Over the next few days were spent waiting on word about Mr. Whitmore, and those days seemed to drag on and on but finally the day came. In the middle of the week during the lunch hour Packard was able to ask almost all of the questions that they had raised which could be directed to him. They decided to meet that evening and she would fill them in.
With that to look forward to Vinny went about finishing a few errands he needed to run. It was a part of a test he, Lockett, Eggar, and Sharpe were running for a course certification. After an awkward and brief meeting with Sharpe he went to Lockett whom Vinny was certain held an air of dismissiveness about what they were doing.
He almost asked him why he was acting this way about a job that was hard to come by but thought better of it. Vinny had heard that Lockett was a contrarian and loved to get into arguments. Not wanting to waste time with that he just parted ways with the chemical weapons expert, now all he had to do was find Eggar.
He had asked Sharpe and Lockett if they knew of the man's whereabouts but they did not know, so he had to go to the department offices in hopes of finding the man. An auxiliary secretary there mentioned something about him needing some translations from Ms. Schmitt so after thanking the lady he went on his way to find his coworker.
Arriving at the language department, he found out the classroom number and instructor name from a harried and annoyed Major Fusilli, Vinny was barely able to get the information that he needed when Fusilli found out he was in the same department as Mole. He almost got shooed out of there before he could even look for Eggar.
He was to find a Frieda Schmitt in classroom 117, he found the room, the door was open so he stepped in. At the far end of the room was a chalkboard and she was erasing the previous classes lesson. Her back was to him and she was leaning on a cane, she was in fact the same woman that sat at the neighboring table during the welcome dinner.
Clearing his throat, he announced himself, "Uh Ms. Schmitt, my name is Vinny Santorini. I'm looking for Christoph Eggar, I was told he was here."
Upon hearing him speak she paused and shook her head muttering something under her breath.
Craning his ear towards her Vinny asked, "What? I didn't quite get that."
In a moderate accent came the stern reply, "Was. He was here, and still does not know how to shut doors." It was not hard to imagine a scowl on her face.
"I see. Do you know where he is?" Vinny asked.
"I am sorry Herr Santorini, but I do not know where he is." Though she did not sound sorry at all, "He left a few minutes ago, perhaps you can leave to find him."
She still hadn't turned, and with the board now clear she began writing a new set of words, she seemed to be trying to permanently etch the words in with the force she was putting on the board.
Pressing on despite the obvious hint to leave, Vinny asked, "Did he say where he was going?"
She hobbled over to another section of the chalkboard and as she did, she briefly looked at him before rolling her eyes then turning away, "If I had known, I would have told you."
Scowling slightly, he turned to leave, "Of course, sorry to bother you. I hope your leg gets better."
With that he left, if it wasn't for the deal he had with Raimondo, he doubted he would have stayed seeing that every other person at this place took offense to him and his friends being here.
Eventually he did find Eggar walking from the division offices. He was tired at this point so he did little more than hand him the papers outlining the test and went to his apartment to have dinner before the groups' meeting.
Evening came and with an air of anticipation they waited for everyone to arrive. It didn't take long by the time small talk just started the last person to arrive stepped in.
With that they all waited, eager to hear what Packard had learned from Mr. Whitmore. She sat down and had her notes with her.
"Alright," she started, "I spoke with Mr. Whitmore and it appears that there is more to Raimondo than we had anticipated. Along with that Mr. Whitmore also has an explanation for what he has done and why."
"Uh, that's not scary at all, but where does he know him from?" Sweet asked, exchanging worried looks with the others.
Annoyance flitted across Packard's face, "Quiet will ya? I'm trying to explain something. Let's leave the Q&A for later, shall we?"
"Sounds good to me." Audrey agreed.
Settling in a more comfortable position in her chair Packard began, "It started with Mr. Whitmore ending up owing Raimondo's boss- a crime lord named Dante Burke- which is of itself another story, and he came to collect a few months ago. That favor was filling the jobs that we have, we are temporary stop gaps for the permanent instructors as you know and eventually, we will be heading out."
