The Artifacts Of Elios (Book 1) (12 page)

It took a few hours to finally clean up the mess and remove the traps that he had set up in the vents.  He personally took the body and head to a local farm and made sure that the body was consumed as the king had ordered; Wendell looking over his shoulder the entire time.

Leaving Wendell, Stafford went to his rooms and cleaned up.  After a quick bath and some fresh clothes he went to the Kings private office.  Knocking on the door he waited until he was summoned.  Hearing that he should enter he opened the door and entered.

“You wished to see me your majesty,” he bowed his head to the king noting that Wendell was again in the office.

“Congratulations Stafford, you passed the test.  Frankly Wendell here said that you would let the old man live and that you weren’t loyal enough to kill your mentor, but I had my money on you.  Well done, you didn’t let me down.”  The king stood and patted Stafford on the back.

“Thank you sire,” Stafford responded calmly
.  “I serve the kingdom in any way I can.”

“Please take a seat,” the king indicated an empty chair.  “
Sapp, I won’t need you anymore this evening, Stafford and I have some private business to discuss.”

Looking like a child picked last for a play
ground game, Wendell bowed and headed for the door.

“Oh Wendell,” Stafford said before
he was through the door. “I was wondering is there by chance an antidote for the poison you put in my breakfast this morning.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” stammered the spy.

“Forget it then,” replied Stafford.  I guess I was just being paranoid when I switched plates with you, never mind.”

The door almost slammed as the spy practically ran from the room.

“He’s too easy,” smiled Stafford.

“He didn’t really poison you did he?”  The king asked. 

“Who knows; he could have, if I had actually eaten breakfast this morning,” laughed Stafford.  I just like busting his chops; he takes himself far too seriously.  While we’re on the subject, sire, I may have to put a leash on him. I know that he is invaluable to you in providing intelligence around the court and other ministers but he has nearly ruined several operations of mine by butting in where he doesn’t belong. He seems to have an inflated opinion of himself and his abilities.  He also seems to think that his social standing qualifies him to be my superior and is constantly putting his nose where it doesn’t belong.  He almost scared Shew away by packing the tavern I had arranged to meet him with his agents.”

I’ll have a word with him and let him know his place
; he does make a great watch dog and he does keep the inner court and servants in line.  I just hope that no one figures out that he just barks a lot,” laughed the king. 

“
Now to business the young king announced enthusiastically.”  There has been a new dig discovered on an island within the Gulf of Lu Y Ere.  First reports are saying that is the most expansive archeological find since the first artifacts were discovered.  IDAD has taken the lead and has been following your protocols while you were involved with the Shew affair. I gave Naval Command preliminary charge of security, but after what has been reported so far I want you to meet with Evans and make sure there are no problems.  He wants to involve the collegium magetech department in the research due to the projected volume of artifacts involved.  I have no problems with that provided you vet the participants.  It is sure to leak out so as of yet I haven’t allowed the navy let any non-military, non IDAD personnel leave the island until we can secure the island and claim it as Infin soil.  Until then the direct orders from me are to keep the location secret.”

“I take it that it is international waters then,” asked Stafford.
 

“
Well,” the king waffled, “That may be up for debate.  All the more necessary to keep it secret until the navy has its patrols set up and the Army is landed and secure on the shores.  I’ve already given the Generals and the Admirals their orders; they know that your command is the same as mine.  I need you to go and flush out the spies and make sure the problems disappear.  There has been too much smuggling in and out of Jehhet lately and I don’t want it to spread to this new dig.”

“I’ll
see to it right away.  Does Wendell know anything or is this between your highness, the Director of IDAD, and myself?”

“Let’s keep Wendell out of this one, shall we,” exhorted the king.  ”
I prefer keeping him where he is rooting out crooked ministers and administrators at the department of commerce.  And yes, see Evans at IDAD he’ll bring you up to speed regarding the island.

Stafford
waved as he walked past the director of the IDAD’s secretary and entered the older man’s office without invitation.  Seeing who it was, the thin professorial looking man, who occupied the office, stood and stretched out an eager hand.

“Mr. Stafford
!  What a pleasant surprise,” the greeting was both graciousness and genuine.  Stafford had worked with the director many times on behalf of the king; the director only knowing that he was with the crowns security and not knowing the darker nature of his many other duties.

“Director Evans,” Stafford replied shaking the man’s extended hand.  “Sorry to barge in on you like this but I need to get up to speed on a few of your endeavors.”

