Cal raised his left sleeve to expose two devices that were strapped to his forearm like watches. For the benefit of the video log he said, “Radiation levels zero. Electro magnetic levels within safe zone. Pulse zero. Transmission…” He paused for a few seconds. “…uncertain. Emission zero.”
Seemingly satisfied with his instrument readings, he lowered his sleeve. He and Stone finished digging around the object so that they could retrieve it without damage. It was smooth, black and oval shaped, with cobalt blue veins that stood out in such vivid contrast they appeared to glow.
Again, Lana thought she saw something moving in the trees, but this time it was directly in front of her and very close by. Cal noticed that she had moved the camera so that it was pointing at what she was looking at instead of at the subject of their mission.
“Lana.”
Her eyes locked with Cal’s. He looked down at the camera and back up at her. “Oh, sorry. I thought I saw something.”
He smiled. “Something more interesting than this?”
She shook her head and tried to return his smile, but her feeling of uneasiness had been increasing and intensifying.
When the object was completely unearthed, Cal brushed away more dirt with his fingers and carefully put the thing, whatever it was, in his backpack while talking for the videolog. “The object has been extricated and will be transported to temporary quarters where I will attempt to confirm or deny its authenticity.”
Lana knew that was her cue to stop the recording. She was relieved for two reasons. First because her arms were getting tired and second because she wanted to be free to look around. If something was coming, she wanted to be able to see it.
It was close to dark when they made it back to the cabin. As Lana had stood up and reached for Stone to help her out of the canoe he had pushed her toward the water just enough to make her gasp, then grabbed on and pulled her back before she fell. If the way he laughed was a good gauge, he enjoyed the joke a lot more than she did.
One thing about Stone and Bayer was that they seemed to be all-purpose companions. When Bayer lit the kitchen stove and began gathering supplies to make a hot dinner, she decided to forgive his social shortcomings.
While the two strong silent types were the last people you would invite to a dinner party, Cal turned out to be low key fun, easygoing, and easy on the eyes. After dinner he commandeered the table for use as a makeshift mystical lab.
He set the possible artifact in the center of the table and began gathering various tools and objects from cases.
“Do I need to be quiet?” Lana whispered.
Cal looked up and, seeing that she was serious, smiled so that his eyes crinkled at the corners. “No. Not unless I ask.”
“So it wouldn’t break your concentration or something if I ask questions?”
“Now what sort of magician would I be if I could be distracted by a lovely lady asking questions?”
Lana had no idea how to answer that. Of course she didn’t mind being referred to as lovely even if it was a stretch considering that she was wearing no makeup, a cargo vest, and hadn’t had a bath in almost two days. Either adventurers were not picky or Cal was generous with his flattery.
“What’s that?”
“A tuning fork.”
“Like for music?”
“Yes.”
“Why would you…?” She started to look toward the fire, but her question died in mid sentence when she thought she saw the air blur between Cal and where the other two men were playing gin.
“Why would I what?”
She thought about telling the truth, but since that was the third time she believed she’d seen something odd, and since she was the only one of the four, she concluded that she must be overly tired, having a reaction to the Northern atmosphere, or just plain hallucinating. So she kept quiet.
Cal spent another half hour arranging and rearranging crystals around the thing.
“So do you think it’s an artifact?”
“Ninety-odd percent sure.”
“What will you need to be a hundred percent sure?”
He gave her a lopsided little smile. “Quiet.”
“Oh.”
He cradled the object in his big hands, closed his eyes and breathed himself into a trance state. He was frozen in place for a few minutes, so unnaturally still that Lana began to worry. She was staring, trying to confirm some sign of breathing, like his chest was rising and falling, when his eyes flew open and fixed on her. It startled her so that she almost fell off the picnic bench type seat.
He frowned. “Are you alright?”
She blushed from embarrassment. “Just startled. So is it?”
He grinned. “Oh yeah. Let’s get some sleep. We need to get this baby to the vault.”
He’d probably done something similar many times, but his excitement was still contagious and Lana had a chance to see firsthand what it meant to be a person with meaningful work.
There were three bunks in the cabin, six beds total. Lana had chosen a lower bed, but never would have admitted that it had anything to do with an uneasiness about heights. She had spent the night with a friend as a child and been assigned a top bunk. As she recalled, she had done all possible to try to stay awake because she was so sure she would roll off the top bunk during the night and fall to her death. The men stripped down to their long underwear before crawling into sleeping bags, but she decided to err on the side of demure and slept in her clothes.
She didn’t realize how exhausted she was until she relaxed completely, nestled in the cocoon of the sleeping bag. The last thing she remembered was the comfort of firelight and a crackle of wood burning. The next morning she woke to the smell of coffee, in desperate need of a toilet, but the setup had been conceived with men’s bladders in mind. She pulled on boots and coat and practically ran through the snow to the latrine. Only after she had relieved the pressure, and frozen her butt off literally, did she realize that she should have given a cursory outlook for bears.
With a content bladder she was more cautious opening the door. She peeked out. No bears in sight, but several reindeer stood staring at her at the edge of the tree line.
