The museum seemed to be in a blanket of darkness. This was perfect cover for the job. Byrem had done this so many times before. He parked his car a block down next to a construction site. He made his way to the museum and climbed to the roof from the rear of the building. He then proceeded to the skylights and checked to see if it was wired. Sure enough, it was. He pulled out a small tool kit from his backpack and proceeded to wire it so that the circuit would remain complete. He anchored his rope and opened the window enough to crawl through and repel down. His goggles were set so that he could see the infrared beams. He landed on a balcony and proceeded to walk on the stone railing. His balance was superb. He had to use suction cups to grip the marble pillars, which existed every twenty feet, to step carefully around. Eventually, he made it to the display. There were fewer security beams in this area than he expected. There was only one camera and he had plans for that one.

He opened an air vent and crawled inside. Using his compass, and range finder, he eventually came to the main hall duct far above the camera. Using another set of ropes, he slid face down out of the duct and into reach of the camera. This is where his favorite piece of equipment came into play. He pulled some wires from his backpack and linked them to the wires coming out of the camera. The wires were connected to a small digital recorder. He checked a small monitor on the recorder that was dangling from his shoulder by a string. It was recording. He needed about ten seconds of the recording. He left the wires attached to the camera as he stuck the recorder to the wall. He set the device on repeat play so that the camera would be blind. Slowly he climbed backwards up the rope back into the vent.

He navigated his way to a vent in the room with his prize and climbed out. Once again, he completed the circuit of the security wiring. Before he opened the case, he reached into his left pocket and pulled the counterfeit out. He quickly replaced them and put the real one back into the same pocket. When he closed the glass, he set the security wiring back to normal without any problem. "As smooth as ice," he thought to himself.

He proceeded back into the air ducts and retrieved his recording device. His departure was as quite as his entrance. When he climbed back out the skylight, he closed it and took off his wires carefully. As he did this, he noticed whispers coming from behind the building. He proceeded to the side and saw two men in trench coats standing in the shadows behind the museum with his night goggles. He looked for more. "Who could these guys be? No one knows I’m here but Keith’s and his group. They did not even know that I was coming tonight either. They better not be waiting for me." He looked for more with no success so he took off his goggles and let them dangle around his neck. He anchored the rope so that he could climb down the side. As soon as he reached the ground, he heard a rifle cock behind him.

"You don’t waste any time do you Panther? Why come so early when you had two more days to complete the request? Were you thinking of selling his prize?"

Byrem turned around and came face to face with Keith. "I’m no procrastinator. I believe in guaranteeing my client results."

"Well thank you. I will take it now."

"What about my payment?"

"The deal no longer is relevant. We no longer trust you. Now hand me the piece nice and slow." He gripped the gun a little more aggressively.

Byrem slowly reached into his right pocket and pulled out the artifact. "Do I a least get to keep the equipment?"

"My hunch was right. I’m glad that I used my own recorder for this job. No matter, I was wearing a mask anyway. How stupid do they think I am?" Byrem thought to himself.

Byrem handed the piece over to Keith.

"It will be the last mistake that you ever make." Keith watched The Panther place the artifact into his hand. Suddenly, he felt his grip on the machine gun fail. The Panther had knocked it out into the street the second he looked at the artifact. "Bastard!"

"You’ll pay for your treason." Byrem punched Keith in the face, grabbed him, and rammed his head into the wall. Seeing Keith knocked to the ground, he ran for the street and swiped the machine gun as he ran towards his car.

"Shopor! This is Keith." He groaned as he called into his radio, "He is running south towards his car. I have the artifact. Make sure he stays in his car." He struggled to his feet and proceeded to follow The Panther.

"Okay, we’ll get him." They ran to their car and proceeded speed towards The Panther’s car.

Byrem ran down the street to his car. He opened the door and got in. He knew that they would follow him. As he reached into his pocket to get his car key, he noticed a glow coming from his left pocket. Curious, he reached in and pulled out the real artifact. The bump had opened up to reveal a bright crystal. He noticed that the artifact was very light in weight all of a sudden. Suddenly, he heard the screech of tires. He put the artifact back into his pocket.