“No problem at all, I expected to see you sooner or later given the new discoveries.”  The Director leaned his head out the door.  “Yvette,” he spoke to his secretary, “I’ll be in conference for a while.  Please have some refreshment sent in.  Thank you.”  He added and then closed the door.

Walking back to his desk and taking a seat he indicated for Stafford to be seated as well.

Philip Evans was the Director of IDAD.  He was as energetic and comfortable out of doors and in the field as he was indoors as an academic.  He had degrees in languages and magetech from Wonstrowd and archeology from University of Jehhet.  His sharp mind and agreeable nature had brought him to the leadership position that he now held and maintained with precision and efficiency.  He appreciated those that worked for him and went out of his way to make sure they felt appreciated. 

Unlike many in the Crowns ministry
, Evans continuously made every effort to make sure that IDAD was not politically driven.  When Allion the Third had assumed the throne after his father’s death he had asked the IDAD to make changes.  Phillip Evans had informed the new king that his requests were not possible.  That the detail and accuracy necessary to advance the sciences needed to be maintained, otherwise information would be lost and the edge that Infin had in the recovery and study of artifacts would be lost and they would soon be forced to rely on imports.  When the king had balked at this Evans had stated that he would gladly tender his resignation and would happily honor the king’s choice for a new director.  The king wisely had asked him to remain while he considered the matter.  Although he had thought about replacing the strong willed academic he chose first to assign Stafford to check on Evans background and to see if he had any ulterior motives for his steadfastness.  When Stafford had concluded his investigation he convinced the king that the crown was lucky to have such a valuable scientist and administrator at the helm of his artifact division; the man was beyond dedicated to the science and documenting of artifacts.

“You never pop up unless it is important.  Am I to conclude that you are here to make sure that the island dig is safe and secure?” the director asked hands clasped together resting on the desk.

“That’s it in a nutshell,” said Stafford sitting alert and attentive in his chair.  As always, confirming to the mind of the director that the CSS agent was never lax.  “Can you bring me up to speed on where we are at and what security is in place so far,” Stafford continued.

“The usual,” began the Director.  “We have perhaps a half a dozen consulting archeologists as well as many IDAD staff as we can afford to send and we are bringing on eight interns and a professor of magetech and archeology from Wizard and U of J respectively.  I have made arrangements for Wonstrowd magetech department’s advance studies group to take part in the over flow that we are experiencing in cataloging.”

“Do you have a list of the professors and the students joining your expedition,” interrupted Stafford.

“Just the professors and the advance studies members, you already have the list of students from the study group but I have them on this list as well.  Column one is the student group the second column is the list of the professors.  I told them I need to have their list as soon as possible.”  Evans handed the list to Stafford.  “Wonstrowd has told me that their submissions will all be from the advanced studies group, U of J has no such group but has promised their four names by Venri”

Stafford studied the list.  “All of the names on here including the U of J professor are still considered vetted and secure.  Make sure I get a copy of the University of Jehhet interns as soon as possible.”  Stafford then chuckled.  Evans raised his eyebrows in query.  “I doubt you will get Shane Chason to join your expedition.”

“Why not,” asked Evans.

“He’s starting receiver for the Wizards.  If they keep playing like they have this season they will be playing in the championship next month.
”

“That’s too bad,” Evans replied.  “Not that they are going to play in the championships; I played handler for the Wizards back in my day, it’s just that I’ve had my eye on that boy.   He’s top of his class in magetech and languages.  He’s following the same track I followed except he’s gone mathematics instead of archeology.  I’m hoping to persuade him to join IDAD when he graduates at the end of the semester.”

“He sounds like someone that would fit in perfectly around here,” acknowledged Stafford “Now about the security.  I suggest you let those signing up for the expeditions know that they will be in isolation for up to six months.  By then the location should be secure and I’ll have in place everything that needs to be in place and we can start allowing leaves and rotations.”

The IDAD Director and Stafford continued their discussion for another hour  as Stafford learned about the dig and made suggestions for controlling the securi
ty of the increasing number of outbound artifacts.  At the end of the meeting Stafford headed off to meet with the Naval Command to cover the same issues.

Wendell was furious; who in
the enfer was Stafford.  Right in front of him the king had in no delicate way told Wendell that if he didn’t stop stepping on Staffords turf that he would turn Stafford loose on him and he would find out just how dangerous a man he was.   The king went so far as to instruct Wendell that Stafford outranked every officer in the military and in the court and what Stafford did was not his affair;  If Stafford needed something done by him then Stafford would let him know.

