Free The Other Tree by D. K. Mok

packing the equipment into cases resembling luxury hand luggage. They stood to attention behind Docker.
    “Of course,” said Docker. “I’ll have SinaCorp make a special delivery to the museum tomorrow.”
    With that, the SinaCorp delegation left, leaving Halbert with the ominous feeling that it might be a good time to change occupations, and possibly continents.
    * * *
    Chris ran up the damp green stairs two at a time.
    Her mind was bubbling with the kind of excited righteousness that led people to declare “I’ll show them! I’ll show them all! Who’s crazy now?”
    Admittedly, some of this had to do with the fumes from Rnynw’s acetate markers, but most of it stemmed from Chris’s determination to prove that superior funding would not be the deciding factor in the race to find the Tree of Life. Chris wanted to believe in things like persistence, passion, and being right . All those years of pushing trolleys and skulking around basements had to have been the right choice, it had to mean something. It had to mean she’d been working towards the right moment— this moment, not just a sign that she hadn’t been good enough, smart enough, tough enough, to have achieved more.
    Chris leapt up the last few stairs and froze at the sound of footsteps trampling down the upper staircase. She swung back down the stairs and threw herself to the floor, peering through the polished teak banister.
    As the footsteps drew nearer, Chris saw Fabian descend the stairs into the hallway, followed by Docker, the woman wearing sunglasses, and the dourer of the two fit men she’d seen earlier. The SinaCorp trio was carrying an assortment of cases, and one slim briefcase had a thin silver chain attached to the handle, disappearing up Docker’s sleeve.
    Chris experienced a brief pang of regret at not having continued with Wushu lessons in primary school. Once she had discovered it would take over thirty years of training before she could paralyse people with two fingers, she had given it up, having found that she could do pretty much the same thing with belladonna.
    Fabian held open the door to the museum hall.
    “Mr. Bale, Ms. Roman, after you.”
    The dour man and the woman with shades glided through. Docker paused in the doorway and turned around towards the staircase, as though responding to a noise.
    Chris held her breath as Docker stared down the silent hallway, and she wondered briefly whether she was actually in danger of anything aside from acute embarrassment and possible charges of trespassing. Finally, Docker smiled, apparently to himself, and the door clicked closed as he left.
    Chris waited a few long beats before slipping quietly into the reception hall. There was a late-afternoon trickle of visitors in the main hall, and she could see the loose crowd subconsciously parting as Docker and his group headed towards the main doors.
    “Chris!”
    She saw Luke marching across the hall towards her, looking irate. Chris sprinted across the floor and pushed Luke quickly behind a giant large-print medieval text for vision-impaired monks.
    “I’ve been trying to call you for the last half hour,” said Luke, waving his phone.
    Chris peered anxiously around the text, watching as Docker and his team left the museum.
    “You were supposed to be done with that when I got back,” said Luke.
    “SinaCorp,” said Chris. “They have the Sumerian tablet.”
    “Did I miss the part where this turned from fanciful archaeological expedition to espionage thriller? It’s like that terrible vampire road movie all over again.”
    Luke followed Chris as she walked cautiously out of the museum, stepping into the warm afternoon light.
    “I was going to mention,” began Chris. “SinaCorp have a team looking for the Tree of Life.”
    Several pieces of information slotted neatly into place for Luke, like crucial blocks in a Tetris game.
    “But I wasn’t expecting to run into them,” continued Chris quickly. “Except at the very end, and I