"I should have their balls on a silver platter with a 'my sincerest apologies' card in my hand by sunrise!" Dr. Galloise shouted, hands clenched at her side as she passed from one side of the room to the other. The living room of the AirBnB that they'd rented for the team was European sized, meaning it was functional but not necessarily large.
Most of the team sat on the couch watching their superior vent her frustrations, while others tried their best to get some kind of work done on their laptops at the dining room table.
Professor Marrow was absent for witnessing this little tirade, busy with petitioning the government to allow the team to start excavating again.
No one refuted or tried to calm her down.
Everyone here was a history nerd.
They knew what a bunch of pissed off Canadians could do in World War II, and weren't keen on seeing a repeat.
Leta's mind was elsewhere, replaying her interactions with John Alaric.
He'd been using nanite software and trying to get into her head, scratching at her mental defenses like a dog on the hunt.
After everything that had happened, she was pretty sure that he'd been the one to make them sign off on arresting her. His Mental Manipulation was strong - strong enough that she'd nearly had a physical reaction to it. She'd been able to shake it off this time, but if she hadn't had her upgrades, she was positive she would have been a blubbering mess under his control.
Who knows if she'd been just slightly stronger next time.
For that matter, how many other people were like her with activated nanites?
Gada had said that all first and second generation Atlantians had evacuated and everyone's nanites had gone dormant. So why was there some random man in a Greek police station going around trying to mind control people?
'Gada, are there other people who have activated nanites?'
[STORED FILE RECORDS HAVE NOT BEEN UPDATED IN OVER 5,000 YEARS. A CLEAR ANSWER OF NUMBERS CANNOT BE PROVIDED AT THIS TIME WITHOUT INPUT FROM AN ATLANTIAN MAINFRAME.]
'Do you know where one is, or rather, the remains of one?]
[DATA RECORDS STOP RIGHT BEFORE ATLANTIAN COLONIES WERE SET TO IMPLODE. COLONY LOCATIONS CAN BE PROVIDED, BUT WHETHER A MAINFRAME IS STILL INTACT OR IF THE RUINS OF THE COLONY STILL STAND AT ALL CANNOT BE CONFIRMED.]
'Awesome…' Leta sighed, her head dropping as if she couldn't bare to hold it up any longer.
[HOST SHOULD NOTE THAT THE INDIVIDUAL USED A CORRUPTED SOFTWARE IN AN ATTEMPT TO GAIN ENTRY AND HINDER THE HOST'S MENTAL FACILITIES. IT WOULD STAND TO REASON THAT THE INDIVIDUAL DID NOT REAWAKEN THEIR NANITES IN AN APPROPRIATE MANNER].
Leta frowned, 'You mean, that guy had jerry rigged his nanites?'
[CORRECT, IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE PROGRAM WHICH WOULD REAWAKEN ONES NANITES WAS INCOMPLETE OR CORRUPTED IN SOME WAY, CAUSING PROGRAMS WITHIN THE INDIVIDUALS CLASS SYSTEM TO BE ALTERED OR GO MISSING.]
'Okay, well, regardless of how it happened, we can at least confirm that there's one person out there with active nanites, which means there are most likely others as well and we don't know if their friendly or not. We need to get more nanites and bump up stats in order to stand a chance against anyone else.'
[UNPROGRAMMED NANITES ARE NEEDED IN ORDER TO INCREASE STATS AND TO DOWNLOAD NEW SOFTWARES. UNPROGRAMMED NANITES CAN BE FOUND IN SMALL QUANTITIES WITHIN LIVING MATTER ALTERED BY THE ATLANTIAN SCIENTISTS. SUCH MATTER CAN INCLUDE A VARIETY OF PLANTS, ANIMALS, AND HUMANS.]
Leta turned her face away so her teammates wouldn't see her disgusted expression.
'Like hell I'm turning into a zombie and eating people.'
[ORAL CONSUMPTION IS NOT NECESSARY WITH THE HOST'S SOFTWARE, SACRIFICIAL TOUCH. IN ADDITION, HUMAN BLOOD MAY CONTAIN A SMALL NUMBER OF UNPROGRAMMED NANITES. HOWEVER, IT IS SUGGEST THAT THE HOST FIND AN ANIMAL CARCASS OR PLANTS TO ABSORB NANITES. THE HOST CAN SIMPLY TOUCH LIVING MATTER TO VERIFY THE NUMBER OF UNPROGRAMMED NANITES.]
Leta breathed easy, happy to know she didn't have to go around eating people to get stronger, and turned her attention back on her team.
Dr. Galloise spat out several more creative insults before she seemed to run out of steam, standing in the middle of the room like an explosive with a dud fuse.
She took a deep breath before crossing her arms and fixing Leta with a hard stare.
"They said that you were arrested for stealing an artifact from the dig. Just give me a confirmation that you didn't do it."
"I swear, I didn't steal anything." Leta responded instantly, putting her hands up as if trying to sooth a wild animal.
"They searched our bags before we left the port and signed off that everything was okay," pipped up Vigo, one of the other university students from New Zealand. "If something had been stolen, it would have been found then, right?"
Dr. Galloise exhaled through her nose as that fact hung in the air like a ghost, haunting their thoughts.
"There was something weird that happened when they had me in the police station." Leta spoke up, grabbing everyone's attention, "The detective kept insisting that I'd stolen it, but when I brought up that fact about being searched, he looked over the warrant again then quickly left the room. I could be wrong, but it sounded like that detective's signature was on the warrant, but he had no recollection of signing it."
Dr. Galloise and the team frowned in shock and confusion about this new piece of information.
"You mean, someone forged the detective's signature to get you arrested?" The Hindi student Chandi Jadhav asked the question that was on everyone's mind.
Leta shrugged, "Maybe, but my gut is telling me that this whole thing is a set up and I just ended up being the scapegoat since I'm the youngest on the team. I mean, when does a government get involved in a dig again after everything is approved? When it gets reported that there's some unethical stuff going down, right? I mean, even if something is super culturally important, which this dig absolutely is, the most that they do is bring someone on to observe, not investigate."
Leta could see that her point had an effect on the team as everyone looked amongst themselves with faces full of concern and mistrust.
"So, it's possible that someone made a false accusation about the team excavating." Dr. Galloise mused, chewing on that thought like a dog with a bone. Leta could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she began to pace again.
"Yeah, even in the archeological community you've got the occasional a**hole who will try to sabotage another's credibility in order to take credit for a discovery, but I don't know anyone with a grudge against me that would do this. Any of you?" She asked, looking at the team.
Everyone shook their heads no.
Dr. Galloise pursed her lips in thought. "I'll have to bring this up to Professor Marrow when she gets back from the magistrates. Until then, the dig is still on hold so you're all free to explore Athens and see the sites. If you go anywhere, please take a buddy with you and do not leave the city limits without contacting myself or Professor Marrow, is that understood?"
When everyone nodded, Dr. Galloise sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as if she had a migraine.
"Well, after all this I need a drink. Who wants to be my buddy?"