by I. T. Lucas
“It’s called good acting. But you are not entirely wrong. After two full weeks of this, it becomes second nature, especially since it’s my third archeological dig this year. Sometimes I catch myself thinking with a German accent.”
“Did you find anything interesting this time around?”
Kalugal shrugged. “I always find something, but regrettably not what I’m looking for.”
“You know what I think.” Rufsur stopped at the pedestrian crossing. “Everything was destroyed when Mortdh dropped the bomb on the gods’ assembly. The entire city was wiped out of existence.”
“Those gods didn’t all live in one place. Most of them had their own homes and temples in other cities, and some of their possessions must have survived. I just need to keep on looking. The problem is that Professor Gunter is getting old.” Kalugal stuck out his fake belly and patted it in a grandfatherly gesture. “In a few years, I will have to switch to Gunter Junior. I’ll have the old man die and his son take over the research.”
As they reached Rufsur’s car, he popped the trunk and hefted one of Kalugal’s suitcases.
“Careful with that!”
“Don’t worry. By how heavy it is, I figured that you brought artifacts back with you again.”
“Naturally. I love seeing my collection grow.”
After Rufsur had loaded the suitcases, Kalugal added his leather satchel and closed the trunk. “I probably have the largest collection of Sumerian artifacts outside of a museum.”
It had started as a curiosity some twenty years ago and had quickly turned into an obsession. Kalugal’s fortune allowed him to finance private archeological digs and, thanks to his thralling and shrouding, he could get the artifacts out of the country with ease. His original goal had been to find more information about the gods and their technology, but it was no longer just about that. He loved discovering new things about the past. With many of the pieces missing, putting the puzzle together was an intellectual challenge, and it fed Kalugal’s thirst for knowledge.
Besides, if he ever decided to sell his collection, it could also be highly profitable. Not that he had any intention of doing that.
It was priceless.
It was his passion.
“I still don’t know what you are hoping to find.” Rufsur drove toward the exit and stopped to pay the parking fee. “If the gods had advanced technology, it has turned to dust by now. All you are going to find are clay tablets that humans wrote their impressions of the gods on. It might be interesting, but it’s not worth the effort and time that you are putting into it.”
His deputy was a pragmatic male, and seeking knowledge for its own sake seemed pointless to him. Unless there was a profit to be made or power to be gained, he considered it a waste of time.
“One of their tablets must have survived. My father used to rant about Annani and how she and her clan had an unfair advantage over the Brotherhood. He was convinced that she must have taken one of those tablets with her when she escaped.”
Rufsur arched a brow. “With all due and undue respect, Navuh is unhinged. Annani and her clan probably have nothing to do with the humans developing new technologies. If the knowledge came from her, the industrial and technological revolutions would have happened much sooner. Why would she wait so long to give the technology to humans?”
Kalugal shrugged. “Maybe she thought that they weren’t ready. Or maybe she didn’t understand the technical information contained in the tablet and had to wait until one of her descendants managed to decipher it much later. My father is a power-hungry despot, but he is not crazy. I believe him about the tablet. He said that Mortdh had one and that he used it to communicate with Ahn and to record his thoughts and plans. Given that Navuh told me about it many years before iPads and other tablets were invented, he couldn’t have made it up. Mortdh’s tablet was just such a device or maybe something even more advanced.”
Rufsur waved a hand. “That only reinforces my opinion that you are not going to find anything in those digs. The tablets of today are not designed to survive a decade, let alone thousands of years. If Annani indeed has one, she must guard it like a precious treasure and take excellent care of it. That wouldn’t be the case with a device that was left to disintegrate in the ground. After so many years, there would be nothing left of it. Not even a scrap.”
“You are probably right. But that’s not the only reason I keep digging for artifacts. I find it exhilarating.”
Rufsur shook his head. “I don’t get it. Working in the dust and the heat while wearing the professor’s disguise cannot be pleasant.”
Kalugal smiled. “But then I get to go home with my loot, deposit it in my perfectly air-conditioned underground bunker, and work on putting the puzzle pieces together. That’s my hobby. It gives me a pleasant respite from my day job of taking over the world.” He lifted his chin and affected a haughty expression. “Mwahaha.”
“Speaking of conquering the world, did you hear the news about your main competitor for the position?”
His levity gone, Kalugal grimaced. “I thought that I had more time, but it’s like someone in the Chinese government is reading my mind and implementing my ideas before I even have time to think them through.” He shrugged. “Then again, they might be unwittingly putting my plan into action for me. I just need to figure out a way to hijack it from them and improve on it.”
Rufsur smirked. “Payback is a bitch. I would love for them to get a taste of their own medicine. They’ve been stealing technology for decades. Now it’s their turn to develop a brilliant plan to take complete control of their population and have it stolen from them.”
3
Jin
“Is everyone here?” Amanda looked around Mey and Yamanu’s living room.
The place seemed to be bursting at the seams with people, but not because there were so many of them. The dungeon apartment was small, and it felt even smaller after Amanda and the makeup artist had put down the two huge trunks they’d wheeled in.
