What did we all think to Christina then? I imagined that any child of HG's was going to be just a little bit arrogant, but still mostly sweet. More of Artie grumbling and no Myka or HG in this one :-( - all in the name of plot building though!

Chapter Nine

Claudia swivelled slowly back and forth on her chair, a biro tapping her bottom teeth as she tried to put her findings together.

After sending a list of missing persons to Steve, Pete and HG from the last decade, the hacker had continued to dig. Her findings had gradually become more and more difficult to uncover as she searched further back in time, but her determination to help find Myka eventually left her with a list of names dating back as far as the Early 1800's. One name on her list had come directly from the Warehouse's own archives, an agent by the name of William Johnson, one of the first employees at Warehouse 12.

He and his partner had been tracking an elusive artefact through Paris when Agent Johnson disappeared. Like Myka, there was no evidence of a struggle; he had simply wandered off. All his partner could tell the Regents was that Bill had been plagued by visions and voices that whispered in his sleep. It fit the pattern and now they were waiting on Mrs. Fredrick to fill them in on the finer details.

Artie stumbled into the room with a stack of papers in his arms, interrupting the deep contemplation the red-head was indulging in.

"Artie! What did you find?" Claudia enquired the moment he dropped the stack on the already overflowing desk.

The Warehouse director grunted as he collapsed into his chair, one hand rising to wipe across a sweaty brow. "More disturbing facts about Ms. Wells' inventions," he grumbled. "That woman should not have been let free on the world. Who knows what she's been tinkering with, or how long it'll be before she'd putting us all in danger again!?"

Claudia threw her hands up in the air and growled loudly. "Arrrg! Artie, you're obsessed. She's not been near the Warehouse. She refuses to set foot in here and I don't blame her; she's spent some of the worst years of her life here. Yet she still drops everything to help us find Myka."

Artie huffed, unimpressed. "That woman's mind is a labyrinth of deception. There's always an ulterior motive. You wait; the moment everyone's let their guard down, she'll strike. She can't be trusted!" He bellowed his staunchest belief, hoping that the young techie would take him seriously.

Claudia was conflicted. She didn't believe that HG was evil or that the de-bronzed woman meant any of them harm. HG was a brilliant but tortured person who would never relent if there was a possibility to save the people who meant the most to her. The thing with the trident had been a very loud cry for help that only Myka had answered. Artie had never given Agent Wells a chance and was happy to be proven right; he had not bothered to look deeper for a reason and being shot had destroyed any notion of sympathy on his part.

Although the woman still made her nervous, Claudia had seen the determination in the ex-agent's eyes the moment she'd heard of Myka's plight. If HG did have an ulterior motive for helping them, the redhead was confident that they would at least get Myka back first.

"Mr. Nielson," Mrs. Fredrick interrupted, causing the two engrossed people to jump in their seats. Artie turned to face her, a scowl still on his face. "Do you have an update for me?" She asked as if he should have been standing waiting for her to appear out of thin air.

"Yes," Artie began, his expression turning smug. "Not only has HG Wells been inventing items to detect artefacts, she's now having visions and might soon disappear, as Myka has. Clearly she has a lot more to do with our current predicament than we thought."

The redhead rolled her eyes and shook her head simultaneously, his stubbornness exasperating her, whereas, Mrs. Fredrick continued to observe the director calmly.

"I am aware of your deeply held opinions of agent Wells, Mr. Nielson. You should know that the decision to release her from confinement was deliberated over at length by the regents and that the conditions of her release include surveillance and regular therapy. We have been keeping an eye on her and are aware of her... hobbies." The primly dressed caretaker moved around the room with purposeful steps, occasionally levelling her stare at the other two Warehouse workers. "That Agent Wells is beginning to experience the visions is disturbing but not altogether surprising." She pulled a manila folder from her bag and laid it on a fairly clutter-free surface.

Artie and Claudia immediately left their seats to gather round. "What's this?" The bushy-browed director asked sternly.

"These are the regents' records of an investigation carried out into the disappearance of Agent William Johnson, in 1851, in France." She watched like a hawk as Artie began shuffling through the findings. "He was one of the first agents of Warehouse twelve," she added slowly, ignoring his mutterings of 'that woman' and pushed on. "They were chasing an artefact that was rumoured to be the cause of numerous disappearances in and around the French capital."

Claudia rushed back to her station and with a few taps on the keyboard had a timeline of vanishings in Paris for the last two centuries. She scooted her chair back to the centre of the room and flicked through to the page she'd noticed during Artie's perusal; lists of missing persons from the winter of 1801.

"Jinkies. How long have the regents been holding onto this?" She demanded before seeing the admonishing expression on the caretaker's face. "Sorry."

"It's a good point," Artie added. "Myka went missing almost a week ago and you're only just telling us that she'd not the first agent to be abducted by this artefact!" Though he was attempting to keep a cool head, in light of this revelation, he couldn't help but feel frustrated.

"The regents had to be sure of their convictions. False information can severely delay an investigation; you know this Arthur."

"Fine, fine. Let's see what they discovered then." He reached for the manila folder again and began to scroll through it at a slower pace.

Claudia leaned over the old man's shoulder, skimming over the information as Mrs. Fredrick talked them through the investigation.

"Mr. Johnson and his partner Samuel Thomas, were sent to retrieve an artefact from Paris in the spring of 1851. The regents had been tracking its movements for five decades following a rapid increase in mysterious disappearances. A week into the investigation, Agent Johnson reported having visions and slipping into memories with no intention of doing so. Three days later, he left the hotel they were staying in, all of his belongings exactly as he'd left them, and never returned."

Claudia couldn't stop the sob that escaped her throat as she thought of Myka being lost forever. "Why couldn't they save him?"

"The artefact is nomadic." Mrs. Fredrick announced. "The regents and Agent Thomas agreed that it sensed them closing in and went to ground."

"It senses danger?" The redhead asked in astonishment. She had rarely heard of an artefact with that level of sentience. The one that came immediately to mind was Lewis Carol's mirror. That one had taken Myka for a ride too.

"Yes indeed Miss. Donovan. This artefact has a need for human vessels, the ability to entice those vessels to its location, wherever that may be, and the sense of self preservation." The imposing woman's expression was deathly serious as she turned to Artie. "You know what this means."

"It'll go straight into the dark vault." Artie sighed as he leant back in his chair. He looked at the young techie who was staring at him with a 'so what? We've caught dark artefacts before, the vault is full of them' expression. "Typically, an artefact as sinister as this would require extra caution and specialist equipment in some cases. The end result is usually the same though."

"We kick its ass," Claudia exclaimed as if there was no other outcome imaginable.

Mrs. Fredrick cracked a tiny smile at the enthusiasm. "Indeed."

"Yes, we have a fairly good track record, but an artefact as elusive as this one? It knows how to cover its tracks and no one knows what it is or what it looks like," he grumbled while pushing the folder away in disgust.

"Almost no one and we have reason to believe that it has lost its ability to move freely." Irene's eyes held a sparkle that was reserved for moments like this when she could spring a table-tilting nugget of information on her colleagues.

Claudia smirked into her hand at the slack-jawed expression on her boss' face. "So who's ID'ed this thing and why is it stuck?"

"Agent Thomas' diary talks of having seen a scarab scuttling into a drainage pipe. He included it as a footnote in his investigation but as he had no more leads, he seems to have dismissed it."

Artie leaned forward with interest. "But the regents found something?"

Mrs. Fredrick levelled a stare at him, pausing for effect. "Yes, they did."