Chapter 5

Joey sat on the sofa at Yugi's place, watching the television which was currently showing a local news report. The news reporter was stood outside of the hotel that had burned down the previous night.

"The cause of the fire still remains unknown although it is believed to have started somewhere on the third floor. Two people are in hospital with minor burns but are making a steady recovery while one person is missing. Police are appealing to anyone who has information that could help them with their investigation to come forward."

Pointing the remote at the television, Joey turned it off and knelt on the sofa looking over the back in to the kitchen at Bakura, who was sat at the table with a large pile of books beside him and one opened out in front of him. "I'm bored!"

Bakura looked at his watch. "It hasn't even been five minutes since you complained about Yugi and Tea not being here."

"So?" Joey had his arms folded on top of the sofa with his chin resting on them.

Bakura gave a little sigh as he wished Joey would stop interrupting him from his work so frequently. "Then go and bother Tristan."

"Can't." came a mumbled reply. "He's gone out with Serenity for the day, so it looks like you're stuck with me."

"Well then, call Mai." Bakura raised his book from the table so that it covered his face hoping that Joey would get the hint that he didn't want to be disturbed any more.

"I said I was bored, not desperate!" exclaimed Joey.

Bakura slammed his book down on the table so hard that the pile of books jumped and wobbled as they returned to the surface. "Why don't you go down stairs and clean the shop floors ready for opening up tomorrow!" he snapped in a deeper voice as he stared at Joey with cold eyes.

"What's all the noise about?" asked Emma as she entered the kitchen. With nowhere else to go after the hotel had burnt down she had turned to Yugi for his help and somewhere to stay. She thought Shadi might have done the same but he was still missing since the fire. Easily paranoid she began to think of the worst, and believed that whatever caused the fire had something to do with what they were sent to deal with. The page that she had seen in Shadi's journal may have held the answer she was looking for but she hadn't quite made it to the end where she had seen the words 'the jaws of Sobek'. Now she and Yugi's friends were doing all that they could to find out more about this phrase.

"Nothing." replied Bakura in his normal self. "Did you manage to find anything?"

"Nope." Emma seated herself in an empty chair at the table. "Seto had the Kaiba Corp computers run multiple web searches but couldn't find anything."

"It's Seto now is it?" sniggered Joey at hearing Emma call Kaiba by his first name.

Emma rolled her eyes at her own mistake before adding, in a rather amused voice. "You got a problem with that Wheeler?"

The smile on Joey's face dropped. "Just don't turn out like him. You may not see it yet but the guy's a real jerk."

"Are you sure that's what we are meant to be looking for?" asked Bakura changing the subject back to where it had left off.

"I know it's a long shot but I don't think Shadi would have written it down if it wasn't important." she saw disappointment fill Bakura's face. All of Yugi's grandpa's books were in Arabic and without him around Bakura was the only one who could read it. He wasn't very good at it as he had only learnt a bit from his father who was also interested in Egyptology. She grabbed a book and opened it. "I don't mean to put extra pressure on you and I'll still help out as much as I can."

Joey stretched his arms. "Well it looks like I'm not needed so I'll get back to watching the box."

"Sobek was a crocodile god." snapped Bakura in a deeper voice once again as he picked up a book and threw it at Joey, who managed to catch it just millimetres from his face. "You can still look at the pictures and notify me if you find anything."

Opening the book Joey slumped back down on to the sofa and turned the pages.

"Shadi was right." said Emma as she stared at the pages in front of her. "I should have studied more. It wouldn't even be so bad if I'd just paid more attention to Egyptian history."

Bakura warily glanced at Emma with his cold eyes before he returned to reading his book and his normal self.

The three of them sat in silence looking through the books that they had. It wasn't long before Joey broke that silence as he leapt up from the sofa.

"I think I found something." he said as he thrust the book in front of Bakura.

Emma leaned across to get a better look. Joey had indeed found a picture of the crocodile god, and underneath it was a picture of a necklace made from gold, pointy crocodile teeth which hung in clumps around the thick chain.

