The God Collector Page 7

  Please remember that this is not an infringement on your freedom of speech or any other such “Nazi-like” restriction. Information publicly available is a tool for potential thieves, and we have to be prepared to deny them anything we can.

  Call the Security office if you have any questions.

  She scrolled through the other messages. The remaining bulletins held no surprises, just reminding everyone of the rules. Employees must wear IDs prominently displayed at all times and be prepared to offer additional identification when questioned by authorized personnel. Nobody was to say anything to the media. The Security office would be conducting an internal review, rescreening everyone with access to sensitive areas and especially valuable items.

  That last item added another pound or two to the lead weight in Theo’s stomach. Her access rating was fairly high, thanks to all that time spent in the prep rooms sketching mummies and shabtis. Granted, a security review wouldn’t turn up anything more damning than a couple of college fines for paint-spattered dorm rugs, but that didn’t mean Theo wanted the hassle. Knowing that someone was sitting there pawing through her records made her flesh creep.

  Shaking her head, she closed the emails and finished off her calorie-laden coffee. Maybe those personal issues wouldn’t be so bad. She opened another message.

  From: Seth Adler

  To: Theodora Speer

  Subj: Lunch

  Miss Speer—

  I’m sorry that our lunch yesterday ended so abruptly. Is there any chance we could give it another try? I enjoyed talking with you. Please call me.

  And, at the end, a standard text signature with home, office and cell numbers attached.

  Theo frowned and sat back in her chair. Around her, the loft came to life as the furnace heat permeated the last cracks of the building. Someone was humming circus music—either an attempt at distraction or a coded act of aggression towards Stiegler, whose coulrophobia was legendary. Life went on.

  Theo knew that she wasn’t a very insightful person. If she had been, her last relationship might not have ended with a whimper instead of a bang. But though she’d never expected to really understand someone like Seth Adler, it was beginning to bother her that she couldn’t.

  But she remembered the way Adler had looked yesterday. Hard angles and lines, contrasted subtly by the suit that showed a little wear and the droplets of melting snow dotting his hair and skin. The wry humor, the small smile, the strange attitudes he wore in his body that disrupted the image of the sleek businessman. He was a mystery and she didn’t understand it, but this time she wanted to know why.

  She ducked her head a little and covered her face with both hands. Her cheeks were warming again, and there was a strange tremulous sensation in the pit of her stomach. She needed perspective on this, or she’d do something stupid. Time to call in the cavalry.

  “Hey, Aki!” she called over the low cubicle wall. “Adler wants me to go out with him again!”

  “Woo-hoo! Is he gonna put out this time?”

  Theo rolled her eyes a little and, knowing her friend, waited. Footsteps moved towards her and seconds later Aki’s head popped over the edge of the cubicle.

  “Seriously, though,” he added conversationally, “from the way you were acting yesterday, I thought it was a massive disaster. Do you really want to try again?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, frowning a little at the screen. She looked up at Aki. “I mean, I like him—sort of. He’s funny when he unbends. But he’s a donor, which means spending time with him is dating inside the workplace. Technically. And I think I kind of flaked out at the end when I heard about the robbery…” She let her head sag into her folded arms. “Argh! I’m confused as hell, Aki. Help. I don’t think Zimmer’s security alerts covered this.”

  “Huh, I’m surprised. He covered everything else.” Aki came around the cubicle wall and perched on the edge of Theo’s desk. “Hey, did you hear we can’t use Facebook anymore? My mom’s gonna be pissed about that. It’s the only way she keeps in touch these days.”

  “No, we just can’t discuss the robberies or the museum on Facebook. Look, are you gonna help me or not? I’m at a loss here.”

  “Tell him dinner instead. You two seemed to get along a lot better when there was wine involved.”

  “And how the hell do you know that?” Theo said archly, mock offended.

  Aki stretched. “You’re not the only one who can eavesdrop, remember. People get an eyeful of goofy ol’ Aki and figure he doesn’t have a brain in his head. I saw Adler playing with his pocket watch and you were actually smiling at him.”

  “Stalker.”

  “Nah. Think of me more like a bodyguard.” Aki picked up the family photo in the Disneyland frame and made a face. “FYI, you should get rid of this before Stiegler has a shit fit. Huron was singing ‘It’s a Small World’ while you were at lunch yesterday and they really got into it.”

  “Focus, Aki,” she said wryly. “Please. So you think I should suggest dinner?”

  “Yep. More distractions, plus wine. And if he turns you down, bonus—no more conflicting feelings.”

  “That’s a little sneaky of you, Aki. I knew we were friends for a reason.” She took back the photo and put it facedown on the desk, obscuring the offending cartoon characters. Aki hopped down off the desk, and she shooed him away before turning back to the computer.

  Dear Mr. Adler,

  That sounds good to me! I should be the one apologizing, though—it was me that ran out on you. I promise it won’t happen again. :)

  Unfortunately we have to finish up the exhibition prep ASAP, so lunch outside the museum really isn’t an option right now. If you’ve got time after 6 PM, though, we could go grab a working dinner at Qdoba or someplace else near.

