“Tehmann Luis, researcher, displayed severe symptoms of exposure, particularly the symptoms of Kekugora; no events on public schedule outside of lab experimentations and some administration meetings.” Aimee was on their second day cross checking the schedules of academy faculties in the common library: “Sandra X. Lee, researcher, displayed mild symptoms of exposure to Kandera Wyvern tail powder.”
“Hey, sorry I’m late, I needed to take some time to chat with some classmates.” Thomas came into the room and sat beside Aimee: “Guess what I’ve heard?”
“That the academy administration is so annoyingly ineffectual and shady about their ongoing investigation that up to today still no one knows how the contaminated material still seems to be circulating?” Aimee sighed and asked.
“Yes, that.” Thomas chuckled and said: “And there’s more - guess what? A few students told me that they found someone has been visiting some of their labs and even semi private areas like meeting rooms and booked training grounds. And guess what students have in common? They have all been to the Martin House artifact warehouse just like us.”
“So whoever set up Jason and Caroline, they were suspecting that some other students might have taken the silver box and they searched through the personal properties of those students.” Aimee sighed and scratched her head: “But wouldn’t they have searched our stuff as well?”
“Well… we don’t have things that are stored in semi public spaces - our academy assigned lockers are basically empty, well, mine is, and yours has only notebooks and sticky post-it notes.” Thomas shook his head: “And from what I could gather, none of them found their personal items in their living quarters touched. So I would say that these people have access to school facilities, but they don’t have access to student’s private spaces like their living quarters.”
“Hmm, that sounds like the school investigative protocol. Let me check the bylaws again.” Aimee frowned and thought for a while, then she immediately picked up a thick book with a few book tags and opened it up to one of the tags: “Here - it is, under the circumstances of academy-wise emergency or immediate or present danger that could threaten the lives of students and faculties, the academy could conduct internal investigations which would grant the academy and the authorized individuals access to all public and semi public spaces and facilities of the academy.”
“Hmmm, that’s a bit redundant. The academy already has access to all public facilities and semi-public facilities.”
“This clause doesn’t seem like it was meant for the academy per se, looks like it’s more about the individuals and parties being commissioned to conduct the investigation.” after rereading the clause for a couple times, Aimee said: “I - I don’t like where this is going.”
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“Okay, let’s park that for now and sleep on it and wait for more evidence.” Thomas said: “What do you have, sis? I think I heard you find something.”
“Yep I agree.” Aimee put down the bylaws and showed Thomas her notes: “Look what I have here, I found out two more academy faculty that are just like Assistant Professor Brian Young - they don’t have many events going on during the suspected period during which they were exposed to the toxins, they seem to be mostly doing research and attending administration meetings. So, I decided to see if I could find some ‘hot spots’ of their areas of activities, and voila I found a few of them.”
“Public library in the common building, which is here, the big auditorium, and the offices of the department head of the Department of Herbology and Medicine.” Thomas saw the words circled by red pen: “Great work, great work. Let’s check it out one by one and ask around?”
“Yes, but call Jason and Caroline for backup first, I suspect we may need them.”
----------------------------------
“Hey, how’s my beautiful librarian?” in the public library, Andrew Brooke dropped by the front desk with a bouquet of flowers in his hand.
“I am doing good. Thank you Andrew.” Camile Jensen, the librarian greeted Andrew with a smile: “Thank you for the flowers - again. But sorry I don’t have too much time, I’m kinda swamped here.”
“That’s okay with me. I’m just here to see you.” Andrew reached into his pocket with a smile on his face and took out a small metal medallion: “And here - it’s your birthday present, I’m not sure it’s gonna be better than mine, but hey.”
“Oh, my god! You really got it!” Camile Jensen took the medallion and held it close to her face, then she looked to Andrew Brooke: “Thank you so much Andrew, that couldn’t have been easy for you.”
“Well, it’s nothing. My pops is happy to help me as long as I behave and do the time and work. ” Andrew Brooke chuckled: “What’s so special about that medalion? It’s barely enchanted, couldn’t be better than the space bracelet I got you, no?”
“Well, dear Mr. Brooke, functionality wise, yes, that space bracelet is way more impressive.” Camile Jensen smiled: “But this one has more sentimental value, because it was made by my little sister. Didn’t she tell you that?”
“Well, no. She doesn’t seem to like me very much.” Andrew Brooke scratched his head.
“Of course, she might be a genius, but she’s still at the age where she hates boys. And especially boys that are too eager to please.” Camile Jensen kissed Andrew Brooke on the cheek and said: “Thanks a lot Andrew my knight. I’ll definitely repay you when my schedule becomes less crazy.”
“Okay, I’ll hold you to that.” Andrew Brooke tried to kiss Caimle Jensen on the lips but was gently and teasingly pushed away: “I’ll definitely hold you to that.”
“Sure you will. I don’t expect you not to.” Camile Jensen smiled and waved as Andrew Brooke backed out of the library.
When Andrew Brooke was out of the library, Camile Jensen looked around to make sure no one was around, then she tapped the medallion three times with her fingernails. A slim and barely gap appeared on the edge of the medallion, from which she flipped the medallion open like a makeup mirror.
There were two things in the hidden space inside of the medallion: a small scroll made with a very thin piece of paper and some kind of special high density dark red wood and a small glass vial .
Camile Jensen opened the scroll, it had a short message on it: “Extraction set up. Rendezvous tomorrow 11 pm. Burn the tunnel.”
Before Camile Jensen was able to examine the small glass vial, two people came into the library. Camile Jensen knew who they were, they were the audit student that gave her younger cousins a beating at the student duel, and one of them even seemed to be dating one of her cousins.
(I just found that I made a mistake in Chapter 249, where Andrew said that his uncle is on the board, it should be his father. It is now corrected. - Egao Chan)