#ludove

“CLAUDIA!” came an outraged cry from the bottom of the stairs. The junior agent poked her head from the top of the stairs, only to catch a glimpse of an angry Artie. She grimaced and quickly hid behind the bannister as he stormed up the stairs. “I saw you, so don’t you try to hide.”

“Shoot. What did I do this time?” She cringed as his face grew redder.

“You have violated Warehouse protocol yet again! What part of do not play with the artifacts do you not understand?”

“What? H.G. does it all the time!” Claudia pointed accusingly at the Victorian, who had popped her head out of the door to Myka’s room. Artie’s head swiveled in the direction Claudia was pointing, only to catch a glimpse of black hair as H.G. disappeared back into the room. Artie turned back to Claudia.

“I’ll deal with her later. You, however, are coming with me.”

“What? Where are we going?” Claudia questioned, following Artie back down the stairs.

“There was a ping,” Artie snapped.

“What? Are we going? As like you and I, together, going artifact hunting?” Claudia nearly squealed with glee. She usually never got to go on missions, let alone with just Artie.

“Yes. Pete took his vacation days for this week and, as you probably noticed, both Agents Bering and Wells are detained.” At this statement Artie shuddered, not wanting to think about what exactly Myka and Helena were up to. “Anyways. It is you and me, kiddo. And you know what? If this goes without a hitch I’ll give you a pass on the violation, just this once.”

“Alright!” Claudia cheered. “Thanks Artie! I won’t let you down!” Artie merely nodded and walked briskly to the front of the bed and breakfast. 

“Gather your stuff and meet me out front as soon as possible!” he ordered. Claudia grinned and ran back upstairs. Artie merely shook his head at the girl’s enthusiasm. Though if he was being honest it felt good to be able to spend some time with Claudia. He hadn’t been able to have a good talk with her in a long time. This mission had some risk to it, but he figured that they’d be able to handle it. It wasn’t like the time he got captured by artifact hunters in Mongolia with MacPherson. Artie stood awhile and reminisced, a very rare smile upon his face. Claudia raced down the stairs and to the door to find him still smiling to himself.

“Do I even want to know what you are thinking about?”

Artie glared at her, not enjoying his memories interrupted. “Is me smiling really that rare? Never mind, don’t answer that. Come on. Let’s get going.” 

The following car ride and plane ride to New Hampshire was filled with bickering. First on if Claudia could drive to the airport and then once Artie got them there, if she could have the window seat on the plane. Eventually the pair got to their destination unscathed. Artie pulled into the driveway of a small chain hotel and the dynamic duo settled into a room. The artifact they were hunting was very mysterious and Artie insisted that they both get enough sleep. Ironically sleep was the very thing that the artifact dealt with. Artie claimed that it was Rip Van Winkle’s walking stick. Apparently the story Washington Irving had written was based on an actual man. Claudia had merely shrugged, her time and association with the warehouse left her not surprised that there was a secret history for almost everything. Eventually Artie fell asleep, his snores shaking the shared room and Claudia was left awake, her mind racing. The snoring became too much and she had to leave the room. Claudia grabbed her key card, her farnsworth, and, after a small deliberation, grabbed her tesla. They may be in New Hampshire, but you never can be sure. Carefully closing the door as to not disturb Artie, Claudia shuffled down the hallway. She didn’t really have a purpose or a destination in mind, but she just wanted to move. The lights flickered at the end of the hallway, indicating the place where the stereotypical vending machines lived. The carpet was soft and squishy under Claudia’s socked feet, sinking slightly as she traveled further towards the soft hum.

Claudia yawned, the first sign that sleep might actually be possible tonight. Then she paused and turned around. She could have sworn she had heard something, but there was nothing there. Claudia frowned and went back to her slow trek down to the vending machines. There it was again, a noise, almost like a small thump came from the opposite direction. She gritted her teeth and could almost hear the horror movie audience yell at her to run. Hating herself for being afraid, Claudia jogged to the vending machines and got out of the hallway. Standing in the bright light of the small room Claudia could feel her heartbeat slow down as her eyes adjusted to the light. “Please, please, please, please don’t kill me,” Claudia chanted to herself. She carefully peeked around into the hallway. At the opposite end was an obscure figure. In the dim light of the corridor, it was hard to make out exactly who or what it was. Claudia hid back in the vending machine room, the hum of the machines enough to drown out her rapid breathing. 