  Theo Speer

  Not perfect, but it would do. Send. With a sigh, she pushed her chair back and cracked her knuckles, working out the kinks in her fingers and wrists. The most recent layers of paint were curing downstairs, and would be for a couple more hours. Since the delay was unavoidable, she was automatically slated to help with the inevitable last-minute ephemera of any massive exhibit: posters, brochures, wrangles about photograph resolution and saturation, and the hundreds of other little things that made up a museum experience.

  Moments later, the email window lit up.

  I like that idea. Maybe if we move fast enough, our jobs won’t be able to drag us back.

  Tonight isn’t possible, but how about tomorrow? I can pick you up at the museum at 6:15. Italian this time, maybe? With no televisions on the side, I promise.

  S.A.

  “Surprisingly nonpainful,” Theo murmured as she typed her acceptance. Her stomach still felt a little queasy, but she did her best to ignore it.

  Fortunately for her peace of mind, she was kept busy all morning. Yesterday’s commotion had disrupted the painting schedule, and now they were in a rush to finish the mural before their tight pre-exhibition schedules became too hopelessly skewed. By eleven o’clock they had laid down most of the mural’s color patches and were ready to do detail work.

  Theo was eating lunch at her desk when the department started buzzing again. Administrative emails, mostly from Egyptology, were flying with wild abandon. Only a handful had been accidentally cc’d to the entire museum staff, but that was enough for everyone to know that the board had come to a decision.

  As she finished her burrito, a little crowd gathered by the door. Someone had come in. She caught a glimpse of a short man and a shock of graying hair.

  Well, that meant just one thing. She scrunched up her burrito wrapper and dropped it in the trash as she stood. The denizens of the aerie gathered around Van Allen, and Theo joined them. Aki was already there, his hands coated with charcoal from sketching.

  “What’s the word?” Theo whisp
ered. Aki shrugged.

  Dr. Van Allen called for silence, and the grumbling artists and technicians gradually settled down. As short as he was, Theo could barely see the top of his head through the small crowd, but she could hear him clearly enough. It was impossible to judge his mood from his words, though. Unlike Dr. Schechter, who would attack a new project with the tireless energy of a bloodhound on the scent, Wayne Van Allen always had the same blank façade for whatever was presented to him.

  “Attention, please,” he called out, and the last of the talkers quieted. “Thank you. First, allow me to say that the work you’ve all been doing has been very encouraging. The exhibition is ahead of schedule, and I can say with confidence that it’s going to make quite the impression once it opens.”

  “But,” Aki muttered to Theo.

  “But there’s been a change in the exhibition materials.” Aki elbowed Theo, and she gave him a quick shove back and hissed at him to be quiet. “The museum recently engaged in a series of negotiations with Oxford University, which is conducting a study on tuberculosis in pre-New Kingdom mummies. In light of recent events, we’ve agreed to trade them THS203—”

  A babble of protest broke out before he could continue. “Bogus!” Aki yelled, and half a dozen of the others agreed. Theo didn’t try to stop him; she was thinking the same thing.

  Mummies were getting rarer every year. A good specimen, especially one with such a strange background as THS203, was invaluable. A tuberculosis study could mean anything from noninvasive scans to active dissection, which would as good as destroy the specimen.

  Either way, it was leaving them with no mummy and no centerpiece for the tomb recreation. Everything the lofts had been working on would need to be altered, reshuffled or redone completely. Maybe the exhibition wasn’t being canceled, but Dr. Van Allen’s announcement was going to mean scrapping half of the work they’d already completed.

  The curator held up his hands for quiet, and the loud complaining reluctantly subsided. “I know this is going to make more work for all of us,” he said, adjusting his glasses. “But this decision hasn’t been made lightly, and I promise you this is going to be good for the whole museum. As an incentive for offering the mummy, we’ve been guaranteed the first pick of the Pompeii artifacts coming out of Florence in the next year.”

  That got a murmur from the assembled artists and workers. Pompeii was a hell of a draw, everyone knew, and the historical society in Florence was producing new macabre casts of the ancient victims. A Pompeii exhibit, especially on a semipermanent basis, could go a long way towards keeping the museum in the black.

  “So…overtime, right?” Aki said, crossing his arms. There was another murmur from the group, some annoyed, some eager. The technicians wouldn’t be too happy about that; they’d already put a lot of time and effort in on the project, and running new wiring for parts of the gallery would be a pain in the ass for them. The artists, on the other hand, were more than 50 percent independent contractors and needed all the hours they could justify billing.

  “Overtime,” Van Allen confirmed. “For some of you. Two of the interactives are being moved to cover the wall, and the remaining space will need a simplistic mural. With so little time, we won’t be able to order prints or plaques, so anybody who’s free to join a gridding team should let your group leaders know now. Speer, I trust you can supply our mural needs?”

  He said it mildly, ordering a painting as if it were a pizza with extra cheese, but Theo could see her scant spare time vanishing down the drain.

