Author's Note:
Ch. 49 was posted Monday, Feb. 4
Ch. 50 posted today, Tuesday, Feb. 5


Dr. Vanessa waited expectantly for Mrs. Frederic to join the storytelling.

Mrs. Frederic took several steps toward them. "The insubordinate Warehouse agent hadn't made sufficient plans about how and where to keep such a large creature without attracting unwanted attention."

"Whoa. Serious PlanFail," Claudia said. "Agent Loch Ness got caught. He needs a nickname. Agent Ness?"

"I found my rogue agent, Agent Ness, as you call him," Mrs. Frederic said. "But we had to regroup quickly, for the creature's sake. So we made a lake here, inside Warehouse 13, where we knew the creature would be completely hidden from cameras and fishing expeditions."

"You said earlier, the Aquarium didn't work. What happened?"

Mrs. Frederic shrugged. "We were not certain. The creature soon grew ill. Something here about the environmental conditions, or the man-made lake, was problematic. Despite our best efforts, we couldn't find a way to keep her in Warehouse 13, and keep her healthy. So the Regents ordered us to take her back home, to Loch Ness."

Claudia drank some soup from her cup. "But the creature was never located by the fishing expeditions," she said thoughtfully. "The sonar never got clear readings on anything in the Loch."

Mrs. Frederic almost smiled. "We set up a few security measures, down in the Loch itself. No one will be detecting the creature anytime soon."

"You're jamming their sonar pings. Excellent." Claudia looked at Vanessa and Mrs. Frederic. "What happened to Agent Ness?"

Mrs. Frederic asked, "What do you mean?"

"He broke all the rules," Claudia said.

Mrs. Frederic nodded. "The incident report was one of the longest I have ever written."

Claudia stared down at her hand and fidgeted with her ring. "So what happened to Agent Ness, as punishment? Did the Regents Bronze him?"

"No," Mrs. Frederic said. "He was not incarcerated."

Claudia looked up in surprise. "What? Why not?"

"He worked a long time for Warehouse 13 before that mission, and afterward," Mrs. Frederic said. "Unfortunately, on that particular mission, his efforts backfired, and instead of protecting a rare creature, he jeopardized its life."

"But why didn't the Regents fire him?"

"The agent's primary motivation," Mrs. Frederic said, "was to protect the Loch Ness creature from physical harm. Such motivations are good, even noble. But the Regents' original reason for denying the mission was about moving the creature out of its natural habitat. The Regents' concern, and their decision, proved quite correct, in the end."

Claudia looked from Mrs. Frederic back to Vanessa. "You're not talking just about the Loch Ness Monster. You're trying to tell me something about the Regents, aren't you?"

"Agent Ness's rescue plan failed," Vanessa said. "He was only human. The Regents are human. We're all human, and despite our best efforts, we all make mistakes. We do the best we can, with the knowledge and resources we have at the time."

"Timing is everything," Claudia said grimly.

Mrs. Frederic studied the young woman's expression. "The Regents cannot see ahead of time, how events will turn out. None of us can."

"True." Claudia picked up her messenger bag and slung it over her shoulder. "But today isn't over yet. We still have time. Jane Lattimer still can't see that her plans will fail. Myka made a new plan for how we can save everyone. I guess we'll see whose plan succeeds."

At the sound of the door banging open, they turned to look toward the hallway.

Carrying a glowing purple lantern, Artie bustled into the room and glanced around nervously. "Claudia? Claudia, there you are." He paused next to her, trying to catch his breath. "Dear Claudia."

"Oh, great," she said. "Did something else burn down, or blow up?"

"No, no, no." He patted her shoulder. "Not in the last 20 minutes. We're good."

Claudia frowned at him skeptically. "Cut to the chase."

"I called Joshua," Artie said slowly, "just to check in, but I couldn't reach him." He adjusted his glasses. "Have you talked to your brother in the last few days?"

