Wyvern Protection Unit - Chapter 24: Chapter 24

Kimberley watched Agent Sanchez take a small black tablet out of the leather bag he had brought with him. He turned it towards her, having clicked opened an mp4 file.
Kimberley sat down and ran a hand through her tangled hair while she focused on the grainy images on the video recording.
What she needed was a hot shower and some food in her stomach, but she would watch the video, paying as attention as she could. She did not think Sanchez was looking to falsely accuse her. Not really. He seemed to genuinely wanted to solve the crime.
But what did she know? Trusting strangers had never been an issue for her. She was always willing to believe the best about everyone.
You’re always wearing rose-tinted glasses, Kim.
Sounded like a compliment, but coming from her ex, it wasn’t. Oh god, had she really just ended a long-term relationship only to come home facing the risk of losing her career? Kimberley shook her head.
“You are very astute, Miss Scott, and I only want to find the truth. Tell me, what do you think of this?”
“Well, that’s Harold,” she said, trying to make sense of the scene as it unfolded.
“I’ll play it again,” Agent Sanchez told her when she still had not grasped what she was seeing.
Her heart was thudding painfully in her chest. Anger overcame the shock she initially felt. Kimberley gasped and covered her mouth with a trembling hand. The proof was irrefutable.
Harold Jenkins. The dean of the Anthropology Department at Washington University, where Kimberley was a tenured professor.
Harold Jenkins. Maybe not her friend, but definitely someone she was friendly with was behind everything.
That turd!
Since the second her plane had touched ground, Kimberley had been scooped up by the DPCA and subjected to countless hours of agonizingly repetitive questions. She’d had her professional ethics questioned, her entire career threatened, all because of him! That sniveling, pasty-faced butthead was the real thief.
Kim watched in horror as Harold, the creep, swapped a wooden crate full of artifacts—identified by the catalog number on the outside of the crate, as well as her own personal signature—a LS with the lunar moon of Thoth, Egyptian god of wisdom, marking the crate.
“This crate is one of those marked missing. We knew it was stolen, but had to make sure you had nothing to do with it.”
“But you already knew that!” Kimberley sputtered.
“We knew Jenkins took part in the money exchange, but we needed to be sure you were not involved, Miss Scott. I hope you understand,” Agent Sanchez said, his black eyes watching me relentlessly.
Kimberley ground her teeth, anger filling her as she watched Harold trade the crate full of priceless artifacts for a briefcase full of money.
“Who is he selling them to?”
“That is what we need to find out,” Agent Sanchez replied.
The man Harold met in the video appeared too grainy and blurry for her to discern his identity. He’d angled his face in such a way that it was impossible to make out his features. But not Harold. His face was clear as day.
“You have got to be shitting me,” Kimberley growled as Sanchez closed the tablet and handed her enhanced photos of the scene she’d just watched.
“You can get a better view of Jenkins and the mystery man in these. Miss Scott, do you recognize him?”
Kim seethed. How many crates filled with ancient Egyptian jars and tablets, recovered papyrus, and statues, even pieces of jewelry, had that slimy little fuckwad sold?
Every single article she’d ever brought back to the university, with permission from the Egyptian government, of course, was priceless. The artifacts in that crate, and the others Jenkins had stolen, were recovered from her most recent dig.
“I spent sixty days digging through sand and rock in the middle of the desert and that toad betrayed me! Hell, he betrayed everyone at the university, and for what? Money?” she spat the accusation.
“I understand the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities wants answers, Miss Scott. They’ve already gotten wind of what’s been happening, and as of right now, the Egyptian authorities want someone held responsible.”
“And what, my government wants that person to be me? I had nothing to do with this,” she refuted.
Guilt and anger ate at Kimberley. She was responsible if for no other reason than the fact Washington University had been granted permission to borrow those artifacts because of her. She’d begged the head of antiquities to loan her items for further study, thinking only of how it would benefit her students—not her greedy boss.
How could Jenkins do this? She did not like him as a person, but she had always thought he’d felt the same as she did about the past. She’d assumed her own love and awe for history was something they’d shared.
“Do you realize I’ve spent countless hours of my life filling out paperwork and negotiating with Egyptian officials to gain these priceless items, agent? Shit. No wonder you think I’m responsible!”
“For what it’s worth, Miss Scott, I believe you are innocent. I have a nose for lies,” he stated, and his eyes flashed gold, reminding her of his preternatural tendencies.
“Look, Agent Sanchez, I appreciate you being forward with me, knowing what I know about the DPCA. But I swear, I had nothing to do with this. Why would I risk my reputation with the museum and my professional career to get those pieces out of the country for some cheap pay day? I practically swore to give them my firstborn if anything happened to those artifacts.”
“I know, and again, I believe you,” he replied and huffed out a breath before continuing. “But Jenkins thievery isn’t the worst of it, Miss Scott.”
Kim waited as the entirely too handsome Agent Orlando Sanchez leaned back in his chair. His glowing eyes trained on her, and she could only imagine that whatever other lived inside him, it was solely focused on her.
Gulp.
“Really, what could be worse than me losing my job and my credibility? I’ll be ruined, and that’s if you don’t throw me in jail first,” she replied with a snort.
It was not funny, but what could she do? Kimberley stood up and paced the short room. Her career was all she had. Dumped by her ex. Never had any kids. What could she do after the dust settled?
No university would ever touch her now that she was associated with this mess. Her tenure would not save her job from this kind of scandal. Her life was over. Thanks to that asshole boss of hers.
Agent Sanchez looked at her with pity, and that was it. The last straw that broke her camel’s back. Kim threw her head back and screamed.
Okay. She was officially having a breakdown.
“Miss Scott? Are you okay?” he asked, one eyebrow quirked.
