by Grey Durose
George could feel himself starting to turn red with rage and his heart was pounding, he wasn't sure if he wanted to shoot her or kiss her. Instead he chose to shout at her, 'You just don't get it, do you? I spend my life cleaning up the mess that knowledge like this can cause. Meanwhile, you're merrily skipping round the globe spreading it about like there's no tomorrow!'
'I get it fine, you don't like the competition!' She fired back, poking him in the chest with her forefinger.
'WHAT? Competition? YOU? I come from a line of men who've been doing this for thousands of years, how long since your, Grams, started out? If I hadn't been here tonight, you'd be dead now!' He declared. He knew he shouldn't have mentioned her grandmother but he wasn't feeling apologetic.
Jacqueline started to speak but the words caught in her throat, she tried again but she couldn't come up with anything punchy enough. Instead she let out a sigh of exasperation, grabbed her books and stomped off in to the main chamber.
George began to feel the guilt creeping up on him, he rubbed the muzzle of his face as if to wipe away his angry outburst and silence his shrivelling anger. He turned to follow her but as he span round he heard her footsteps returning. His face was met by the sting of a small, bony but powerfully propelled, fist. She caught him right in the eye and, in his attempt to avoid her swing, he lost his balance and fell backwards in to a stack of shelves. He was about to shout at her again when a book dropped from a shelf, landed on the top of his head and dropped in to his lap. Jacqueline burst in to raucous laughter and to his surprise George found himself joining her. The laughter went on for a few seconds then George suddenly stopped. The book lying open on his lap was a transcript of a very ancient document, on the ancient religions and faiths of the Middle-East. The page it had chosen to open on was describing the worship of a particular deity, a god of creation, Enki. This god had been of great interest to the creature, he'd taken the trouble of defacing a very old and valuable book by highlighting passages. George’s eyes ran swiftly over the passages, absorbing the information. Realisation dawned across his face as links came together in his mind.
George looked up, smiled and snapped the book shut, 'We need to get out of here.'