over with, shall we?”
“That’s a good boy,” Allie said.
This time, she succeeded in patting me on the leg, and I about lost it. Only my ancient breathing techniques honed over centuries of practice kept me from exploding all over her. Why was she so physical with me? She wasn’t like this with Isaiah. What was it about me that said “come touch me” to her, anyway?
Besides, I was angry with her for another reason. I had no idea how she, as the instigator of this whole robbery, had managed to weasel out of the hardest part of it, but the fact that she had only irked me all the more. At some point, little miss Allie was going to pay for all of this. I wasn’t sure how or why, but I’d get her back for it for sure.
I was determined.
“You two done bickering yet?” Isaiah asked. He shot the two of us a flat look that said “stop arguing already.”
I slowly nodded. Allie just sat back and looked a little smug.
“Good,” Isaiah finished. “Come on, Damian, let’s get going.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
Both of us got out of the car, leaving Allie in it by herself. A little nagging thought at the back of my head made me wonder if she was going to abscond with the car and ditch us, but what would be the point of it?
She’d made it clear we needed this artifact to retrieve the Jade Jaguar, and she seemed as interested in that statue as the two of us were. If she’d wanted to leave us stranded somewhere, she could have done that at any point today.
I let the matter drop. Even if she did run off, we’d have the key to finding the jaguar and its location, and she wouldn’t. That would be punishment enough.
“Okay, just hang back for a minute, and I’ll go check the place out,” I told Isaiah. He just nodded and leaned up against the car.
At least I knew Allie wouldn’t drive it away while he was leaning on it. Or if she did, I could only imagine the fallout. Now that image brought a grin to my face.
I patted Grax’thor down at my side and made my way over to the museum building. It was a short, flat building that didn’t really look like much from the outside. It was kind of odd, really. Most museums had decorative entrances, or at least some sort of fountain or statue in front of them to scream “hey, cool stuff here!” But not this place.
The front doors were wide and made of thin glass. Nothing out of the ordinary. I peered into the building through the doors and didn’t see much on the inside. The lights in there were turned off, though I could make out what looked to be an empty service desk close to the entrance.
So the place really was deserted. Or at least it was from the front.
I glanced up high, looking for any kind of security camera that would alert people to our presence, but I didn’t see any. That didn’t mean they had none, it just meant th
ey were good at hiding them.
Oh well. It was a risk I’d have to take. I had a few magical trinkets that could help me with locks and your run of the mill traps, and Isaiah was there as backup if it came to it. That would just have to be enough.
I started winding my way around the side of the building. It was very large, and it took me a solid minute to reach the side. There was nothing on the far side that I could see, though. Not even a door leading out or in. About halfway down the wall, I spotted what looked to be a banner depicting their current showcase, but even that had a faded, weathered look to it. This place obviously wasn’t a huge draw for the crowds.
The back of the building was again nothing special. There was a rather large loading bay that took up about half of the back of the structure, but there were no cars or trucks out back, and no security of any kind that I could see outside of locks on the doors. Speaking of, the loading bay doors were made of thick, heavy steel, meaning it would be hard to break through them even with magic.
We’d be better off approaching from the front, then. Which was good and bad. The front had good visibility, which would help, but the artifact we were looking for was probably in the back.
I made my way around the rest of the museum but didn’t find anything of note, so I walked back to where Isaiah was waiting against the car. He was hunched over his phone staring at something, but he looked up when I approached.
“Find anything of note?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Not really, no. Seems like a fairly standard museum, really.”
“Any traps I should be aware of?”
“Not that I could see, but you never know.” I flashed him a grin. “We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it, right?”
Isaiah nodded. “Right. Well, lead the way, then.”
I didn’t need further urging. I beckoned for Isaiah to follow me, and we made our way back over to the main entrance. I went slowly just in case, so we wouldn’t alert anyone that might be hiding nearby that I’d missed during recon. But it wasn’t necessary. There was no one there.
The main doors had a rather ornate metal handle with a large padlock hanging from them tying the two doors together. I reached into my fanny pack—yes, I still carry one, it’s useful, darn it—and took out my lockpick. The padlock gave me little resistance, and I had it undone in record time. The chains fell to the ground with a loud clatter, but nothing else happened.
Still, you could never be too careful. “Hang on just a second,” I told Isaiah as I pushed the lock and the chains to the side with one foot. “Need to check for magical traps.”
I replaced the lockpick and pulled out a small spray bottle. It would alert me to any magical traps. Not disarm them, but then that’s what Isaiah was here for. He was the mage. But forewarned is forearmed, and all that. I sprayed the door handle pretty liberally and waited a few seconds for it to kick in.
Nothing happened. Not even a tiny reaction.
“Guess it’s clear after all,” I said with a shrug.
An odd feeling in the back of my head made me tense up as I pulled open one of the front doors and slid inside. Everything had been just a little too easy so far. There had to be some sort of trick waiting for us on the inside, I just knew it. Not even a backwater museum in the middle of Mexico would have zero security personnel.
Isaiah entered the building behind me, and I let the door close, cushioning it for the last bit so that it would shut as quietly as possible. If there was someone hiding in here, I didn’t want to alert them to our presence until I had to.
The inside of the museum felt even darker than it had before now that we were in here. Suddenly, I could barely see two feet in front of my face. Was it part of their hidden defenses? It seemed odd to expend energy on a darkening spell, but it was possible.