“Good morning,” she said brightly and waved. One of the females lifted her head in a move that indicated she was alarmed enough to spook and run with just a little more encouragement. One more word or a pinky wave would do it. Sure enough, when Lana emerged from the outhouse, they disappeared behind trees. “Go on with ye,” Lana yelled, “fore I grab ye and hitch ye to me sleigh.”
Cal opened the cabin door, ostensibly to see if she was okay. “Everything alright out here?”
“Oh, yes,” she waved in the direction of the reindeer. “Just chatting with the locals.”
“I don’t think they speak old English.”
She stopped. “No? Well, that explains why they ran away.”
After more warm if not yummy canned goods for breakfast, they began packing up. Lana was in the middle of putting her videocam away when Cal said, “Stop!” He was looking and sounding frantic.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Where is it?”
“What?”
“The artifact! It’s not in my backpack. Where I put it before I went to bed.”
“Well, don’t worry. You know it’s here somewhere.”
Stone and Bayer gave each other an inquisitive look. After an hour of rifling through bags and cases and bedding and cupboards, the artifact was nowhere to be seen.
“Cal,” Lana started. “What’s magic good for if you can’t use it to find something that’s lost?”
Cal stared at Lana like she’d slapped him. “You know, you would think that I would have thought of that.”
“So you can! Well, good, then what do you need from us?”
“Quiet.” He shrugged with a little hopeful smile.
Cal wasn’t in a trance state for a full minute before he opened his eyes and said, “It’s not here.” He looked and soun
ded defeated and deflated. And Lana felt so bad for him she had an empathic reaction that was actually visceral. Cal motioned toward Lana’s vest, “Get out the camera. We need to make an entry into the video log.”
Cal decided to stand in the middle of the cabin. Lana made sure the camera was set to auto-adjust for indoor lighting and made sure the date and time stamp was showing. She nodded when she was set.
Cal looked at the camera. “The artifact in question was authenticated last night before we went to bed. The tools that were used were put away in their traveling cases and are all accounted for. The artifact was put away in my personal pack so that I could keep it with me while traveling, according to both standard procedure and my habit.
“When we began packing to leave, I lifted my pack and noticed it was too light because the artifact weighed around ten pounds. The four of us have been through our belongings, our bedding and every nook and cranny in the cabin several times. We have checked each other’s things and, finally, have established by non-physical methods that the artifact is no longer with us.
“I have no explanation for this occurrence and welcome further investigation upon our return to Headquarters.” Lana stopped recording on Cal’s nod. “Let’s go.” He looked at the three people waiting for his instruction. “It’s not going to just reappear. Or, if it does, we’re not going to be here waiting.”
CHAPTER 6
Lana left Cal to his silence for the entire trip back. She hoped that what he was experiencing was simple disappointment and that he was not blaming himself in any way. She stared out at the scenery on the drive back to Oulu Airport and slept most of the way on the flight from there to Edinburgh.
At Headquarters, when she and Cal got off the third floor elevator, he gave her a half hug and said, “Grand job. You survived your first assignment.”
She would have loved to be happier about that, but Cal sounded so sad it was hard to feel good about either the achievement or the praise. “I’m sorry it turned out this way, Cal. Maybe it will turn up?”
Before he walked away, he tried a little smile, but it didn’t quite come together.
Lana headed straight for the bath, shedding clothes on the way. When she sank into the heavenly sensation of hot steamy water she let out a moan loud enough to be heard through the thick walls of the sturdy old Victorian building. Aside from the hiking through snow, she suspected the perpetual tension caused by fear of freezing water alternating with fear of bears had left her with both sore muscles and stress knots. She ducked her hair under the water to get it wet, then leaned back and closed her eyes. An hour later she woke in water that was no longer pleasantly relaxing, but unpleasantly room temperature.
She bundled herself in a thick robe and fluffy slippers while she blew her hair dry, grateful for the extra infusion of hot air into the bathroom. Feeling warmer and drier, she shuffled to the kitchenette and started water for tea before pulling on some plaid pajama bottoms and a pink Henley. The timing was perfect. She returned to the kitchen just as the kettle began to whistle. It was a good thing. Some kettles make an endearing almost-musical sound, but hers was obnoxious and required her to be on the spot so that she could put a quick end to the noise.
In two minutes she was seated at her elegant little table with the rich bergamot aroma of Earl Grey and her intelliphone. She was reaching for her electronic reader to finish off the last seventeen percent of a romance, when she had a thought about watching the videolog. It hadn’t been turned over, but would need to be officially catalogued the following morning. So, if she was ever going to preview her first adventurer’s assistant video, this would be the time. She found the cam in her cargo vest where she’d left it on the floor on the way to the bath.
After setting the camera up on the table and plugging in the adapter, which would recharge as she watched, she refreshed her tea and sat down to relive the first assignment. Holding the cup where she could get the most out of the scent, she turned on the video. Hearing her own introductory narration was a mild jolt because she didn’t sound like that to herself, but she relaxed into watching the digging. She had just brought the cup to her lips for a sip when she saw something move in the forest behind Cal and Stone. No doubt while Bayer was looking the other way.
