Angel Face

Can I Go Now?

XXVII

"It's been two months, Angie. Two."

"I know."

"And we have gotten nowhere." Nick exclaimed, frustratedly while he paced in front of me. We were discussing our findings on the fire box's content which was basically nothing. Even after two months of researching and testing we weren't able to figure out how valuable it was. Which only led us to the same conclusion...

"It's priceless, Angie." He emphasised "Don't you think I know that? Doing all these tests just confirmed it. Do you have any idea, what will happen if this info reaches the wrong crowd?" I pushed myself off the edge of the desk and rounded it to sit on the swivel chair. Just the thought was unnerving. This wasn't a painting or any kind of art piece, this was a.....

It just makes one wonder what the Landaverdes were doing with something so priceless. "That's why we should tell the board about it. They'll know what to do with it." I shook my head at Nick's suggestion.

"Not yet." Nick threw his hands in the air and turned away, clearly fed up with my disagreement. "I will first run it through Duncan. He'll know what to do." I nodded to myself. "Mr Phoenix Corps?" Nick scoffed. "What will he know about this? This is a priceless antique we're talking about not something... something... whatever he has knowledge about."

I wanted to both laugh and glare at Nick for his loss of words and tone. But, decided to do none and just stood up and gave him a disapproving look. "Don't be disrespectful. You clearly don't know what he is knowledgeable of. He runs a company which deals with providing protection and security. He'll know what is to be done to keep this safe."

"Fine, sorry." He sighed and plopped down on the couch. "But you got one thing right." I gave him a questioning look, when he suddenly spoke up after a pause. "That, it has been two month and we still don't know what he is like. You should really properly introduce your husband to your friends. Like in an informal setting or something."

He was right. I had already met both his family and friends. He had also already met my family, it was about time he met my friends too, properly. But, maybe not this week, Duncan had been busy this entire week so far. After a lot of convincing from my side, he finally caved and took his off day, today. "Yeah, maybe we can plan something for next week or the week after that."

"Yes! Finally." Nick fist pumped while he lay upside down on the couch. When did he get so comfortable? "Nick, get off my couch. Don't you have any other work to do?" I stared at him incredulously while he just laughed and sat up. Our attention was diverted to the door when a knock sounded on it. "Come in." I called. The door opened and a brunette head poked in before fully entering the office.

"Yes, Lydia?"

Lydia was our new recruit, who was fresh out of university. She was assigned to me for guidance and to help her settle in. She was new so she had a lot to learn. Reason why, she would come to me everytime she found herself in a fix. "Chief, I was just having a little trouble determing the ratio in which I should mix the phosphor for the deoxidation of copper?" She asks nervously.

"Okay, is it copper or a copper alloy?" I asked so that I could tell her the best option since different metals or alloy react differently to different chemicals. "Uh, I'm not sure. It looked like copper." She replied sheepishly. Okay this is bad. If an analyst can't determine which metal they're dealing with, they could easily damage the artifact. I put on a fake smile and spoke "Lydia, how about you go back to your counter and I'll join you in a minute?" She nodded and hurried out.

I looked back at Nick, who looked at me with an amused smirk. "Gotta love the newbies." I rolled my eyes at his sarcastic comment. "Maybe she's just nervous." I tried to reason. "Yeah right." He scoffed and pushed himself off the couch. Nick might be all joking and fun loving around us, but as a recruit supervisor he was nothing less than a drill sergeant. Which is also the reason why he isn't given recruits to train unless necessary. The case of his last recruite still makes me shudder. The way she begged for her resignation to be approved, just after a week of working under Nick.