AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You didn’t,” he was quick to reply.
Turning, I studied him. He glanced at me, then back to the road. “I’m not hurt. I was surprised, but not even that surprised, if I’m honest. I want us to be honest with each other, and I want to be honest with my brothers.”
Brothers.I supposed after thousands of years together, with a history only they understood, they’d be closer than family.
“They’re always going to be in my life,” Pollux went on. “And I don’t want a life without them, so—”
He left the idea hanging out in the wind, and I had no response to it. My phone vibrated on my lap, and I turned it over to read the screen. It was Dr. St. John.
Dr. Ophidia. Your absence has required an old man to use text messaging, and I am severely put out by it. Check your email, or better yet, ring me. Then we can have a conversation like normal people, and not robots. Dr. St. John.
I chuckled. He’d signed his text message. The wicked part of me wanted to respond with a series of emojis, but the adult part countered, and I said to Pollux, “Do you mind if I make a call?”
He shook his head, and I connected.
“Hello?”
“Dr. St. John, it’s Leo.”
“Yes, yes.” He was out of breath. “I know. Your name appeared on my screen. Thank you for calling, now, when will you be back?”
“I’m on my way now, why?” There was an urgency to his tone that made me regret not reading every single one of my emails. “The members of the Ioannou Centre are meeting tonight and tomorrow. And they have the artifact from the British Museum.”
“How?” How did they get it out of the museum? Such a move took connections, and though not unheard of, was incredibly rare. In receiving the seal, the museum had assured Turkey of its safety.
“Now, when will you be here? I thought a showdown of sorts, very American, maybe involving a saloon, or pub, if we must, would be highly entertaining.”
Thank goodness someone found this amusing, because I didn’t. The idea of going head-to-head with my colleagues because they didn’t trust my integrity made me sick.
“Did you know Dr. Regan and Dr. Merton are close friends?” he continued, dropping the name of the dean of the classics department. There was a pause as he listened for my reaction.
“I knew they were colleagues.” Classics was a small community, and Ancient Greece even smaller. It was impossible to work in this field without knowing each other.
“My dear, they are much more than colleagues.” There was a rattle, like ice cubes against a glass. “I don’t tell you this to upset you, but so you are prepared. I’m afraid you may have been out-maneuvered.”
“Why are you telling me this?” His loyalty should be to Dr. Merton, not to me. Was this all just to see my reaction? Or prove I wasn’t ready for a position such as the one I’d earned.
“Because despite myself, I find I like you. You are a hard worker, and you are a scholar. This is all very underhanded.” He didn’t elaborate much more and I didn’t ask. “And intellectual theft is the lowest possible move an academic can make.
“Make sure you have all your notes in order, and prepare for the committee meeting. I expect there are aspects to tomorrow they haven’t even toldme.” He hung up.
I stared at the phone for a long moment. “I don’t know why this is happening.” Dropping it, I looked over at Pollux. “I don’t insult people. I don’t steal from people. I work hard, and I stay out of the way, and… it doesn’t make sense.”
“Who was that?” Pollux asked. “What did they say?”
“I’m walking into a bit of a trap, I learned, involving the head of Classics, and my colleagues. I think.” I wasn’t sure actually. There were multiple committees in the Classics and in the Ioannou Centre. Anyone could be there.
The leather on the steering wheel creaked as Pollux squeezed. “What do you mean?”
I had told Hector my experience at Harvard, but he hadn’t told anyone else. In as emotionless a way as possible, I gave Pollux the same story, but by the end, he was squeezing the steering wheel so hard I was afraid it would break.
“Dr. St. John told me Diana and Dr. Merton go back a long time. I’m sure he’s been feeding her my research, and now I’m going to have to prove the research was mine.”
He was quiet. “Why should you have to do that?”
In the academic world, there was nothing worse than stealing another person’s work. It was harder to get thrown out of a university for hazing than it was for plagiarism. I had my external drives and my notebooks and research, but if Diana had been receiving it all along, it would be difficult to prove where the work originated. I had the librarians and curators, but what if they were loyal to Dr. Merton?
No.
