"Pleasure to meet you." Kaden smiled sweetly and the woman's face melted into a blush. She looked down, clearing her throat, trying to get back on track.
"Right. What's your purpose here?" She demanded, but once her eyes met Kaden's again, we could see she was fighting a losing battle. He gently rubbed his thumb on the back of the woman's hand.
"Ah, my grandfather recently died, you see, and he sent some artifacts here for dating and such that he had collected over the years. He willed these things to me when he passed, and I'm just here to see what they are and if I want any of them." Kaden said softly.
"Oh, Mr. Stern was your grandfather. Yes, that checks out.." She seemed flustered, and the other guards looked at her in surprise.
"It was very nice to meet you, I'm glad you were here when we arrived. I know you may have forgotten our phone call several days ago about this. I just got in to town today and need to leave quickly or I would have waited for a weekday for this." Kaden prompted gently.
"Oh yes! Your call! I had nearly forgotten about that. Your voice is so much more soothing in person." She giggled shyly and pulled her hand from Kaden's grasp, passing the ID and passes back to us. "Don't forget to stop back here before you leave to pick up your parking validation if you parked in the garage. You will also need to sign out at the front desk and return the passes. Have a nice day!" We stepped away from the desk but a gruff voice called us back.
"Lukoie, huh?" It said. Brie bit her lip as we turned back to the desk. "My grandmother used to tell me tales of the Lukoie." An older burly guard with a crew cut was speaking.
"Mine too, I think that's why my family adopted the moniker." Kaden replied with a laugh.
"Well you certainly don't look like a little old man that tosses milk into children's eyes." The older gentleman's eyes sparkled brightly and Kaden laughed a loud booming laugh.
"No, I suppose I don't" He answered with a wide smile, "We should exchange stories some day, it sounds like our families may share some fables." Kaden waved and we continued down the hall towards Brie's office. I sighed audibly, my heart was hammering away. Kaden reached towards me, then seemed to remember his promise and dropped his hand.
"What did you do to that woman?" Brie asked curiously.
"I just sort of pieced together some of her memories to create a different picture, all while being my usual charming self." He replied with a smirk.
"You manipulated her into liking you." I accused.
"Well...It was more like I convinced her to notice me and that I was trustworthy. Kaden hedged. I snorted.
"Uh-huh." I replied.
"What would you have had him do then Rue?" Brie hissed. "We didn't have any of the paperwork and things they normally would have asked for. Plus they almost always check licenses or state/federal IDs of visitors, and I don't know if you have yours, but I doubt Kaden has one at all."
"Alright, alright." I grumbled my acceptance. Brie slid her key-card to unlock her office door.
"I thought we were going to the lab?" I asked.
"I want to check here first." Brie replied, pulling the door wide.
"Well that was a bust." Kaden mumbled, sticking his head into the room. It had been completely stripped, even the furniture was gone.
"They must be ahead of schedule." Brie chewed on her lower lip with worry. "Let's go on down to the lab." She led the way down the hall, swiping her card at another door.
"Crap." I said, as we faced another empty room.
"Well, hang on...there are some boxes against the wall." Brie pointed out. We made our way across the room to the stack of boxes. Brie started opening lids and setting boxes aside.
"What are we looking for here Brie?" I asked quietly.
"Huh? Oh, these brown boxes are just documents, I'm looking for shipment info or the lab work or take in form associated with the shoes. The white cartons over there have chemicals and other testing supplies. None of these will actually have the shoes, but might help us find where they are now." Brie responded distractedly. I opened a brown box filled with files hanging on two little metal tracks. I started flipping through them, and noted they all appeared to be financial records for lab supplies. I opened another box, this one was filled with paperwork tracking chemicals in and out, disposal records and reordering forms, all in triplicate. I sighed. Kaden was snooping through the white boxes.
"Kaden, that might be dangerous..." I warned.
"Not human!" He called back in a sing-song voice. I rolled my eyes, and Brie and I continued to go through the files. Once we hit the employee work logs and ID numbers, we gave up.
"The basement next?" Brie asked.