She’d had a taste of what it was like without the Institute’s large resources this last week. “Do you miss your work at the Institute?”
“No.”
She sensed…something. “Why did you leave?”
Something stirred in his dark blue eyes. “Dathan needed me. Our father had died and…it was time to come home.”
She cast an eye across the cavernous warehouse. “You have pieces in here that should be in museums. Pieces we could learn so much from.”
Footsteps echoed on the concrete.
“Locked away for the rich and educated to admire? Gathering dust in some storeroom somewhere?”
She turned. Dathan looked just as good clothed.
Worn jeans hung low and his white shirt was unbuttoned, giving glimpses of that sculpted chest. His ink was hidden, though, and she was sorry she couldn’t see it.
She looked away. It was dangerous to stare at him. Dathan Phoenix wasn’t just legendary for his treasure hunting. “In the hands of people who will ensure their proper preservation.” She wanted to reinforce the galactic laws, but she needed to hire these men, not alienate them. She bit her lip instead.
Dathan shoved his damp hair back and raised an eyebrow. “Yet I’m guessing since you want to hire us, you need us to find something for you?”
He had her there. Her jaw locked. “Yes.”
“You going to share, darlin’?”
“It’s Dr. Rai.”
Niklas coughed. Or maybe laughed. “Eos is one of the foremost experts on Terran artifacts.”
“You won’t get us anywhere near Earth,” Dathan said. “No one who goes there ever comes back.”
She longed to explore Earth, but she knew the radiation levels from the nuclear fallout of the Terran War were off the scale. Besides, rumors were that something had survived down there…and it didn’t welcome visitors.
“I’m not after Earth.” She lifted her chin. Okay, here goes. “I need you to help me find the last remaining piece of da Vinci’sMona Lisa.”
Silence.
All she could hear was the gentle whoosh of the internal environmental system. It made her nerves stretch tight.
Then Dathan threw his head back and laughed.
“I’m serious,” she snapped.
He shook his head. “We only take jobs that have a sure payout. TheMona Lisawas destroyed when Earth’s inhabitants turned their planet into a nuclear wasteland.”
“No. It’s at Star’s End.”
He laughed harder, grabbing his stomach. Eos felt a burning urge to kick him.
“Star’s End is a myth,” he choked out.
Zayn leaned back against the wall, popping a piece of gum into his mouth. “Legend. Fable. Fairy tale.” He blew a bubble.
Niklas shook his head. “Star’s End and the Lost Treasure of the New Louvre have become so muddled with pseudohistory and garbage no one can be certain it’s even real. No one really believes the director of the New Louvre sent the museum’s most precious treasures on an expedition to set up a distant colony.”
“It makes sense,” Eos insisted. “Earth was on the brink of destruction. The United Countries of the Americas and the Northern Federation were decimating the planet in their bitter war. Lots of people were leaving Earth with the hope of finding habitable planets to set up new colonies, to make new homes. What better way to preserve the Earth’s greatest historical treasures?”
Dathan shifted. “It’s the Holy Grail of the crazy.” He tilted his head. “You crazy, Dr. Rai?”
