“The rumors of his involvement have been greatly exaggerated.” Gwen’s face repeated from the television screen before the display again cut prior to her answer finishing.

“I don’t get what you see in her.” Katie Walsh interpreted while setting down the remote on the corner of her desk as it began repeating a segment she’d grown bored of before it even went live.

“Ah she’s cute, and besides I prefer she take some of the heat off.” Victor laughed without looking up from a wide sheet of paper where he was redesigning the clone array used for his prototype.

“I suppose I’m no better,” Katie muttered stretching out her arms before eventually returning to the stack of papers that contained her current research project. “But I can’t exactly say a part of my breakthrough came from you asking me to deform the arrays hidden under the Avalonian Seal.”

“Probably best to just keep quiet on that one.” Victor agreed, pausing his pen as the crime was brought up abruptly. “I take it you talked to Carter then?”

“Mhm,” Katie nodded scratching a series of lines on one sheet before continuing them onto the paper beneath. “Dad also said that you gave everything back. I didn’t know that was part of the plan.”

“It wasn’t important.” Victor shrugged, repeating a pattern near the end of the array chain before finally inspecting his work.

“And here I was all excited to invite you shopping tomorrow so you could spend all that new money.” Katie said, with a mischievous grin.

“I never pegged you as a window-shopper.” Victor returned, feeling the question’s oddness when associated with the typically strait-laced bookworm.

If coming from Anastasia or Rafael, it might have sounded a little more natural, but Katie wasn’t the type to feel the heat of new money in a wallet.

“That’s…” Katie muttered quietly before finally setting her pen down and meeting Victor’s cautious gaze. “I signed onto that grey-network you were talking about while we were in school. And… Well you know already, you were right, I found something I needed pretty much immediately. The problem is where it’s being sold…”

“So, there’s even underground auctions here in Philly?” Victor laughed, piecing together her story with the few neglected details irrelevant.

“It’s not in Philly, we’d have to go by Port-gate, all the way to Pacifica, San Diego to be exact.”

“Port-gate huh, have you used one before?” Victor asked, ignoring the destination once he’d determined it.

“Have you not?” Katie sputtered in return with widened eyes. “No, you must have.”

“I have, I was just asking.” Victor responded with a shake of his head. “Alright it should be fine, it’s somewhere I was meaning to go, and you’re right it’s not somewhere you could go on your own.”

“I could…” Katie reiterated defensively with a frown. “I just thought you might see something you need too.”

“Sure, sure.” Victor agreed with a smirk. “What time is the San Diego Port-Gate scheduled?”

“Ten-thirty, and the auction starts at five. Do you want my driver to pick you up from the hotel on our way?”

“It’s fine. I’ll meet you at the gate.”

Katie furrowed her brow, but didn’t speak-out the internal complaints. Even after all this time she still felt that Victor was an endless stream of secrets. Though friends, she still hadn’t even pierced his first layer of façade.

‖֍‖

In the morning, Victor indeed fulfilled his end and was patiently sitting when Katie finally made her way through security and reached their assigned gate. She was quietly glad that she hadn’t offered to pay for his ticket, because it was clear he was up to something.

“Did you wait long?” Katie asked, slipping into the seat flanking his as a crowd of tourists began appearing through another nearby gate.

Shrugging, Victor glanced to his watch. “Does it matter?”

“No,” Katie returned, shaking her head in exasperation. “Anyways after we get to San Diego we can have a taxi bring us to the Lloyd Library on Park Boulevard. There we can kill time until…”

“It’s fine, we have a ride waiting. And don’t forget we have to get through customs.”

“W—” Katie began to complain before clenching her jaw forcefully and reigning herself in. She thought that maybe after they graduate she would finally be able to regain control, but even now she continued to helplessly spin in Victor’s web whenever nearby him.

Although he was right about one thing, the customs process had completely slipped Katie’s mind as she planned the excursion. The entire trip itself had been so abruptly decided that she’d barely had time to fully consider what she was doing.

Still, she knew she needed that book.

The wait, while feeling longer due to the refreshing Cinnabon scent wafting towards their gate, eventually came to an end as the Port-Gate was reoriented to target San Diego. One by one the passengers stepped up onto the large round Magic device while below them a fleet of workmen were loading luggage and the other packages headed into Pacifica.

