"What do you mean you lost the girl with the artefact?!" Artie growled into the Farnsworth.
"We don't know, Artie. One minute she was there, and the next…she was just gone," Myka said.
He sighed and tried to think. "Alright, just…ask around. Pull anyone who doesn't look like they're in a hurry away and try and ask them a few questions."
"Right. Interview people who are not in a rush in a busy airport. Easy," Pete said, before turning off the Farnsworth.
Artie shook his head and closed the device. He walked towards his desk and put next to his computer when he realized that his computer was flashing.
'ARTEFACT DISTURBANCE' it boldly stated. He looked closer at the computer. It was located right where Claudia was doing inventory. Before he had time to panic, he was running towards the door.
"CLAUDIA!" he shouted, and he burst through the door. He tried calling her name again, but for some reason, there was no sound. He cleared his throat, but still, no noise.
He retraced back a few steps back into his office and yelled her name. It was loud and clear. He walked forward through the door and tried again. No noise. He couldn't even hear his breathing, or his footsteps.
That's when he noticed a red light emitting from the aisles towards his right. A flare. He vaguely remembered Claudia telling him that she would build something to give off a flare if she was in trouble at the Warehouse. He protested, saying that the sudden energy might cause the artefacts to start playing up, but she insisted she could make one that wouldn't.
If he could've made a noise, he would've been grumbling, but he quickly made his way down the stairs and towards the red light hovering above the aisles. As soon as this issue was over, he was going to give her a lecture on disobedience.
"Excuse me, do you mind-"
The woman strode right past Myka without glancing at her. Unfazed by the rejection, she turned around and tried to get another person's attention, without luck. A few times more, only to get the cold shoulder.
Myka muttered a cuss under her breath and tried again with a young man. He just stared at her, then winked and walked off.
Pete wasn't having much success either. Most people just skirted around him, even if he only took a step forward. He tried as many techniques as possible, from just trying to attract people's attention to subtly walking beside them, only to have them give him a weird look and walk away. After a few minutes, he gave up and wandered back to Myka.
"Nothing?" she asked.
"Nothing. Let's just go somewhere else, Myka. We're not gonna get-"
"Wait."
Pete closed his mouth and followed Myka's glance to a man holding a suitcase. He didn't appear to be in a rush, but he was walking towards them, a confused look on his face.
"Reckon he saw something?" Pete said.
"It's worth a shot."
They waited a little bit for him to come closer, and then they intercepted.
"Excuse me, do you mind if we ask you a few questions?" Myka asked the man. He paused and looked at them quizzically for a few seconds, but he stopped.
"Did you see a little girl here a few minutes ago? Holding a stuffed toy?" Myka dived straight into it.
"I did, but I don't know where she went. Is she your daughter?" he asked, pointing to the agents.
"No! She's not…our daughter," Myka said, glancing at Pete.
"Nopety nope," Pete responded, just as awkwardly as Myka.
"Oh," the man said. "I'm sorry. I thought-"
"Just forget about it," Myka interrupted, pushing along.
"Well. She was there for a while, just spinning round and round. I thought she had lost her parents, from the look on her face, but when I went to find my stuff, she was gone."
"Did you happen to smell any…fudge?" Pete asked, trying to keep a straight face.
The man gave him a weird look. "No. Why?"
"I'm hungry." He deflected embarrassment with a cover up, and the man nodded.
"I'm really craving fudge at the moment. Fudge is really-"
"Pete."
"Sorry."
"Just one last question, if you don't mind," Myka said. "Was she with anyone the first time you saw her? An adult?"
"Nope. The first time I saw her, she was alone. I didn't see any adult come to her."
"Alright. Thank you for your time. Sorry to bother you," she apologized.
"It's okay. I'm in no hurry," the man said, giving her a small smile. Then he continued with his walk and was lost among the bustle of other people.
"How did you know to ask him?" Pete whispered to Myka.
"Didn't you see the look on his face? Obvious confusion, like he'd just seen something…not ordinary."
"Really?"
"Mmhmm. Plus, I-kinda saw him looking at the girl when I was watching her."
"Knew it couldn't have been that easy."
She gently nudged him and sighed.
"So, now what do we do?" she asked.
"Keep looking around, I guess. But first…"
Pete rubbed his stomach and gave Myka an innocent look.
"Pete, you're always hungry," she pointed out.
"Which means I need to eat!" he stated, and he made his way towards a vending machine through the crowd. After a lot of 'excuse me's', he finally made it and put a few coins into the slots.
"So, should we just keep trying to ask people?" Pete asked when Myka finally caught up to him.
"I don't think so. Not many people are really willing to stop and answer a few questions about a girl they probably didn't notice," she answered.
"So, we just sit back and wait for a miracle?"
"No, we—"
The machine gave a loud clunk which cut off Myka's talking. A bag of potato chips fell out at the bottom and Pete scooped them up.
"Has anyone seen my daughter?!" a voice piped up from somewhere behind them. They gave each other a knowing look and turned around. A woman was standing in the same spot that the girl was standing in, looking around. She had a panicked look on her face, however no one was stopping to talk to her, despite her pleas.
"Sounds suspicious," Myka said.
"Lead the way," Pete said, gesturing her to walk. She nodded, and together they wove back through the crowd again, Pete nearly dropping the bag of chips at least once or twice. They went up slowly to the woman, who was whirling around, tears forming in her eyes.
"Excuse me, ma'am, we couldn't help but notice that you were saying something about your child? A girl?" Myka asked her. She looked shocked, but she sniffed and muttered, "Yes. Light brown hair?" Myka nodded solemnly and Pete continued.
"She was here a minute ago. We're looking for her as well," he said.
"You're looking for my daughter?!" The woman asked.
"Yes. We believe that she…has a certain object that we need to obtain," Myka said.
"Excuse me?"
Pete and Myka got out their badges and showed them to the woman.
"Secret Service? Is the president around?" she asked.
"No, we're just…following our job. We work in the…uh… archival section," Pete deflected the question and the woman looked confused.
"You said something about my daughter having a certain object?" she asked.
"Yes. Has she by any chance come across a new…toy, of some sort?"
"Now that you say that, yes. She came to me a few days ago, saying that she had found a toy on the street. It looked like…"
The woman paused, snapping her fingers and closing her eyes like she was trying to remember.
"Like a kangaroo. That's it," she finally answered. Myka and Pete turned to each other, not believing their luck.
"Miss, we're going to need your help on this. What's your name? And your daughter's name?" Pete asked.
The woman swallowed. "Kimberley Sanders. But call me Kim for short. And my daughter is called Isobel," she said.
"Alright, Kim, we're gonna help you get your girl back, but we need your help as well. Start from the top, and tell us the story."
Kim took a deep breath. "Well, Isobel and I were just taking a walk down the streets near our house…"
Thanks for all who are reading and reviewing and such! Nothing to say, really, just saying that I will be updating this at least once a week, on probably Sunday's where I am, which is Australia. Since the majority of people who are reading this are in America, it would probably be updated for you late Saturdays. Usually I upload a chapter to each story that I write every week, and I have made a schedule. I am currently writing 3 stories at once! But yeah, thanks again for the favourites, follows, and reviews :]
Also, thank you to KJay99 for giving me the idea of putting line breaks between changing story lines. *le facepalm*.
