Team Zeta The Beginning Ch 12

Chapter 12


Team Zeta eventually made their way into Marty’s office, which was small, and stacked wall to-wall with file cabinets surrounding the small desk and computer Marty had to work with.  Marty took his seat behind the desk to look at the photos taken of the artifact and the two pieces found so far.

“Wow,” Marty exclaimed.  “This is some well-carved stuff.   You think this might be fake?  It’s hard to tell from the photographs.”

“Pretty much,” Carly responded.  “The pieces are back in the safety vault.  There weren’t a lot of erosion from the pieces or the artifact.  That alone had us questioning the validity of this artifact.”

“False relics do turn up from time to time.  In fact, they constitute well over 70% of our findings.  There’s a lot of sick people in the world.”

“Well false relic or not, we nearly got shredded up like paper last night,” Paulina added.

“Yeah I heard about the four of you getting in an unfortunate run-in with some thugs,” Marty said.  “At least you are all still here.”

“Those weren’t any ordinary thugs,” Sarah tersely replied.  “They were experienced assassins.”

“And we weren’t THAT unfortunate,” Emily contributed, showing Marty the photos of the slain agents.

Marty took the agents out of Emily’s hand and looked them over.  His eyes widen from the shots as his face turns from white to green before he leans into a nearby waste basket and loses his lunch.  Team Zeta looks on as the mathematician they need help from is throwing up violently, and look on at the sight in discomfort.

“I, uh…take it you don’t go on many missions, do you?” Carly asked.

Marty removes his head from the waste basket and wipes the rest of his sickness from his mouth before turning to the team.  “No…no…I have been on expeditions.  A few of them.  They just weren’t like this!  This looks like that the agents didn’t even put up a fight!”

“Well, we were to lucky to fight them all off!” Sarah exclaimed.

“Right…I also heard you got their calling card as well?”

“They call themselves the Order of Euclid.”  Carly hands Marty the note they received back in Isreal.  “It’s weird name for those blokes.”

“I wouldn’t say that, especially considering the nature of this artifact.  The shapes that were made were carved very well in geometric shapes.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise that a cult named after Euclid would be involved in something like this.”

“What did this Euclid guy do anyway?” Paulina asked.  “Solve a huge math problem?”

“Actually, Euclid was a mathematician during ancient Greece who did most of his findings in geometry.  In fact, there is a branch of geometry named after him: Euclidean geometry.  The method consist of being given a couple of assumptions called axioms and trying to prove some propositions using those axioms.  Because of this part of geometry, we have many mathematical proofs: congruence of triangles, Pythagorean theorem, the sum of the angles of a triangle, and the scaling of the area and the volume of a given figure.”

“That’s all good an’ well, but it don’t explain why agents are dyin’ over this,” Emily piped up.

“Perhaps we could find out why the cult is after this artifact,” Carly suggested.

“Good idea,” Martin stated.  “In fact, his book Elements is the most influential textbook ever published.  It should give you four some valuable information.  I even have a copy of it right here in my desk.”  Marty pulls out a drawer and takes out a red book with the title Elements on it and hands it to Carly.

“Thank you,” Carly said as she flips through it.  “This should be very helpful.  If I can understand the diagrams.”

Soon after handing Carly the book, Marty’s phone rings.  “Oops.  It’s Scott, my colleague.  You’ll love this guy!  He’s brilliant!” Marty puts the phone on speaker to talk to him.  “McGrath here!”

“Marty, it’s me!” Scott calls out.

“Hey, Scott!  What’s up?”

“Well, I heard on the wire that you saved that hottie Carly Stafford from a fall!”
Marty eyes widen even more than when he was looking at those photos and sheepishly looks at Carly’s grin-bearing face.

“Uh…yeah…sorta…” Marty meekly answers.

“Oh ho! You lucky devil!  You really scored there!”

As Carly gives Marty as sarcastic look, Marty lets out a small chuckle and decides to try and wrap this up before he gets in too deep.  “Yeah.  Anyway, I’ve been asked to help her team out and I really need to get going with that.  They had something math-related with their mission and they asked for my help.”

All hopes of salvaging the rest of this conversation for Marty’s sake ended with this eloquent statement from Scott.  “Yeah, heh.  Figures.  Women and math, eh?”  Scott lets out a long laugh before finishing his statement.  “The only reason women learn math is to count how much they need to spend on shopping without pissing off their husbands!”  Scott continues to laugh over the phone, as Marty is frozen solid with the four women that his colleague is slandering over the phone.

Carly, meanwhile, leans over to the phone and saves Marty’s bacon by saying, “Yes, but we also need to learn math so we can count how much alimony we should get…just in case!”

Scott stops laughing once he heard Carly’s voice and a moment of awkward silence is heard over the phone.  “Uh…Marty, why didn’t you tell me she was on the phone?”

“You never asked.  Oh yeah, her team is also here as well.”

“Oh, son of a b—!“  Marty presses the release button on his phone, hanging up on Scott before he could finish the last word in that sentence.  He looks up at Team Zeta and grins, embarrassed over the phone call he received from his fellow mathematician.

“Heh heh….perhaps we should get started looking at that book…”