After another five or ten minutes, the device was activated and everyone aboard was instantly transported to their targeted gate.

Unloading quickly, the group were ushered towards a walled area where they were handed an assortment of documentation to fill-out.

“I’ll go first.” Katie quipped with a smirk. She was excited to show-off how easily her passport made things. As the daughter of a high-ranking government official, it was normal for someone like her to be granted a low-restriction passport.

But much to her chagrin, Victor quickly put a stop to her steps by planting his hand tightly on her wrist. “What do you mean, first? We’re husband and wife, of course we’ll go up together.”

“Husb—” Katie began to shout in shock, but a smooth motion of Victor’s hand again silenced her.

Without releasing his tight grip from Katie’s arm, he produced a pair of passports in matching state and surname.

Stepping up closer to Katie, he quietly spoke in a whisper beside her ear. “Think of what a country might do, if suddenly two new Academy graduates were logged entering their land. You and I are lucky our faces aren’t well known yet, but that can change quickly.”

Katie shivered slightly from the tone of Victor’s whispered words but his reasoning wasn’t flawed. Again, she kicked herself mentally for rushing the preparations of this trip.

Retrieving the passport from Victor somewhat bitterly, Katie bit her tongue as she patiently played the part of wife while the two made their way towards the entry desks.

Passing through easily, with the help of Victor’s terrifying ability to lie with a completely straight-face, the pair traced their way out the large building to a nearby pick-up zone.

Taxi’s and Van’s sat honking at each other impatiently but Victor ignored them all, continuing down the sidewalk with Katie in tow. As they eventually neared a clearing in the jam of traffic, a horrendously obnoxious sound ripped through the concrete tunnel as a mid-engine downshifted a few times needlessly.

“That’d be us.” Victor murmured quietly as he stepped off the sidewalk to meet the rapidly approaching sports-car.

“Taxi would’ve been fine too.” Katie sighed, lifting her back-pack from the ground and following after Victor to where he was shaking hands with the car’s owner.

“Katie, this is Anton. He’s rather good with handling curses and…”

“That’s not at all what I do.” Anton interrupted with a shaking head. “It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Walsh. Obviously I’ve heard nothing but great things.”

“A… Uh… Thanks.” Katie awkwardly stammered, shaking the man’s outstretched hand as Victor placed her bag into the small frunk of the sports-car.

Setting off at a blistering pace once they’d all buckled up. Anton and Victor immediately began reminiscing through the normal obscure phrases.

“Remember the chicken thing down at…”

“Down at Timbo’s? You know they shut that whole area down, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Remember the wall incident?”

“I try not to…”

“”Bahahahaha””

Of course Katie would have no possible way of deciphering the words, for all she knew they were speaking a completely different language.

“How do you two know each other?” Katie finally butted into a pause, growing impatient with the strange conversation happening completely above her head.

“Ah…” Anton grunted with a narrowed glance towards Victor. “I suppose it is a bit of an odd pairing. The Professor and the thief, but…”

“Professor…” Katie said, suddenly landing on a longer name from amongst the short list stored in her head. “Are you Doctor Anton Boule?”

“Yeah.” Anton, nodded. “Where’d you think we were going? Didn’t you tell her Vic?”

“Surprises can be fun.” Victor shrugged, keeping his gaze outside the window.

“Heh…” Anton again grunted before glancing to meet Katie’s curious eyes in the rearview mirror. “We’re heading to the staff library of the University of San Diego. The second most strictly guarded library in all of Pacifica.”

“I… we…” Katie stammered uneasily with glowing eyes.

“I pulled some strings since Vic was being persistent.” Anton laughed, realizing he’d discovered a new side to his long-time acquaintance. His personality goaded him to continue picking at the new discovery, but Victor’s nearly imperceptible glare silenced any further teasing.

“Th… Thanks.” Katie stammered again, unsure how to handle the unexpected kindness from Victor.

Victor didn’t answer, but from the driver’s seat Anton spotted the blushing cheeks.

‖֍‖

A few hours later, despite Katie barely getting a taste of the knowledge locked within the colossal library, they reluctantly made their way over to the location listed for the auction online. Dr. Boule had other matters to attend so he’d left his keys with Victor, but knowing the area, the two ended up parking it a few blocks away in a some-what safer neighborhood and walking the remaining distance.

