Seekers of the Crypt; the Lost Artifact

The Jade Tablet

Garie rushed out of her apartment in Kensington to go to work. She has been working as a curator in a small private museum in London for three years already.

She likes doing jobs that involved antiquities rather than sitting around her office in their family’s business. Since she was a child, she loved listening to her grandfather’s stories of his adventures. Her late grandfather was renowned for archaeology like the movie character Indiana Jones.

But the difference between them was that her grandfather was not a professor but a businessman. And those artifacts he found during his expeditions were surrendered to the museum, while the treasures were sold. It was after her grandfather passed away that she was introduced to a secret organization where her family has been one of the founding members.

The Seekers – is a secret organization that explores unknown gravesites and protects national treasures. As one of the youngest members, she works with them by being a curator for their private museum.

When she got to the museum, she went straight towards the office where the new antiquities were brought in so they can study them before putting them on display. Garie went to her own cubicle and immediately placed her bag on her chair. Then she took off her jacket and put on her lab gown before tying her hair in a high bun.

When she was ready she approached her working table and wore her gloves before she started inspecting the antique jar, and documenting everything she notices. Time goes fast to Garie whenever she works on artifacts; before she knows it she has finished five antique jars. Now she moved into the unopened crates and opened one.

Rummaging through the styro peanuts, she was finally able to grab onto a huge rectangular box. It was a bit heavy for her to carry she had to ask for help. Her co-workers helped her get the box into the table.

“Thanks, guys.” She said and then she opened the box.

Garie lets out a whistle when she laid her eyes on what’s inside the box. It was a tablet made up of high-grade jade. The tablet looks like it was broken in half, so Garie went back towards the unopened crates and opened them. She rummages through it, trying hard to look for the other half of the tablet but it wasn’t there.

Though confused, she started working on the jade tablet. The tablet contains inscriptions in unfamiliar ancient texts. But when she saw a certain glyph that she found herself familiar with, it caught her interest. The glyph was a coil that looked like a sun at the same time and a lotus flower under it.

She remembered seeing that kind of glyph on her grandfather’s journal. According to her grandfather’s notes, it pertains to cure and immortality. She also remembered that it was indicated in several documents in her grandfather’s office when he was searching for an artifact. Her family failed many times in finding that artifact that they labeled as the Lost Artifact.

Even her Uncle Milton has been searching for it for years, and he’s on an expedition at the moment in search of the same artifact. And now seeing the glyph on the jade tablet, made Garie wonder if this tablet is a clue to finding that artifact.

She felt really excited that she grabbed a stool and sat in front of her work table and started working on the tablet. She tried deciphering the texts but somehow she cannot decode them. Her excitement turns to frustration; she needs to decipher it but somehow her brain is not properly working.

Then one of her co-workers offered to buy everyone a cup of coffee and then she suddenly craved the taste of caffeine.

“I’ll have a latte,” Garie told her co-worker.

“Copy that.”

While her co-worker left to buy coffee and the others were quite busy, she went to grab something from her bag. She took a gadget that is the size of a phone and her tablet. The gadget is a portable scanner that was provided by the Moore family; another founding family of the Seekers.

Garie looked around, looking for anyone looking her way, and then she grabbed a gadget and scans the artifact. The scanner transfers its imagery, surface, characteristics, and components to her personal tablet.

Once she was done, she sent all the scans to her childhood friend before she put them back inside her bag and sat back on the stool. Then she placed the tablet under warm light and a magnifying glass. She noticed that the jade was in good condition, but she sees some kind of smudges. She grabbed two cotton swabs and swabbed the smudge and then she placed it inside two separate zip locks. Garie stuffed one ziplock into her bag before she sent the other one to the laboratory under the building.

When the coffee came, she took a sip and started jotting down everything she observed on the tablet. After a few minutes, the result of the swab came back to her, and she was surprised at what was on it. It was blood with traces of silicon dioxide and charcoal. Silicon dioxide is a component of sand while charcoal is a component of gunpowder.

Garie felt more confused with what she found out. She suddenly felt as though something is not right with the tablet. She then turned toward her co-worker.

“Hey, where did the crates come from? Especially this tablet.” She asked.

Her co-worker then looked through the manifest.

“The crates are all from Peru but one crate was from Turkmenistan.”

Hearing the places where the crates came from, Garie took off her gloves and went to sit in front of her computer. She then searched Turkmenistan; there she found that most of the country is covered by the Karakum or Black Sand Desert.

“Desert...That’s it.” Garie mumbled, and then she remembered something.

She turned towards her co-worker again.

“Who sent the crate from Turkmenistan?”

Her co-worker looked at the papers again.

“Nothing much was written on it. Just letters and numbers.”

“What is it?”

“MB03.”

After hearing it, Garie shot from her seat with her eyes wide as saucers.

“Are you sure?” She asked and her co-worker nodded.

Then Garie snorted and chuckled, earning her some curious looks from her co-workers. But she ignored them and went back to sit in front of her work table. She looked at the tablet and grinned. It was her Uncle Milton who sent the tablet to her. MB03 is the code he uses whenever he sends her clues and other important stuff.

Looks like her uncle just found a piece of clue that can point them to the right location of the Lost Artifact. They are a step closer to finding the artifact that their family has been after for decades. But then her excitement died down when she remembered the smudge of blood on the jade tablet, and it made her really worried about her uncle.

Garie continued to work on the jade tablet, trying to find out more about it. But somehow she still hits the dead end. Since she was too busy with the tablet she didn’t notice that the time passed by so quickly and it was already late. She placed the tablet back in its container and took off her gloves and coat, and hangs it on the hanger. She wore her jacket and grabbed her bag before bidding her co-workers goodbye.

While she was on her way back to her apartment, her phone rang. It was her Uncle Michael who was calling.

“Yes, Uncle?”

“Garie, I need you to come home tomorrow. I have some things to discuss with you.” She heard her Uncle say through the other line.

“I also have things to discuss with you, uncle. I can drive home tonight.” She told him.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s just an hour's drive.”

“Alright, drive safe.”

After the call ended, Garie hurried back to her apartment. And in her apartment, she just grabbed a few items and stuffed them in her bag before she went out, locking her apartment door behind her. Then she went towards her parking space and unlocks her Porsche Macan 2L T. She chucked her bags into the passenger seat before she climbed in.

She let out a huff before she turned on the engine and drove off towards Stadhampton where the Beauford family estate is located.

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