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“How in the hell does someone take something from Imperial Russia and leave it at a site in Laos, only for it to be stolen from that site?” asked Leo.

“May, I always love your history lessons, but, honey, can we get to the point of this,” said Luke. Thomas chuckled, shaking his head.

“You either want to know the whole story, or you want to know nothing,” she frowned. Luke blushed.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Anyway, we know that Tzarist rule ended with the Romanov dynasty.

But so many great works of art, jewels, and other items disappeared when the Romanovs disappeared.

For instance, we know that Fabergé created sixty-nine eggs, but only sixty-one are known to have survived, with the imperial eggs accounting for fifty of those.

“Then we have the amber room from Catherine’s palace. We know this was stolen by the Nazis, but no one has ever recovered even one ounce of this. The sheer magnitude of items boggles the mind.

“Six months ago, the archaeological world was buzzing with stories of lost imperial treasures found in Asia. Now, Asia is a big place. Everyone kept asking where in Asia? Why in Asia? There were no responses. Then, we got this grainy photo sent into the inbox for lost treasures.”

They all stared at the photo, squinting as they were trying to see what she was seeing. The background was dark, clearly nighttime wherever it was taken.

“What are we seeing?” asked Eric.

“That is the site in Laos, beneath one of the ancient stones that someone removed and placed four velvet wrapped Fabergé eggs and several large pieces of amber, which may or may not be part of the lost amber room.”

“What the hell?” mumbled Cam.

“This is a game,” said May. “Kids who think it’s funny to hunt down these important artifacts and then play a game of hide and seek with them.

They don’t care about the history of these pieces or how important it is that we recover them.

This is all fun for them. They send out a puzzle on a website, a riddle if you will, and the first person who finds what they’ve hidden wins a cash prize. ”

“What happens to the items?” asked Luke.

“They’re sold on a black-market auction site and never seen again.” Luke nodded at the others in the room.

“Okay, so we think these items were hidden beneath this massive stone while Fred and Gemma were at the site, and he may or may not have seen who did it. And the items may or may not still be there.”

“They are not there,” said May. “We’ve had the team on-site check, and the items are gone, which is heartbreaking. But it seems a logical explanation for why they’re after Fred. He saw something or someone.”

“Well, shit,” muttered Cam. “Let’s go talk to the others. We’ve still got a lot to figure out about this.”