“Nervous?” Victor asked, noticing the uneasy jitter of Katie’s hands as they delved deeper into the decrepit inner-city.

“A little.” Katie honestly admitted, knowing she’d be unable to fool his eyes.

“Just let me do the talking and we should be okay.” Victor said, landing his gaze on the rusted steel warehouse they were searching for. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Mhm.” Katie nodded, grabbing the hand he left outstretched behind him as he made his way towards the hidden auction-site.

Immediately through the flimsy door, Victor and Katie were peppered with the glares of a half-dozen workers who appeared to be in the midst of an afternoon game of poker.

“Ah, did we get the…” Katie began to ask, thinking her directions had somehow become mixed up.

Victor quickly shook his head to silence her and instead maintained the gazes burrowing into him. “Would I win with an Ace and King?”

Nodding to each other across the table, the men rose slowly and worked as a team to push the large round table aside so that another could pull open the hidden door beneath.

“Right this way.” The man who’d opened the trapdoor kindly instructed, motioning the two down the steep stairway.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Again leading her by the hand, Victor thanked the men silently and followed the stairs down into the underground auction.

“How’d you do that?” Katie quietly asked while tossing hesitant glances to the odd assortment of figures looming around the lobby of the auction house.

“Every gatehouse has a different code, but as long as you know the structure it’s pretty easy to figure it out.” Victor explained roughly while similarly keeping an eye on the faces that gauged the pair silently.

“Is this your first time at my auction?” A large man wearing a thin white wife-beater and a series of thin gold chains around his neck asked spotting the two unfamiliar faces from a short distance away as they walked in.

“Yes.” Katie quickly piped before Victor could answer.

“Ah then…” The man began to grin but a few words from Victor quieted him.

“We haven’t, but its familiar, cause I’ve been hosted by Mr. Won on several occasions.”

The San Diego House Manager nearly gnawed his tongue off when he heard the forbidden name spoken so brazenly. “I’m not sure who you mean… Ah… Jennifer, would you mind escorting these two to private box. If you’ll both excuse me, I need to… well…”

Unwilling to speak the excuse in full, the Manager glanced to Victor hesitantly while a layer of sweat formed on his brow.

“It’s fine. Jennifer, was it?” Victor said, turning his attention away from the man as he’d hoped.

Quickly the man jogged away to his corner office to make about a half-dozen calls.

Left, mostly, in confusion by the sudden disappearance of the man, Victor, Katie and Jennifer exchanged a short round of introductions while the woman kindly led them towards a stairway.

“The first item will be brought out in approximately ten minutes.” Jennifer explained, glancing at a clock once they’d reached the well adorned room that’d been prepared for them.

“Thank you.” Katie said with a bright smile as she curiously glanced around the small room overlooking the expansive auction-floor.

“Of course.” Jennifer nodded, handing off a small, numbered paddle to Victor. “Bring this to the counter whenever you are ready to leave. Payments may be made with most major cryptos, or the Avalonian Pound.”

“Understood.” Victor nodded, retrieving the paddle, and checking the number out of curiosity.

‘710’

It’s odd how familiar numbers can tend to follow you.

“It’s pointless to ask isn’t it?” Katie asked once Jennifer had excused herself from the room leaving just the pair of them.

“You know how I lived before the Academy.” Victor answered without much resistance, “Is it that surprising that I know a few people?”

“It’s not…” Katie explained, struggling to put her thoughts to a particular set of words. “Everyone knows people, but there aren’t many who can use names that make people react like that.”

“Everyone is just a person.” Victor shrugged, eying the crowd that slowly fed in through a series of hallways linking into the auction floor. “I met Mr. Won in Beijing a few years before I got the white-envelope. I helped him recover some things and he promised to have his guys look out for me.”

“W…” Katie stuttered out as she pieced together a few details from the simple story. “Who is he?”

“He’s one of the bosses of the Qing Triad.” Victor nonchalantly said, putting a hand to his chin as he considered the oddity. “I hadn’t realized they’d moved any business to Pacifica though, but I guess it kinda worked out for the best.”

Again, a full chill ran up and down Katie’s spine. Occasionally something he’d say would prompt the reaction. Every time she thought she’d grown used to him, something like that would come from his mouth.

‖֍‖

The first six items across the auction block were low-quality relics that could be found at almost any local antique shop. The only obvious difference, that only a few amongst the crowd would know, is that every one of them was a stolen item.

