Instantly, the faintest rose of embarrassment drifted across my own face.
"Oh god, sorry Jackson. I wasn't looking where I was going, obviously."
"No, it's nice to see you! You interested in Ancient Greece, then?" He was smiling now.
"Well, yes, and the museum more generally, but we're also friends with the curator so we wanted to be at the opening." I indicated Seb, beside me, who'd stopped once I bumped into Jackson. "This is my brother, Sebastien. Seb, this is Jackson, the new agent who is shadowing Grace." I found myself looking down when I said it, remembering Stu and Grace ribbing me earlier. "Grace is here too, actually!"
"Oh, no kidding! Nice to meet you, by the way." He shook hands with Seb.
The way his voice had tilted in slight trepidation made me laugh. "Relax, she's off the clock, she won't be taking notes on you."
He grinned guiltily. "Grace is fantastic. She's just very, very good at her job."
I beamed proudly, as if I had anything to do with that. "Yes, yes she is. You're in good hands."
"That's cool that you're friends with the curator. If you see him around, I'd love to tell him how great the exhibit is."
I glanced around but didn't spot Ewan. "He's not here now but I will do!"
"Thanks. Good to see you again, Kenna. Glad to meet you, Sebastien."
"Likewise," Seb nodded.
Grant and Tristan had spotted us now and were enthusiastically waving us over.
"So that's the new agent you're working with, huh," Seb mused, when we were out of earshot of Jackson.
"Shut up," I said immediately.
"Suits me," he retorted.
"Joneses!" Grant exclaimed when we reached them.
"Kenna, you look like a work of art yourself," Tristan schmoozed.
I rolled my eyes. "This is the museum, not the art gallery, Tristan."
Seb stared at him in horror. "Dude. Boundaries."
Tristan gave me a grin. "Sorry, couldn't help myself. And I know this is a museum, Kenna. Look at all these museum things! Seriously, though, this one is cool." He pointed down into the case beside us, where I could see a worn and weather-beaten set of coins.
I peered at them a little closer. They were stamped with classical Greek profiles; their sign said they would be the patron god or goddess of the region that produced them, and there were several different ones, which indicated trade between regions. They were dated circa 500 BC on the sign. It astounded me how much time had truly passed since these were new, and yet they were fundamentally recognisable for what they were.
"Just like you to gravitate towards the money," I teased, smiling at Tristan. "They are amazing though. What did you think of the amulet over there?" I saw Seb glance sharply at me out of the corner of his eye.
Tristan's brilliant eyes flicked across to the case. "It's really something, kind of grabs your attention, doesn't it?" My heart beat a little faster, but then he laughed. "Ewan was telling me something really nerdy about it earlier, but I've forgotten exactly what its deal is."
"Well that was obviously a waste of breath, then," Ewan said suddenly from behind Tristan, who jumped.
"What the hell dude, where did you come from?" He demanded.
Ewan shrugged, with a grin. "I'm the curator; I'm everywhere."
I laughed. "You're like a cat burglar."
His grin got wider, a little devilish. "How else do you think I can sneak up on kids and yell at them for touching stuff?"
"Not sure I believe you, Ewan. I don't think I've ever really heard you yell at anyone. I thought it was Grant's job to yell at kids, anyhow. That makes more sense."
"I am very reasonable with those kids, thank you very much," Grant interjected about 10 decibels too loud, as usual.
We all snickered. "It's too easy to be fun with you, Ham 2," I said affectionately. He looked grumpy, which I ignored. "But anyway, Ewan, I would like to hear that very nerdy thing, if you've got the time. Maybe Tris will remember after the second time around. Oh, hold on, I think there's someone else who'd be interested too." I'd spotted Jackson again, and I waved him over, making good on my earlier promise.
He looked a little shy when he got to the group, probably because everyone was watching him expectantly. "Hi again Kenna, hi Grace and Stu, nice to see you guys here."
"Jackson!" Grace exclaimed, giving him a hearty pat on the shoulder. "Are you here by yourself? I'm sorry, I should have invited you along but I didn't even think about it!"
He laughed, "oh no, that's no problem. I'm here with a friend, actually, but he seems to have wandered off into the general exhibits."
I nudged Ewan, who was beside me now. "Jackson, this is Ewan Hamilton - he's the lead curator here, so this is his baby. Ewan, Jackson is a trainee agent working with Grace and me. Also, that's Ewan's brother Grant over there and our friends, Tristan Keynes, and Alexis Winters."
Jackson waved to everyone, and reached out to shake hands with Ewan. "You've done really great work here, man."
"Ewan was about to tell us something interesting about that amulet in the case across the room, if you'd like to hear it?" I watched his face closely, which meant I saw the look of distinct interest pass over it quickly, before his amber eyes crinkled at the corners.
"I would, for sure," he said with an enthusiastic smile.
Ewan hesitated slightly; I knew I'd put him on the spot, but ever the professional, he started in graciously. "Really, all I was telling Tristan was that the amulet is a bit of a mystery amongst this collection. The rest all dates to the Classical Greek period, around 500 BC, but the amulet, which was found in the same deposit as the others, appears to be Mycenaean in origin, making it at least 600 years older than everything else. There was another Mycenaean object found with the amulet, but we don't have it on display as it's very fragile.
