There is definitely something interesting to dig up now.
Shay grabbed her phone to look at the alerts. All were the same timestamped message.
VIBRATION WARNING FROM SENSOR ALPHA ONE.
Shay glanced over the other pit entrance. The lid still remained firmly in place. No Witch, just the nearby tremors.
“Things change. Time to get the fuck out of here.”
Shay’s Edorado Marine speedboat hugged the shoreline as she sped away from Oak Island toward Nova Scotia.
“I really need to stop nearly getting buried by shit.”
Her phone chimed, and she pulled it out her pocket.
VIBRATION WARNING FROM SENSOR ALPHA ONE.
It didn’t take long before another alert chimed.
SIGNAL LOST FROM SENSOR ALPHA ONE.
Probably another sink hole. There’s no way the Witch survived. She would have come up for air earlier.
Shay chuckled to herself and shook her head, a fine mist of ocean spray in her face.
Then again, I’m supposed to be dead. Guess it’s only fair to have a dead Witch chasing a dead hitwoman. Glad I never gave her my name.
Chapter Twenty
Shay wouldn’t normally bring an artifact back to Warehouse Two, but until she was ready to bring Peyton to Warehouse Five she had no choice.
Part of expanding her business required her to take advantage of available resources and if Peyton wasn’t blowing smoke up her ass about his interest in magical history, then he was going to be very useful evaluating the true worth of potential artifacts. First things first, she needed to know what the hell she’d found on Oak Island.
Peyton was waiting by the rolling door with a mug of coffee as Shay stepped out of the Spider, wrapped stone in hand.
“It’s your time to shine, Peyton.” Shay unwrapped the stone, holding it out for him to inspect. “I want to know what this is before I sell it off to the client. I need to know if it’s too dangerous to be sending out into the world.”
Researching her clients would give her more assurance she didn’t end up providing a deadly cartel or terrorist group with a new weapon. Still left a lot of gray area. Work would always come from some pretty awful people at times but handing over something like a magical nuclear weapon strained even her mercenary tendencies.
Peyton’s eyes grew wide as he looked down at the stone. “Do you know what you have there? I couldn’t tell from the drawings of the first stone and it never occurred to me this is what you were after.” He turned in a circle, waving his arms.
Shay rolled her eyes. “No, I don’t know what I have, but you’re the expert in magical history, so fucking deliver already.”
He bent closer to the stone, his hands hovering just above it. “I can’t read it, but that’s an ancient Gnomic script. I’ve heard of these stones. A small number have been found in other locations. Something about celebrating the last time Earth and Oriceran were directly connected, tens of thousands of years ago.”
“This stone has been here for a while.”
Peyton bounced up and down. “I think those stones have been in Canada for over twenty-thousand years. They are priceless historical artifacts.”
Shay nodded slowly. “And, they do what exactly? Open magic portals? Act as magic batteries? Create bionic animals?”
Peyton shook his head, his face scrunching up in confusion. “No, they’re like little time capsules, really. I mean, they obviously have some magic to survive undamaged throughout the years, but they don’t do anything other than, you know… hold words. You seriously need to donate this to a museum. The few others that have been found are all in private hands.”
A fucking time capsule with an Oriceran High School Class of 24,000 B.C. Gnome Club Was Here, message? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
Shay shook her head. “It’s not going to a museum.”
“But, Shay, do you realize the historical implications? It’d be like finding a Chinese artifact in the New World that proves their fleet did reach California in the 15th century. You have to—”
Peyton fell silent at Shay’s raised hand.
“What do you see when you look at me?” Shay asked, a faint smile on her face.
“Um, a dark-haired attractive woman?” He winced and took a step back as if he expected her to slap him over the comment.
“Relax, already. Well, I am that, but you know what I’m not?”
“What?”
“A fucking volunteer.” Shay rolled her eyes. “We have a client, and he’s going to pay for it. Just because I lie to a few people about being a UCLA archaeologist doesn’t mean I act like one.” She pointed to her chest. “I do this for the money. Got it?”
Peyton shrugged, properly abashed. “Sorry, knee-jerk response. I’m still used to hanging out with the we’ll donate anything if you put our name on the side of the building crowd. It’s like a reptile brain response. I regurgitate that bullshit before I know what I said.”
Shay eyed him, her arms crossed. She suspected the real bullshit was his explanation.
She didn’t care. Peyton’s belief wasn’t necessary, only his compliance.
Shay put off the delivery till the next afternoon. She was cruising down a side street, glancing at the cargo drone camera feed on her phone.
“How is it looking?” Peyton said over the speakerphone in the rental Honda sedan Shay was driving.
She was making the delivery in a warehouse district far from any of her holdings. She was close enough in the rental car to hit the scene if necessary, but not so close to draw undue attention. As much as it pained her to leave the Spider, she figured a flashy red sports car might be too memorable.
“The drone’s almost there.” Shay glanced over again at the feed, looking up in time to slow down with the traffic. “I’m placing a lot of faith in you.”
Peyton checked the numbers he had fed into it. “It’s shielded. It’ll save it from low-level EMP, and if it gets any frequency interruptions, it’s programmed to fly back to the safe point I