Old wands, dug from the graves of deceased witches, ward-stones plucked from the fields of rich-land owners, and even a pair of rusted automatons pilfered from the grave of a forgotten pharaoh.

Each was masqueraded loosely as a legitimately acquired item, but with no-more than a little consideration it was obvious they were all hot items.

Finally however, after another jar of pills with a torn label was settled for an eye-watering sixty-thousand dollars, the item Katie was waiting for eventually appeared.

Carried by two people on a large wood slab sat a thick tome with a nearly unreadable title.

Victor could instantly tell it was the item Katie wanted as her fists tightened until her knuckles went white.

“Coming all the way from the Mediterranean Sea, we have here an original draft of Thyuses’ ‘Treatise of Magical Veining’.”

Katie almost yelped as the title was announced with such little respect. But she was at least glad that they’d missed an important detail about the draft.

“Those of you who may not know, the drafted version is actually a more complete version than the published work. Fifteen pages of the Treatise were forcibly removed at the request of the Catholic Church. So until his death, Thyuse kept this copy a secret in hopes it might be completely published someday. Of course, that was never accomplished which makes this the last and only version. Bidding will begin at one-hundred thousand incrementing by twenty.”

“Fuck.” Katie swore uncharacteristically, thinking her deductive skills had been impressive until right then.

“They do proper research.” Victor laughed, tapping his paddle on the side of the short wall in front of them.

“We have our first bid up top, do I hear one-twenty?”

Quickly another paddle from the floor rose and the war began with a few more paddles joining in to capture the rare find.

“I really shouldn’t go above quarter million.” Katie muttered as the battle between Victor in the booth and a few others below him continued waging high and higher.

“I don’t pick battles that I can’t win.” Victor ignored, raising his paddle despite her warning.

“We’ve got two-sixty up top, anyone?” The auctioneer continued, narrowing his glance between the three figures who’d been maintaining the battle.

“Uh oh…” Victor said quietly as he caught a movement coming from the east-side entrance of the lower floor. “Thing’s might get complicated.”

“What’s happening?” Katie asked, instantly retracting her feverish interest in the item the moment she heard the rare anxious tone from Victor.

“We don’t have a paddle, but we’ll bid a dollar. I hope you’ll all understand.” An amplified voice explained, addressing not just the auctioneer but everyone present in a somewhat insidious threat.

It felt even more odd coming from a man in police uniform holding an amplifying horn to his mouth.

The auctioneer wore a cramped face as he turned his gaze to the unwelcome presence.

“S… sir, you understand we are only conducting sales only through legitimate means and every item we…”

“I know the spiel, we aren’t here to stop you from conducting your legitimate business, of course not.” The officer explained rolling his eyes visibly as he forced a tone that didn’t match his nature. “My name is Lieutenant Sheriff Robert King and the guys in Seattle told me to get that book. Now I’ll say again I’m bidding a dollar, so where was the bid again?”

“Yes…” The auctioneer awkwardly said, without even needing to look at the booth to see the reaction. “The bid is one dollar, does anyone have another bid?”

“Tha…”

“Two dollars.” Victor said, tapping his paddle impatiently.

“Aa….” The auctioneer gawked, shooting a horrified glance towards the private booth. Obviously, he couldn’t make out the bidder’s face, but he couldn’t imagine what the person could be thinking by making such a foolish decision. He then guiltily glanced back towards the small flock of suited officers with Robert King at the center.

Bob, as his friend called him, didn’t expect the reaction but he didn’t hate it either. He had done his job, another party wouldn’t stop him from returning with the book, so he shrugged and waved to his officers with three distinct hand signals.

They immediately split into three and went towards each exit of the building while Robert slowly left through the same entrance he had entered from.

“What was all that? Did you just do something bad?” Katie clamored with a few inklings of what all had occurred but missing the entire picture.

“Yeah, kinda maybe?” Victor laughed, smoothing his thoughts as he again nodded towards the auctioneer to affirm the sale.

“Sold…” The man stammered, with the air sudden chilly from the interruption.

“Got it for two dollars though.” Victor shrugged. “As long as we can keep ahold of it.”

“The police will try to take it?”