Since there weren’t enough seats for everyone, Jin vacated her spot on the couch and sat in Arwel’s lap. She had expected some raised eyebrows or snarky remarks, but everyone ignored it as if she and Arwel becoming a couple was old news.
The question was how had they heard about it so soon?
This morning, when she’d made Arwel recite the proclamation about them hooking up to Mey and Yamanu, none of her new friends had been there. So, unless her sister and her fiancé had been calling everyone in the village to tell them the news, Jin couldn’t figure out how they’d learned about it.
Since she was quite sure that Mey and Yamanu hadn’t been the culprits, Jin lifted her eyes to the surveillance camera mounted near the ceiling and wondered whether the security personnel were behind this.
That was just as unlikely, but she couldn’t come up with anything else.
Still, the fact remained that no one had batted an eyelid when she had plopped onto Arwel’s lap.
Except for Richard, who seemed uncomfortable and was doing his damnedest to avoid eye contact with her.
It was a weird situation.
Up until two days ago, Jin and Richard had been a couple. And even though they had both realized that their feelings for each other had been the result of compulsion, they had some history together. Thankfully, Jin had held off on the sex. It would have been doubly awkward for everyone involved if she and Richard had done the deed.
Especially for Arwel, who was showing possessive caveman tendencies.
Richard’s life would have been in danger, or at least the integrity of his face would have been.
The surprising part was that she didn’t mind Arwel’s attitude. In her former life, Jin would have dumped a guy for acting like that faster than he could blink. But for some reason, she liked Arwel’s possessiveness.
Maybe because with him it went both ways. She felt just as possessive about her guy as he felt about her.
Amanda put her arm around the makeup arti
st’s shoulders. “Let me introduce Eva. She is going to do your makeup.”
Eva dipped her head.
“And this is Jin, Mey’s sister, and over there at the table are Jacki, Wendy, and Richard.”
Eva waved. “Hello, everyone.”
Amanda continued. “You all know Callie, so I don’t need to introduce her. I will be in charge of cutting the hair, and Callie will style it.”
Callie lifted a blow-dryer and a brush. “I’m armed and ready.”
Yamanu got up. “I’ll leave you ladies to have your fun.”
“Stay!” Amanda pointed at him. “The guys are getting makeovers too.”
Stifling a chuckle, Yamanu bowed his head. “I don’t need a makeover. I’m perfect the way I am.”
“I agree.” Mey crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s crowded in here. I think the guys should go hang out somewhere else.”
“I want a makeover,” Richard said. “I’m staying.”
“No one needs to leave,” Eva said. “We can use the bedroom for the makeovers, and the living room for those waiting their turn.”
“I still don’t want anyone touching this.” Yamanu flipped his long hair back. “It’s the source of my power.” He winked at Mey.
“You can watch,” Eva said. “Who wants to go first?”
“I do.” Jin lifted her hand. “I want to look like a completely different person. Nothing permanent, though. I’m fine with wigs and makeup, but I don’t want you to cut my hair.”
Per Kian’s instructions, Jin hadn’t told any of her friends about her upcoming mission, so they wouldn’t understand why Eva was changing her looks so drastically.
“Why do you want to look different?” Wendy asked. “You’re beautiful.”
“Thank you. But this is for fun. Eva is a professional makeup artist, and I’m curious to see what she can do.”
Wendy shook her head. “I don’t want to look like someone else. I just want to look pretty and glamorous.”
“No problem.” Eva patted the girl’s arm. “I promise that you will be happy with the results.”
“I’m going to put the trunk in the bedroom.”
Yamanu lifted Eva’s trunk, but when Richard grabbed the other one, he almost keeled over. Gritting his teeth, he braced it on his chest and followed Yamanu.
“Poor guy.” Amanda cast Arwel an accusing glance. “You should have grabbed it before he had a chance. He saw me lift it off the cart, so he thought that it wasn’t heavy.”
Chuckling, Arwel tightened his arms around Jin. “I couldn’t get up without dropping my precious cargo.”
Jin kissed his forehead. “Your precious cargo needs to get up anyway.”
Reluctantly, he loosened his arms and let her go.
Pulling out a chair from the dinette, Eva took it to the bedroom and put it in front of the bed. “Come and sit over here.” She motioned to Jin.
Amanda closed the door. “What look are we going for?”
“Can you make me look not Asian?” Jin asked. “My height and ethnic features give me away.”
Eva snorted. “Easily. I can do it just with makeup. I don’t even need prosthetics.”
“What about the hair? A blond wig would look weird on me.”
“An Afro?” Amanda suggested.
Both Jin and Eva grimaced.
“It was just a suggestion. What about dreadlocks?”
Eva shook her head. “They would attract too much attention to Jin. We don’t want to make her look pretty, she already is. We want to make her look drab and not as noticeable.”
“That’s no fun.” Amanda plopped on the bed. “Makeovers are supposed to be about making people look better, not worse. Ella looked adorable when we changed her looks. The disguise didn’t make her ugly.”
