Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Indiana Matt and the Jade Tokomon ❯ Part 1 ( Chapter 1 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: dareru 
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.30.2001 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 329 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.30.2001 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 329 | Status: Completed
INDIANA MATT AND THE JADE TOKOMON
By Dareru (furidashi@hotmail.com)
Disclaimer: Warning! May contain action, adventure, mystery, suspense, yaoi, car chases, explosions, the word 'Ni!,' MSG, gunfights, and scenes from the 1930's. Not recommended for pregnant women, the elderly, people with heart problems, or people with no imagination or a closed mind. You must be at least 5" tall to go on this ride.
Disclaimer #2: Digimon and all characters are property of Toei, Bandai, and Saban. Not me, some big company. I'm just writing this for fun. Indiana Matt is the property of Koani (koani@larekas.freeserve.co.uk) and Claire Ishida (ffenics@hotmail.com). He and his ladyfriend are borrowed with permission.
Disclaimer #3: Mika Crystal, alias M.C., is the creator of the Council of Old Meandering Ecchis (aka C.O.M.E. - see p. 28) serving as President. Tabby, alias T.C., serving as VP.
Disclaimer #4: There is no disclaimer #4.
~~~
PART 1
CHAPTER 1
"Professor! Professor!"
The sun beat mercilessly down on Professor Jyou Kido, an archeologist of quite some renown after finding several ancient sites in what was formerly thought to be a barren wasteland. His university loved it so much that they sent him out to yet another barren wasteland to see if he could find anything there.
It had been three days with not so much as a camel skull turning up at the excavation site. He was beginning to wonder if his all-expense-paid trip to the middle of a desert was all that it was cut out to be.
'Well, at least I get to look forward to a nice, hot, scorpion-infested tent when we're done here.'
The Professor sighed and wiped sweat from his eyes as he surveyed the dunes. He took off his glasses and polished them against his formerly white, but now sand-colored t-shirt. Everything indicated that here would be the best site to dig - a promising sound reading had found a big mass of...something underground, but after days of almost constant digging even Jyou's patience was being tested. He sighed and was about to make a comment about the idiots at the University administration when excited shouting drifted up on the hot breeze to his ears.
"Professor! Professor! We've found something!"
His musings were temporarily cast aside as he scrambled down into the pit. There, exposed after digging through five meters of sand, was the tip of a large, pointed building. Everyone held their breath and looked at the Professor expectantly.
"All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a strike," he said calmly. "Tell the mess tent to open up the packets of dehydrated ice cream and powdered champagne. We'll have a party tonight!"
A cheer rose from the group.
* * *
The stars shone down on the small tent-city in the middle of nowhere. The desert air was charged with the excitement of finding something, and a battery of tests indicated that this was no ordinary something, it the sort of something that turned out to be a temple or religious building of some sort. The head of the dig project had promised a convoy of professionals would come and assist Jyou's students, while making sure the entire world knew about the new site.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Jyou said, holding his tin cup of reconstituted champagne up to the crowd, "today we have discovered something perhaps as important as the pyramids of Giza. Tomorrow we will go into the site and see just how big this thing is."
A ripple of polite applause radiated from the audience and they collectively raised their drinking implements and toasted the short speech. Most of them were promptly upturned, as the audience promptly realized just why the demand for reconstituted champagne is nonexistent. Fortunately they could look forward to the dehydrated ice cream for afters.
* * *
Morning brought with it clouds and the promise of the first desert rains of the year. After a spartan breakfast of oatmeal, or as it turned out for many of the non-cooking-inclined, burnt oat-flavored mush, and water, the digging teams once again donned their khaki shorts and pith helmets and ventured into the now deepening and widening sand pit around the newly discovered temple.
By midmorning the convoy had arrived from Cairo, which consisted of a group of six jeeps, twenty people, pickaxes, and a small electric generator to power the collection of refrigerators they packed along with them.
The lead vehicle pulled up to the informally dubbed "Command Tent" where the majority of the fancy equipment, maps, and comfortable seating was. The passenger stepped out and made her way to the table.
