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by
Jim knocked on Blair's bedroom door softly. He wanted to talk to his friend, but he didn't want to disturb him if he was too busy. The past few weeks had been really hectic, for both of them. It seemed as though the dinner they'd had with Simon and Blair's boss three weeks ago was the last either of them had spent together, barring work, or coming home to sleep.
"Yeah?" Blair asked through the door, his voice distracted.
Jim opened the door a crack and poked his head through. "Hey."
Blair swiveled around in his desk chair, a frown marring his features. "What's up? Is something wrong?" There was something about Jim's demeanor that was setting off warning bells.
"Yeah, actually there is. I think. A couple of things." He stepped into the room and sat down heavily on the bed.
"What is it?" Blair rolled his chair slightly closer to the bed. "Your senses?"
Jim shook his head. "Not really." He hesitated as second. "It's Chancellor Worth." He paused a second, not sure exactly what else to say.
Blair crinkled his brows, becoming concerned. "What about her?"
"I don't know, exactly." Jim shrugged he shoulders. "Something about her seems. off." He paused again. "She seems to know an awful lot about me."
"Yeah? Like what?" Blair stood up and came to sit on the bed next to Jim.
"That night she came to dinner, she was asking all these questions. About my life, and my time in Peru, and how you and I met." He paused once more before rushing on. "And I ran into her at that deli on fourth today."
"Really?" Blair asked curiously. "Today?"
Jim nodded. "Yeah, around three-thirty. She said she'd been in meetings all day and had forgotten to eat."
Blair raised in eyebrow. "Is that so? Just in the neighborhood then?"
Jim frowned. He didn't like Blair's tone. "Something like that. Why?" He didn't really see what the Chancellor's eating habits had to do with the weird vibe he was getting off of her. At first he thought maybe she was just attracted to him, but this was something altogether different.
"She was supposed to have lunch with me and one of the other junior professors today. She cancelled, said an emergency came up."
"What time was that?" Jim asked, his body stiff, not really liking where this conversation was going.
"We were supposed to have lunch at two. She called me about one forty-five and then left campus, presumably because of her emergency."
"One forty-five?" Jim stood up and headed back out into the living room.
Blair followed him, growing more alarmed by the second. Jim went over to the coat rack and pulled something out of his inside jacket pocket. Jim turned around and held it up for Blair to see.
"That's about the time this came. It was delivered to Simon's office."
Blair gulped. "What is it?" He asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"Take a look." Jim handed a pair of latex gloves to his friend. "Don't touch it." When Blair had put the gloves on, Jim handed him the small box.
Blair slumped on the couch after taking the small package. The box was small and silver. There had been a ribbon tied around it, but it was broken now. Blair raised his head in question.
"I had forensics' go over it."
Blair nodded as he lifted the lid. Inside there was a sheet of tissue paper, covering a small metal object triangular in shape. He was careful not to touch the object itself. Even with the gloves on, one could never be too careful. He'd received too many strange gifts in the past few months not to be wary.
"It goes with that spear I got last month." Blair said quietly. "They found poison on the tip, didn't they?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah. Some organic compound they couldn't quite trace, but yeah, poisonous."
Blair put the lid back on the box and set it on the coffee table. He raised his eyes to meet Jim's concerned ones. "The package was addressed to me, wasn't it?" Jim nodded. "So why was it delivered to Simon's office?"
****
Captain Simon Banks sat back in his chair, releasing a puff of smoke as he stared at the report lying innocently on his desk.
The lab wasn't positive but they believed the poison on the tip of the spearhead delivered to his office, addressed to Blair, was deadly. It was a combination of organic chemicals, some of which you couldn't even find in the United States.
According to the report, the poison spread through skin contact and due to one of the components would move quickly through the bloodstream. If Sandburg, or anyone else, had actually touched the tip, there wouldn't have been much that could have been done to help them.
The stakes had been raised.
Whoever was doing this was trying to kill Sandburg.
But why? And who?
Simon hadn't spent much time with his consultant recently, between Sandburg' s duties at the University and the rampant rush of crimes recently, but he hadn't heard anything, from either Sandburg, or Ellison about any more gifts.
If this was the same person, and it seemed likely it was, why the wait in between gifts? What were they after? More was at stake than a bizarre desire to kill the anthropologist. If that's all they wanted why the elaborate gifts, which according to Sandburg, held some sort f hidden meaning?
Simon took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he put out his cigar. There were too many questions, and not enough answers.
The telephone rang, startling the captain out of his inner thoughts.
"Banks." He answered wearily into the phone.
"Hey, Simon."
"Sandburg? You talk to Jim?" He asked glancing at his watch. It was after eight.
Blair sighed through the line. "Yeah, but that's not why I'm calling."
"Oh?" Simon asked curiously.
"Yeah, I have a lecture to attend Sunday morning downtown. It'll only be a couple of hours, should be over by noon." Blair paused.
"And this has what exactly to do with me?" Simon was more than a little confused.
"Well I thought we might take that raincheck. Go out to lunch, or maybe dinner. If you're busy, or you've changed your mind." Blair trailed off, suddenly thinking that maybe calling wasn't such a good idea.
He just wanted something to get his mind of that 'gift' and what it meant. Since he and Simon had never made it to that museum exhibit, which he didn't think Simon ever really had an interest in anyway, he thought this would be a good compromise, but maybe not.
"No, I haven't. lunch would be good." Simon exhaled, cursing himself for sounding like some juvenile.
Blair chuckled into the line. "okay, good. You know where the plaza hotel is downtown?"
"Yeah."
"That's where the lecture is being held. I can meet you in the café in the lobby around one-thirty, and we can decided where to go from there."
"Sounds good." Simon stared at the report in front of him for a second. "Blair, about this gift."
"Not now, Simon." Blair sighed.
"It isn't going to go away. What does Jim say?"
"He has a theory. We're working on it." Blair hung up the phone before Simon could press him anymore about what Jim's theory was.
Blair turned around and looked up at his best friend who was leaning against his doorframe. "Didn't Sally ever teach you it's not nice to eavesdrop?"
Jim grinned. "Yeah, but I seem to have acquired your habit of selective listening."
Blair grinned back as he stood up and made his way into the kitchen to make some tea. He still had some work to do before bed. After putting the kettle on to boil the water, Blair turned around, leaning against the counter.
"You really think Chancellor Worth really has something to do with this?"
Jim shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe it's a coincidence."
"But maybe not." Blair acknowledged. He stared unseeingly for a few seconds before speaking again. "I think she has heightened senses."
Jim's cool blue eyes stared at Blair, prompting the younger man to continue.
"I'm not positive, but that day, a few weeks ago, before she came for dinner? She was asking me about Sentinels. She said she read my diss."
"Is that unusual? She does work for Rainier."
"Yeah, but she would have no reason to come upon it, unless she went actively looking for it." He took a deep breath before continuing. "She wanted to know if I'd ever actually met a Sentinel before. When I told her I had met people with heightened senses, she seemed. I don't know. pleased? Relieved maybe. It was weird."
The kettle started to whistle, drawing Blair attention. After preparing his tea he turned back to Jim, who seemed to be lost in thought, his body stiff, wary.
"I'll check her out." Jim said finally before turning around and disappearing up the stairs.
Blair watched him go, and hoped that Rhianna Worth had nothing to do with his mysterious gifts, but if she did, at least they'd finally have some answers.
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