Lowe and Gray: The Atavistic Box

Chapter Eight - Disrespectful Crime

AURORA HAD FINALLY convinced her mother to let her go to the art school in Scotland, and told her parents she was starting early initiation. One of Jensen's friends had helped out by altering her parents' memories to make sure everything went smoothly.

They sat in the living room of the safehouse, their heads around the ugly pink necklace: the key to the Atavistic Box.

"What does this do?" Aurora asked.

"It opens the Atavistic Box, presumably. The question is how," Jonathan replied, walking past.

Jensen looked up. "I can't find any more information on it."

"So now what?" Aurora frowned.

"Remember the Wolfgaze's collections I mentioned? We need to go look at them."

"Now?"
"Now," Jensen nodded. "I have a bag with equipment we'll need," he said, picking a duffel bag up.

"Someone's prepared."

"I am the world's best detective."

Aurora rolled her eyes. "Where are these collections?"

"Underneath the museum."

They drove to the city centre and Jensen parked the car across the street. Making sure they weren't noticed, they crossed the road and moved through the gardens behind the museum. Jensen pressed his palms on every tree they passed, and Aurora frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for a tree," Jensen murmured.

"There's one," Aurora said, as Jensen pressed his palm to another tree. Then he moved on to the next one. "And that's another. They're all trees."

"I'm looking for a certain something." Jensen cleared his throat. "It's this one." And he jumped for the lowest branch, hoisted himself up and began climbing smoothly up the tree. Aurora frowned, then shrugged and followed him up the tree.

They quickly came to a branch that lay adjacent with the building's roof, a skylight visible. Jensen manoeuvred himself onto the longest adjacent branch and crawled as far forward as he could. Then he snapped the air and he lurched forwards, a gust of wind carrying him the rest of the way. Aurora hoisted herself up onto a branch and perched, her eyes resting on the gap between the tree and building.

"Hi there!"

Aurora nearly fell out of the tree. She turned and saw Jace stood on a branch slightly higher than them, leaning against the trunk.

"Why are you in a tree?"

"People watching," he responded. "The gardens are pretty. So what's this? Some type of mission?"

Aurora nodded, then turned to Jensen. "Why is there only one harness? I thought we were both going down," she frowned as Jensen pulled several wires out of the bag.

"I need you out here in case something goes terribly terribly wrong," Jensen responded, strapping himself into a harness.

"Like what?"

Jensen shrugged. "Any one of a number of things."

"Fills me with confidence, that," she muttered.

"What about me?" Jace asked.

Jensen glanced at him. "You can sit there."

"Don't talk down to me," Jace scowled.

He tilted his head. "I can't talk up to you. You're too short."

Aurora grinned and shot a pointed look at Jace, who proceeded to flick her on the forehead with his wand.

Jensen clicked his fingers in front of them, irritated he was now dealing with two teenagers. "The museum is equipped with an elaborate security system, so I need to be able to access a control panel on the western wall. From there I can disable the rest of the alarms. However, the floor is pressure sensitive so I'll have to stay off the ground for that part, but for someone with my level of agility that shouldn't be too much of a problem," he said. "This is our little bit of crime."