Danielle Cross: Medusa's Wrath- by Mary Thornsberry

Chapter 3

Chapter 3
Later that evening the guests of the gala began to gather in the garden as Danielle and Becca put the finishing touches on the exhibit. When it was finished the two women looked at each other both of there faces dropping at the sight of each others state of dress they were filthy with dust and packing peanuts all over them.
"We should change," Danielle said.
"Good idea," Becca agreed.
They Both turned in and walked to the nearest set of restrooms. A little while later Danielle walked out into the gardens of the museum wearing a beautiful gold colored ball gown, her long blond hair was pulled hack into a tight bun. She looked around the garden for Becca, finally finding her next to the hors d'oeuvre table. Becca was clutching her purse staring at the ground, looking pretty uncomfortable. Unlike Danielle, Becca's dress was a simple black dress her short brown hair was pulled back into a half pony tail.
Danielle grabbed two glasses of Champagne from a tray carried by a waiter. She came up next to Becca and handed her one of the glasses of Champagne.
"Here, this will calm your nerves."
"Thanks," Becca said taking a sip. "I've never been good at parties."
"Don't sweat it," Danielle said and leaned in to whisper something into Becca's ear. "Most of these people were already drunk when they stepped out of their limos."
Becca laughed at this covering her mouth to hide her amusement.
"I love the dress," Danielle said gesturing to Becca's dress.
"Thanks," Becca said, she knew that Danielle was lying but she appreciated the complement, and anyway it was the only dress she had.
Suddenly there was the fine chime of silver cutlery against a Champagne glass.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Everyone heard Richard's loud gruff voice say, "May I have your attention please. We are now ready to view our newest exhibit Medusa's Curse so please leave your food and drinks and join us inside."
The exhibit was amazing. There were Urns, Weapons, a wall of hieroglyphics, scrolls, the golden box and in front of it all was the statue. Danielle hoped that everyone would be so amazed by the exhibit, no one would notice the gem missing from medusa's eye.
Richard cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentleman we are now serving dinner in the restaurant so please join us."
Everyone made their way out of the exhibit and into the restaurant. Looking around the restaurant Danielle noticed that Richard was not in the room with them, she rolled her eyes thinking about how harsh he'd been to her and Becca setting up this whole event and now he was just bailing on the whole thing. Looking at the seat next to her Danielle noticed the folded piece of paper with Becca's name on it indicating that this was her seat, but she wasn't sitting there, Becca was missing too.
All of a sudden red lights came down form the ceiling and alarm sirens went off and Danielle noticed that Richard was back in the room.
"All right everyone please don't be alarmed, if everyone could just head to the nearest exit," Richard announced.
As Danielle made her way to the exit the guests began to panic and scream as the solid steal blast doors began to come down, everyone ran and dove to get to the other side of the doors but unfortunately the blast doors lowered to fast and some of the guests were trapped inside including Danielle and Richard.
"What the hell is going on?" Richard yelled at Danielle.
"I don't know," Danielle yelled back. "The building only goes into lockdown like this if there's a robbery in progress."
Danielle and Richard looked at each other knowing there was only one new exhibit. They both broke into a run when they got to the exhibit they both looked on in shock, the Medusa statue was gone.
"That's impossible," Danielle said.
"How could someone steal the statue?" one of the guests asked a young dark haired woman in a red dress.
"I don't see how someone could" Danielle said. "The statue weighs a ton, it took six workers to load that thing into the crate, it broke the cable on the loading crane for crying out loud. It's not like someone could just throw it over their shoulder."
"What's going?" They heard a voice behind them say.
They turned around to find Becca standing behind them.
"Becca?" Danielle said. "I thought you got out with everyone else, where have you been?"
Becca shrugged her shoulders.
"I was in the restroom. What's going on, where's the statue?" Becca asked.
Richard approached everyone his tyrannical atmosphere practically taking up the entire room.
"It doesn't matter where it is!" Richard yelled. "Now a theft has been committed here and I want to know who did it!"
Danielle glared at Richard.
"Richard I think there are more important things we could be focusing on than who stole your money maker," she said.
"Yeah!" said the woman in the red dress. "Like the fact that we're still trapped in this building."
Danielle put her hand in the air to calm everyone down.
"It's okay, all we need to do is go down to the basement and disconnect the lockdown."

Down in the basement they had a hell of a time prying open the padlock fuse box they were eventually able to get the door off but when they did, they realized they had another problem, it was going to be much more complicated to switch off the lockdown than they thought, there were switches upon switches, about thirty switches in total.
"Which switch is it?" The woman in the red dress asked.
"I don't know, hold on." Becca said pulling out a large instruction manual.
Richard pushed through everyone causing Becca to drop the manual.
"Oh this is ridicules!" he said stopping to the fuse box.
"Wait, Richard don't!" Danielle yelled but it was too late he switched all of the switches at once causing the box to spark plunging them into darkness.
"You moron!" Danielle yelled pushing Richard away from the fuse box and switching the switches back but the power didn't come back on.
"What is wrong with you," Danielle continued to yell at Richard.
"It was an accident," Richard said as if that was any excuse.
"Do you know what this means?" Danielle asked Richard.
Richard looked at her completely clueless.
"As long as the power is out the lockdown can't be reversed, the only way out now is for the police to cut their way out and that could take hours," Danielle yelled.
Becca stepped in between Danielle and Richard.
"Calm down, yelling at each other isn't going to get us anywhere."
The two of them stepped away from each other knowing that Becca was right.
"Let's just see if we can find some flashlights," Becca said.
They found some flashlights in an emergency cabinet below the fuse box.
"Well, we might as well go back up to the lobby and get comfortable we're going to be here for a while," Danielle said.
As they were headed back up to the lobby they heard the sounds of pounding and muffled cries.
"What was that?" The woman in the red dress asked.
"I don't know," Danielle whispered. "It sounds like someone needs help."
As they got closer the sound got louder, when they stepped into the lobby they realized the sound was coming from a closet that was being blocked by a table that had been pushed against the door during the panic of the lockdown.
"Come on, help me with this," Danielle said to anyone as she began trying to move the table. She, Becca, and the woman in red moved the table away from the door. As soon as it was moved away the door swung open.