Maggie opened her mouth to respond. She closed it, pursing her lips before she answered. “Not before my coffee,” she said.
“Which I have for you,” Henry said as he handed her a to-go cup of the dark aromatic liquid.
“Oh, yay!” Maggie exclaimed. She removed the lid and took a deep inhale of the coffee before she sipped it.
“Do you still hate me?”
“Nope,” Maggie answered. “The coffee’s redeemed you.”
They packed their gear and readied for the train trip to Italy. Departing on the train before 6 a.m., they would be in France before eleven and in Italy just before four-thirty, arriving in Turin. After another three-hour train ride, they would arrive in Venice. It would be mid-evening, far too late to begin any investigation at the museum. That would need to wait until tomorrow.
With everything and everyone ready, they traveled to the train station and boarded the Paris-bound Eurostar. Once they were settled for the hours-long journey, Maggie prodded everyone for a plan. “So, what’s our plan for tomorrow?”
“Check out the museum, see what we’re working with,” Henry said.
“Dude, are your plans always this vague?” Piper inquired.
“No,” Maggie answered, “they usually involve a lot more questionable details.”
“We’re likely going to need some of those questionable details to get our hands on that ankh,” Charlie postulated.
“I agree,” Maggie said.
“Why?” Piper questioned.
“It’s more than likely the Natural History Museum in Venice didn’t borrow it to take up shelf space in their storeroom,” Maggie responded.
“She’s correct,” Ollie chimed in. “It’s most probable it is on display there.”
Henry nodded in agreement. “Which means we’ll need my questionable methods to ‘borrow’ it before someone else does.”
Maggie nodded. “More than likely. Uncle Ollie, can I take a peek at the ankh we have? I want to remind myself exactly what we’re searching for tomorrow at the museum.”
Ollie pulled the ankh from his cargo pants’ pocket. He unwrapped the ceramic item and passed it to Maggie. Maggie studied it. Intricate protrusions covered the top surface while the bottom remained smooth. “What are these ridges?” Maggie asked. She traced her finger over them.
Ollie shrugged and shook his head. “That I’m not certain of,” he answered. “No one knows for certain. I assume once we have all three ankhs, perhaps they will provide us with instructions to locate the library. Perhaps they form one or more hieroglyphs or give coordinators of some kind.”
Maggie shook her head. “These don’t remind me of anything specific,” she said. “It doesn’t appear that they are forming anything intelligible. It’s just random lines and squiggles.”
“It’ll be interesting once we have all three to determine what they say or how they inform us of the tomb’s location.”
Maggie held the object toward Ollie to return it. “Wait!” Piper exclaimed. “Do you mind if I take a peek?”
“Not at all,” Ollie answered.
Maggie handed the object to Piper, who studied it. “It’s… kind of… sick that Cleopatra held this and now I am.”
“Totally, fair maiden,” Charlie answered. “Two Gucci chicks separate by centuries holding that ankh.”
Piper smiled and offered him a demure glance before she handed the ankh back to Ollie.
The remaining hours of their trip dragged by. Exhausted from the day-long journey, they arrived in Venice after the sun set. Henry guided them to a hotel for the night. No one experienced any trouble sleeping after the long but boring trip.
The alarm woke everyone at seven the following morning. They prepared for the trip to the museum. Charlie would enter and setup his laptop to monitor security protocols. Henry, Maggie, Ollie and Piper would peruse the museum in pairs and note the location of the ankh along with all visible security issues.
They hoped not to run into any trouble with anyone else that may be searching for the ankh. Maggie postulated they had a head start, arguing that only they knew the location of the ankh from the museum curator. Henry pointed out they had no guarantee the other group lacked the same knowledge or confirmation they had not been followed. The discussion resulted in the conclusion they needed to work fast to collect the second ankh and move on.
