“I don’t need a cat. If I were to get a pet, I’d want something…I don’t know, more tactical.” Shay frowned and tried to run through the possibilities in her mind. She kept circling back to attack falcons or bears.
He laughed. “Don’t think you can go to a pet store to get the kind of pet that would suit you, Shay.”
“Oh? What do you think would suit me then, smart guy?”
Peyton shrugged. “I don’t know. A shark with machine guns on the side? A Komodo dragon? Maybe a real dragon? You could ride him on jobs, machine guns optional.”
“Don’t tempt me. I can always check out Oriceran. Maybe I can find a spare dragon or two there.”
Peyton rubbed his chin and pushed the ball toward Osiris. The cat pushed it back and meowed loudly.
“You know, a guard dragon would be pretty badass,” the hacker agreed. “We should give him a name like Fluffy.”
“Why would you name a dragon Fluffy?”
“Because it’s funnier if the name’s ironic. He’ll be a huge guard dragon with scales, not some cute little thing.”
Shay laughed. “Doesn’t matter anyway. Not exactly like dragons are gonna let some random human tell them what to do. Don’t meddle with them and all that.”
“Raise it from an egg. It’ll think you’re its mommy.”
She shrugged and shook her head, not sure how they’d ended up in this ridiculous discussion.
Maybe I can ask Alison what she knows about dragons. I’m sure they teach the kids about them at her school.
Peyton pushed the ball again to his pet, but the cat didn’t bat the ball back. Instead, he lifted his head and pranced off. It was hard not to see it as anything other than haughty.
“Got a lot of other shit to get in order before I worry about pets,” Shay commented. “Just fun to think about. Not everything’s money and ass-kicking for me.”
“Yeah, there’s also Brownstone.”
Shay rolled her eyes. “Okay, not everything’s money, ass-kicking, or Brownstone for me.”
Her phone chimed with a text, and she pulled it out of her pocket. She frowned. It was from her department head.
Need to speak with your immediately. Your career and the future of archaeology and revised history are at stake.
“What the hell?”
Peyton stood and dusted his pants with his hands. “Ass-kicking or money? Bad news? Somebody need to die?”
“Maybe. It’s from my department head. He wants to talk to me right now.” Shay shook her head. “I haven’t talked to this guy outside of meetings all year, and suddenly he’s stalking me on and off campus.”
“Not like he knows where Warehouse Two is. You can just wait until you’re on campus next. What’s the worst thing he can do, fire you? That’s not your real job.”
Huh. What would happen if he tried to fire me? Still, what the hell does this message mean? The future of archaeology and history? Talk about being dramatic.
She stared at the message for a few more seconds. “No, something’s wrong. My instincts are telling me so.”
Peyton gave her an incredulous look. “Something wrong with some random professor? What, he got a really bad papercut, and he’s bleeding out by the printer?”
“If you remember, with your help, I became a random professor, too.” Shay shrugged. “Plus, this guy’s interested in something that might have a link to Oriceran, which means there could be some serious artifacts involved. Not like idiots don’t stumble upon random magic.” She shook her head. “No. I’m going now, and I want you to run support, just in case it’s some asshole I’m not expecting, like the Hollingsworth idiots or Yulia.”
“Okay, you’re the boss, but please tell me you’re not going to have a gunfight at UCLA. You do that, we might not be able to cover it up.”
“I’ll just stick to knives then.” She winked.
Peyton groaned.
“Just remember, this isn’t a tomb raid,” Peyton murmured through her earpiece. “And you’re at a college. Even if it’s nighttime, there are enough people there that if they hear any gunfire you will get swarmed with cops. If that happens, I’m guessing the little truce you have with that AET lieutenant will go away.”
Shay rolled her eyes. “I did use to kill people for a living and not get caught. I do know a thing or two about sneaking around and avoiding cops.”
She glanced back and forth as she approached the locked back entrance to the Fowler Annex. Dr. Weber’s office was on the sixth floor of the red-brick building.
“Got anything on the drone?”
Peyton blew out a breath. “Nobody nearby, but internal cameras show people in a few of the labs plus a couple of janitors.”
“Weber’s office?”
He sighed. “Nope. No camera in there. The best I can do is the hallway. Nobody’s there, though.”
Shay pulled out her ID and swiped it on the lock. It clicked open, and she almost laughed. Her typical warehouse lock had multiple layers of security. It made the campus doors seem all but unlocked in comparison.
She pulled open the door and stepped into Fowler Annex. The entrance was dim, with only a few lights illuminating the area.
Shay glanced around, keeping her gun in its holster under her light jacket. As Peyton had said, this wasn’t a tomb raid. Even if she didn’t have an office in the building, she was a registered professor in the department and had every right to be there regardless of the time.
She made her way toward the elevator. “Anything?” she asked, her voice low. The throat-mic would pick up enough for transmission even if she were barely whispering. It was only habit that had her using a normal volume.
She pressed the UP button on the elevator.
“Nope. Nobody on the sixth floor from what I can see. You’re home free.”
The doors to the elevator opened, and Shay stepped inside and pressed the button for the sixth floor. She crossed her arms and frowned.
Peyton chuckled. “What are you going to do if you get there and he’s just called you over to hit on you?”
Shay groaned and
