American Heroes Series - 01 - Resurrection Read Online Free PDF

she jumped at the sound of his voice.
    “I understand your concerns,” he said.  “My purpose here is to make sure you’re aware of a potential situation, not predict impending disaster. It’s a worse-case scenario, but it is possible. You need to know.”
    “I didn’t think the FBI got involved in anything that is simply a need-to-know basis.”
    “In this case, we did.”
    “Why?” A thought occurred to her and she cocked her head. “I may be off base, but I’m thinking that there’s something else behind this that you’re not letting on. There’s got to be; otherwise, this whole thing just doesn’t make any sense. Since when does the FBI show up just to warn about a theft?”
    Serreaux’s face was like stone. “We’ve had trouble with this group before.”
    “What kind of trouble?”
    “That’s irrelevant. Suffice it to say that the chatter we’ve been hearing over the past few weeks has mentioned the robe by name and we felt it necessary to inform the museum that there may be trouble. Would you rather we just not tell you and hope that nothing happens?”
              No, she didn’t wish that. Cydney’s frustration reached a boiling point as she thought about the times she had sat across from Milt and the Board, telling them how inadequate the museum’s security force was.  It seemed like she went over it every six months when the Board convened.  They were sick of hearing it from her, but they never took any action. They didn’t want to spend the money. She glanced at Milt as she spoke.
    “That’s great,” she couldn’t help the sarcasm. “So now I know. But it does me absolutely no good because I still have the same security force I had when you walked in the door. Nothing has changed except for the fact that now we may have a real threat on our hands and I’m extremely concerned for the safety of my employees.”
    “That’s understandable,” Serreaux replied. “Perhaps Mr. Hemeshuk should consider hiring a professional security company for this exhibit. It might help.”
    Cydney looked directly at Milt, hearing her own words reflected in Serreaux’s suggestion. But Milt didn’t do anything except stare back at her. Say something, you idiot! she thought. Cydney gaze returned to the agents, resigned to the fact that Hemeshuk wasn’t going to do a damn thing, as always.
    “Well, I suppose I should thank you for letting us know,” she said. “Can I at least brief my people and let them know what we might expect?”
    Serreaux spoke. “I’ll do it. We’ll be at the museum tomorrow morning and I can tell them for you.”
    “My security people don’t come on until Thursday morning, when the exhibit opens.”
    Serreaux glanced at Lowell; it was obvious he was mentally chewing on something. “Well,” he finally sighed, “My partner and I may be able to help, at least for a few days. Since this is considered a credible threat involving goods or products from an allied nation, we can request to remain on the case for a few days to see if anything goes down.”
    Cydney felt better. FBI help was better than no help at all. “I’d appreciate that.”
    “We can probably hang around through the weekend.”
    “We’re only open Thursday through Monday.”
    “Then we’ll stay through Monday and go from there.” Serreaux abruptly stood up, signaling that their meeting had come to a close. “Thanks again for letting us intrude tonight. Agent Lowell and I will see you first thing in the morning and we can go over your security arrangements. Maybe we can help.”
    Cydney walked the group to the door, lingering on the conversation, more apprehensive than she had ever been in her eleven years at the museum. All of it left a bad taste in her mouth and she knew that she wasn’t getting the entire story. The FBI didn’t come around warning private entities about trouble if they didn’t have a damn good reason.  Serreaux, she sensed, was withholding something.
    The agents