Henri Beck & the Hidden Library | 📖

3

The look on his sister's face suggested otherwise. Her gaze dropped to her hands, and he could see her jaw working as she contemplated something.

"Arkangel Industries? Those are the guys who built that machine that created the superheroes right?" Malik inquired.

"No, that was Nexus. Different company." Henri rolled his eyes. "Arkangel Industries specializes in technology and medicine. They recently developed a cure for Alzheimer's." He turned to Thea, who had yet to look at him. "Why the hell would they want that map badly enough to send a team of mercenaries after us?"

Sergei and his men weren't affiliated with any military. There were no flags, logos, or badges on their all-black uniforms, but they moved with enough precision and competency that suggested they'd been professionally trained. His parents had previous run-ins with guns-for-hire on previous expeditions, but nothing like this had ever happened. They didn't deal with guns or drugs. They dealt in the artifact game. Ancient documents, revitalized art pieces, and things of that nature. They were explorers, historians, and scholars. As far as Henri knew, they had no enemies.

Then again, he'd been gone for two whole years. Who knows what happened between then and now?

Unfortunately, his parents weren't around for him to ask. They were gone, taken by nameless men, and carted off to who knows where. Tears welled in his eyes. Sniffling angrily, he wiped them away before they could fall.

"This couldn't have been Arkangel." Thea's voice lingered just above a whisper. "I mean...they wouldn't do something like this."

"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself," Malik pointed out.

"Okay, look." Thea glanced out the window before facing her brother. "Arkangel offered Mom and Dad a job a few weeks ago. They declined—"

Henri's ears perked up. "A job? What kind of job?"

"I don't know. They never told me. And they also never told me why they said no. But whatever the offer was made Dad start acting weird."

"Weird how?"

Thea paused. "I dunno, it's hard to explain. He would spend more time than usual in his study. I'd be getting home from a party, and he'd still be in there with the light on."

Henri blinked rapidly as the gears in his head started turning. Their mansion on the outskirts of Maryland had a plethora of rooms—a lot more than they needed. His father's favorite was the attic, which he'd transformed into a hybrid between study and library. It wasn't abnormal for him to spend entire days up there toiling away on whatever project that held his attention at the time.

"What was he working on?" Henri asked.

"That's the thing," Thea began, "he wouldn't tell me. He barely would tell Mom about it." She let out an annoyed sigh before folding her arms. "He even put a passcode on the door so we couldn't get in."

Henri frowned. Now that was weird.

The study was meant for everyone, not just Simon Beck. Henri recalled the times when he would spend hours getting lost in the dozens of bookshelves holding books from all over the world. Those were some of the more pleasant memories that lived inside his head. He wished he could've held on to those instead of the others.

"Arkangel wouldn't do this," Thea repeated. "I mean, it doesn't make sense. Why would they send a strike team to a museum?"

Henri's eyes widened. "The map." Something his father said exploded into his mind like a Chinese firework. "Whoever's behind this is looking for something. A library, to be specific."