Raider and the Lost Lamp Ch. 04

"Pretty convincing," Jeff said. "Except what were you doing in the himalayas?"

"I don't remember," Clara replied with a sly smirk. She continued scanning the email, becoming less and less hopeful as the scrollbar descended further and further down the screen. "Blast!" she cursed as the bar hit the bottom. "There's nothing on there that sounds even remotely similar!"

"Is there any chance he might have missed something?" Jeff asked, after a brief solemn silence.

"No. Dimitri is nothing if not meticulous," Clara sighed, clicking on the 'Log out' link. She turned off the monitor and rose out of the chair. "Zhiasa and Hal'hadin must have passed the amulet on to their children, and possibly they to their children... Meaning it could have been buried in any number of medieval Persian tombs that may or may not have been discovered, and that's assuming that it wasn't sold or stolen from the family. Father was right: it could be anywhere..." Clara said, with a false smile.

"Hate to play devil's advocate here, but are we even sure that the amulet still exists?" Jeff asked, treading softly.

"No. But Tukanni's spell made the lamp indestructible, so that bodes well for the amulet," Clara replied with optimism. She looked over her shoulder at the quietly humming computer. "Our best bet now is to search through every recorded object recovered from medieval Persian digs, and every recovered object of Mesopotamian origin," she said. "This could take a while..."

"I get the feeling that you could use a hand. Do you have another computer somewhere around here?" Jeff asked.

With her right hand, Clara made a pushing motion towards the wall adjoining the one the desk sat against. Instantaneously an exact clone of the existing desk appeared there, complete with chair and computer set. The new computer was even on, just like it's twin.

"I do now," Clara smirked.