Dirk Gently and The Waking Sea of Reality

Suit

       They left the museum shortly before it closed and headed back to the agency.

"Do you have a plan?" Dirk asked Robyn the second they all walked in.

"Yes," they said simply.

"Mind sharing?" Todd said, rolling his eyes.

"At first I thought that we would have to steal it directly from the case. A very hard feat indeed. I would much prefer to do something like National Treasure and have it sent back to a separate room with less security, but then I remembered, it's a crystal. It isn't finicky like paper or fabric. It doesn't need temperature or heat regulation... but I was wrong."

"What do you mean?" Farah asked.

Robyn pulled out their phone and walked over to Farah's computer, plugging it in to pull up the photos they took.

"See here?" They zoomed in and pointed at the small grill on the back of the white box. "And here?" They switched to a close up of inside the case to reveal a small grill inside, almost hidden underneath the crystal, but not quite. "Vents."

They switched to another photo of the outside of the box.

"And these decorative metal caps on the corners of the glass, they aren't decorative."

"Oh my god," Farah leaned over the chair and zoomed in to look under the caps on the inside. "You're right."

"Heat sensors," They smirked.

"So while we were in the car," They continued, swiveling the chair around to face the rest of the group. "I looked up the crystal the plaque said it was. Azurite."

They swiveled back around and typed into the computer "Azurite properties" and pulled up a website.

"Azurite is unstable. It often pseudomorphs to malachite when in larger quantities. That's the green bit. And it's easily carved. It's brittle. Around 3.5 on the Mohs scale. And along with the brittleness it is also very... wait for it... heat sensitive. It cracks."

"Good work, Robyn!" Farah said with a pat on the shoulder. Robyn grinned.

"That's why it has the heat sensors. In case the lights in the case overheat!" They turned back around again. "We can definitely National Treasure this."

Dirk grinned, "This is your first, official, 'excellent assisting.' You are now a proper assis-friend."

"Ok, first thing's first," Robyn turned back around. "We need to get you all a spot on the list for the gala tonight."

"Can you do that?" Farah asked.

"Yes. Is your computer jailbroken?"

"Of course," Farah responded.

"Thank God, that makes my life a whole lot easier."

They pulled up a screen with a lot of letters and numbers that none of them understood. None of them except for Robyn.

They typed a few words into the computer and hit the enter button dramatically.

"There you are, off the grid. Now we can get crackin'."

Robyn pulled up the browser and within a few minutes, they had access to the museum's database. And more importantly, guest list for the gala.

"Wait-" Dirk said abruptly and gave a cheeky smirk. "We should go undercover."

"Good thinking," Farah said.