“No, Agent Sanchez, I am not okay.”
Kim huffed a breath and wiped her face. Yup. Now she was crying. Kim always was an angry crier. She looked at the agent, whose eyebrows were about to disappear into his hairline, and she nodded for him to continue. Her breakdown could wait.
“Oookay, uh,” he mumbled, shaking his head. “Before you went all crazy banshee on me, I was about to tell you that Jenkins is gone without a trace. This is the last footage we have of him, and it is dated twelve hours ago. Tell me, when was the last time you were in contact?”
“Look, I am still jetlagged from the trip. The first thing I did when the plane hit the tarmac was see to the delivery of those artifacts to the university.”
“I understand that, but you were the only person documented to have handled the missing pieces.”
“Regardless of what it looks like, I am not in cahoots with that jerk,” she growled, ignoring the tremor of fear that spiked through her blood at the man’s suddenly darkening eyes.
“Cahoots?” he whispered and cocked his head to the side. “Good one. Anyway, I only meant the paper trail leads straight to your door. A little too convenient for my tastes. I think Jenkins framed you.”
“Of course he did. Jerk stole my job, and now he is putting the blame for his thievery on me.” She sighed.
“Exactly. It looks bad for you, Miss Scott, I’m not gonna lie. The DPCA is involved for one reason. Jenkins skipped town with something very dangerous.”
Kim’s face paled as she took in the meaning of his words. If the Division of Paranormal Creatures & Activity was here, investigating, it could only mean one thing.
Shit. Shit. SHIT.
“He took the replica of the Emerald Tablet,” she whispered.
“Yes. Tell me what you know about the tablet, Miss Scott. Why is that piece so important?”
“Officially, it’s a fairytale, Agent Sanchez. Unofficially, that tablet is one of the missing pieces of the Hermetica.”
“Yes?”
“It’s the premier collection of ancient Egyptian-Greek texts rumored to contain untold wisdom, links to great power.”
“Continue.”
“Well, only fragments of the Hermetica have been found throughout history. Though we know the tablet we recovered was merely a copy of an older original, it is possible it holds valuable information.”
“What kind of information? Agent Sanchez asked.
“Occult lore,” she said, rolling her eyes when he looked blank. “Magic. I am talking about Magic. The Emerald Tablet is said to have the exact recipe for philosopher’s stone, and no, it’s not just the name of a book.”
“You mean the real philosopher’s stone, the one that can give the user eternal life?”
“Something like that, yes. For thousands of years, the myth has circulated amongst various civilizations, but in the end, all roads lead to Egypt. If it is real, that tablet might be the key. I borrowed it on strictest confidence that I would be the only one to handle the piece. It’s incomplete, but from what I could study in Giza, the replica holds priceless information.”
“Okay, I need to send this info to my colleague,” grunted the agent as he whipped out his cell phone.
Harold was a little older than Kim, and his work had always been subpar as far as she was concerned. He’d used their previous relationship to steal her ideas on new ways to form alliances with international museums and countries who were notoriously hostile about Americans trying to dig on their lands.
Thank goodness she’d never slept with him. After a few dates, she’d found out he’d been using her theories and passing them off as his own. She shut down the relationship right then, but it was too late. He got the promotion for the position of dean. Kim had been granted tenure. A consolation prize, but one that was much coveted in this economy.
So, she stayed on and did what she’d always wanted to do. She led digs and taught archeology to excited young minds. Maybe it was cowardly to give up so easily, but she didn’t want to fight. Looked like now she was going to pay the price for her compliance.
“I don’t get it. Harold always wanted to be Dean. He stole my ideas to get the damn job, and now he has it. Why risk it all?” she asked.
“Money is always the strongest motivator in these instances,” Agent Sanchez said, and scoffed. “After that, it’s usually sex and power.”
His gaze left her, and Agent Sanchez seemed to focus on the far wall. Kimberley still couldn’t believe it. When she’d gone into the office to unpack, she’d been surprised to see the big agent waiting for her. Technically, Sanchez was an FBI agent, but his unofficial title was with the secret Division of Paranormal Creatures & Activity.
She could hardly wrap her head around the idea that such a thing even existed, but as a student of history, she accepted it easily enough. After all, humankind had believed in all kinds of things over the many centuries of recorded history. Her knowledge of Shifters also helped her grasp the idea.
There was certainly a need for a branch of the government to look into mysterious, supernatural occurrences. If Harold was trying to build a philosopher’s stone, then heck yeah, they were the right group to handle this. Before she had time to think another thought, the big agent turned and shouted at her.
“Get down!”
Kimberley gasped as Agent Sanchez shoved her to the floor, knocking the wind out of her. He held her head down as a spray of bullets pierced the wall directly behind the place where she’d been standing not one minute ago.
Sheetrock exploded from the wall. It was the only thing separating her small office from the next one. She trembled violently, realizing just how vulnerable their position was.
Thank goodness it was still too early for anyone else to be in the college building yet. She’d hate it if someone got hurt because of her. Kim spit out some of the dust she’d inadvertently swallowed and squeezed her eyes tight.
“What the hell is happening?”
“Fuck!” he growled.
Then he left her huddled behind the desk and checked the hallway. He didn’t return any fire, and no more shots went off, but hell if she knew what that meant.
“Clear. Whoever took those shots left in a hurry,” Agent Sanchez said, returning with a troubled look in his eyes.
“Look, I can’t leave you here unguarded, and the FBI needs to stay out of this in any official capacity since it is part of an ongoing investigation with Homeland and the DPCA.” Sanchez pulled her up and dragged her to the far wall.
“What does that mean?” she asked, while he tugged her down the corridor to a stairwell that led to the faculty parking garage.
“It means we’re going to need some backup.”