Having a paranoid and suspicious mind and a self-important attitude Wendell couldn’t help himself as he
claimed that Stafford was somehow in league to overthrow the crown; In so many words he told the king his suspicions but the king had dismissively informed him to continue to bring his concerns to him if they were founded on evidence, but in the meantime he should do whatever Stafford instructed or he would find someone who could.  These words drove him even more to ignore the king’s orders regarding the senior agent of the CSS and he foolishly began having his agents follow Stafford.

Of course Stafford knew well in advance of Wendell’s schemes.  The fact that all of Wendell’s agents were in fact Stafford’s agents hadn’t even crossed the pompous
man’s mind.  When Stafford had been informed that his meeting with Assistant Director of Commerce, Leslie Coeur, was supposed to be observed he handed a premade report of what was observed to the agent that was to be observing them and gave him the day off.  It was after reading that report that Wendell decided that Assistant Director Coeur would be a perfect mark to recruit as a personal agent to spy on Stafford.

It was an unusual lunch when Leslie and Stafford met
for the second time in one month.  This lunch was unobservable and both were in disguise.  To the outside observer should it have occurred they would have seen a chef and a waitress sitting at a table in a small café taking their afternoon break after the lunch rush.  Their first meeting over month ago had been purely official business, but since that time Leslie had discovered several items that required her to speak with the man called Stafford.

There were only two people that knew Staffords t
rue identity before he had joined the CSS, they were Gerard Desmond and his Sister in law Leslie Coeur.  His brother’s family knew him only as uncle Ari.  They knew him as the uncle that was never around and was in the Army stationed somewhere far far away and rarely was able to travel home to see the family and they only saw him every several years.  But Jerry and Leslie knew he was something more if not exactly sure what.  Leslie knew he was a CSS agent from her official capacity as the ADC but did not know the details other than he was very high up.  Jerry knew that he was a special agent of some sort but knew no details beyond that.  They both knew to never refer to him as Ari unless at a family occasion and that except for Leslie’s official capacity it was best to never acknowledge that they knew him at all.

The conversation began with familial pleasantries.  Leslie enthusiastically declared that their
niece Ava was in love with a fellow student at the collegium and that it looked serious.  She shared the details of how they were lab partners together in the advance artifacts group and that he was the top of his class and was named Shane.

“The
warball player,” Stafford inquired being familiar with all of the students in Ava’s study group.

“The very same,” said Leslie
.

“Quite the guy I understand,” said Stafford.  “They’re planning on recruiting him at IDAD.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.  Ava Says he is better than her in regards to magetech and you know how good she is,” replied Leslie.  “That’s part of the reason I’m here,” added Leslie.  “Ava has confided the “family” business with him.”

“
It’s pretty serious then I see,” Stafford ate a bite of the lunch they were pretending to have.

“What’s’ more is Ava says that he
may have some theories about how to activate artifacts without an activator and he is theorizing how to unlock the code so that he can build his own artifacts,” Leslie almost whispered.

“Holy Elio,” Stafford said slowly with emphasis.  “Does anyone else know this?”

“Not yet.  He keeps to himself on a lot of things.  He shut right up when he found out that I worked for the crown; he changed the subject and it never circled back.  The information I have took Ava over a year to drag out of him, and it was only after they had been dating for a while.”

“I’ll check him out.  If he isn’t what he says he is I’ll spare Ava the agony of ever having to break up with the guy.  If he is for real I need to get him solidly involved with the family before IDAD
and the crown get their hooks into him.”  Stafford shook his head in disbelief. “Can you imagine the effect this is going to have on the entire artifact world?  This isn’t just artifacts this will mean the return of the glyph mages.”

“The next Item,” Continued the dark haired woman, “both Ava and Shane were selected to participate in some super-secret crown archeological find.  Shane had to decline because of his warball scholarship but your niece was selected and approved.”

“I know,” said Stafford as he played with a sandwich in front of him; deconstructing it layer by layer. “I saw the list at the IDAD Directors office a while back.  They are leaving in a week.  I’ve made arrangements to have her looked after.”

“Oh good,” relief showed in the woman’s eyes.

“The last thing I have,” Leslie said moving on, “is something of very peculiar interest.  Have you ever heard of a Wendell Sapp of the CSS?”