They arrived at the museum, fronted by the Grand Canal. As they climbed from their private water taxi, Maggie stared up at the building. Its many columns with rounded windows fit into the surrounding Italian landscape perfectly. They paid the fee and began their tour. Charlie found a quiet spot and pulled his laptop open. He clacked on the keyboard. Maggie and Henry wandered through the museum in one direction as Ollie and Piper took another.
While impressive, none of the exhibits on the first floor contained the ankh. The group proceeded to the second floor to explore the exhibition rooms.
“How’s it looking?” Henry asked Charlie through the earpiece connecting them.
“Not bad, mate. This is like a cake walk for me. Give me something hard to try.”
“I’ll work on making the next assignment more challenging,” Henry commented.
“How’s it looking on your end? Any sign of the item?”
“Not one,” Henry answered. “Ollie? You got anything?”
“Nothing,” Ollie admitted.
“I really hope this wasn’t a wasted trip,” Maggie said with a sigh.
“I hate to sound like the ugly American here,” Piper chimed in, “but everything’s in Italian. I can’t read any of this. I hope I recognize the ankh because I certainly won’t recognize a description of it.”
Henry tugged Maggie’s arm toward another display room. “Come on, let’s keep going. We’ve got a good amount to see yet.”
They wandered through another exhibition room but found nothing. A variety of mounted or skinned animals covered the walls. “Ugh,” Maggie groaned.
“What? You have animal mounts at your shop!” Henry answered.
“Yeah, but I don’t have an ostrich climbing my wall,” Maggie responded, motioning to the ostrich mounted near the ceiling. “Or a skinned gorilla who looks like he’s grimacing in pain!”
“Don’t be a hypocrite, chicky. I saw that stuffed squirrel in your window. He looked upset.”
“I’m taking him out when we get home,” Maggie promised. “The ankh is not in this room, that’s for sure. Let’s move on.”
They exited the room, moving to another gallery. Frustration built in Maggie. She huffed as they entered a corridor-like gallery. Windows overlooking the Grand Canal made up one side of the space. Display cases sat in front of them. Floor-to-ceiling display cases lined the opposite wall.
Maggie glanced at the shelves far above her head. “I hope it’s not up there,” she mumbled. She stood on her tiptoes and peered into one of the cases.
Henry stared into the case at eye-level. “Nothing here.”
“Nothing up here either,” Maggie said. “At least not that I can spot.” Henry scanned the case above and confirmed Maggie’s verdict.
They shuffled to the next case. “This time you take the top shelf,” Maggie suggested.
“Fair enough,” Henry agreed.
Maggie browsed the middle shelves. She squatted down to peruse the bottom few shelves. With a sigh, she rose to standing. “Nothing.”
“Me either.”
They moved on and inspected three additional display cases with no results. “Five down,” Maggie said with a sigh, “nine to go.”
They moved to the next case. Maggie scoured the interior of the lower display case. She fought to keep her focus. With only five cases completed, Maggie’s hopes waned with each passing moment. She stooped over and inspected the bottom shelf.
Maggie’s brow pinched together. No cross lay on the bottom shelf, but the items triggered something in her memory. “A sword and a shield,” she mumbled to herself. She glanced at the information near
the items. Written in Italian, Maggie understood none of it. She scanned the text. One word stuck out to her: London. London, Maggie mulled, yes! These were two of the items sent here from the Natural History Museum in London!
A renewed energy buzzed through Maggie. She searched the bottom shelf for signs of the ankh. She found none. She re-checked the shelves above. Maggie searched them over and over, twisting and turning to see behind objects in the case.
“What is it? Do you see something?” Henry inquired.
“Not the ankh, but these,” Maggie responded, pointing to the sword and shield. “These two items came from London. It mentions it on the write-up. They were on the inventory sheet with the ankh. It must be here somewhere!”
Henry scanned the shelves of the display case. “Not in this case.”
“No, but hopefully not far from this case!” Maggie exclaimed. She sidestepped to the next case, her eyes skimming the contents. She shook her head when she came up empty and moved on.
Two cases later, Maggie’s hopes began to dwindle. Perhaps her assumption was incorrect. Perhaps the items weren’t here. Maggie ran her fingers through her hair and puckered her lips. She stomped to the next case.
