Morningstar Manor

Icene was tired, and grumpy, so instead of going up to either her or Adam's apartments, she instead went directly to the gym, where she set herself a punishing pace on the treadmill for twenty minutes before moving on to the punch-bag and doing her very best to kill the thing. It was never fun to have someone dismiss hard evidence as the "patently incompetent ramblings of an idiot", and in her case, more galling since the moron in question had scored about twenty places below her at College. There was a small part of her that was intensely pleased that his coffee had been cold all day, however soon after getting it he'd tried to drink it, but such small and childish pleasures were all she'd been able to get.

So now here she was, sweating and aching, hair sticking to her neck, still attacking the punchbag with an aggression she didn't often display, swearing at it and generally letting off steam. She knew in the end she'd be proved right, but that didn't help right now, not with a promotion board coming up in a few weeks. The temperature in the gym reduced, but she wasn't out of control, it was just cold air, so far. What she needed was a good distraction.

Dr Ruth Mitchell smiled grimly as she pressed 'send' on her latest email to the Head of Egyptology.

"Take that," she murmured. "And I hope you choke on it."

That would teach him to encroach on her department's storage area.

The phone rang and she stared at it, assuming it was the recipient of the email then she answered and listened and nodded. "Very well," she said. "Send him up."

She put the phone down and went to get the box from her cupboard.

There was a knock on the door. This time, Urquhart had found the way quite easily by himself.

( About Ancient Greeks... )