“Don’t suppose you have a flashlight?” I asked Isaiah.
What? So I’d forgotten mine back home. Sadly, it wasn’t the first time, either. One of these days I’d be better at preparing, I told myself. One of these days.
Isaiah chuckled slightly and shook his head. He wiggled the fingers on his right hand and a small whitish ball appeared underneath it, floating in the air. The ball let out a faint glow that illuminated our surroundings, giving me a good range of vision. It wasn’t super bright, but it would do the trick.
“That good enough for you? Or do I need to turn it up?”
“No, no, that’s plenty, thank you.”
Isaiah shrugged. “Just let me know.”
With the aid of Isaiah’s magical ball of light, I took stock of our surroundings. We were in a fairly typical museum entrance. The service desk in front of us had two computers and a pair of chairs behind it, undoubtedly so people could purchase tickets. There was a small metal bar fence that stood about waist high running across the room just past the desk. A small turnstile had been built into the fence just a few feet from the service desk to allow patrons to enter.
I put my hand on the turnstile, and it gave way freely enough. Good. It wasn’t supernaturally locked or anything. That would make things easier.
The two of us made our way through the turnstile and into the museum proper. Isaiah’s little light floated in the air next to us, moving right alongside him. That must be awfully handy. Sure was useful to be a mage.
A rather large skeleton took up most of the foyer with clear paths leading around it in both directions. It was of some kind of dinosaur, though I couldn’t remember which kind, and I didn’t immediately see a plaque that would tell me, either.
Of course, even if there’d been one, it probably would have been in Spanish, and my Spanish was only halfway decent.
There were several doors that opened up beyond the dinosaur skeleton leading off into different areas of the museum. Each of them had a name written over the top, but none of the names meant anything to me.
We pressed on, heading past the dinosaur. At this rate, I wouldn’t have been shocked if it had jumped out at me and attacked—I’d been far too lucky so far. But it did nothing. It was just a fossil. Likely not even a real fossil.
Fun fact, kids. Most dinosaur fossils are fakes. Well, the ones they display, anyway. They keep the real bones locked up in the basement sometimes, but the display fossils are almost all fakes made out of concrete or something similar. A little disappointing, especially if you’re a necromancer, but it makes sense. The actual bones are too valuable to let someone break them on accident.
A few moments later, we reached the doors at the back of the museum. There were two of them, and both looked sturdy. One of them likely led to the loading bay and the basement where the ball would be, and the other to some display area. But which was which?
I closed my eyes for a half second and played a quick game of eenie meenie miney moe and chose the door on the left. I took two giant steps toward the door when I felt Isaiah’s hand on my shoulder tugging me backward.
“Wait a second,” he whispered. “Something’s not right.”
I wasn’t sure what he’d sensed, but I nodded and stopped in my tracks. He’d have a better sense if something magical was at work than I would.
He strode a little closer to the door, then stopped and walked in a circular pattern, inching closer to the wall. He stretched his arms out to the side as he walked, feeling the air with his fingers.
“There,” he whispered a second later.
I watched as a bright red light flickered in his hands for a split second. Then it was gone as quickly as it had come.
I blinked my eyes a few times to let them refocus in the low light. I could see it now. Dozens of tiny red lines crisscrossing the air in front of the door. And one of them landed practically in between my feet.
Electric trip lasers, then. In the movies, people would spray a tiny mist bottle, and they’d all magically appear and stay visible for minutes. It wasn’t like that in the real world. Trip lasers were invisible, even when you had mist on your side.
But Isaiah’s
magic had made them visible when ordinary means would not.
“Don’t suppose you know where the switch is to turn these off, do you?” Isaiah asked me.
I shook my head. “No idea. We’ll just have to do our best not to come in contact with them.”
Truth be told, I had no idea what would happen if we hit one of those trip lasers. Would it call in a police squad that would take ten minutes to get here, or awaken something closer? All I knew for sure was that I didn’t want to find out.
I let out a long, slow breath and shook out my hands, staring down the red laser lines. I could do this. I could go in between them without touching them and reach the door. I’d seen actors do it dozens of times. This would be no different.
Concentrating as hard as I could on the red beams, I ducked down low and made my way under the first one. My left arm almost slid right through another one, but I brought it down and around just in time.
One part down. Just a dozen or so more to go.
Working slowly, I crept along, moving my body through the maze of lasers one at a time. At one precarious spot, my left leg cramped, and I almost tumbled to the ground. The worst part was I couldn’t even rub it out since that would move my arm through another laser, so I had to stand there for what felt like minutes with my leg aching.
But I persevered and kept going. The leg cramp eventually died down on its own. Just one more little maneuver, and I’d be there.
Finally, I stood in front of the door. Thankfully, it opened inward and, from what I could tell, was unlocked. I grabbed the handle and pushed on it, and the door swung open without any resistance.
I took two steps into the room proper and beckoned for Isaiah to follow me in. It was an agonizing wait watching him meander through the lasers just as I had done, but he managed the feat with more grace than I had.
Soon enough, we were both beyond the trip lasers and into the back area of the museum. We’d have to maneuver through those lasers again on the way out, but we could deal with that later.
For once, I was glad Allie hadn’t come with us. I wouldn’t have trusted her to get through the laser maze. Nothing against her, but she didn’t look all that athletic. Okay, sure, I had a grudge against her, even if I couldn’t quite place why, but that was beside the point. That didn’t really factor into this particular point, did it?