She was tall, thin, pink-haired, brown-eyed, and wore a pair of obscenely short khaki shorts and a tight denim jacket. Her hair flowed behind her wherever it peeked out from her ridiculously oversized ten-gallon cowboy hat, but that fact was tactfully overlooked by the pair of male graduate students who were now quite enthralled by her, even though they had only seen her for a handful of seconds. She smiled at them and leaned forward.
"Hello, boys, is Professor Kido around?"
The pair stumbled over their words in an effort to be the first to get out a sentence that would not only inform her to the Professor's whereabouts but also get her to fall in love with him. After a few seconds, the smarter of the two realized that not only would she not fall in love with him but that if he didn't say something she would never talk to him again, and blurted out, "He's in the pit!"
"Thanks, boys," she said, turning and giving them a wink which melted their hearts.
Her companions took to setting up the newest addition to the tent city while she went down to look for the Professor.
* * *
Jyou Kido and his intrepid group of adventurers were hopelessly lost. They had been so eager to be the first to step into the temple for goodness-knows-how-many years that no one had thought to bring their sense of direction with them. So they were now searching frantically for the way out in a confusing maze of passageways, guided by the sputtering light of a torch and a pair of flashlights.
"OK, gang, I admit...we're lost." Jyou sighed.
A collective sigh emanated from the group of students.
"So, we have no idea where the way out is?" asked one.
"Yes, I believe that's synonymous with the word 'lost,'" replied the Professor, the slightest bit of sarcasm edging into his voice. The student faded back into embarrassed silence and leaned against what she thought was a particularly nice group of hieroglyphics.
Had she known how to read hieroglyphics, she would have realized that the panel she pressed said, "Press me." However, even if a user was not skilled in hieroglyph-reading, the panel would still obligingly work if pressed.
She shrieked, causing the student with the torch to drop it. Sparks showered on the closest students, who happened to also have flashlights in their hands, which were also dropped as they tried to beat out their flaming socks and smoldering leg hair in the now-dark passageway. Panic broke out among the remainder of the group, which was eventually silenced by the calm, reassuring voice of the professor.
"Nobody move!"
The students stopped milling about, while the Professor groped around on what he hoped was the ground for the flashlights, and, finding one, flipped on the switch.
"Professor Kido! In here!"
* * *
The student had fallen into a large room that contained a sarcophagus, a small wicker basket, and hundreds of statues of little men with what could easily have been (and, incidentally, were) spears. The remainder of the group filed slowly in to the chamber.
"Excellent work, Hikari!" said the Professor, gazing around the room, "Your decision to lean on a certain wall panel has found us the burial chamber." He grinned. "You get an A for the week."
Professor Kido instructed his students to try and find the way back while he would stay behind and examine the room with the help of the student, Hikari Kamiya.
"For once, I commend you on taking a break during class," mumbled Jyou, examining the sarcophagus meticulously. He carefully stepped over a clay warrior statue while Hikari took photographs of the room with her trusty sand-proof camera.
"This is amazing!" she said, snapping anything and everything that caught her attention. "Who'd have thought that I would be able to help the world-famous Professor Kido discover some dead guy's lost tomb! And then be the one to accidentally find the...oops!"
She didn't realize that she was walking into the basket, as the camera had temporarily taken up all of her concentration. With a shout of dismay her body came crashing down on it, causing much of the wicker to crumble into dust. She managed to save herself and the camera from any physical harm, but she lay cringing in the dust expecting a series of verbal assaults from the Professor. When nothing came out, she opened one eye and looked at him.
He was staring at the contents of the basket in utter disbelief.
"Hikari, once again you have unexpectedly turned up a miracle! Do you know what that is?"
She sat up, rubbing her knee, and peered into the basket.
"It looks...kinda like a little pig."
Jyou laughed a dry professorial laugh. "Not quite...It's the fabled Jade Tokomon. There have been rumors of its existence passed down among the desert nomads, but it was said to have been buried with the last of the pharaohs. Do you know what this means?"
She shook her head.
"It means that we'll be getting a lot of unwanted attention very shortly." Jyou helped Hikari up and together they marveled at what could possibly be the most valuable piece of rock in existence.
