They all began chattering at once.
“I’ll tell it. We have to start with the room key,” Cassie said.
“I think we ought to begin with the bandit problem,” Griffin objected.
“You’ll start with why Erik isn’t dead!” Maddie burst in. She focused her attention on the security coordinator. “You go first,” she commanded.
“Yes, ma’am.” He saluted playfully.
The operations director didn’t appear amused.
Faye suppressed a chuckle.
Erik was on the point of speaking when he hesitated. “You know, my reappearance isn’t going to make any sense at all if we don’t start at the beginning.”
Maddie tapped her fingers. “Fine.”
“Let’s see, the last time we talked was just before we went up the mountain to switch the fake relic.”
“Has it been that long?” Cassie seemed surprised. “Then they don’t know anything!”
“I think that’s what I’ve been saying,” Maddie commented pointedly.
“Well, I guess I should go first then,” the pythia offered. “It all started right after we buried the fake. Everything was fine up till that point. We’d gotten back to the Jeep when I realized I’d dropped my hotel key back at the site.”
Cassie recounted how they retraced their steps, only to find the relic had been unearthed by the three Turks. She then explained how the Arkana team trailed the men through the woods and how she was captured.
Both Faye and Maddie appeared horror-struck as the pythia zestfully recounted how the trio held her at gunpoint while they decided whether to kill her or hold her for ransom.
“You should have seen her,” Erik butted in. “She was amazing.”
Cassie blushed.
“I mean, she stood her ground. Didn’t lose her head. Cool as a cucumber, she cut a ransom deal with those guys. It was incredible.” He beamed at the pythia.
“Erik, stop,” she murmured, obviously pleased by his approval.
Faye and Maddie exchanged raised eyebrows.
“You two seem to be fast friends these days,” Faye observed.
“The new pythia is officially aces in my book,” Erik enthused. “You can quote me on that.”
“I’m glad you don’t want to drum her out of the Arkana anymore,” Maddie said sarcastically, “but can you get on with the story?”
“Oh, yeah, right.” Cassie continued. “After that, the bad guys took me to this run-down cabin, and I wrote a ransom note to send back to the hotel.” She described how her teammates stormed the shack and rescued her.
“You should have seen Erik,” she added. “He came in with guns blazing.”
“Me?” he protested. “What about you. The Turk had a knife to your throat. I was gonna put the gun down before he cut you, but then you stomped on his foot.”
“She did what?” Maddie and Faye were both aghast.
“Swear to goddess!” Erik was beaming again. “Like I said, she was amazing. While the Turk was hopping around, I rushed him.”
“Yeah, talk about amazing,” Cassie smiled back at him. “The guy never knew what hit him.”
Faye glanced at Griffin who had remained silent during this interchange. “Dear, you seem awfully quiet. Don’t you have anything to add?” she prompted.
The scrivener shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Nothing that would do me credit, I’m afraid. If I hadn’t tripped over my own legs and stumbled into Cassie while we were following the bandits, she would never have been captured in the first place.”
“Griffin!” Cassie protested. “You shouldn’t think like that. It could have happened to any of us.”
“Yeah, dude,” Erik added. “Lighten up. If it hadn’t been for you figuring out where to find that artifact, we would have come home empty-handed.”
“At least you would have come home alive without needing to risk life and limb,” the scrivener murmured.
Erik slapped him on the back consolingly. “It was a field mission, man. Stuff like that always happens on a field mission. I could tell you stories.”
“Really?” Griffin brightened. “You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?”
“Nope,” Erik protested. “Swear to goddess.”
“Like the time he trashed an entire hotel room in Venice,” Maddie offered.
“Aren’t you ever gonna forget about that?” Erik moaned.
Maddie folded her arms resolutely. “What do you think?”
Faye forestalled any further comment from Maddie by asking, “What happened next?”
“We tied up the bandits and left them for the sweepers,” Griffin explained.
“By the way, I checked with Anatolian Security while we were at the airport,” Erik interjected. “The creeps got bagged and tagged. Turns out they had a rap sheet as long as my arm.” He paused to glance at Maddie who was several inches taller than he was. “Might have even been as long as your arm.”
“So, they’re in custody with the Turkish police?” the operations director asked.
“Yup,” Cassie answered. “I hope they stay that way for a good long time. Nasty guys. Bad breath too.”
“What about the Nephilim?” Maddie asked.
“Oh, they showed up at the worst possible second, and that’s when everything got real interesting.” Erik picked up the thread. “We were about to rebury the fake artifact when we heard their car coming up the trail. We were boxed in. Couldn’t drive away and there was an empty hole in the ground where the relic should have been. If they found that, they would definitely know somebody else was looking for the same thing.”
“And that’s when Erik came up with the most incredible idea,” Cassie burst in.
“Are you gonna let me tell it?” he scolded, but it was obvious he was enjoying her enthusiasm.
“I just had to say that. It was absolutely genius,” she gushed. Then apparently realizing just how effusive she sounded, she waved him on. “You go.”
“So anyway,” he began, “we had to figure out how to get the fake into their hands without them knowing they were being set up. That’s when I decided to act as a decoy.”
“We hid ourselves while Erik staged a scene,” Griffin chimed in. “He stood by the hole in the ground where we’d found
