MISSION MOONLARK, kotlc

7

"You got it?" Dex asked, looking both shocked and bewildered at the same time as Sophie stumbled back into the file room.

"Yeah." Sophie bit her lip, debating about whether or not she should tell anyone about meeting Keefe...

She glanced around the room. "Biana okay?"

"Pft. You should be asking if the guard is okay," Fitz cut in. "We watched the whole feed. She would've kicked him through the roof if he wasn't innocent."

Biana grinned at her evilly from where she sat in the corner, flipping through some of the files.

Sophie pulled out the two artifacts and studied them closely.

The first one was a tiny glass vile full of a thin, slimy purple liquid. It was only capped with an even smaller corkscrew. The other one was a dark jewel shaped gem inside a glass case.

"The cameras turned off halfway through," Dex told her. Sophie felt her heart hammering against her chest. 

"Did they now?" The best way to avoid a question was to respond with another question.

"Yeah. Everything go okay?"

"Yup! In fact, it was super easy. I just...er... picked the lock, walked inside, and everything was already deactivated and stuff."

"Okay one, you suck at picking locks. And two, I don't remember Dex deactivating the stuff inside the actual room," Fitz said, listing it all out on his fingers.

Sophie glanced at Biana for help, who shrugged.

"I just got lucky, I guess. How are we getting out of here?"

"We can wait a few minutes," Fitz insisted. "I want to see those."

He stood up from his spot in front of the door and examined the two objects.

Sophie sighed. "We should get-"

"They're in here!" a voice shouted. Sophie whirled around to find the door handle shaking like somebody on the other side was trying to force it open. "Grab the key! Somebody's in here!"

"Okay, maybe the sensors weren't deactivated..." Sophie whispered, glancing around for a second exit...

But the other door was also being forced open too...

"Can we go up?" Biana wondered, pointing to the ceiling. But Sophie could tell from the material that it would take too long to cut into the roof and climb up...

"On three," she said. "We unlock the door, and run out."

"That's barbaric!" Fitz protested, but Biana cut him off with a glare.

"Unless you have a better idea Wonderboy," Dex told him.

"Stop fighting," Sophie snapped. "One... two.... THREE!"

She sprinted for the door, and unlocked it, just as the museum guards toppled inside the room. Sophie was pretty sure she'd never had her feet move that fast. It took a few seconds for the guards to untangle themselves, but they weren't much faster runners...

"Agent Della! I need you to pick us up, East Wing, back entrance!" Sophie shouted into her Imparter.

"On it," came a voice through the square.

Sophie risked a glance back to see the guards closing in on them.

"Run faster Sophie! You're falling behind!" Biana yelled.

"I noticed!"

Sophie grimaced as she spotted Agent Della's car way too far away...

And then the footsteps running behind her just... stopped. The rest of her friends turned around to find Agent Della standing in front of the guards.

And she didn't even look Agent-y. She simply looked like any other visiting mom there.

"Greetings gentleman," she said warmly, in a perfectly crisp British accent. "Who are you chasing?"

"Those kids," one of the guards growled, pointing straight as Sophie and her friends. "They were sniffing 'round closed exhibits. 'Gainst the laws."

Della glanced around and pretended to look embarrassed. "Oh dear. I'm so sorry. Those are actually my children there, on a school field trip. I just got a call from my eldest saying that they accidentally followed the wrong guide and got lost. I'm just here to pick them up."

The guards did not look convinced.

"Well, we rather must get on our way," Della chirped hopefully. The lead guard opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. "And you- we could grab a dinner? Here's my number."

She placed a card into his hand that Sophie was pretty sure was a McDonald's advertisement- but the guard looked too flustered to notice.

"Y-yeah okay. Lay off the kiddos."

Agent Della smiled at him sweetly. "We'll be on our way then. Tootaloo, darlings!"

"Tootaloo," the guard said hollowly, still looking shocked.