* * *
Mimi Tachikawa, the strawberry-haired, cowboy-hat-wearing convoy leader, was extremely interested in finding the Professor. She had been trying to locate him for the past three hours ever since word of the secret room had leaked out. It was, however, a very frustrating procedure, as the people at the dig site seemed more interested in talking to the students who had actually been in the site. Eventually she plopped down on a sand dune and decided to sit and wait for Professor Kido to exit the temple with whatever he found, fanning herself with her outrageously large hat while doing so.
Her patience was eventually rewarded as the Professor and one of his female students exited the temple carrying something that looked about the size of a soccer ball. She squinted her eyes against the bright sun and, even at that distance, knew immediately what the object was. She didn't even need to talk to him now.
She trudged her way back to her Range Rover and picked up the cell phone, dialing the number of her supervisor. The phone rang once, twice, and finally someone picked it up.
"Yes?"
Mimi smiled as she heard the familiar rasp. "It's here."
"The Jade Tokomon?"
"Yes."
"Well then, you must..."
"Yes, I know full well what I'm being paid for."
A humorless laugh from the other end. "Good, then I needn't remind you of your purpose there, Miss Tachikawa. I look forward to seeing it in my hands before the week is out."
~~~
CHAPTER 2
The excavation of the temple was now progressing steadily, but everyone knew that the most valuable part was already discovered - the Jade Tokomon. The dig now carried an air of sadness, as they knew the pristine site would soon be invaded by a horde of journalists, sightseers, and people who could afford the trip to see a big stone building sticking up out of the sand. Once they left, they could expect grave robbers, or even worse, prospective developers that would build an amusement park of some sort around the site.
The thought was more than enough to trouble Professor Kido, but for now his thoughts were entirely on getting the Jade Tokomon home to study it. At that moment, the most valuable sculpture in the world was serving duty as a paperweight for the masses of forms Jyou had to fill out before the customs agents would even think about letting it out of the country. He sighed and blinked back sleep - a night of paperwork after a semi-enjoyable day of excavating. There was only one thing that he hated more than filling out red tape, and those were the bureaucrats that made it so that he had to fill it out in the first place.
He was about to start on another form when he realized his smattering of Arabic was not going to be nearly enough to complete it.
"Better call it a night..."
He slid the form into the formidable pile that he still had to finish and took off his glasses for a moment, rubbing his eyes.
"Professor Kido?"
He jumped in his chair, a bit startled by the voice that suddenly came out of nowhere. He didn't recognize it, so he supposed it must have been one of the newcomers. Putting his glasses back on, he saw the pink-haired Mimi Tachikawa standing as seductively as one can stand in front of him, and a tall, muscular, brute-looking fellow next to her. He coughed and offered his hand. She shook it, batting her eyes at the Professor flirtatiously. Mimi knew that very few men could resist her charms for a long time, and she also knew that Jyou was not one of those few. After getting acquainted with the Professor, she sat on his desk.
"I was sent here to make sure that any discovery didn't fall into the wrong hands. I suppose you could call me the security chief. This thing you have found," she said, running her hand over the curves of the small jade figure, "is extremely valuable. There are many people who want it."
She leaned in toward Jyou's ear.
"I'm here to make sure no on else gets it."
Had Jyou been fully awake he might have caught the look that passed between Mimi and her assistant, but as it was he could barely keep his eyes open.
"Listen, Miss..."
"Tachikawa."
"Tachikawa. I'm sorry I'm not much of a conversationalist at 1 AM, but I have been filling out paperwork for the last 5 hours, and I have a feeling that if we talk any more I will fall asleep at my desk. I have a feeling that tomorrow the press will be here and that I will be up all night again doing interviews, so if you don't mind, I'd like to go to bed now."
"Oh, Professor, I'm sorry. You really should get your rest now."
She winked. The Professor was puzzled as to why she would wink at him; later, he would find out that the wink was really a signal to her assistant to use his sleeper hold on the unsuspecting professor, but for now he was content to fall to the floor unconscious in a small heap.
"Perfect work, Ahmed," she said, regarding her assistant, who merely grunted. "Assemble the group and let's get out of here. The boss will be very pleased."
She picked up the Jade Tokomon and tucked it under one arm, and, turning as she left, planted a kiss on the Professor's forehead. "I'm sorry things didn't work out, Professor Kido, but we have to make sure this little fella won't get stolen by anyone." She laughed. "Anyone else, that is."
