Carmen & Gray: A Tale of Two Thieves (Book 2)

The Scrolls

FYI I don't know shit about excavation sorry I did my best 😖

Gray's PoV

We walked up to the campsite, and were greeted by a cheery woman in a savannah-safari type look.

"Welcome! Carmen and Gray, I presume? I've been excited to meet you!" she said in a thick Australian accent. "I'm Maria; the others are finishing getting things set up to dig! It was so great to hear that we'd be having two archeology majors joining us!"

Player, no doubt. He comes up with the best roles.

"Yep, that's us! It's also nice to meet a fellow Aussie," I said as I extended my hand to her to shake.

"Ah! Yes, it's nice to meet you too! Well, shall we head down?"

"Sounds good to me!" Carmen said brightly. As we walked down the steep dunes, Maria began explaining how the dig would work.

"We've already set up the supports where we need them, so it's up to you and our three other excavators to find what you can inside the tombs and caves."

1 hour later (preparation time yknow)

We turned on our helmet's flashlights, and stepped through the entrance. We could stand, but had to bend our knees a little so our heads wouldn't hit the roof of the cave. After around 10 minutes of walking, we reached the end. This was where they knew the cave tomb started, and where we were supposed to start digging. We cut and etched into the cave walls, collecting artifacts and setting them aside. It seemed too... plain. Unauthentic.

"Psst. Gray." I turned to see Carmen showing me a small tablet with a red-haired baby in the middle surrounded by foreign writing. "This paint isn't old at all. It rubs off pretty easily." She smudged off part of the baby's hair, leaving a plain grey surface underneath. "If these were real, the paint would be harden and sunken in to the rock and either come off flakily or not at all. I guess I was getting nervous about it somehow being connected to me over nothing!"

"That's good. But if the paint is recent, doesn't that mean these are fake?"

"Possibly. It's safest for us to finish this up and take some back for Player to analyse."

"Yeah, you're right."

1 day later

"Hey Player! Did you get some results back yet on the stone tablets?"

"Yeah. And like it or not... they're completely fake. They were made this year! The paints used contained chemicals not even around or widely used in paints until the 2010's. And like you said; the paint comes off so easily that there's no doubt they were made very recently. Something fishy is going on here."

"Alright. Well, thanks for letting us know. It's a bit help! See you!"

"Later!" Carmen hung up the phone, and began walking towards the TV to turn it on. "Well, what now?"

"I'm not sure. Why would somebody go through all that trouble to plant fake artifacts and scrolls in caves? And who would do that in the first place?"

"Uh, Gray? You might want to check this out." I turned around, and read the headline:

BREAKING NEWS: 5 MILLION YEAR OLD SCROLLS FROM THE TREKTO CAVE HAVE BEEN STOLEN

"Just a half hour ago, the excavation team who was scheduled to retrieve the acclaimed Lost Scrolls arrived at the Trekto Cave's entrance. However, once inside, they found the entire area wiped clean, even though their drones had picked up many traces of various papers, woods, and metals, 2 days ago. Jijen Abnuei, 23, says she saw people heading down to dig at the site yesterday, and on their way back, she caught snippets of a conversation including, "they didn't feel right." and, "something seemed fishy." Police are currently investigating the matter and trying to track down the, true to their name, "Lost" Scrolls."

We sat in a stunned silence for a few seconds.

"So much for our vacation."