“Of course. It’s a stolen item.” Victor explained, glancing to the next item but seeing it as nothing much. “These auctions operate in a grey area. It’s all fairly complicated but basically, auction houses can sell stolen items, but buying or possessing stolen items is illegal. So occasionally if important items, like your book show up, the police will lurk outside and pounce on whoever buys it. It was different in this case because it seems like Pacifica’s government is somehow involved, so they had to follow procedures.”

“Then…” Katie began, biting her lip as she turned whiter the more she heard. “Then we should just turn it over. If they will publish the real version who cares if I get it now or in a few months.”

“They probably won’t. Either it’s for a presidential study or it’ll get held ransom for some future deal.” Victor predicted, shaking his head at the naivety of the woman.

“So pessimistic…” Katie said, glancing back down to the eastern exit. “Would they really try to take it by force? How would they even know who we are, wouldn’t the Auction House keep that secret?”

“You’ll see.” Victor chuckled, “How would you do it?”

“Good point.” Katie nodded. “Still, I’ve made up my mind.”

“Have you?” Victor’s question came with no answer so he rose after another item of little importance flitted across the auction block. “Then let’s see how they come.”

“There’s nothing you want?” Katie asked, leaping to her feet to catch up once she’d realized his intent.

“Rare artifacts have that name for good reason.” Victor shrugged, “Those are just artifacts.”

The lobby on their side was already buzzing with activity despite the auction not having ended yet. People seemed to be spooked by the police presence and some were eager to return their bidding plaques.

Fortunately none seemed to be at the redemption desk, so when Victor arrived with Katie in tow the attendant was blank-faced and inattentive.

“Oop, sorry.” The man said with a shake, retrieving the plaque gracefully once he’d recovered from his daydreaming. “Seven One Oh… Seven One… There we are. Big book number three.”

“Ah! Allow me.” The heavy-set manager quickly interrupted after receiving a report from one of his underlings that’d been watching-over the pair.

“Oh. Thanks boss.” The man glibly chuckled handing off the tome to his panting boss needlessly.

The manager ignored him and quickly returned his attention towards the VIP pair who’d just made trouble with the Sheriff’s office.

“Ah, I don’t believe I got your name Sir.” The manager innocently queried as he carefully folded a wide sheet of paper around the tome. “I don’t mean to pry. And I assure you we don’t intend to cooperate with any questions regarding your identities.”

“Then there’s no need to ask either way.” Victor said, narrowing his eyes as he noticed the managers intentions as-if written on his face.

“Very true. Right, so the total on that was one hundred thousand, yes?”

“No?” Victor answered in the form of a question.

“Considering the complications of the bidding process, our house deems it reasonable that the opening bid be at least respected as minimum.”

“The cops didn’t,” Katie couldn’t help but snarkily mutter under her breath.

“Well… that’s…”

“Let’s just call it what it is. Two dollars for the book, ninety-nine thousand nine-ninety-eight to keep our identities secret.”

“I… right.” The manager reluctantly nodded honestly. “You Academy students really are as smart as they say.”

“Well, I can’t have Boss Won take a loss for me I guess.” Victor sighed, pulling out a crypto-cold card and tapping it against a nearby terminal.

“We greatly appreciate your patronage.” The manager bowed out of habit, before catching himself and jogging back to make dozens more calls.

“I’ll carry it!” Katie immediately clamored, lunging forward to lock her hands onto the precious book.

“Eh, eh, not so fast.” Victor clucked, sliding a hand between hers and pulling the book into his arms effortlessly. “Come on.”

“I have the money.” Katie said, following after Victor’s steps as they retraced their path through the long hallway that led up into the fake warehouse. “I’ll send it, I have your Venmo, hold on.”

“Don’t use my old contact, and put your phone away.” Victor chastised quietly shaking his head as he shifted the book in his arms. “Fine, here.”

“Yesss,” Katie hissed, huffing quietly as the books weight was unloaded into her arms.

She couldn’t see the yellowed pages from through the dark wrapping paper, but the smell that drifted from it was nearly on the level of an industrial grade aphrodisiac.

‖֍‖

The Inside of all three secret entrances were currently being visibly staked by a pair of officers each. Katie had expected them to swarm them the moment she was seen carrying a large object from out the entrance, but instead they simply spoke quietly to each other and then made a call through the radio.

“Now I wish I would have parked closer.” Victor chuckled quietly as a handful of people began tailing them casually a few dozen feet away.