* * *
Less than ten minutes later, the camp was suddenly thrown into wakefulness by the roar of six diesel engines roaring to life, and those that got up to investigate were greeted with a cloud of sand and exhaust fumes.
Hikari found the Professor in the main tent and brought him back to wakefulness. The first and only thing he noticed was the absence of his paperweight.
The Jade Tokomon was gone!
~~~
CHAPTER 3
"Archeology Department, Professor Ishida's Office, can I help you?"
Tai Kamiya brushed his hair out of his eyes and applied a second coat of lipstick to his mouth. It was a slow day in the Archeology Department of Tokyo University, just like most others.
"No, I'm sorry, this isn't the Council of old Meandering...hey, who is this anyway?"
He sighed and put down the phone, fidgeting with his trademark blue sweater and skirt. Everyone in the University was well-versed in Tai's crossdressing habit, but admittedly it was one of the more mundane eccentricities among the staff; for example, one of the medical professors had a small freezer in his room where he kept a frozen cadaver, the head of the philosophy department would fail anyone who agreed with his theories, and all four of the astrophysics teachers were in their own barbershop quartette.
The phone rang, and Tai sighed once again. The last time he had gotten two calls in one day was when someone's speed-dialing function was stuck on that number.
"Archeology Department, Professor Ishida's Office, can I help you?"
"Is the Professor around? This is an emergency." The voice on the other end sounded familiar to Tai, but he couldn't quite place it.
"He's giving a lecture right now, he should be back..." Tai suddenly remembered the voice. "Jyou, is that you? It's Tai!"
"Hi, Tai, can you get Matt? It's extremely urgent. Tell him that we've found the Jade Tokomon. He'll know what you're talking about."
"All right. I'll get him right away."
Tai slipped into his heels and went out to find his boss.
"Indiana" Matt Ishida was the youngest professor at the school. He was dubbed "Indiana" by his "lady friend" Tai for reasons which are too long to detail in this story. They were both friends of Professor Kido's ever since they were little kids, but whereas Tai became a successful professional football player who went into early retirement and supplemented his income with the occasional ad and the assistant's job at the University, Matt traveled with Jyou to his most successful dig, after which he received an honorary archeology degree. Matt continued his rock group on the side, and was a local celebrity in the Tokyo area.
Matt was giving a lecture on ancient Roman architecture when Tai burst into the room.
"...As a direct result of the Goth's complete destruction of most of the Roman Empire, Roman architecture went into a decline. There will be test over this next Thursday, ladies and gentlemen, so keep studying." He looked up and saw Tai. "Well, hello, Tai. Class, this is my...er, secretary, Tai Kamiya. What's up?"
"Matt. Jyou's on the phone in your office. Says it's important...something about a Jade Tokomon?"
Matt's eyes widened. "You mean, the Jade Tokomon?" Without waiting for a response he ran out the door and made a beeline for his office.
"Jyou! It's Matt!"
"Matt...glad to hear from you."
"What's the matter? You sound like you're on the verge of tears, Jyou."
Jyou coughed into the phone and cleared his throat. "Well, no more than any other guy who JUST HAD THE JADE TOKOMON STOLEN FROM UNDER HIS NOSE!!!"
Matt almost dropped the handset because of the violent outburst. "What? You mean, you found it and then it was stolen? By who?"
Jyou dropped his voice to an urgent whisper. "Some...woman who said she was supposed to protect it. Matt, if anyone finds out about this my career will be ruined. I need your help!"
"Why me?"
"Because I think you knew the thief at one point. Does the name Mimi Tachikawa ring a bell?"
Matt's face turned into one of shock. Mimi Tachikawa was his assistant, who had mysteriously left the day after getting a phone call from the United States government. They had never heard from her again. She had been one of the most well-versed people in ancient artifacts, especially the valuable ones.
"Yes..."
"I'll have a guide meet you at the airport. Oh yes, and when you do come down bring extra tires. Mimi and her flunkies seemed to have slashed all of our tires as a going-away present."
"All right. See you tomorrow, Jyou."
"Okay. And Matt...thanks a lot."