"Mokuba had a lucky charm that looked like a part of that." said Bakura pointing to the necklace. He followed the text with his finger and then looked up to the other two. "That's it, that's what we've been looking for. But I'm afraid I can't make out any more words after that."

"I'll pay Kaiba another visit." Emma said as she got up from her chair. "He might know how or where Mokuba got hold of it."

"You okay Bakura?" asked Joey as he saw his friend rubbing his eyes.

"I think I'm starting to get a headache from all of this reading." replied Bakura.

"Take a rest, you deserve it." Emma told him and then turned to Joey. "And don't you bother him while I'm gone."

After checking in at the reception desk at Kaiba Corp, Emma made her way straight to the elevator and up to Kaiba's office. She was alone in the elevator which was probably a good thing as she looked like an idiot with her fingers in her ears, trying to block out the horrid panpipe music.

As the doors opened she quickly exited and almost running she made her way down the corridor and bumped in to one of Kaiba's secretaries sending the papers the she was carrying falling in to a big jumbled heap on the floor.

The secretary dropped down to the floor and began piling up the papers. "Mr Kaiba is going to sack me for sure when I hand these back to him." she seemed to be talking to herself and didn't even notice Emma standing there.

"I am sorry." Emma said as she helped to pick up some of the papers. "It won't take us both long to put them back in order."

"No!" cried the secretary as she pulled the papers from Emma's hand, she then sighed which made her more relaxed. "Mr Kaiba sorts out all of his accounts paperwork himself. I just file them for him."

Emma thought that this was strange but didn't say anything about it. "I'm on my way to his office so since it was my fault that I knocked them out of your hands, how about I hand them back to him and take all of the blame."

The secretary hesitated for a moment before she handed over the papers and continued her way down the corridor. Emma too continued on her way, she glanced down at the papers as she walked to the huge doors where she knocked before entering.

"Present for you." Emma said as she held out the papers to Kaiba who was sat behind his desk. "I had a little accident with your secretary."

"It took me an hour to sort all of those papers, just wait till I see her again." Kaiba growled as he took the paperwork.

"It wasn't her fault it was mine, so please don't sack her." Emma tried to explain. "I knocked her over as I ran away from the panpipe music. I did offer to re-do them, but she said only you sort out the accounts so I offered to return them to you."

Kaiba wasn't amused by this story and sighed as he placed the paperwork to one side of his desk. "Looks like I won't be going home for at least another hour."

"I wasn't being nosey or anything, but I couldn't help seeing what you do with half of your profits each month." she told Kaiba, who looked slightly shocked at this confession.

"You are not to tell anyone what you have seen." he told her.

"Don't worry your secret is safe with me." Emma assured him. "But I do think that a lot of people's opinion of you would change if they knew that you donated fifty percent of your profits to charity."

Kaiba glared at her. "What exactly did you want?"

"We've managed to find a reference to 'the jaws of Sobek' in one of Mr Muto's Egyptology books." Emma explained. "It turns out that it's a necklace made of gold crocodile teeth. I know that Mokuba has a good-luck charm which is a clump of teeth that I think may have once belonged on the necklace, so I came to ask if you knew where he got it from or should I ask him myself?"

Kaiba continued to glare at her. "Are you trying to say that you think that my brother is this 'evil force' that you are looking for?"

"No, not at all. I just wanted to know the charms origin so that …" but Emma didn't have chance to finish her sentence as Kaiba interrupted her.

"You keep away from him!" he warned. "In fact you can keep away from me too, as I'm no longer agreeing to help you any further with this investigation of yours."

"What!" Emma exclaimed, shocked.

"Get out!" Kaiba roared. "I don't ever want to see you in my sight again."

Frightened at how quickly Kaiba's anger had built up, Emma slowly backed away to the door. "You know I think Joey was right." she turned to grab the handle and opened the door, before she looked back at Kaiba for one last time. "You are a jerk."

The door slammed behind her leaving Kaiba alone in his quiet office.