The Mycenaean period represents the end of the Bronze Age in Greece, and it was followed by the Dark Ages, before the Ancient Greek civilisation that most people think of even began. Mycenaean Greece is interesting because it's the period that many of the Greek myths come from, like the Odyssey and the Trojan War, and where the Greek Pantheon of gods began. So it seems like this amulet and its companion were important enough to either be passed through families, kept in the same place, or to be traded as items of value over the centuries."
We all turned to look at the strange, beautiful mystery sitting innocently in its case. I felt the hum and the pull but did my best to ignore it. I hoped Ewan wouldn't sense me tensing beside him, not that he'd know why.
"Like I said," Tristan whispered to me, "nerdy."
"I can still hear you, idiot," Ewan said dryly.
"I'm on his side anyway," I retorted to Tris, leaning with one arm against Ewan's shoulder. He was taller than I thought, which meant it was very uncomfortable and I quickly abandoned the pose. "That is really interesting, Ewan. Thanks for telling us all about it!"
"I agree," Jackson smiled. "Very interesting. The secrets of ancient civilisations could keep one occupied for years." His eyes flicked between Ewan and I, coming to rest on me. "Well, thanks very much for that, Ewan, and it was great to meet you and everyone else. Well done again on the exhibit. I'd better go find my buddy, I know you'll be closing up pretty soon. Nice to see you, Grace, Stu, Kenna." With a final polite wave, he made his way off through the thinning crowd.
I pretended not to notice Grace raise her eyebrow at me slyly. I still hadn't figured Jackson out, or what the smiles and looks really meant, or whether I wanted them to mean anything.
Tristan, on the other hand, look a look at his watch and said, "yeah, I think I'm going to have to head out too. We're doing a big campaign roll out next week so I'm saying hello to late nights and weekends from home until then. Doesn't the museum close in ten minutes anyhow?"
"Woah, woah, woah," Ewan put his hands up, "the museum closes for the public in ten minutes. I've got a bottle of champagne in my desk, and permission from the directors to crack it with a select invited few after hours. You guys are my select few, so anyone want to join?"
I shot a look at Lexa and Seb as if to say, I told you this was important to him. This was undoubtedly the biggest exhibit he'd put on himself, and his startling eyes pleaded for us to stay, even while his face stayed casual. It tugged on my heartstrings for sure, and seemed to melt any opposition in the others, too.
"You know I'm in," I grinned. He smiled down gratefully at me.
"Let's do it, man," Seb patted Ewan on the back.
"Champagne and museums are two of my favourite things!" Grace said brightly.
Tristan glanced at his watch again, torn, but he too broke down in the end.
"Awesome!" Ewan beamed, "why don't you all come to my office and we'll hang out there until the museum is shut down, then we can go back out?"
"I don't know if I can handle all this VIP treatment!" I joked, always willing to beat a bad joke into the ground.
"Oh my god, you can't take her anywhere," Lexa groaned.
I winked at Ewan cheekily as I passed him, and he put a hand over his mouth to hide his smile.
He fell into step beside me while we all headed for his office. "It was nerdy, wasn't it?" His voice was low.
"Nerdy is in the eye of the beholder," I said sagely. "In my eyes it was interesting and informative. Nerdy in the best way. And if you ask me, Tris is losing his touch a little. He was never going to get anywhere with that one."
Ewan squeezed my upper arm gratefully. I was surprised by how much he seemed to care what we all thought in this case, since he was normally pretty unflappable.
I supposed we all had our vulnerabilities.
Tristan's empathy metres must have been wonky, because he popped up between us, slinging an arm around each of us and singing out, "I heard my name, and I always answer that call."
A bit annoyed with him, I retorted, "yeah, I was just saying to Ewan how it's not surprising you almost failed Classics in high school."
Ewan snorted a little. Tristan looked unfazed, pale eyes sparkling. "Maybe, but I know my strengths. I seem to remember a certain Jones Jr needing an awful lot of help with her Marketing homework."
Dammit. I had forgotten what a good excuse it'd seemed to spend time with him, although Marketing was definitely my strong suit. "I guess I wasn't as good at selling my soul, so I needed help with that," I smirked.
He looked right back at me. "I know exactly who I am, Kenna."
"Lucky you," said Ewan with an air of finality. "Anyway, here's my office everyone. Don't be too dazzled by its magnificence."
It was a reasonably sized room with a rather lovely view out of the tall windows that let the evening sun stream in. We mingled about for a while as Ewan popped the champagne and dispersed it into those ever classy, ubiquitous plastic cups. We toasted his success, of course, and each got enough champagne for a fizzy pleasantness to settle over us all.
After a time, Ewan checked his watch and peered out of his office door. "Well, we should be good to go back out. You guys can bring your cups if you've got much left."
Laughing and chatting, we traipsed back down the corridor and into the soft light of the exhibit room. I hadn't had a chance to look at some of the artefacts yet, so I broke away from the group and started having a more in depth read of the exhibit in the peaceful absence of crowds.
When I poked my head back up a few minutes later to check on everyone and make sure I wasn't being too anti-social I saw that the others had a similar idea and most were dispersed randomly about the room. Lexa, unsurprisingly, had stuck with Seb. As I re-immersed myself, I wondered idly if he was really dumb enough to not have figured it out.
An indeterminate amount of time later, the lights went out.
***
A/N: DUN DUN DUNNNN. Okay this museum scene will probably be split into three, maybe four chapters in total. Like I said, it's a beast! Why have the lights gone out? What's going on? Could it be ... Villains?? Find out in the next instalment!