"No problem." Matt hung up the phone and turned to face Tai. "Well, Tai, looks like we're headed to Egypt. Better get packed. Oh, and, tell my class that since I'm going to Egypt for a few days their test will be pushed back to Friday."
By Dareru (furidashi@hotmail.com)
Disclaimer: Warning! May contain action, adventure, mystery, suspense, yaoi, car chases, explosions, the word 'Ni!,' MSG, gunfights, and scenes from the 1930's. Not recommended for pregnant women, the elderly, people with heart problems, or people with no imagination or a closed mind. You must be at least 5" tall to go on this ride.
Disclaimer #2: Digimon and all characters are property of Toei, Bandai, and Saban. Not me, some big company. I'm just writing this for fun. Indiana Matt is the property of Koani (koani@larekas.freeserve.co.uk) and Claire Ishida (ffenics@hotmail.com). He and his ladyfriend are borrowed with permission.
Disclaimer #3: Mika Crystal, alias M.C., is the creator of the Council of Old Meandering Ecchis (aka C.O.M.E. - see p. 28) serving as President. Tabby, alias T.C., serving as VP.
Disclaimer #4: There is no disclaimer #4.
~~~
PART 1
CHAPTER 1
"Professor! Professor!"
The sun beat mercilessly down on Professor Jyou Kido, an archeologist of quite some renown after finding several ancient sites in what was formerly thought to be a barren wasteland. His university loved it so much that they sent him out to yet another barren wasteland to see if he could find anything there.
It had been three days with not so much as a camel skull turning up at the excavation site. He was beginning to wonder if his all-expense-paid trip to the middle of a desert was all that it was cut out to be.
'Well, at least I get to look forward to a nice, hot, scorpion-infested tent when we're done here.'
The Professor sighed and wiped sweat from his eyes as he surveyed the dunes. He took off his glasses and polished them against his formerly white, but now sand-colored t-shirt. Everything indicated that here would be the best site to dig - a promising sound reading had found a big mass of...something underground, but after days of almost constant digging even Jyou's patience was being tested. He sighed and was about to make a comment about the idiots at the University administration when excited shouting drifted up on the hot breeze to his ears.
"Professor! Professor! We've found something!"
His musings were temporarily cast aside as he scrambled down into the pit. There, exposed after digging through five meters of sand, was the tip of a large, pointed building. Everyone held their breath and looked at the Professor expectantly.
"All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a strike," he said calmly. "Tell the mess tent to open up the packets of dehydrated ice cream and powdered champagne. We'll have a party tonight!"
A cheer rose from the group.
* * *
The stars shone down on the small tent-city in the middle of nowhere. The desert air was charged with the excitement of finding something, and a battery of tests indicated that this was no ordinary something, it the sort of something that turned out to be a temple or religious building of some sort. The head of the dig project had promised a convoy of professionals would come and assist Jyou's students, while making sure the entire world knew about the new site.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Jyou said, holding his tin cup of reconstituted champagne up to the crowd, "today we have discovered something perhaps as important as the pyramids of Giza. Tomorrow we will go into the site and see just how big this thing is."
A ripple of polite applause radiated from the audience and they collectively raised their drinking implements and toasted the short speech. Most of them were promptly upturned, as the audience promptly realized just why the demand for reconstituted champagne is nonexistent. Fortunately they could look forward to the dehydrated ice cream for afters.
* * *
Morning brought with it clouds and the promise of the first desert rains of the year. After a spartan breakfast of oatmeal, or as it turned out for many of the non-cooking-inclined, burnt oat-flavored mush, and water, the digging teams once again donned their khaki shorts and pith helmets and ventured into the now deepening and widening sand pit around the newly discovered temple.
By midmorning the convoy had arrived from Cairo, which consisted of a group of six jeeps, twenty people, pickaxes, and a small electric generator to power the collection of refrigerators they packed along with them.
The lead vehicle pulled up to the informally dubbed "Command Tent" where the majority of the fancy equipment, maps, and comfortable seating was. The passenger stepped out and made her way to the table.
She was tall, thin, pink-haired, brown-eyed, and wore a pair of obscenely short khaki shorts and a tight denim jacket. Her hair flowed behind her wherever it peeked out from her ridiculously oversized ten-gallon cowboy hat, but that fact was tactfully overlooked by the pair of male graduate students who were now quite enthralled by her, even though they had only seen her for a handful of seconds. She smiled at them and leaned forward.
