The Seal of Oblivion (15 page)

“Duh,” Sakura muttered.

“Other than that though is
everything a go?” Isis asked as she peaked down the halls.

Plainshield nodded. “I truly hope
so,” she said and everyone on the other end could hear her clicking away on the
keypad.

“Can we have a definite answer?”
Adria asked.

Laqiya looked back at her and said,
“You’re not going to get one.

Chapter
Eleven

Fight
for the Last

“Okay, Plainshield, where are we
going exactly?” Laqiya asked looking at the three ways to go. They could go
down either of the two halls; down into the basement which could take them to
the other side of the museum, or up the stairs that led to the offices
according to her.

“Hold on a minute. Some of the
rooms must take a while to deactivate. They don’t automatically go off as soon
as they’re turned off.” The sound of Plainshield clicking and typing was heard
over the phone. “Okay I got it. Take the left hallway.”

“Can you see where we’re going?”
Laqiya asked not seeing any cameras anywhere.

“Yes. The cameras are hidden in the
lights.”

They turned the corner in the hall
and stopped. To keep going forward would run them into a bunch of heat sensors.
So they had to make either a left or a right turn.

“Take the right.” Plainshield said.

The quartet went right and passed
through the Japanese exhibit.

“Oh, I didn’t see that one last
time. Can I just—”

“No,” everyone replied to Sakura’s
half-finished question.

Sakura pouted, but didn’t say
anything as they continued through the room, coming upon an archway that led to
Chinese exhibit or back out into a wide hall with copies and originals of
historic paintings lining the walls.

“Where are we headed Plainshield?
The only way to go is this hall. It’s a dead end,” said Isis flashing her
flashlight into the hall.

“I know. The door to the basement
is that way,” Plainshield said and sure enough, they ran into the door.

“Plainshield what are we going to
do on this side of the museum when the exhibit we want is on the other side?”
Adria asked.

“You all ask too many questions,”
Plainshield said.

“The lock is voice activated,” said
Sakura.

“Derrin.”
Plainshield said through the phone and the door clicked open.

“How did you figure that out?”
Adria asked.

“All security systems have a master
password or override code,” Sakura replied.

“How did you know that?” Laqiya
asked.

“People say don’t believe everything
that’s on television and in movies,” Sakura said. “But I do.
Hasn’t
failed me yet.”

The four went down the stairs, but
Laqiya stopped on the bottom step.

“Is it safe?” she asked.

“It’s fine. No traps or anything
that I didn’t deactivated. By the way, the basement is almost as big as the top
floor. So I’m going to turn on the light in case you get lost or something. The
door is right on the other side of the room though. Just go around all the
stuff that’s stored,” Plainshield explained.

“Can you please leave it off?”
Sakura asked staying on the steps while the other three girls moved forward.
“That way I won’t see any roaches and mice. The flashlight will do.”

Laqiya could just imagine
Plainshield rolling her eyes on the other end, though the woman didn’t respond
to the plea. The lights came on, telling Laqiya Plainshield had ignored Sakura.
But it wasn’t as bad as Sakura had imagined. In fact, the basement itself was
awe aspiring.

“This has to be the cleanest
basement I have ever seen,” Sakura said finally coming off the steps.

The décor was simple; white tiles
and white walls, and it was certainly large. But it was the exhibits stored in
the basements that caught their eyes. There were boxes, crates, and
shelves full of artifacts and antiques
that would either
later become part of the exhibit or were old exhibits that had been taken down.

The group split up as different
things in the room caught their eye.

“What are you all doing?”
Plainshield asked through the phone. “We’re not here to look at anything.”

“Relax Plain,” Laqiya said looking
into the camera in the corner that was still on.

Laqiya eventually came across the
box the last staff piece had been delivered by accident, not because she had
been particularly looking for it. It was a plain wooden crate, and it appeared
to be empty, but she looked inside anyway. Inside was an old chest that the
piece must have been in, Laqiya decided. She took out the chest to look at it.
It was already open, but there was something about it that attracted her. She
felt around, knowing better than to think it was empty if the chest she got
from Celina was any indication.