"I better get out of here." He put the key in the ignition and turned it. The car was dead.

Shots rang out from the pursuing car. Byrem ducked down and tried to open the passenger door. Gunshots from a pistol rang out and hit the side of the door as he reached for it. Keith was standing down the road on the corner.

"If I can make it into that construction zone, then I can lose them." Byrem reached up and aimed the machine gun out the back window and opened fire.

"Good bye Panther!" Keith pulled a remote control from his pocket. "You know that you will not work for anyone ever again! You should’ve never tried to undermine us! That video will be all over the media! Too bad you won’t be around!" He pressed the button on the remote and the carefully planted explosives in the construction site erupted violently.

Keith watched as the steel beams crashed onto the Panther’s car. The car exploded in a ball of flame. "Shopor, did he get out?"

"We didn’t see him get out, we would have shot him."

"Good, let’s get out of here." They got in the car and sped off.

The next day, the robbery and the car accident were well publicized. The smashed car was unoccupied according to search crews. The specialists noticed that well placed explosives in the construction site had been the cause of the avalanche. They had no motive for the action at this time.

The museum director was also on the news. "We have no video of the robbery. But we have verified that this is a fake artifact. Our specialist is the one that discovered the artifact. He had taken photos of the original artifact. If you look here, the counterfeit has no inscription on the back. See, this is obviously a two dimensional replica."

As Charcin watched the news, picked up the artifact that was delivered to him the night before. He slowly turned it over and to his horror he found that his artifact had no inscription on the back either. Calmly he picked up the phone. "Keith, I want to see you in my office right now."

-----

Samantha opened her eyes. These were not the surroundings that she remembered being in last. She found herself in a room lying on the bed. She noticed that the pendant that she discovered was on a necklace around her neck. The center was no longer shining. She checked herself to see if she was in one piece. Thankfully she was.

"Where am I? These are not the ruins that I was in. Did the earthquake affect my team? Uh oh… What about Grance? I hope she is all right. They must have put me in a hospital after they got me out of the tunnel. I must have been really lucky. I better go tell them that I am awake." She checked her wrist timepiece to see how long she had been out. " It seems intact. Why’s it not working? I must have hit it when I fell down. Dumb thing, it was expensive. Oh well. This is a strange room though. Why are the walls so cold?"

The room walls were made of metal. There was a door on the other side of the room. She noticed a desk with a console on it next to the bed. When she got up to go to the door, she was a little groggy. It took her a moment, but she shook it off. At the door, she figured out which button she needed to push to open the door. She walked out into the hall and noticed that no one was around. This was strange for a hospital. To the left, the hall ended fifty feet down and to the right it led into another room.

As she completed the walk down the hall, she noticed other figures standing in the room down the hall. "This must be the waiting room." She saw five figures facing forward, looking up at a room that was attached to the ceiling in the middle of the room. As she entered the room, she noticed that no one was facing her. It was silent. She did not recognize any of them from this distance. When she walked into the room, the other five figures turned around. Each of the other five had a pendant around their neck too. "Uh oh… This is too weird."

-----

Byrem turned around to find a young woman standing at the entrance to the room. She looked as puzzled as he felt. He had entered the room only minutes before. He could only offer her a smile to comfort her worried look. She probably would't understand him anyway because no one else had so far. They all spoke strange languages. She smiled back, and looked a little relieved.

A voice introduced her. It came from no where. He noticed that the voice was coming from the room up above. The voice proceeded to introduce all of the other five people. He though that it was weird that they all looked up and seemed to understand the voice. He knew that he understood, but how could they. None of them had translator devices. If they did, then why couldn’t they understand each other? They all looked up and paid attention to the introductions.

The voice knew almost everything about them. That seemed impossible to Byrem. He was used to having his life very private and had only two close friends.