"Hello, boys, is Professor Kido around?"
The pair stumbled over their words in an effort to be the first to get out a sentence that would not only inform her to the Professor's whereabouts but also get her to fall in love with him. After a few seconds, the smarter of the two realized that not only would she not fall in love with him but that if he didn't say something she would never talk to him again, and blurted out, "He's in the pit!"
"Thanks, boys," she said, turning and giving them a wink which melted their hearts.
Her companions took to setting up the newest addition to the tent city while she went down to look for the Professor.
* * *
Jyou Kido and his intrepid group of adventurers were hopelessly lost. They had been so eager to be the first to step into the temple for goodness-knows-how-many years that no one had thought to bring their sense of direction with them. So they were now searching frantically for the way out in a confusing maze of passageways, guided by the sputtering light of a torch and a pair of flashlights.
"OK, gang, I admit...we're lost." Jyou sighed.
A collective sigh emanated from the group of students.
"So, we have no idea where the way out is?" asked one.
"Yes, I believe that's synonymous with the word 'lost,'" replied the Professor, the slightest bit of sarcasm edging into his voice. The student faded back into embarrassed silence and leaned against what she thought was a particularly nice group of hieroglyphics.
Had she known how to read hieroglyphics, she would have realized that the panel she pressed said, "Press me." However, even if a user was not skilled in hieroglyph-reading, the panel would still obligingly work if pressed.
She shrieked, causing the student with the torch to drop it. Sparks showered on the closest students, who happened to also have flashlights in their hands, which were also dropped as they tried to beat out their flaming socks and smoldering leg hair in the now-dark passageway. Panic broke out among the remainder of the group, which was eventually silenced by the calm, reassuring voice of the professor.
"Nobody move!"
The students stopped milling about, while the Professor groped around on what he hoped was the ground for the flashlights, and, finding one, flipped on the switch.
"Professor Kido! In here!"
* * *
The student had fallen into a large room that contained a sarcophagus, a small wicker basket, and hundreds of statues of little men with what could easily have been (and, incidentally, were) spears. The remainder of the group filed slowly in to the chamber.
"Excellent work, Hikari!" said the Professor, gazing around the room, "Your decision to lean on a certain wall panel has found us the burial chamber." He grinned. "You get an A for the week."
Professor Kido instructed his students to try and find the way back while he would stay behind and examine the room with the help of the student, Hikari Kamiya.
"For once, I commend you on taking a break during class," mumbled Jyou, examining the sarcophagus meticulously. He carefully stepped over a clay warrior statue while Hikari took photographs of the room with her trusty sand-proof camera.
"This is amazing!" she said, snapping anything and everything that caught her attention. "Who'd have thought that I would be able to help the world-famous Professor Kido discover some dead guy's lost tomb! And then be the one to accidentally find the...oops!"
She didn't realize that she was walking into the basket, as the camera had temporarily taken up all of her concentration. With a shout of dismay her body came crashing down on it, causing much of the wicker to crumble into dust. She managed to save herself and the camera from any physical harm, but she lay cringing in the dust expecting a series of verbal assaults from the Professor. When nothing came out, she opened one eye and looked at him.
He was staring at the contents of the basket in utter disbelief.
"Hikari, once again you have unexpectedly turned up a miracle! Do you know what that is?"
She sat up, rubbing her knee, and peered into the basket.
"It looks...kinda like a little pig."
Jyou laughed a dry professorial laugh. "Not quite...It's the fabled Jade Tokomon. There have been rumors of its existence passed down among the desert nomads, but it was said to have been buried with the last of the pharaohs. Do you know what this means?"
She shook her head.
"It means that we'll be getting a lot of unwanted attention very shortly." Jyou helped Hikari up and together they marveled at what could possibly be the most valuable piece of rock in existence.
* * *
Mimi Tachikawa, the strawberry-haired, cowboy-hat-wearing convoy leader, was extremely interested in finding the Professor. She had been trying to locate him for the past three hours ever since word of the secret room had leaked out. It was, however, a very frustrating procedure, as the people at the dig site seemed more interested in talking to the students who had actually been in the site. Eventually she plopped down on a sand dune and decided to sit and wait for Professor Kido to exit the temple with whatever he found, fanning herself with her outrageously large hat while doing so.
