Forty-seven minutes. That’s how long it took Kyle to suit up with a tech running a third check on his magically insulated hazmat suit. He knew he’d gotten it on correctly, but now it just felt like they were stalling for time. After seeing how careless bad actors could be in their attempts to pilfer the artifact right out from underneath their noses, Sam had insisted that one of the Magic Crimes division agents be watching the device at all times.

Kyle, for once, wholeheartedly agreed with his sister’s prudence. Whatever it was, it was dangerous, and it belonged in the museum’s vaults. It did not belong in some C.I.A., or N.S.A. black site. Or worse, with some DARPA military contractor trying to weaponize it in the name of Democracy. Behind his faceplate, Kyle scowled as he thought about what had happened with Anna the day before and sent a silent prayer of thanks to his mom’s patron.

“Enough, all ready.” Kyle groused at the technician fussing over his seals and swearing conspicuously in front of the security cameras that everything was good. “We’re ready.” He and Jones were joined by Alex and Sam in the first airlock before entering the warehouse floor.

“That took forever.” Sam chimed in a brightly friendly tone. “Someone double check my seals.” She requested quietly. “The tech helping me was suspiciously thorough.”

“Mine too. Please.” Jones requested in his ever-polite drawl.

“Same here.” Alex added and Kyle’s suspicions cemented in place.

“Since all of us had the same experience, let’s double check each other’s suit seals.” Kyle performed a simple spell to check the integrity of the suits and the seals. Not all of them had badly sealed connections. But Alex and Jones would have had a bad time of it if they’d gone in without the last-minute double check with trusted colleagues to fix the issue.

“Why us? Wouldn’t Kyle or Sam be a more critical target?” The bleak look of dismay on Alex’s face had Sam patting her arm in a conciliatory manner.

“It’s because we’re the only ones who would be believable.” The Magicorps soldier answered before Kyle could. He found Alex a bit obnoxious and therefore was kind of annoyed that he had to explain so many things to her.

“How’s that?” Sam’s partner moped as Kyle opened the door to the second airlock. Walking through, he detached his suit from one airline and attached it to another as he moved out of the way for everyone else to join him.

“Kyle works in these suits all the time in the lab at the museum. Sam’s likely been using them for years herself. Though I’ve trained in similar suits, I’ve never worked in this kind before, and you are new enough to your position that you’ve probably only ever worn one in training.”

Alex colored suddenly, her face blooming pinkly and she lowered her eyes. Looking at the ground she wiggled a toe nervously before looking up at Sam and blushing more.

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“Oh. Yeah. That makes sense.” The young woman’s response stopped Kyle up short, and he gave her a keen look before glancing at his sister. His sister had frozen, turned her head slowly, and was staring at her partner with wide incredulous eyes. This was not the impudent, obnoxious, know-it-all smart ass that Sam and Gleipnir always complained about.

This was…

You know what?

Kyle had no idea what this was.

Jones seemed to actually think it was nice. He flashed Alex a charming smile for a moment until he saw the way Alex was looking at Sam. Then his smile froze on his face and his shoulders slumped ever so slightly. Kyle almost didn’t notice it. Yet he had. So, it probably hadn’t been subtle. Whatever that was would have to wait.

“Okay, people.” He interrupted the strange interplay going on around him. “Let’s get to work.” The second door of the first airlock closed behind them. Kyle waited for a complete seal and double checked everyone’s air hoses before opening which would be the third airlock door they were walking through.

A third set of airlines was waiting for them in the sterile environment. It felt weird to Kyle being the one in charge with his older sister around. But she didn’t make a fuss as he insisted on making sure everyone’s airlines were connected correctly and their suits were properly pressurized and sealed.

“Intercoms on, everyone.” They switched their intercoms on so that they could communicate with those who had remained behind in the observation room. Then he finally turned to face the gore oozing from the dragon corpse and retrieve the artifact he’d been sent here for.

In one hand, he held a large, magically insulated retrieval case with the museum’s logo on it. Jones was carrying another in one of his hands. This was it. Their first artifact was mere feet away. Okay, more like several hundred feet away. But it was there.

The floor was a solid sheet of white. It had the feel of tile without the interrupted gaps between tiles that would have interfered with the building’s magical insulation. Around the edges of the room and up the large white painted support beams, magical runes of preservation and protection glowed softly. Off to one side, all the metal pieces of the vehicle that had been removed from around the dragon corpse were stacked in what seemed like a very small pile. Probably for later examination or if they’d been saturated with enough magic, for use in creating future magical items.

But in the center of the room, uncoiled as gently as it was possible to do with something that much larger than a human being. Long and gangly, the body was laid out along the floor. Though it was no longer looped over itself, it was sort of squiggled up to save room. There was another one coming after all. And that one would require even more space than this one.

There wasn’t room for his magic book holster inside his suit. Which was fine. The magical insulation of the suit would have prevented the codex from functioning properly on the objects outside of the suit. But the hazmat suit was too large to wear his book holster over. Kyle’s codex instead dangled from one shoulder where the holster had been carefully hooked so it would be close at hand for use. Slightly intimidated by the sight of the dragon waiting for him, Kyle patted his codex with one hand to reassure himself of its presence. Satisfied, the apprentice warlock squared his shoulders and trudged off to the body in the distance.

Cool air whispered into his helmet and each breath exhaled echoed loudly in his ears. It was just nerves. What if he was wrong? What if he’d miscalculated what he thought was going on? But no. It was there. He’d seen it.