Even Katie noticed the group despite their careful efforts to appear natural. It was an uncomfortable feeling but not one that she was unfamiliar with.

“What are you going to do?” Katie asked urgently, more worried for their lives than anything else.

“Nothing, this is your thing, I won’t cause trouble.” Victor shrugged; he’d already been forced to handle the situation vastly differently due to her presence so at this point he was simply handling each situation as they came.

And just as he thought so, another came.

“Excuse me.” A familiar voice called without the aid of amplification this time. “Would you two mind submitting to a quick body search.”

Standing twenty feet between them and the corner they’d parked around stood Lt. Sheriff Bob King flanked by four uniformed police officers.

“That’s not necessary. I have it here.” Katie courageously announced, holding the wrapped book out in her arms.

Bob nodded to a nearby officer who wore thick reading glasses and the young man paced over to peel the book from her arms cautiously.

Stripping the paper from around it carefully, he nodded affirmatively to the Lt. Sheriff who merely grunted as response.

“Search them.” Bob repeated to another pair of officers at his right.

“What?” Katie asked with a frown as the two came towards them pulling blue latex gloves from a pouch at their waist.

“That wasn’t what they were searching for, that was what ‘Seattle’ was searching for.” Victor explained for her, understanding the shakeup for what it was at heart.

“This may be the only stolen item you bought today, but who knows how many others you could have in your possession.” Bob explained as Katie’s fury became clear even across the distance.

“That’s ridiculous!” Katie accused, glancing to Victor in hope’s he’d say something in their defense. “That’s right… This is my thing right, Victor?”

“Mhm, what you say goes.”

“Get us out of here then. Quickly.” Katie demanded with almost a comical stomp of her foot.

“Yes ma’am.” Victor nodded, reaching out a hand to latch into Katie’s, the pair vanished into a cloud of deep darkness that rapidly swept across the entire street.

“Find them!” Bob commanded as he instantly began reacting to the sudden change. It would be easier said than done however, as like him, none of his officer could see a single millimeter in front of their faces.

“I got one!” Someone shouted, clutching ahold of another officers face as he attempted to wrangle the man to the ground painfully.

“That’s me idiot!”

“Damnit!” Bob roared out, blowing a geyser of flames into the air as either a form of stress-relief or perhaps as signal.

Either way, it didn’t matter as the pair had already jogged around the corner and reached the two-door sports-car to make their escape.

“Where do we go?” Katie panted as she glanced out both the rear and side windows as they raced away from the still heavily clouded street.

“Back to the university, we still have to return the car and we have a few hours to kill until the next port-gate to Philly.”

“I see…” Katie muttered, with heavily deflated excitement in comparison to earlier.

Victor expected as much, so he didn’t comment on it further. It would take time. But he figured she’d eventually realize what she needed to say.

The ride to the library was quiet as the adrenaline from the hasty escape slowly wore off. Once they arrived, they were again met by Dr Boule who immediately recognized the strange atmosphere.

“So that’s what happened.” He nodded once Katie had filled him in on the entire situation. “What are you playing at Vic? Is this supposed to be some kinda dumb life lesson or something?”

“Shut up.” Victor growled, fearing this might happen if Anton was told.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Katie asked with furrowed brow as she looked between to two.

“Oh, come on, Vic. Just give it to her.” Anton chastised with a serious scowl.

“Fine,” Victor relented with a huff, pulling a large, wrapped book from out of thin-air. “Here. Don’t be dumb next time.”

“What…?” Katie stammered, gawking as she bounced her eyes between the package she’d lost half an hour prior and Victor. “How? Did you take it back when we were escaping?”

“Knowing Vic, you probably never had the real book from the start.” Anton explained, knowing the man’s mindset, and correctly spotting the swap from her explanation.

“You know my specialty.” Victor shrugged once Katie had retrieved the book from his hands. “Now it won’t matter when they keep the secret pages hostage to better their trade agreements, or keep it restricted for national security.”

“Th…” Katie struggled as usual to express her appreciation causing her cheeks to glow warm and pink. “Thank you. But I still believe they will do the right thing with the cloned version.”

“I’ll take that bet.” Victor laughed, outstretching his hand as he turned a glance down towards the book. “If you are right and someday, they publish it, don’t worry about paying me back.”

“Wait but then when would I… That doesn’t make any sense.”