Her patience was eventually rewarded as the Professor and one of his female students exited the temple carrying something that looked about the size of a soccer ball. She squinted her eyes against the bright sun and, even at that distance, knew immediately what the object was. She didn't even need to talk to him now.
She trudged her way back to her Range Rover and picked up the cell phone, dialing the number of her supervisor. The phone rang once, twice, and finally someone picked it up.
"Yes?"
Mimi smiled as she heard the familiar rasp. "It's here."
"The Jade Tokomon?"
"Yes."
"Well then, you must..."
"Yes, I know full well what I'm being paid for."
A humorless laugh from the other end. "Good, then I needn't remind you of your purpose there, Miss Tachikawa. I look forward to seeing it in my hands before the week is out."
~~~
CHAPTER 2
The excavation of the temple was now progressing steadily, but everyone knew that the most valuable part was already discovered - the Jade Tokomon. The dig now carried an air of sadness, as they knew the pristine site would soon be invaded by a horde of journalists, sightseers, and people who could afford the trip to see a big stone building sticking up out of the sand. Once they left, they could expect grave robbers, or even worse, prospective developers that would build an amusement park of some sort around the site.
The thought was more than enough to trouble Professor Kido, but for now his thoughts were entirely on getting the Jade Tokomon home to study it. At that moment, the most valuable sculpture in the world was serving duty as a paperweight for the masses of forms Jyou had to fill out before the customs agents would even think about letting it out of the country. He sighed and blinked back sleep - a night of paperwork after a semi-enjoyable day of excavating. There was only one thing that he hated more than filling out red tape, and those were the bureaucrats that made it so that he had to fill it out in the first place.
He was about to start on another form when he realized his smattering of Arabic was not going to be nearly enough to complete it.
"Better call it a night..."
He slid the form into the formidable pile that he still had to finish and took off his glasses for a moment, rubbing his eyes.
"Professor Kido?"
He jumped in his chair, a bit startled by the voice that suddenly came out of nowhere. He didn't recognize it, so he supposed it must have been one of the newcomers. Putting his glasses back on, he saw the pink-haired Mimi Tachikawa standing as seductively as one can stand in front of him, and a tall, muscular, brute-looking fellow next to her. He coughed and offered his hand. She shook it, batting her eyes at the Professor flirtatiously. Mimi knew that very few men could resist her charms for a long time, and she also knew that Jyou was not one of those few. After getting acquainted with the Professor, she sat on his desk.
"I was sent here to make sure that any discovery didn't fall into the wrong hands. I suppose you could call me the security chief. This thing you have found," she said, running her hand over the curves of the small jade figure, "is extremely valuable. There are many people who want it."
She leaned in toward Jyou's ear.
"I'm here to make sure no on else gets it."
Had Jyou been fully awake he might have caught the look that passed between Mimi and her assistant, but as it was he could barely keep his eyes open.
"Listen, Miss..."
"Tachikawa."
"Tachikawa. I'm sorry I'm not much of a conversationalist at 1 AM, but I have been filling out paperwork for the last 5 hours, and I have a feeling that if we talk any more I will fall asleep at my desk. I have a feeling that tomorrow the press will be here and that I will be up all night again doing interviews, so if you don't mind, I'd like to go to bed now."
"Oh, Professor, I'm sorry. You really should get your rest now."
She winked. The Professor was puzzled as to why she would wink at him; later, he would find out that the wink was really a signal to her assistant to use his sleeper hold on the unsuspecting professor, but for now he was content to fall to the floor unconscious in a small heap.
"Perfect work, Ahmed," she said, regarding her assistant, who merely grunted. "Assemble the group and let's get out of here. The boss will be very pleased."
She picked up the Jade Tokomon and tucked it under one arm, and, turning as she left, planted a kiss on the Professor's forehead. "I'm sorry things didn't work out, Professor Kido, but we have to make sure this little fella won't get stolen by anyone." She laughed. "Anyone else, that is."