Maggie browsed the middle two shelves. Devoid of the ankh, she shifted her gaze lower. The third shelf held nothing of interest. She crouched to examine the case’s second to last shelf. Her heart skipped a beat. On the shelf, offset by a green velvet pad, the ankh lay propped in a holder.
Maggie grasped Henry’s hand. “It’s here!” she whispered excitedly.
Henry followed her pointing finger. His eyebrows raised as he spotted the object. “So it is,” Henry answered. He squatted to examine the object.
Maggie slid her phone from her pocket and snapped a few pictures.
“We got it,” Henry mentioned into the earpiece.
“Got your location, mate,” Charlie responded. “Got you on… two cameras.”
“Can you loop those?”
“Is the sky blue, mate?”
“What gallery are you in?” Ollie asked.
Maggie gave him directions to their location. Within moments, Ollie and Piper joined Maggie and Henry. Henry’s eyes darted around the exhibit room, noting every detail he could.
“Let’s grab a few pictures,” he suggested.
The group spent twenty minutes posing for pictures, appearing like typical tourists. Henry took care to capture as much of the room and its security measures as possible, using Ollie, Piper and Maggie as his cover.
The group spent another hour wandering the museum. They paid careful attention to points of entry and exit, security at these points, and overall. As the afternoon wore on, the group departed from the museum and returned to their hotel to plan.
Chapter 12
Maggie lounged on the sofa, reading the area’s takeout menus. Discussions regarding the retrieval of the ankh had stalled. While Charlie assured the group the electronic security measures would not be an issue, entry into the museum proved another matter.
“Maybe we should go for pizza,” Maggie suggested. “I mean we are in Italy.”
“You know pizza wasn’t as popular here as…” Ollie began.
“It was in the US, I remember,” Maggie finished for him. “But still.”
Piper snatched the menus from Maggie’s grasp. “Pizza it is,” she said. “Thank God I dated that Italian guy whose family owned a pizza shop. I know enough Italian to order a pizza.” She shuffled through the menus and called one eatery, placing an order. “Thirty minutes,” she reported as she replaced the phone’s receiver.
Maggie slumped further into the couch. Her head fell back onto its arm. Henry lifted her legs off the couch and slid under them. He stared at a few of the photos he’d taken of the museum.
“So, we need a boat,” Maggie noted.
“Yep,” Henry retorted.
“And a way in,” she continued.
“Yep.”
“And then it’s easy. Because there’s literally no major security on that case,” Maggie said.
“Right,” Henry agreed. “I just need a glass cutter and we’ve got it. So, in other words, we’re nowhere.”
Maggie scrunched up her face. “Let’s work backwards,” she suggested.
“Good idea,” Piper added in. “Starting at the end, we’re in a boat, sailing happily away from the museum with the ankh and we’re not in jail or anything.”
“Right,” Maggie answered. “Just before that, we’re sneaking out of the museum with the ankh. We’re coming out the same way we went in, which is… what?”
“Through the window. We climb up from the boat,” Henry answered.
“Already established that won’t work,” Charlie answered.
“Wait, why doesn’t that work again?” Piper questioned.
“Alarm trigger,” Charlie answered.
“Can’t you just turn off the alarm?” Maggie asked.
“Sorry, chicky. I’d love to, but that’s entirely different from looping a video and feeding it into their system.”
“Why?” Maggie queried.
“Looping a video on their closed circuit is simple. I snatch a few seconds of clean video and feed it back to them. It’s called closed circuit for a reason. It’s closed. No one else involved in the equation. Just me and them.”
“Okay, that makes sense. It’s a closed loop.” Maggie sat up as she continued to formulate ideas.
“Right,” Charlie answered. “Alarm is different. It’s connected to an alarm company who also monitors it right along with the on-site security.”
“So, bypass it at both levels,” Maggie proposed.
“I’d have to hack both the inside security AND their monitoring system. That would take time and information I don’t have.”
