"Where did she go?" Ezekiel asked. Jake pulled out the letter and read it to them.
To Flynn, Col. Baird, Mr. Jenkins, Ezekiel and Jake,
Being a Librarian has been one of the best experiences
of my life and I will always be grateful for my time here,
and to all of you. You gave me a second chance when I
betrayed you but I can't help but feel responsible for
Dulaque's return and I don't want to be a burden to
the team anymore.
Please accept my resignation effective immediately,
Cassandra Cillian
"That's it. That's all she wrote. She left her copy of the clippings book too." Jake tossed it on the table then balled the letter up and threw it on the floor. They stood around in stunned silence, shaking their heads. "Excuse me." Jake said after a minute and left. In the quiet of his room, he pulled out the letter she wrote to him.
Jake,
Please know that I love you now and always.
Cassie
The sound of his fist hitting the table echoed in his room, he felt a surge of heat rising up his spine. His body stiffened as it crept up his neck making the veins stand out and his heart pound furiously. He gave her his trust, his heart and she walked out on it. On them. He started to tear her note up, but instead folded it and placed it in one of his favorite books, a collection of Shakespeare's sonnets. He went back to the main room and pulled up a stool.
"Are you ok?" Baird asked.
"No, but we got work to do so let's go." He avoided their stares and picked up another picture to inspect it.
"Alright, we're off to London. Ezekiel stay with Stone and Jenkins." Baird ordered. Flynn and Eve went through the door.
"Mr. Stone, I'd like a word." Jenkins motioned for Jake to follow him leaving Ezekiel to inspect the newest pictures.
"She will come back, the Library won't let her go so easily."
"I don't get it Jenkins." He shouted. "Why she felt she needed to leave. No one blamed her for what happened except her. It has something to do with that damned necklace. She's convinced our relationship is doomed for failure." He threw his hands up remembering what he said to her after they faced the minotaur. It always went wrong for him at some point. "I don't know, maybe she is right."
"Don't write her off yet." Jenkins patted his shoulder.
"Guys the clippings book is going crazy again." Ezekiel called from the other room.
"Yeah, well I can't think about it right now, something is really bugging me about these pictures." he walked back to the main room.
"There was another occurrence. This time it's in Oklahoma City, capital of your home state, mate." Ezekiel informed them when they came back. Jake felt a cold shiver run through him when he said that as he stared at the latest pictures from the clippings book.
"They're in the shape of a circle now. Flame, triangle, rectangle, circle." He paced back and forth pulling at the spikes in his hair. "I know what it is!" He ran to a shelf near the back and pulled out a book. He quickly turned to the page. "It's the Soyombo symbol on the Mongolian flag. You see? Fire means growth, wealth and success, the circle represents the sun symbolizing eternity, the rectangles represent strength and the triangles represent the point of a spear representing the defeat of their enemies."
"Ok, but what does that tell us about the statue people?" Ezekiel scratched his head in confusion.
"Dulaque is sending a message. He means to defeat us." Jake said.
"How odd. This isn't his style, he's usually more direct." Jenkins commented.
"I guess almost dying has made him more cautious?" Ezekiel attempted an explanation.
Jake stared at the pictures, rifling through them to find another clue, any clue. He found a blurry picture of a homeless man holding a sign near the living statues.
"It looks like your run of the mill 'will work for food signs'." Ezekiel dismissed it.
"Except that it's in another language." Jenkins showed Jake another picture with another homeless man with a sign near the frozen people.
"I can't make it out. Jones can you scan it and sharpen it up?"
"Sure." He replied. "Can you make it out now?" He projected the images on the screen and sharpened the blurry pictures as best he could.
Jake was a master of many languages, but he couldn't be sure what it was. The three men worked long into the night trying to find more homeless men holding signs. They found three more but it had been a long day and they decided to take a break for the night.
Jake felt sore and went to take a shower, the warm water helped ease his muscles. He pulled on a pair of lounge pants when he finished then stretched out on the bed to relax a bit. He started to get up to study the pictures again but exhaustion took over and soon he was asleep.
Cassandra met him in his dream. He smiled as she came closer, but she walked right past him and toward a homeless man holding a sign. "What is it Cassie? What do you see?" Her gaze remained fixed straight ahead and she began to speak a foreign language, one he didn't recognize at first.
She then turned to him. "hurry…" she disappeared in a fog.
"Cassie!" He cried out to her and woke up. Jake broke out in a cold sweat and went to his drafting table where he left the pictures. He stared at them, willing them to change or speak, anything to help him solve this mystery. He recalled the words she said in the foreign language and spelled them out phonetically then repeated them to himself. A minute later he knew. He banged on Ezekiel's door to wake him up, then ran to the main room and cried out for Jenkins, who was still up. He came out of the back room startled by the his clamoring.
"It's a form of ancient Mongolian, a dialect once used by Ghengis Khan. I made out the words on this picture. A man's greatest work." He was almost breathless as he spoke.
"What's going on?" Ezekiel came in his shirt and hair disheveled and yawning.
"A man's greatest work is to break his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all the things that have been theirs, to hear the weeping of those who cherished them. That's a quote from Ghenghis Khan." Jake was shaking his, eyes wild as his mind was spinning. "This is not Dulaque." He said.
"Who is it then?" Jenkins asked.
"It's my uncle Roy."