Laqiya’s inspection didn’t fail
her. Her fingers pressed into a false bottom. She used her nail to lift it back
up and found inside a gold charm choker, the pendants made from the same yellow
gold as the other staff pieces. A rose was the main charm on it, clearly larger
than the others. But the other nine pendants, about half as small, were the
symbols for the forces of nature. The chain they were attached to looked like
vines, with the same small thorns on the staff pieces.

Laqiya looked at it and then toward
the door. They really needed to get going and as much as she wanted that
pendant she didn’t want to steal anything else from the museum. She felt bad
enough as it was for having to take the staff piece. She started to leave and
then stopped, debating with herself for all of a second, before going back to
take the pendant. What did it matter if they didn’t know it had been there to
begin with?

“What are you doing?” Plainshield
purred through the phone.

“It’s not like anyone will miss
what they didn’t even know was there,” Laqiya said with a shrug.

Plainshield sighed. “I’ll pretend I
didn’t see it.”

Laqiya put the choker in her pocket
as she continued across the room.

“Laqiya, where are you?” Sakura
asked. “We’re waiting on you.”

Laqiya skidded to the other side of
the room just as Isis typed in the code Plainshield had given them for the
voice activated keypad. The door clicked open just as she reached the top of
the stairs, and they rushed out the door.

“We’re at the back part of the
museum now.” Adria commented

“I know. Now if you’re standing
towards the wall opposite the door? Take the right and go all the way around,
and you’ll be right in front of the room in front of our staff room.”
Plainshield explained.

If breaking down security, finding
ways to break into buildings, and hacking into computer systems was a
profession, Laqiya mused, Plainshield would be one of the richest people on
earth. It probably was a profession actually, but Laqiya didn’t know if she
could handle sharing Plainshield. She was nice to have around for that kind of
stuff, though she doubted they would be breaking into another museum any time
soon.

Laqiya was the first to walk into
the big room that bordered the staff room on the front.

“I didn’t notice that painting of
Cleopatra on the wall when we came here last week,” Sakura said pointing at the
back wall of the room when they came upon the entryway.

The archway that led to the staff
room was right across from them and the four girls approached it.

“Relax,” Plainshield said.
“Everything’s off. Just go inside…”

Laqiya went in first and when they
were sure no alarms were going to go off, they made their way to the case with the
staff in it. As she approached it, an uneasy feeling settled over Laqiya, and
her hair stood on end.

“Let’s get this and get out of
here,” said Adria.

“You feel it too?” Laqiya asked
looking around.

“I thought it was just me,” Sakura whispered
as she too looked around.

“Pay attention,” Isis muttered as
they all looked into a direction to cover each other’s backs.

“What’s going on?” Plainshield
asked.

Laqiya looked in the shadows, with
a keen
eyesight she didn’t know she had. The shadows moved.

“There,” Laqiya said lifting her
hand up, and not really knowing what she was doing, she raised her hand to
where the shadow moved. An invisible force knocked whatever it was down.

Kailash landed unceremoniously on
his feet and wobbled to stand at his full height.

“Impressive,” he said as his two
comrades landed beside him

“Hm… The pretty little rose has
more thorns than I thought,” Aurian said.

The Anaxar’s next movements were so
fast,
Laqiya wondered if they had teleported. Laqiya
fell over on her knees, Sakura squeaked, Adria groaned, and Isis sounded like
she was choking. Laqiya stood to her feet to see the Anaxars almost
nonchalantly holding the other three girls. Delsaream had Isis in a physical
chokehold with thorny vines that came out the ground holding her feet in place.
Kailash was holding Sakura’s wrist together behind her back, icy cold touch
freezing her arms, and Adria was trying in vain to get out of Aurian’s psychic
hold on her.

As he ran a finger down the side of
her cheek, Adria snapped, “Keep your hand to yourself!”

Even though she wasn’t restrained,
there wasn’t much Laqiya could do with her three friends restrained. So she
sighed and said, “What do you want?” even though she had a good idea as it was.

Aurian laughed and came up to her.

“That’s such a general question,”
he said grabbing a piece of her hair and playing with it.

