Let us do something, while we have the chance.

Just something for the fun of it. Hope you enjoy. I don't own Warehouse 13.

"What really matters is what you do with what you have."
- H. G. Wells

Part II

Chapter 1—a New Ping

Warehouse 13

Claudia was still trying to track the activities of Mrs. Frederic and the others involved in getting HG Wells last artifacts back. After retrieving the key in Philadelphia, Vanessa was adamant that Claudia needed a week's rest. While Claudia pleaded to go with Todd for a week off, no one agreed that it would be much rest. They were so positive that she had to go back, Vanessa went with her. To say that she was upset was a mild explanation. Claudia had to leave Todd at the hotel shortly after breakfast. She had other plans but they were for not. Not giving up on the activities she had heard from Mrs. Frederic, she tried to follow them using the Warehouse computers.

Since Artie was gone and as usual there was no explanation, she assumed that he was a part of the mission. Vanessa had given Pete the okay to start light work. So Pete and Myka were gone to retrieve an artifact that had something to do with eating too much turkey. Everyone said Pete would be fine. The only thing he had to do was eat a lot of turkey. He said that he would love a little holiday spirit and left with a smile on his face and finger tapping the side of his nose.

Vanessa was coming back tomorrow and would give Claudia the final okay. She felt fine, just a little mope with no one around. She was reading the new results from the searches she performed. She had seen a battle in central Africa had a surprising twist to it. The underdog came out ahead. When she read the summaries of the incident she was sure the game had something to do with the turn around. She was surprised by the number of small battles that occurred after the one she thought the game influenced. Today's reports included news of a huge storm in the area. Roads were washed out and several villages were flooded.

Claudia was surprised to hear her Farnsworth going off. She flipped the cover and John Dawes face was there. It could have been the display, but his hair did seem to be whiter than it was when she saw him last week. "Yeah John, what's up?"

"It was a trap," John said rapidly.

Claudia became instantly concerned. Pete and Myka were in trouble. She was almost afraid to ask, "What happened?"

"The two of them were killed." He paused to collect his thoughts.

Claudia's thoughts went wild. Pete and Myke killed. That could not be. "John, what happened?" she said again.

"When they went in the retrieve the bomb, two of the Regents were killed. Artie and Mrs. Frederic were captured. And they probably have the artifacts that were being used." John concluded.

"What can we do?" asked Claudia.

"Well, I was hoping that you would have some way of tracking them. They were breaking into the camp of the New African Liberation Force at Mogafar. I believe there was a firefight when they were trying to leave. I was in contact with Mrs. Frederic when it was happening. She relayed that Regents were killed by machine gun fire and then someone took her Farnsworth. He said rapidly in French, 'we have them now.' Then he smashed the Farnsworth. I was hoping that Artie's phone was still working and maybe you could track it." John ended on a hopeful note.

'Okay, another thing they'd never let me do. Everything had to stay secret. Artie never wanted us to know where everyone is.' Claudia did not answer right away.

John asked again, "Can you do it?"

Claudia knew exactly what it would take and what the results would be. She answered, "Yes, it will be about an hour to step it up. And you know once I do it, I'll be able to track all of the Farnsworth devices?"

"That's good. We'll be able to tell if there is anyone nearby that could help." John then asked, "What are Pete and Myka doing?"

"There are tracking down an artifact that makes people sleep for a week or so after they eat a holiday meal like turkey and stuffing," Claudia was already typing something into the computer.

"Well, we'll let Aunt Bertha have a nice holiday nap. Get a hold of them and tell them to meet us at my bank. Claudia, do what you can to set up that tracking then transfer it over to my computers. I'll send you the link. When you are done, I'll have a jet waiting for you at the county airport." John asked at the end, "Do you need anything?"

"No, I have everything I'll need," Claudia replied. They ended the conversation.

And Claudia called Myka, "Hey, need you and Pete to head up to John's bank in Philadelphia. John believes the big tag and bag Artie and Mrs. Frederic were on was a trap. The two Regents were killed. He thinks Artie and Mrs. Frederic have been captured along with the artifacts that were being used. I am supposed to meet you up there. John has a plane coming out to pick me up."

Myka was shocked, "We are only a couple hours away. We'll drive over and meet at the bank."

"Okay, see you then," Claudia hung up and began her searches for Artie's Farnsworth.

Philadelphia

The limo pulled up to the bank and Henry got the door for Claudia. John was waiting at the door of the bank. He said, "Thank you for coming." When Claudia got to the door, he gave her a hug. "Myka and Pete are waiting in my office. They are reviewing the information your tracking system developed."

"Sweet," Claudia was a bit surprised. When she set up the search, she only found her Farnsworth. She hoped for more, but knew that she better get out to the plane that was waiting for her. She could barely imagine that there was a real plane and crew waiting for her. She put some quick instructions into the computer and sent the links to John. Grabbing what she thought might help she bolted out of the warehouse. She knew that the search would continue while she was traveling and was happy that she was getting information.

Once again they walked past the electronic tellers. There was only one person at the tellers. Then down the hall with the e-loan machines, there was no one there. Claudia asked off hand, "Slow day?"

John looked around and then smiled at Claudia, "No, actually it appears to be working. From what we had last year at this time, there are twice as many accounts and we are handling three times the number of transactions. Our customers are getting used to the electronic banking and we are growing."

They got to the door for his office. John opened the door and allowed Claudia to go in first. He saw her going to the desk and said, "Oh, please wait. We have to use the elevator." He pushed a button on wall and the wood panel opened to an elevator car. He motioned for Claudia to get in. He punched a button on the control panel and another panel was revealed. He pushed B6. The elevator began to descend.

"What, you don't have the penthouse for your office?" Claudia asked.

"Oh no, not with the price of a penthouse. We rent the upper floors. It's one of our more profitable investments," John smiled as the elevator went down to the sixth subbasement level.

The door opened and Claudia walked out into what she thought was her own version of Christmas Toyland. The walls were large panel displays. She had to try one and found that it was a touch screen display. She was impressed that the normal warehouse displays were easily accessible. Then she noticed the other displays and was even more impressed. She saw Pete and Myka working at stations that had three monitors with keyboard built into the workstation. She smiled when she saw that Pete was only using one monitor. "This is truly incredible and more than what we have. Why?"

"Well, as you know the warehouse system gets alerts, I think you call them pings, on anomalies that might be the result of an artifact. My system includes that and goes an additional layer adding the inputs from contributing nations." John knew the next question, "We found during World War II that the more direct information we got the faster we could react. With the type of artifacts I am charge with, I have to be able to determine whether large world changing events could have been caused by an artifact. While a weapon of mass destruction is well within the mission, a government change, a new revolutionary religion, or even a UFO can be included."

That got Pete's attention, "Hey Claud. You mean like Roswell or…"

John held up his hand, "Sorry Pete, it was just an example. And the answer is no, none, nothing real. Really the most interesting thing lately was NASA finding an Arsenic life form."

Claudia looked at the displays again, "So did it work?"

Myka spoke up and made a circle on the map on the wall from her workstation, "Yes, it's great. His Farnsworth is somewhere around here."

"Show off," Pete was still bumbling with his single display and Myka had something on all of her displays and was linked into the wall displays.

"Well, if you would listen to the instructions instead of looking for the Texas Hold'em site…" Myka complained.

Claudia was smiling at the exchange. She was happy they were back together and this showed it was working. She walked over to the wall display and expanded the view in the area and overlaid a satellite map. "So, the phone is on a boat or ship off Salerno, Italy? What can we do about it?"

A/N Please review.