“It’s not an option,” Henry agreed. “It would take time we don’t have.”
“Okay,” Maggie said, taking a deep breath before continuing, “can you disable the alarm?”
Charlie shook his head. “I monitored those security systems the entire time we were at the museum. The alarm systems on those windows were never off. Disabling them is going to draw a red flag somewhere. Disabling the doors after hours, same thing.”
“Can we do what you did in London when we ‘borrowed’ the staff piece?” Maggie asked.
“No electronic security badges to open a door.”
“UGH!” Maggie exclaimed, throwing herself back on the couch.
“We’re stuck,” Piper groaned.
“Any chance you can borrow it because of your fame, Uncle Ollie?”
Ollie, who had remained silent for much of the conversation, chuckled. “As terrible a plan as that is, sadly, it may be the option with the highest probability of success.”
A knock sounded at the door. “Oh, please be the pizza,” Maggie whimpered.
Henry crossed the room and checked the peep hole before pulling the door open. He passed a few bills to the delivery man and returned with two pizza boxes.
Maggie leapt from the couch and hurried to the boxes. She grabbed a plate and laid two slices on it. On a second plate, she places two more slices. She delivered one plate to Ollie before settling on the couch and taking a bite of the cheesy delight. Henry joined Maggie on the couch while Piper elected to eat her pizza sitting cross-legged on the floor. Charlie returned with his slices and plopped into the armchair next to Ollie.
“Mmm, real Italian pizza!” Piper exclaimed.
Maggie was about to agree when Ollie issued a hoarse shout. He tossed his plate on the table and gulped his water. “Hot!” he gasped after a moment.
Maggie frowned and stared at her pizza slice. “It’s not that hot,” she answered. “Seems like it’s been out of the oven a while.”
Ollie shook his head, breathing through his mouth as he attempted to cool it. “Spicy hot,” he choked out.
“Ohhhh,” Maggie answered. “The peppers.”
Ollie nodded. “Oh, sorry,” Piper apologized. “I got h
ot peppers. I didn’t think anyone would mind.”
Ollie sipped at his water. “Whew,” he said. “I didn’t expect them to be that hot! That’s like a five-alarm fire!” He retrieved his discarded plate and removed a few of the peppers.
Maggie snapped her head in his direction. She narrowed her eyes. “What did you just say?” she questioned.
“I said I didn’t expect these to be that hot!”
“No,” Maggie contended, “no, there was something else.”
Ollie glanced at the ceiling in thought. “It’s like a five-alarm fire?” Ollie phrased it as a question.
Maggie’s eyes widened. She dropped her pizza slice on her plate and tossed the plate onto the coffee table. “That’s it!”
“That’s what?” Ollie inquired.
“That’s how we’re going to sneak into the museum!” Maggie exclaimed.
“With hot peppers?” Piper questioned.
“No,” Maggie answered with a shake of her head. “With a five-alarm fire!”
“Huh?” Piper asked.
“You were monitoring the alarm system today, right?” Maggie asked Charlie.
“Yeah?” Charlie answered.
“And you said you couldn’t intercept the alarm signal before it got to the alarm company, nor could you disable the alarm without it going unnoticed, right?”
“Right,” Charlie agreed.
“But could you trigger the alarms?”
Charlie furrowed his brow. “Trigger them? Why would I want to trigger them?”
“We’ll trigger the one on the window when we go in there,” Maggie explained. “Which is a dead giveaway that something is wrong.”
“Obviously,” Henry said. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at, princess.”
“If Charlie can trigger multiple alarms at the same time, it’ll appear that the alarm system may be malfunctioning. On both ends! The alarm system will see multiple triggers, as will the guards. They may investigate, but after a few go off with no issues, they’ll assume there’s some malfunction with the alarm. We can go in and out with the video looped without them even bothering most likely.”
Secret of the Ankhs: A Maggie Edwards Adventure (Maggie Edwards Adventures Book 2) Page 14
