The Unsolved k********g

Chapter 2: An old friend

At some point in the early morning hours, Astrid had fell asleep on her desk listening to the soft patter of rain outside. Sitting up she pulls off the papers that were stuck to her face and wipes the drool from her cheek. Stretching in her desk chair she glances at the clock on the wall; it reads 12:14pm "Aw man I cant believe I've slept so late" she says. She gets out of her chair and heads down stairs to cook breakfast. Shes met by a excited and slightly muddy Ferdnand."Have you been playing in the rain buddy?" She says scratching his chin. He gives her hand a giant slobbery kiss and a tail wag before running out of the giant doggy door in the kitchen. Astrid makes a face at the drool and washes her hands in the kitchen sink before flipping on the coffee pot and cooking some eggs and bacon for herself and checking to be sure Ferdnand has plenty of kibble in his bowl.

After fixing her a cup of coffee she goes into the living room to take a seat. The coffee table the love seat and the sofa are all layered in papers and files some even spilling to the floor. Sighing Astrid sits in the recliner regarding the mess with narrowed eyes. Since her parents have gone missing shes been trying to figure out where they may have gone. Her parents were both avid travelers and succesful archeologist. Their disappearance had been very mysterious, she hadn't heard a word of where they may have gone or what they may be doing. Irregardless of what the police station says Astrid knows her parents and she knows that they wouldn't have just left without telling her when and why.

Suddenly the doorbell rings causing Astrid to jump spilling a bit of her coffee. Sighing she puts down her coffee and rubs the spilled coffee into her pj bottoms and moves to the door. Opening it she sees a man with a thousand watt smile looking back at her. Grinning she throws the door wide and hugs his neck. "Its been so long" Astrid says as she steps back smiling the most she has in days. "Are you wearing pjs Astrid?" He ask with a smirk. Glancing down at herself shes reminded that she is in fact wearing pjs. "Come in make yourself comfortable" she says as she runs to her room leaving the man in the foyer. Lucas shuts the door behind him and glances around the Kingstons living room. Normally very elegantly decorated and clean, now lay hundreds of papers and vanilla folders scattered around the room. He gently pushes some papers to the middle cushion of the sofa and sits.

Astrid sprays her hair with dry shampoo running her fingers through it and pulls on a clean shirt and jeans. She then bounces down the stairs into the living room where Lucas waits. Astrid pauses at the bottem of the stairs watching as he pulls a piece of paper out of the couch cushions as it tears in half he makes a face before shoving it back between them. The two had grown up together, and despite him being three years older than Astrid he was always kind and caring towards her. Both of their fathers were professors at the local college. So they were always together even more so when Lucas's mom passed away when they were in middle school. Lucas's dad took her death very hard but the Kingstons had been more than willing to add Lucas and his father to the family.

As Astrid arrives in the living room she glances over the huge mess and mentally kicks herself. As Lucas shoots her one of his signature smiles. "How have you been Astrid?" He ask. Astrid takes her normal seat in the recliner before answering. "I've been ok" she says forcingon a smile. Lucas dropping his smile leans over clasping his hands in front of him. "Astrid I'm so sorr". "Dont finish that sentence Lucas please, I cant take another person saying that they are sorry. People keep talking about them like their gone but they aren't." "Astrid" Lucas says frowning "you know I didnt mean it like that." Astrid nods wipping the sudden tears from her cheeks. Lucas sighs quietly changing the subject. "So what are all these papers?" He ask leaning over to pick up a couple. Astrid's eyes light up as a sudden energy fills her "This may sound crazy but I dont think that my parents just left". Lucas regards Astrid curiously waiting for her to continue. "These papers are everything that I could find on their recent research." Lucas nods slightly trying to understand what she was getting at. "Lucas I think…I think my parents were kidn*pped" Lucas's eyes widen at the sudden statement. "Astrid you cant be serious why would anyone want to kidnap the Kingstons?" Astrid stands up and moves around the room shuffling though papers. After two or three minutes she finds what she had been searching for"Aha" Astrid says as she victoriously holds up a vanilla folder sending a few papers flying. She walks over to sit beside Lucas not bothering to move the papers on the cushion aside crinkling them under her weight. She opens the folder and rest one side on her leg and the other on Lucas's leg. She sorts through the papers till she finds one in particular she holds it to where Lucas can see. "See here?" she says pointing to a small marked area of a google satellite image. Lucas squints his eyes leaning closer to the page trying to see where shes pointing. "Uhh trees?" Lucas ask tentatively. Astrid sighs in mock frustration and hands the paper to Lucas sorting through the folder again. She suddenly holds up another paper with tons of cordnants and what looks like instructions of some sort. "Lucas my parents were on to something big I'm talking ark of the covenant big." "Your parents were looking for the ark of the covenant?" Lucas ask blandly raisinghis eyebrows. Astrid rolls her eyes. "No not the ark of the covenant" "then what?" He ask. "I'm not sure." Astrid says as she sorts through more papers in the folder. "Look at this" she says holding up a picture with an image of an artifact on it. "This is some ancient stone and look, its covered in symbols. I dont recognize the language but it's got to be at least a couple thousand years old." Lucas gingerly takes the paper from Astrid to look closer at the symbols. "Lucas this has to be the reason my parents went missing." Lucas puts the paper back down on the folder and looks at Astrid. "Do you think they were involved in something dangerous?" He ask "Maybe…..maybe not" she says. Lucas looks at her confused. "What do you…". "Lucas" Astrid says interupting him. "I searched for these cordnants and the locations that it took me to made no sense." "So your parents had these fake cordnants because why?" He ask even more confused. "They knew someone was looking for whatever they were researching they made the false coordinates to throw them off. I believe that my parents know exactly where whatever this thing is, is and they were kidn*pped to find it." Lucas sits back on the sofa lost in thought. "Lucas I'm going to try to find them". "What?!?" Lucas ask standing up suddenly from the sofa. "You cant do that Astrid if your right about all this then whoever has your parents could be dangerous. Have you not seen tomb raider?!." Astrid sits quietly as Lucas begins to pace the small area in front of the coffee table. Astrid sits quietly watching when she suddenly gets an idea "Then come with me." She says to Lucas. He stops in his tracks and with an open mouth and stares at her. "Are you insane?! We should just call the FBI or home land security or maybe just the president and tell them what's going on." "No" Astrid says firmly. "Lucas this could all be government related for all we know the local police definitely weren't very interested in helping me." Lucas sighs and sits back down beside Astrid. "Your right, but if this is government related then that means this could be even more dangerous" he says. "So does that mean you'll come?" Astrid ask hopefully. Lucas sighs "I'll go with you under one condition." He says holding up one finger. "What's that?" Ask Astrid. "If I ever need a kidney transplant you volunteer" Astrid smiles and hugs his neck. Before jumping up from the couch and heading for the stairs. "Done. I'll go pack". "Now?" Lucas shouts after her. "Time waits for no one." She replies. Lucas sighs slumping back into the couch. "What am I getting myself into?" He quietly ask himself.