Memories of Daniel: Laurent

The warm sun was penetrating the window and casting its warmth on my face. I was sitting on a wooden chair and in front of me was a wooden table containing silver engravings. The place was very quiet and no sound could be heard except for the sound of the clock.

Click!

The door opened and a man in his thirties entered, carrying a little girl. The man had well-combed blond hair, had a light beard and wore glasses that gave him a scientific atmosphere.

"Daniel, how glad I am to see you after all these years…"

"I'm also glad to see you, Laurent... You can't imagine how much I miss you, but you're a married man, and you don't have time to spend with me like the old days..."

"Hahaha, you're only blaming me because I'm married, even though all of our comrades are married too, only you are left." Laurent said as he lowered his daughter to the ground and gave her some sweets.

"Oh come on, now you're talking like my uncle..."

"Do you mean Mr. William? I met him several times on some social occasions. He is a well-known doctor, so he is often invited by the nobles at the events and celebrations they hold..."

"True, he's a good man at his job.... But, Laurent, I'm not here to chat..."

Laurent's face turned serious and looked at Daniel. "If you are talking about that strange stone that you found in the archaeological site in Iraq, unfortunately I could not find any evidence or mention of it in the history books..."

"Have you asked geologists at your university?"

"Yes, I asked everyone in my university and even in various universities in France… But all they could offer were some guesses, they couldn't know exactly what kind of stone it was…"

"This could be a problem..."

"But what are you worried about? It's an important archaeological discovery. Shouldn't you be happy?"

"I told you the cause of my anxiety in the letter I sent you before my arrival in France..."

"You mean about your feeling that someone is chasing you?"

"Right… I'm sure of that, Laurent… Something has chased me from Iraq to here…"

"Forgive my rudeness, Daniel, but I think your concern is unjustified. You had a difficult incident in Iraq, and that must have affected you in some way..."

"You don't seem to believe me, but like I said I'm sure that thing haunts me, and it comes to me in dreams every night.... I'm not sure about that, but it might be some kind of curse..."

"curse? Daniel, you are one of the most well-known archaeologists in all of England and France, but you believe such fables..."

"But the nightmares…" Daniel tried to defend himself.

But he was interrupted by Laurent, "It's just a dream. I had a nightmare last night. Does that mean I'm cursed too? Daniel. Obviously, the recent incident has caused you some hardships, so you should forget all about this stone and your work. ...you must stay with Sir William until those nightmares stop appearing..."

"That's what I'm planning to do. I'm going to stay for a few weeks in Paris, before I head to London...."

"Good. Since you'll be staying here, we can go to a party that Lord Andre is throwing. He's a noble who collects antiques and paintings. I'm sure he'll be glad to know you're here. By the way, Dr. William will be there too..."

"This will certainly be a problem, because he will introduce me to the noble ladies, he will start a campaign to find a wife for me, and the other nobles will join him because they like such events."

"Hahahaha, it will surely be fun, my friend…"

I woke up, it seems it was another memory of Daniel.

Although Daniel was laughing, he felt annoyed and upset because Laurent did not believe him, I felt these feelings, and even these feelings were transmitted to me.

_________ _______________________ ____________

"Oh, Christopher, is there any news about Elia?..."

"We were able to hack his phone, and we found that he searched for some things after the investigation ended... He didn't tell us the whole truth, and we can't use force against him because of his family's influence. I think this is the only option to get to the truth..."

"Hahaha... After we solve the case of Mr. Weir's disappearance, we'll definitely get a promotion. I'm fortunate to have been assigned this job.."

"Sigh, you're still a beginner and you don't realize the seriousness of the situation we're in, Mancera, do you think the enemy who caused Mr. Weir's disappearance is a weak person?…"

"This… it might be strong, but the government supports us…"

"We are just pawns being used by the central government, and once we are useless we will be eliminated. Our lives are always threatened, but new detectives like you don't realize it until it's too late."

"But we can't back out now, can we? So we should at least try to find Mr. Weir's whereabouts..."

"right , but it seems that it will not be easy, after spying on Elia's phone, we found that he was searching for a group of strange names…"

"Weird names? Like what..."

"There was the name of Alexander Bernenberg, Heinrich Cornelius Kepler, Iraq, Europe, London..."

"This is the first time I hear about these names….Did you send this information to the intelligence center…"

"Yes, but it seems they don't have any information about these names…"

"Seriously? We are talking about the intelligence of the central government that can know the information of every human being in this world.."

"And this is what made the matter even more strange.... that Elia's search for these names on the Internet means that he has information that he did not tell us about..."

"Should we confront him with the information we have, and force him to confess what he has?"

"No, Mancera, that will make him more careful, we need to gather more information, before we make our move.."

"I don't know why we have to be so careful, that this boy is not the heir of the Gracefield family anymore. He is someone who is rejected by everyone. Only Alex and Alfred treat him normally because of their pity for him.."

"But he is still part of the Gracefield family. Elia may be useless to them and an outcast, but they will not stand idly by if their reputation and honor are in danger."

"You're right, we have to wait for orders from the government. I hope the report we sent is enough to convince them to admit Elia to the Central Academy, otherwise we won't be able to make any progress..."

"Everything will be revealed in its own time."