"Almost a week ago," Claudia said. "But Josh is fine. He's supposed to be 'unavailable for comment,'" she quoted. "All the employees at CERN have been told not to talk to the press, or anyone really, until they've completed the current test. The Higgs Boson experiments were getting too much publicity."

"Oh, good." Artie exhaled and rubbed his beard. "Good."

"Why are you sighing with relief?" she asked. "Were you worried about their physics experiments?"

"No," he said. "But I want you to get in touch with Joshua, today. If necessary, hack into CERN to talk to him."

"OK," she said. "But our work schedule is already into serious overtime, and by the way, we're all trapped inside Warehouse 13. So why would you need to talk to Joshua?"

Artie held up his Farnsworth. "Pete called to remind me. In Mrs. Frederic's dream-message, she mentioned both you and your brother."

"You think Josh is in danger?"

"Probably not. At least, not today," he said, "but I want him to leave Geneva immediately and fly here."

"Leave immediately? Because Josh is in danger," Claudia said. "From Sykes? But Sykes will be in Hong Kong, Tai Po, and then the Warehouse. How could Sykes threaten Joshua in Geneva?"

"I don't know," Artie said. "Based on the dream-message, we don't know who is a threat to you and Joshua, or when this problem will occur. But we have an important clue about what the artifact problem might be."

"To what artifact you do refer?" Mrs. Frederic asked.

"The Rheticus Compass," Artie said.

Not again, Mrs. Frederic thought. "The Compass is here, in the Warehouse."

Artie shook his head. "It was in the Warehouse. But I just checked the shelves. The Compass is gone."

"MacPherson," Mrs. Frederic said grimly. "When he hypnotized Leena, and directed her to steal inventory from Warehouse 13, he took the Compass, too."

"MacPherson wanted more than that," Artie said. "Almost everything we stored belonging to Rheticus is gone."

Mrs. Frederic stared at him for a moment. "He wanted to figure out how the Compass worked," she said. "MacPherson didn't know how you brought back Joshua Donovan, from the teleportation experiment."

From his jacket pocket, Artie pulled out a small piece of paper. "MacPherson left one of his little notes," he said. "It reads, 'The Rheticus Compass has been relocated.'"

"The Teleportation Artifact has been relocated. How amusing," Mrs. Frederic said. "But where is the Compass now?"

Artie raised his purple glowing lantern. "And where is MacPherson?"

Mrs. Frederic sighed in frustration. I wanted MacPherson to disappear. Now I wonder why he has not reappeared.

Claudia opened her laptop. "What do I tell Josh, when I reach him?"

"Tell Josh," Artie said, "we'll send someone to meet him and fly with him to the U.S."

Claudia carried her laptop out the door and across the short hallway.

Mrs. Frederic reached out and took hold of Artie's arm. "Who will we send?" she said quietly.

He stared at her in surprise. "Can't you send someone? One of the Regents?"

"So many Regents died just in the last year," Vanessa said.

"Murdered by Walter Sykes," Mrs. Frederic said.

Artie adjusted his glasses. "Everyone else we know is either here in the Warehouse, or on their way to Hong Kong."

Vanessa retrieved her mobile phone. "Not everyone. I know someone, and so do you." She looked at Mrs. Frederic. "The Loch Ness Agent. Agent Ness, as Claudia nicknamed him, is in Europe already. We can ask him to meet Joshua."

"Agent Ness," Artie grumbled, "is what, 100 years old by now?"

"80 years old," Vanessa scolded him. "He's still sharp and his age has hardly slowed him down at all. Under the circumstances, it's time to call anyone who owes you a favor. We need all the help we can muster."

Mrs. Frederic frowned. "Agent Ness resigned from the Warehouse in protest. He made it clear that he'd served enough years here, and wanted to leave all this behind him, permanently." She straightened her suit jacket. "I doubt he would even speak to anyone from Warehouse 13."

Vanessa studied the menu on her phone. "He'll talk to me. In fact, we talk quite often." She held her phone up to her ear and smiled at them. "I'm still his physician."