Laqiya’s eyes narrowed, and slowly
she raised her hand and grabbed Aurian’s throwing it down.

“Kitty has claws,” he said.

“You can play with her later,”
Delsaream said to Aurian. “Get to the point.”

“Ruining my fun,” Aurian said and
went back to where Adria was.

“Lady Sahajah wants the staff
piece,” Kailash explained. “But we can’t just take it. If that were the case we
would have taken it already… or maybe not. This way is more fun. In any case
the only way for us to get it is if you willing give it to us.”

“You’re a smart girl. We don’t
really have to explain what’s at stake if you don’t,” Kailash said and Sakura
squeaked, exclaiming, “
Hentia
!”

“Or, I can leave it where it is and
no one gets it,” Laqiya suggested.

Aurian laughed. “Really Rose? I
didn’t think you were that cold anymore.”

Laqiya frowned in confusion. “What
are you talking about?”

“The past,” Delsaream chuckled.
“You always did have a heart of steel, to do what you thought needed to be done
for the sake of humanity.”

“It’s why you were always so
dangerous,” Aurian said and then added, “in more ways than one, but then
there’s that other part of you, that part that even now makes you weaker than
before. The part we can always count on to defeat you.”

“Laqiya, what’s going on?”

Laqiya ignored Plainshield. In
fact, she reached down and turned off the phone. “What are you talking about?”
she asked.

“The staff piece,” all three
Anaxars said ignoring her question.

Laqiya glared, slowly going to the
case. She started to slip on a pair of gloves before her senses warned her, and
she walked around to the back of the case, pushing a panel aside to reveal a fingerprint
and key pad. She raised her hand over it for a moment as though about to
attempt to break the code before sighing and moving her hand in what looked
like a dismissive gesture. The keypad sparked and then died, the soft red glow
from it fading to darkness.

Laqiya then put on her gloves,
grabbed the case, removed it, and set it on the floor before taking off her
gloves. She stared at the piece and then past it to glare at the Anaxars as she
placed her hands on it.

“Take as much time as you need,” Kailash
said, seeming bored.

Laqiya closed her eyes as she felt
her blood react to the staff piece, the power pulsating in her reacting to the
power in the piece. She blew out a deep breath and whispered, “Please help me.
Give me strength.”

Laqiya opened her eyes.
“Earth!”

The ground
shook,
rocks and sharp jagged rocks growing out the ground forcing the Anaxars to
scatter and release the holds they had on the other teenagers in the room.
Laqiya grabbed her bag and slid the staff piece inside it in their moment of
distraction. She leapt across the room to where Isis, Adria, and Sakura had
been freed from their bonds.

“Come on,” Laqiya said grabbing
someone’s arm, who happened to be Sakura as she pulled her out the door. “Run!”

“It’s hard to do that when you’re
recovering from being choked,” Isis said in a raspy tone from where she was
lying on the ground, blood dripping down her ankles from the thorns of the
vines that had just been around it.

Adria grabbed Isis and pulled her
to her feet.

“Get on my back.”

“You can’t carry me and run.”

“Adrenaline and
wind.
Now come on!” Adria said.

Isis wrapped her arms around
Adria’s neck, and Adria lifted Isis onto her back before taking off down the
hall behind Laqiya

“You’re running off like that,
without even saying good-bye. How heartbreaking,” Aurian said appearing in
front of them.

Adria sat Isis down and lunged at
Auria who teleported behind her, but obviously anticipating the move, Adria
turned on her back and kicked the man in his chest.

“Where did she learn that?” Sakura
asked.

“She can sense shifts in air
patterns. It’s giving her the advantage. Now come on!” Isis said finally
managing to stand on her own.

“Adria,” Laqiya yelled. “Come on.”

“Tied up,” Adria said as she ducked
and stepped out the way of Aurian’s assaults.

“I’ll take it from here,” Chasity
Pearl said dropping out of a vent. She grabbed Aurian’s arm and twisted it
behind him giving Adria the time to get away before Aurian used his powers to
flip Chasity over his shoulder.

“Come on,” Laqiya said dragging
Sakura past a doorway to the basement.