  “To replace the mummy?” she said, frowning. That whole display, replaced with another mural? It had to be good, and it also had to be done quickly. “On the west wall…”

  She could see the layout in her mind’s eye, the setup the department had been working on for weeks. Without the mummy itself, the important element of immersion would be lost. She had to come up with some way to pull them back into the ancient world. It was Empires of India without the life-size elephant, Travels with Early Man minus its mammoth-tusk hut. Something to pull the visitors into the world, something in two dimensions that would make them feel as if it were in three…

  “The west wall,” she repeated. Not a light bulb, but a little bit of a spark nevertheless. And on the east wall…oh. Oooh.

  “I think I have some ideas,” she added slowly. Van Allen raised an eyebrow at that. “But I’ll need to get to work now, so someone’ll have to take my spot on the first mural team. I can get you some prelims tomorrow, okay?”

  “Tomorrow morning.” There was slight but noticeable emphasis on the second word. “We have to be practical.”

  “Is that what they’re calling it these days? ‘Practical’?” Aki muttered in Theo’s ear as the group broke apart. She swatted him lightly on the arm, but it was an automatic reaction at best; her mind was focused on other things. Three dimensions, walls, staring eyes. Potentially creepy, but also potentially fascinating. She picked up her tablet and began to sketch.

  A few minutes later, her computer pinged. She had email. Apprehensive, she opened the message.

  From: Akeela Lee

  To: art peeps list

  Subj: pompeii?

  Ten bucks says it’s not just ths03 going AWOL. Board meetings just to trade one mummy? Yeah right. Bet he wants to get as many exhibits off grounds and out of the museum as possible so there won’t be liabilities when stuff gets stolen.

  From: Jared North

  To: Akeela Lee

  cc: art peeps list

  Subj: Re: pompeii?

  Who cares?

  From: Akeela Lee

  To: Jared North

  cc: art peeps list

  Subj: Re: pompeii?

  >Who cares?

  Everyone, genius. Work is going to get a lot harder to come by soon. How’s your resume?

  There was more, mostly passive-aggressive sniping between the team members, but Theo didn’t read much of it. Though the loss of THS203 had been somewhat tempered by the possibilities for fresh designs, Aki’s commentary had put some dark thoughts into her head. If the museum’s response to the Collector threat was to batten down the hatches and trade away some of their more likely targets, then they likely wouldn’t be accepting many new exhibitions either. And without a constant rotation of shows requiring new designs, brochures and graphics, much of the art department—including Theo—would be superfluous.

  Looking for a distraction, she checked her voice mail. Her mother wanted to know if she’d heard about the robbery, and whether she was still going to watch the Deerfield house for them while they were in Taos. Theo texted back a plural affirmative and tried not to think about what she’d be doing for Christmas. Maybe she could have a couple of friends over to the house? They could make spiced rum or just buy a couple of cases of the cheapest stuff they could find, just like they used to do when they were in school. Ringing in the birth of Jesus with a hangover sounded good.

  If her friends weren’t doing anything for Christmas. Which was about as likely as the Collector spontaneously turning himself in.

  With a sigh, she turned back to her new designs. ’Twas the season for getting her ass in gear.

  And for breaking dinner dates. The sight of the open email tab reminded her, and her heart sank a little at the thought. Sending another email changing her mind might make it look like she’d panicked, and she didn’t need anything to make him think she was flaky. After a moment’s hesitation, she picked up her cell phone and dialed the number from the email footer.

  “Seth Adler,” came the brisk voice. He sounded somewhat distracted.

  “Mr. Adler?” she said. “This is, uh, this i
s Theo Speer.”

  “Morning, Miss Speer. I got your email.” There was a smile in his voice. “I hope you don’t have your heart set on Qdoba, though. At six o’clock in the Loop, you’d have better luck getting a ringside seat at the Colosseum.”

  “Nah, I’m flexible. But—well, I’m sorry, Mr. Adler—”

  “Just Seth, please.”

  “Uh, Seth. I’m sorry, I can’t make it.” Theo cradled the phone awkwardly, tucking it between her jaw and shoulder as she picked up her stylus again. “Everything’s gotten crazy all of a sudden, and they need me here for at least the next week. I don’t know if we can meet up anytime soon.”

  “What happened?” Adler sounded worried, and Theo heard a screech of tires from the other end of the line. Talking while driving, and from the sound of it, he’d just pulled over abruptly. “Is this about the break-in at the Oriental Institute? Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine, and the museum’s fine.” She couldn’t quite keep a small smile off her face. “There’ve been some changes to the exhibition, that’s all. Our friend, Number Three, had to duck out early, and they need me to draft a new mural to cover the spot where his sarcophagus would have gone.”

  “‘Duck out early?’” Adler repeated. He still sounded worried, but covered it with a veil of light sarcasm. “So he really did get up and walk away. Do you need help?”

  “I don’t think anyone could stop it this time.” Theo selected the eraser tool and rubbed out a problematic area. Number Three’s been called up by Oxford. They’re doing a big study on tuberculosis in pre-New Kingdom mummies, and our boy was first on their list.” She rearranged her grip on the stylus and began to sketch again, outlining the familiar shape of a human body with quick, easy strokes. “The Columbian’s offered it to Oxford in exchange for some Pompeii stuff everyone’s been panting over.”

  “Hell, what a waste,” he said, his tone blunt. “Whose decision was this?”