"Why didn't he just tell us this off the bat, or better yet not volunteer us at all? I was happy where I was, and I imagine everyone else was as well." Audrey interjected.
Waving the mechanic off and shushing her Packard said, "I know, I know, now let me finish. He didn't go into details but it sounds like Mr. Whitmore didn't have much of a choice when it came to the favor, also if he could say no, he said Burke would have looked into us and run the risk of exposing our friends at sea."
She paused to let her statement sink in.
She continued, "Now he said as far as Burke is concerned the Atlantis expedition ended up as we rehearsed, a bunch of rocks, a dead end, and a lot of… missing people." The pause was noticeable but no one acknowledged it. "So, right after the deal had been made, Mr. Whitmore has been and is making sure our replacements come and we get to walk away as agreed."
"And that's it?" Audrey asked, "We just wait and hope nothing bad happens? I don't like it."
Pausing before he spoke Vinny said, "This makes sense, no I don't like it either but it makes sense. We can't expose Atlantis, and I'm sure Mr. Whitmore didn't choose to put himself in this situation… I think. He's going to explain it to us, right?"
"Oh yes," Packard stated matter-of-factly, "I made him promise next time we all met there would be an explanation before I passed this to you all."
"Okay, good enough for me." Vinny said.
"So, we'll wait until then, yes?" Packard asked the group.
There were some unenthusiastic nods and yeses from the groups
"Okay, sorry this was short, but it was important. That's all I have; we can meet here again if something comes up. With that sorted, does anyone have anything?" Packard asked while packing up her papers.
There was nothing from the group for a few moments.
Taking it as a no, Packard stood up and said, "Well I am going to go for a walk, Marge do you- "
"Ooh, ooh! I do!" Mole declared, apparently remembering something. He stood up patting his pockets trying to find something "Vinny, I think I found your knife"
Raising an eyebrow Vinny replied, "I didn't know I lost one."
"Yes, yes, your knife, this one." He had found it in an inside pocket of his miner's coat and pulled it out.
He held a shining six-inch knife by the handle, presenting it for all to see.
Looking at it, Vinny shook his head, "No, that's not the style of knife that I have. Sweet is it yours?"
"Uh-uh, only blades I have would be things like scalpels and saws."
Looking irritated, Mole insisted, "Well it is one of ours, whose is it?"
Everyone looked at it and after a pause, Sweet asked, "How do you know it's one of us? Are there any markings or initials?" He looked closer at it, "Because you do realize this is a knife at a military academy, right?"
"Because, right here," Mole zoomed his goggles to the hilt of the knife, "deep on the surface there are traces of the volcanic rock from Atlantis. It is very unique; the composition is so pure but unique from the surface world. Roughly three parts Basalt one-part Rhyolite, and very little lithic content, there is literally no other rock type there, oh very rare, the last time anything like this was found was back in eighteen fourteen when daring Frenchman Louis- "
"Okay, okay. It's unique, we get it" Vinny cut him off, he didn't want another one of those rambling sessions the geologist was prone to.
"Where did you find it?" Cookie asked, "Maybe that'll narrow down where it came from."
"Well, the training field, it was where the stations were set up that one day for our demonstrations. Not far off my soil from Spain got mixed with a sample from here- took me days to separate them again."
"Well it might be another soldiers' or instructors' knife if that is the case." Cookie said clearly thinking on this, the others nodding in agreement.
"Could be a cadets'," Marge chipped in, "they lose that sort of stuff all the time, driving the quartermaster nuts."
Audrey suddenly looked up, worried, "Guys! I am afraid we are missing the main issue here."
"That is?" Sweet asked
"Are we sure this knife is not ours," looking around everyone nodded their heads, "and Mole, you know for a fact that rock is from Atlantis?"
"Of course, who do you think I am?" He said looking affronted.
Nodding she continued, "If this came from where you say it is, and it is not ours, then that must mean someone else made it back to the surface."
She paused to let it sink in.
"We need to find out who."
The game is afoot.