“Even Correk doesn’t seem to know what’s up exactly, but it turns out I need to get to the Anzick site today before assholes show up and steal whatever it is. Probably some melt-the-whole-world kind of thing. Who the hell knows?”
Peyton laughed. “You’ll probably get there and find out it was some dwarf’s childhood sled.”
Shay chuckled. “We can hope. Anyway, I need to get more background information on this, and we don’t have a lot of time. I need you to arrange the transportation for Lily and me in the afternoon, then go prep our equipment. We’re hitting this thing today. If those guys woke your ass up and my ass up this early, this isn’t the kind of thing I can sleep on.”
“Does Lily even know she’s going? Plus, does she want to? I know we helped her, but that doesn’t really change the whole watching-a-guy-get-melted-by-an-artifact thing. Maybe she’s done with tomb raiding.”
Can’t blame her if she is. Not everyone has the stomach for every job.
Shay sighed. “I’ll call her in a second. Can you do everything else for me?”
Peyton yawned. “Yeah, yeah. Aye, aye, ma’am. Better get started. Talk to you later.” He disconnected.
Shay immediately dialed Lily.
The phone rang four times before the teen answered with a long yawn.
“Why are you calling me so early?”
“Major job. I want you to come, but I also understand if after what happened on the last job you don’t want to.”
Lily sighed. “Shay, if you need me, I’ll be there. It’s like you said the other night. If I want to walk this path, I’m going to have to get used to seeing freaky and disturbing stuff.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I think we might be helping save the world this time. At least a little bit.”
The teen chuckled. “And how much does that run these days? Helping to save the world?”
“Thirty million.”
“It’s hard to say no to helping save the world, especially when I’m getting a cut of thirty million.”
Shay laughed. “See you later. I’ve got a few things to take care of before we head out.”
A couple of hours later, Shay found her way to Prophecy Affiliates. It was surprisingly easy to find Tubal-Cain’s business this time. She wondered if it helped that the mall had just opened, and the crowds weren’t as thick.
Madge sat in her tiny chair, flipping through a tiny magazine. It was as ridiculous as it was cute.
She looked up, lowering her head and staring at Shay over the tops of her cat-eye glasses. “You’re early.”
“I need to talk to Tubal-Cain.”
Madge shrugged and set her magazine down. “He’s napping.”
“Napping?”
The pixie laughed. “Did you think he never slept?”
“Maybe.” Shay shrugged.
The pixie’s wings fluttered, and she rose into the air. Shay watched, fascinated, as Madge lifted her round body with her tiny wings to fly between the desk and a nearby cabinet. She wasn’t sure if the cabinet had been there before or if she just hadn’t noticed it.
“If you’re just here for gossip,” the pixie commented, “I’m a better resource anyway. That gnome is in love with pointless riddles and vague phrasing.”
“One second.” Shay pointed toward the cabinet. “You still use filing cabinets?”
Madge nodded. “Yeah, to store my lunch.”
She lifted her hand, and a shimmering wave came out and flowed toward the cabinet. It slid open. She peered inside at several tiny trays filled with what appeared to Shay to be colorful pellets, but she didn’t want to embarrass herself by asking what pixies actually ate.
Madge waved her hand again, and the shimmering wave traveled again to the cabinet, and it closed itself. “Tubal-Cain’s kind of a hoarder. Hates to get rid of anything.” She grinned. “Besides, these were once owned by Eisenhower and spent some time in Area 51.”
Shay resisted the urge to ask the pixie about Project Ragnarok or Project Nephilim. She had more pressing concerns.
“So there’s a site in Montana, Anzick. Native site, big archaeology deal. Very important.” The tomb raider shrugged. “I’m gonna cut to the chase. A guy I sort of work for has done a lot of research on this site, and he’s found some evidence that it might have been the location of an ancient Oriceran portal. I didn’t care that much before some criminals tried to steal his information about the site, and then the Fixer came and gave me a big speech about a dangerous artifact maybe being there.”
Madge grimaced. “The Fixer? Ugh. He’s got a few too many wands up his butt if you know what I mean.”
Shay snickered. “Not gonna argue. He’s alright, but we don’t always see eye to eye.”
“That’s what having too much responsibility does for you, you know? That, and gives you wrinkles.” She fluttered back over to her chair. “But Tightbutt Elf might be onto something this time.”
“What do you mean?”
Madge shrugged. “There are a lot of stories that have been passed down among pixies for generations, and I mean pixie generations, not your sad little human years. I’ve heard some versions of this story that involve the place you mentioned.”
Shay furrowed her brow. “What kind of stories?”
“Other species roaming this world.” She gestured around. “Earth.”
“So? We know that now. The Oricerans came here, and some stayed. Some didn’t. They did a lot of stuff, like inspire religions. That’s not news.”
Madge let out a long, labored sigh and stared at Shay like she was an idiot. “I’m a pixie, honey. We wouldn’t pass down a bunch of stories about other Oricerans wandering the Earth. We wouldn’t find that strange. Keep up.”
Shay shrugged. “Sorry. Go on.”
Madge leaned forward, suddenly looking surprisingly sinister for something so small with such delicate wings. “These stories have been around for thousands of years about how you got other species coming here a lot more often than you’d like. Not Oricerans, but from other planets..”
“Shouldn’t Oricerans be stopping that sort of thing?”
“Why? They aren’t the planet’s cops, and if these other species weren’t using magic
