“Well, whatever,” Bonnie said, going up to the painting and pulling out a knife. “I’ll just jack this frame and make myself some money.”

“No!” Lucas roared. He surged forward and grabbed the arm that she had raised to accost the artwork before he even realized what he was doing. Then, catching himself, he backpedaled verbally without actually moving. “I mean, we can’t disturb the area until we accomplish our goal. We’ll be back here again, so don’t be in a rush.” All he could do was make up a lame reason which he hoped was believable enough to both excuse his outburst and prevent her from taking down the painting.

Bonnie looked taken aback after his initial outburst but nodded anyway along with shooting him an apprehensive glance. “Gotta make it look like no one was here, or else the plan won’t work, is it? Okay. I got it. I’ll be careful, boss.”

“Sorry,” Lucas said, realizing that he had scared her. “Anyway, we need to look around here for an accounting book. Find something that looks like it has a bunch of notes on cash flows for the region.”

Lucas had no luck in finding the accounting book, but he did find a strange journal from Kegan. He knew he probably should have left it where it was, but he felt compelled to take it from the shelf for some strange reason. A quick glance over his shoulder told him that neither Nick nor Bonnie was paying attention, so he figured there wasn’t any harm.

“I found it!” Nick declared, startling Lucas in the middle of his attempt to stealthily pocket Kegan’s journal. He pulled a book from one of the shelves and tossed it toward Lucas.

“Great,” Lucas said. He caught the book with his left hand and hid the journal behind his back with his right. “Now, uhh . . . look for some wax for seals and the royal stamp. I don’t know if Kegan’s dumb enough to leave them lying around, but if we can find those, we’ll be set.”

“Oh, sure. I saw those earlier.” Nick moved to a shelf adjacent to the one he was in front of and then lifted away a false segment, revealing a hidden compartment. “I thought the accounting book would be hidden here as well, but this old goon had them in completely different places.”

How in the heck did he discover a fake board on a bookshelf? I would never have noticed that, Lucas thought as he finished hiding Kegan’s journal and took the accounting book over to the table.

“That’s all we need then,” Lucas said, opening the book. There were no modern slice-of-life conveniences from the real world, leaving most players to create magical devices in place of electronic ones, but one feature that the game did allow was a camera. Players were allowed to take “screen grabs” and photos that could be posted to the game’s forums or on social media accounts. It was an easy way for players to share their experiences and capture memories, and it was a fast and easy promotion for the company.