Rarities Unlimited 02 - Running Scared

look.”
    “If a more detailed appraisal is required, would you need the actual artifacts, or would the virtual ones do?” Dana asked.
    With intent, narrowed eyes, Risa looked through the collection again. “Did you search for modern machining marks when you had these under the ‘scope?”
    “The client assured me there were none,” Dana said. “We checked, of course. Nothing caught our expert’s eye.”
    “Right.” Risa let out a breath. “Then I’d start with the virtual and go to the real only if I ran into problems.”
    Dana nodded. “So noted.”
    “For now,” Risa said, “of the nine real objects in this case, one shows obvious signs of recent repair—the gold alloys simply don’t match. Two of the pieces have repairs that appear much older, but that’s only a preliminary visual examination. Some of the rest certainly could use repair, but that’s to be expected. In all probability they’re two thousand years old.”
    “You think they’re genuine?” Dana asked. “Again, this is a nonbinding verbal opinion based solely on a limited visual examination.”
    Risa waited while the legal niceties were recorded before she said, “I haven’t seen anything to put me off. Yet.”
    Nor had she seen anything that made her heart kick with excitement at being in the presence of a truly fine artifact. A showstopper, as her boss would say.
    That was what Shane needed to launch his new gallery on New Year’s Eve. That was what she hadn’t found yet—a centerpiece for his Druid Gold show. She couldn’t help wondering how much more time he would give her. And who else he had looking.
    Shane might have made his fortune gambling, but he never left anything to chance.

Chapter 2
    Los Angeles
    Friday, October 31
    Morning
    “D id the client agree to having these objects manually inspected?” Risa asked, frowning.
    Dana nodded. “Yes, but we’ve already photographed, x-rayed, and otherwise electronically scanned the pieces, including XRF and SEM.”
    Without waiting for Shane to ask, Risa translated. “X-ray fluorescence to determine the composition of the metal alloy and scanning electron microscope for all the fiddly little details.”
    “The results are digitized,” Dana continued, “and can be reproduced in three dimensions, so if you would rather not take the risk of handling the objects yourself—”
    Risa’s laugh drowned out the rest of Dana’s words. “I live to handle ancient jewelry, gold in particular. High-quality gold doesn’t respond easily to the acids on human skin, which means I don’t have to wear surgical gloves to handle gold for a brief inspection.”
    “Why would handling gold matter to you, other than pleasure?” Niall asked.
    “No photo, no computer reproduction in 3-D, no hologram, no electronic scanning, no graphs or reports, nothing works for me like actual touch. In humans the only thing more sensitive than the fingertips is the tongue. The delicacy of the work on some of the objects I’ve handled is so fine it defeats human eyes and fingertips.”
    “So you lick it?” Niall asked in disbelief.
    An amused, sideways glance was her only reply.
    Shane’s eyelids lowered almost lazily. It was his only visible reaction to the thought of something being explored by Risa’s sensitive tongue. Certainly the idea was more interesting than any of the gold pieces on the table in front of him. While they had historic value, they left a lot to be desired in terms of pizzazz.
    And that was what he needed. Impact. The kind of gold artifacts that could reach through ignorance and twenty-first-century smugness and shake the viewers to the soles of their casually shod feet. It might last only a few moments, but for that time the viewers would know that people just like them had lived for thousands of years—laughing, yearning, loving, crying, dying, and creating, always creating.
    The fact that such an exhibit would also increase traffic through Tannahill Inc.’s resort casinos was nice, but it wasn’t the reason he was pursuing all that was good and enduring in gold artifacts. Quite simply, he despised the looters and scavengers of ancient cultures. It was a passion and a pursuit that only two other people were aware of—Dana and Niall. Shane worked hard to keep it that way.
    The less people thought of him, the easier it was to catch them off guard.
    “Did you have anything else to show me?” he asked. “These aren’t what I need. When I open the Druid Gold show,