Jin frowned. “Why did Ella wear a disguise?”
“It’s a long story.” Eva pulled out a fluffy brush from her case. “But since this makeover is not going to be quick, we have time.”
4
Arwel
“How about a game of cards while we wait?” Mey put a deck on the coffee table.
Lifting it, Wendy examined the design. “I don’t know any card games that are played with real cards. Do you have Uno?”
Mey shook her head. “That’s all I have.”
“Can we play charades instead?” Wendy put the cards down.
“That’s a great idea.” Mey smiled. “I haven’t done that since Jin and I were kids.”
The last thing Arwel wanted was to play silly games, but some form of distraction was needed.
Richard was casting him accusing glances, and the guy’s emotional grid was all over the place. He appeared to mourn the loss of his relationship with Jin, even though it hadn’t been love, but he also lusted after Jacki, who was ignoring him.
In fact, she was acting strangely.
Staring into the distance, she seemed to be somewhere else. If Jacki were the quiet type, her behavior wouldn’t have attracted Arwel’s attention, but normally she had an opinion on everything and wasn’t shy about voicing it.
Was she having a vision?
The only other clairvoyant Arwel knew was Syssi. Her visions were sporadic, and when they happened, they were hard to miss. She looked like an epileptic having a seizure.
Jacki just stared with unfocused eyes. But when he tried to tune into her feelings, he couldn’t get a read on her because she was sitting next to Richard, whose strong emotions overwhelmed her muted ones. Later, when there weren’t so many people around, he could ask what was bothering her. Was she scared? Worried about her future?
Since he couldn’t tell her anything about immortality yet, assuaging her fears would be difficult, but he could at least reassure her that she would be taken care of.
When the bedroom door opened before his turn for charades arrived, Arwel counted himself lucky. It had been almost an hour since Jin had entered the bedroom with the self-appointed makeover specialists, and except for him and Jacki, everyone else had already had their turn at playing charades.
“Attention, everyone.” Amanda clapped her hands. “Get ready to be wowed.”
When Jin made her entrance, Arwel’s eyes widened. How the hell had Eva accomplished such a transformation?
As the rest of the makeover crew came out, Yamanu started clapping, and then everyone joined him.
A chin-length auburn-colored wig covered Jin’s long hair, and heavy makeup obscured her Asian features while making her look a decade older. The baggy, shapeless dress added to the illusion of a thirty-something suburban mom.
Arwel didn’t like the new look, but it was one hell of a disguise.
“Amazing,” Jacki murmured. “I wouldn’t have recognized you on the street.”
Richard grimaced. “It’s unattractive.”
Arwel seconded that opinion, but he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. No woman wanted to hear that even when she was making herself look worse on purpose.
“Neither do I,” Mey said. “But as a disguise, it’s perfect.” She got up and walked over to Jin. “The makeup is fantastic. But I doubt you can do it without Eva’s help.”
Eva shook her head. “Jin doesn’t need to go that far when she does it herself, and I can teach her how to do a simplified version. Thankfully, her disguise doesn’t have to be as complicated as the one I did for Areana.”
“Who is Areana?” Jacki asked.
Eva cast her a suspicious glance. “Someone who also needed to change her looks.”
Anyone else would have been intimidated, but not Jacki. “You must be doing a lot of those to be so amazingly good at it.”
“I’m a private detective. My work often necessitates elaborate disguises. This is nothing compared to what I do for myself.”
“Cool. Is there a school for that? Or are you self-taught?”
Eva narrowed her eyes at the girl. “Why do you want to know?”
Jacki shrugged. “At some point, I will need a job, and this seems li
ke fun. I wondered if I can go to school for it and how much it costs.”
Evidently, he’d been right about what had been troubling her. Jacki had been thinking about her future.
“I’m self-taught,” Eva said. “But there are schools for stage makeup and costume design. I have no idea how much they cost, though.”
Jin tapped Eva’s shoulder. “Can we take it off now and make me look pretty?”
“Sure.” Eva smiled. “Unlike this, making you pretty won’t take long because you already are.”
Just as promised, ten minutes later Jin walked out looking like herself again, with just a little color on her lips and barely-there eye makeup.
“That’s much better.” Arwel got up and pulled her into his arms for a quick hug.
Amanda tapped his shoulder. “Your turn.”
“Are you going to make me look like a grandpa?” he joked to cover his embarrassment.
Fates forbid that anyone should find out about him asking Amanda to help him out with his looks. The Guardians would never let it rest.
“No, silly. I have something different in mind for you.”
5
Jin
After Arwel left with the makeover crew, Jin sat next to Jacki. “Do you have a new career in mind?”
She shrugged. “There aren’t many job openings for unreliable clairvoyants, and I don’t have any other skills.”
“What did you do before joining the program?”
“Mostly waitressing and some other occasional gigs. Basically, I did what I could to scrape together enough money for rent and other necessities.”
Jin had a feeling that Jacki didn’t want to talk about her past before the program. Every time she’d asked her about it, Jacki would answer in generalities and change the subject.
“I’m sure you made good money in tips.”