She mentally scolded herself for freaking out this much, but given the situation she couldn’t help it. She’d always loved horror movies. But watching it and living the heart pounding terror where two very different things. She gritted her teeth and reached for her farnsworth, thinking she would call someone, but Claudia paused. There was no one to call. Artie was asleep, Pete was on vacation, and Myka and HG were probably indisposed. She sighed and reached for her tesla, the one thing that was actually useful in the situation. Steadying her breathing with a few deep breaths, Claudia charged back into the hallway, her telsa pointed straight down the middle. The hallway was empty. Claudia’s jaw dropped and she looked around, trying to spot the figure she had seen. 

Claudia was shocked. She would have sworn she had seen something. “Obviously I need to get to bed,” she said to herself. Claudia shuffled back down to the room, her heart slowing down. She got back the door and did the traditional “where did I put my key card” shuffle and smiled when she found it in her back pocket. She had always wanted pjs with pockets and last Christmas Myka had made those dreams come true for Claudia. As she started to run the card through the reader thingy on the door, there was a click. Not too unlike the click of someone holding a loaded gun. Claudia froze, hoping that it was again just another trick of her imagination.

“Back away from that door,” said a commanding voice.

“Ok then. I didn’t imagine that,” Claudia said, raising her hand and slowly backing away from the door. “Please don’t kill me.”

“I hopefully won’t have to, but I am prepared to do what I must. Is Artie still with the Warehouse?” questioned the voice.

“What? Yeah, of course he is. He probably is going to be until the day he dies, which is a particularly not pleasant thought.”

“Wonderful. Then please, continue to open the door. Please do remember I have a gun.”

“Right, that is something I’m going to forget. Totally.” Claudia unlocked the door and walked carefully through it, not wanting to upset the unknown assailant. The person behind her shuffled in and the clunk that Claudia had heard earlier sounded on every other step forward. “Knew I wasn’t hearing and seeing things,” she mumbled.

“Shut up and keep moving.”

“Alright! Calm yourself, it isn’t like I can do much with a gun pointed to my head.” They reached the bed that Artie was snoring away in with little hassle. Claudia hovered over the sleeping figure, not knowing what exactly to do. Suddenly there was a gunshot and Arite leaped up from the bed. The lamp on the bedside was shattered and the room was cast in an eerie darkness, the only light coming from the moon.

“Who’s there?” cried a groggy Artie, who groped around for his glasses.

“Care to remember an old friend, Artie?” asked the voice.

“You know Artie? Then what’s with the gun? We should be on the same side!” exclaimed Claudia.

“I don’t know who I can trust.”

“Richard? Is that you? I thought you went insane and had to be institutionalized! It’s so good to hear your voice, wait, gun?”

“Can we just turn on some light?” asked Claudia.

“But I shot the lamp.”

“There should be more than one light source in a hotel room.”

“This is getting confusing”

“This is getting confusing”

“Well that was originally the point, but I feel I can trust you now.” At that point the light flickered on in the room, Claudia had managed to sneak around the person Artie identified as Richard and turned on the other lamp in the room.

“There. Now let’s get some things straightened out and you, gun away!” ordered Claudia to the elderly gentleman holding a gun in his left hand and a walking stick in his right. The man shrugged and put the gun into a holster around his waist.

“When I was younger, kids would have respect for their elders.”

“I’m pretty sure that went out the door when you put a gun to my head. Now, could you please explain what you want? I’m pretty sure Artie is about to have an aneurysm or something.” Artie, just sat there, listening to the exchange, the fast flow of information too quick for his sleep addled mind.

“Alright. As you can probably tell, my name is Richard. Richard Price. As you also probably guessed, I used to work with Artie. At the warehouse, not NSA. I’ve been asleep for a very long time. I think twenty years. It was Rip Van Winkle’s walking stick. Not the one I have on me, but the original. It puts the user to sleep. Indefinitely. Until someone else touches it. There is a lovely young girl who accidentally rescued me from my slumber. I didn’t know what to do, and then I remembered the warehouse. I don’t know why I used the gun. I’m sorry about that. But you have to help her. I don’t want her life to waste away like mine did.”

Claudia nodded, taking all the new information in. “I see. People do desperate things sometimes. Listen, we’ll get that girl help. I promise. Now can we please get some sleep?” A grumble of agreement came from Artie and Richard nodded. 

At the end of the week, after a successful artifact retrieval and a touching goodbye from Richard, Claudia was tired. She was so tired that she didn’t even argue with Artie on the way back to the warehouse. When they reached the impressive figure to put the walking stick away, she turned and smiled at Artie.