Page 9 of Monsters in the Museum

Adam’s face took on a look that Nora had become familiar with throughout her life, and she automatically moved to wave it away.

“Oh no, don’t give me that sorry look. We lived with Irina for almost as long as I can remember, and she spent the entire time stuffing me full of borscht and driving me to marching band practice.”

“So, do you speak any Russian?”

Nora shrugged. “I understand it better than I speak it.”

At that moment, a cheerful-looking plump lady approached the table and greeted Adam in what sounded like French. Adam chatted with her animatedly for a moment, gesturing to Nora a few times before turning back to her and asking, “Would you like anything to drink?”

“Espresso, please.”

Adam exchanged a few more lilting foreign words with the lady before she bustled off, presumably to fetch her coffee.

“So, you speak French?” Nora asked, tearing her mind away from the way Adam’s mouth shaped itself around rolling French syllables. Her thoughts seemed to derail so easily around him. It was disconcerting.

Adam shrugged one shoulder, and Nora spotted a slight flush darkening his bronze skin.

“Yeah, I like to learn languages. I started so I could read books in the language they were written in, and then it sort of became an area of expertise.”

“Well, that’s part of why I wanted to meet with you today.” Nora pushed on, determined to steer their conversation into professional territory. “I’m looking for an expert in languages. I—my team at the museum is looking for somebody who can help us translate an engraving on a weapon.”

Adam leaned forward in his seat, and his eyes sparkled behind his glasses. “What kind of weapon?”

Nora blinked at his enthusiasm. Too often, her long-winded explanations of the subtle differences in blade shapes on short swords were met with glazed eyes, but Adam’s gaze held an unusual amount of fervor. Perhaps he was just as much of a history nerd as her—likely if what he said about learning languages was true.

“There were a bunch of weapons and fragments discovered in a dig outside of Athens, but the specific piece I need assistance with is a short sword—a Xiphos. It was found right next to a spear. Remarkably, both are in near-perfect condition. They most likely belonged to the same person, the spear being the primary weapon of the Greek hoplite and the sword being carried as a backup. The sword is the weapon with the engravings on it, but it’s in a language that nobody in the field can recognize…”

Nora looked up to find Adam gripping the edge of the table with white knuckles as he listened. His fingers were very long. Nora swallowed and ripped her gaze up to his face.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Oh… yes.” Adam seemed to remember himself and leaned back in his chair as he smoothed down his tie with one hand. “I’ve always loved history, although usually in a more literary sense, I’ll admit. But I was so intrigued when I read about the Greek weapons in the newspaper—the prospect of getting to help with them is thrilling. I do happen to know some ancient Greek dialects.”

Nora rifled around in her bag to pull out the leather notebook in which she had attempted to copy the inscription on the sword, leafing through the ruffled pages until she found the appropriate page.

“Does this look like something you might recognize?” she asked, turning the paper around to show him.

His eyes widened. “It does look like an ancient language that I’ve been studying in my spare time, but it’s hard to decipher with so little of it left.” He squinted at the page and leaned in further. “I might be able to translate it, but some of the symbols here are a little different than what I’m familiar with.”

Adam smoothed his fingers over the paper, and Nora chewed her lip as she considered the odd reverence with which he traced the symbols. “I did my best to copy the inscription, but it was hard to replicate an alphabet I’m not familiar with. Do you think that you could translate it better if you looked at the original?”

“You would let me look at the sword?” Adam asked, his gaze snapping up from the words on the page to meet hers.

Nora shouldn’t be inviting someone who was basically a stranger into the lab to look at ancient artifacts—she wasn’t technically permitted to bring somebody into the office without a visitor’s badge—but this was the best lead she had. She wasn’t going to let it slip through her fingers. Besides, if she brought him in right now, nobody would even have to know. Nobody else ever went into the office on weekends.

Adam’s enthusiasm over the artifacts warmed something within her, too. While plenty of people she worked with gushed passionately about history, the spark in Adam’s eyes was something else. It imparted her with a strange boldness, as if she had known Dr. Adam Scott for weeks instead of days.

“Sure,” Nora agreed. “Maybe we could take the bus over from here?”

Adam nodded emphatically. “I’m ready when you are.”

“Okay,” Nora said as she spotted the cheery waitress weaving her way back through the tables with a steaming cup. “We’ll leave after I finish my coffee.”

Pushing through the side doors, Nora led Adam down the hallway to the offices and peered around. She had never encountered any of her coworkers here on a Saturday, but it would be just her luck to have somebody putting in extra hours when she brought in an unauthorized visitor. Finding the hallway empty, she unlocked the office and held the door open.

As they made their way back to her workbench, she told him, “Just don’t touch anything, it’s all very old and fragile.”

Adam made a dramatic show of tucking his hands into the pockets of his tweed blazer, and Nora smiled despite herself.