* * *
Less than ten minutes later, the camp was suddenly thrown into wakefulness by the roar of six diesel engines roaring to life, and those that got up to investigate were greeted with a cloud of sand and exhaust fumes.
Hikari found the Professor in the main tent and brought him back to wakefulness. The first and only thing he noticed was the absence of his paperweight.
The Jade Tokomon was gone!
~~~
CHAPTER 3
"Archeology Department, Professor Ishida's Office, can I help you?"
Tai Kamiya brushed his hair out of his eyes and applied a second coat of lipstick to his mouth. It was a slow day in the Archeology Department of Tokyo University, just like most others.
"No, I'm sorry, this isn't the Council of old Meandering...hey, who is this anyway?"
He sighed and put down the phone, fidgeting with his trademark blue sweater and skirt. Everyone in the University was well-versed in Tai's crossdressing habit, but admittedly it was one of the more mundane eccentricities among the staff; for example, one of the medical professors had a small freezer in his room where he kept a frozen cadaver, the head of the philosophy department would fail anyone who agreed with his theories, and all four of the astrophysics teachers were in their own barbershop quartette.
The phone rang, and Tai sighed once again. The last time he had gotten two calls in one day was when someone's speed-dialing function was stuck on that number.
"Archeology Department, Professor Ishida's Office, can I help you?"
"Is the Professor around? This is an emergency." The voice on the other end sounded familiar to Tai, but he couldn't quite place it.
"He's giving a lecture right now, he should be back..." Tai suddenly remembered the voice. "Jyou, is that you? It's Tai!"
"Hi, Tai, can you get Matt? It's extremely urgent. Tell him that we've found the Jade Tokomon. He'll know what you're talking about."
"All right. I'll get him right away."
Tai slipped into his heels and went out to find his boss.
"Indiana" Matt Ishida was the youngest professor at the school. He was dubbed "Indiana" by his "lady friend" Tai for reasons which are too long to detail in this story. They were both friends of Professor Kido's ever since they were little kids, but whereas Tai became a successful professional football player who went into early retirement and supplemented his income with the occasional ad and the assistant's job at the University, Matt traveled with Jyou to his most successful dig, after which he received an honorary archeology degree. Matt continued his rock group on the side, and was a local celebrity in the Tokyo area.
Matt was giving a lecture on ancient Roman architecture when Tai burst into the room.
"...As a direct result of the Goth's complete destruction of most of the Roman Empire, Roman architecture went into a decline. There will be test over this next Thursday, ladies and gentlemen, so keep studying." He looked up and saw Tai. "Well, hello, Tai. Class, this is my...er, secretary, Tai Kamiya. What's up?"
"Matt. Jyou's on the phone in your office. Says it's important...something about a Jade Tokomon?"
Matt's eyes widened. "You mean, the Jade Tokomon?" Without waiting for a response he ran out the door and made a beeline for his office.
"Jyou! It's Matt!"
"Matt...glad to hear from you."
"What's the matter? You sound like you're on the verge of tears, Jyou."
Jyou coughed into the phone and cleared his throat. "Well, no more than any other guy who JUST HAD THE JADE TOKOMON STOLEN FROM UNDER HIS NOSE!!!"
Matt almost dropped the handset because of the violent outburst. "What? You mean, you found it and then it was stolen? By who?"
Jyou dropped his voice to an urgent whisper. "Some...woman who said she was supposed to protect it. Matt, if anyone finds out about this my career will be ruined. I need your help!"
"Why me?"
"Because I think you knew the thief at one point. Does the name Mimi Tachikawa ring a bell?"
Matt's face turned into one of shock. Mimi Tachikawa was his assistant, who had mysteriously left the day after getting a phone call from the United States government. They had never heard from her again. She had been one of the most well-versed people in ancient artifacts, especially the valuable ones.
"Yes..."
"I'll have a guide meet you at the airport. Oh yes, and when you do come down bring extra tires. Mimi and her flunkies seemed to have slashed all of our tires as a going-away present."
"All right. See you tomorrow, Jyou."
"Okay. And Matt...thanks a lot."
"No problem." Matt hung up the phone and turned to face Tai. "Well, Tai, looks like we're headed to Egypt. Better get packed. Oh, and, tell my class that since I'm going to Egypt for a few days their test will be pushed back to Friday."