“Ow!” She spluttered and yelled at herself. The spill down her front wouldn’t burn, but it did leave an impression. And a mess. She stopped the recording, pulled the tea-stained Henley over her head and hurried to the bedroom for a clean, dry shirt. The replacement was the same Henley, but in sage green instead of pink. She jerked it over her head on the way back to the table, then sat, looking at the camera like she wasn’t sure she wanted to turn it back on.
Eventually curiosity won out. She ran it back to the place where she was before she had seen the blurred imagery caught on camera, and replayed it. Three times. She then fast forwarded to the place where she had moved the camera away from the digging, toward the movement she’d seen in the trees. And there it was. Several blurred images moving about, almost invisible but not quite. They appeared to be human. At least they were shaped like humans.
She turned the cam off and stared straight ahead for a few minutes processing. Or trying to process and thinking she had spent a day being afraid of falling into freezing water while being eaten by bear while there was probably a greater danger all along. That led to the next thought that caused her to gasp out loud. What if those blurred images had something to do with the disappearance of the artifact?
Grabbing the videocam she practically ran down the hall to Cal’s room. A couple of archive interns were coming in from a night out. One of them gave her a look that was a clear reproach. She could have ignored it, but decided she’d regret it later if she did. She didn’t stop, but walked backwards while saying, “Hey. I’m dressed! And people staggering home at this hour shouldn’t be giving other people judgmental looks.” Both went slack-jawed and said nothing.
When she reached Cal’s room, she saw that the two girls had retreated to their room. The hall was empty. She made a fist and pounded on his door with the side of her hand. Feeling eager and impatient, she gave him to the count of five and then did it again. She heard his muffled voice behind the door sounding aggravated. She didn’t care.
Cal opened the door, crossed his arms across his chest and leaned against the jamb. The ends of his scruffy haircut were still a little damp. He was barefoot, wearing a white tee and pajama bottoms in the same Black Watch plaid that Lana had on.
“Hey,” she said brightly, pointing to his pants. “Twinkies!”
He screwed up his face. “What?”
“Never mind. Got something to show you.”
He slouched further into his doorway pose, but his face softened a little. “Look, Lana, it’s not that I don’t think you’re cute and snuggable. I do. I’m just not in the mood for a booty call. Sorry.”
When her expression went wide-eyed and open-mouthed, he reasoned that he’d been wrong about the purpose of the visit. “Not a booty call.”
She shook her head. “Definitely not.”
“Can it wait until tomorrow?”
“Definitely not.”
He stared at her for a few seconds, then sighed in resignation. “Come in.”
She grinned. “Thank you. You won’t be sorry.”
“Promise?”
“Whatever.”
“You want something?”
“No. Just come over here and look at this.” She set the camera on his dinette table and curled one pajama leg under her as she sat. She looked back at where he was still standing near the door. “Well, come on. Sit here.” She blinked to the chair on her right. “You know, while you were digging, or rather while Stone was digging and you were watching, how I kept asking Bayer if he saw something in the trees?”
“No idea what you’re talking about.”
“Wow. You must have been really focused. Anyway, twice I thought I saw something. The audio of me asking is on here.”
“Yeah. Okay.” He had grabbed a bottle of vitamin water and sat down.
“Well, I did see something. And it’s on here.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m here.”
“Lana. I’m tired. And like I said. Not. In. The. Mood.”
“Hold on. Your mood’s about to change. Look at this. Here’s the first time I thought I saw something.”
Cal took the bottle away from his mouth and leaned forward toward the video when he saw the background blur behind where he was digging and oblivious to all else. Seeing that he was already enthralled, Lana replayed it twice.
He looked at her with a spark of excitement in his eyes that made him instantly seem ten years younger. “Is there more?”
She grinned. “Thought you’d never ask.”
She had put a videoprint notch at the start of the other relevant footage. When it started to play, Cal stood so quickly he knocked his Queen Anne chair over.
“Holy Shit!!” Lana giggled like a middle-schooler. “Play it again.” She did. Five times more. “You know what this means?”
She looked over and held his gaze. “Yes. It means the artifact didn’t just disappear.”
Cal looked back at the black videoscreen as if it was still playing a recording and said, “Yeah. Exactly.” He started for the door. “Come on.” Waving toward the camera, he said, “And bring that.”
“Where are we going?”
“Carmichael’s.”
“What’s Carmichael’s?”
“Not a what. It’s a who. He lives on the second floor.”
They’d been walking toward the elevator.
“You know you’re barefoot. Do you care?”
He didn’t slow down. “People wearing pajama bottoms can’t talk.”
The elevator opened right away and he motioned her on ahead of him. Because of the hour the second floor was as deserted as the third, but apparently Carmichael lived all the way at the end of the hall, behind the door that faced the entire stretch of the long hallway. Lana was looking around as they stood in front of Carmichael’s.
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