<span style="font-family: 'Georgia'"><span style="font-size: 15px"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#cc99ff"><u>Riley Kent</u></span><br/>
Riley was typically a sound sleeper. Since her youth, she was always kept on a strict sleeping schedule which gave her healthy sleeping habits on into her adult years. Nothing short of an alarm or her phone ringing would wake her up once she was out. Even living with Sera and sleeping in the same bed with her hadn't done much to disrupt her sleep cycle. And the rain always insured she felt well rested and bright-eyed for the next day. <br/>
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Tonight was different. She slept fitfully, plagued by nightmares. Her and Antoni Wright were getting ever closer to gathering enough evidence against Adventure Corps to have them shut down for good. They would only need, at most, three more missions with good solid evidence before they had enough compiled to make a true case against them. But the closer they got, the more anxious Riley became. To be caught and foiled now would be more devastating than when they'd first begun.  So, the closer they got the more nightmares she had in between missions. They anxiety of waiting, of wanting it to finally be over, were following her into her dreams. <br/>
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With the nightmares came waking at every little sound. The creaking and shifting of the bed as Sera climbed out from beneath the covers shot her into consciousness with a quiet gasp. Her wide, Bambi eyes flickered around the room, wide with fear and confusion. For a moment, she was still being dragged from a board room, kicking and screaming as all of her and Antoni's evidence was deleted with a resounding click. It took a moment to realize she was cocooned in her comforter at their run-down studio apartment in downtown D.C. She let out a tiny exhale of relief and levered herself onto one elbow, reaching for the waiting glass of water on her nightstand. <br/>
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As Riley drank deeply from the glass, her attention was pulled in the direction of her and Sera's shared desk, tucked under the window on the far wall of their one room apartment. Sera was up already, bent over the white glare of her laptop screen. Realizing what this meant, Riley finished off her glass and scooped up her phone. She too had an email notification from Adventure Corps. Riley threw the covered back and padded across the creaking wooden floor to hover at Sera's shoulder. <br/>
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Her lips pursed into a grim line as she scanned the email. They were being separated. This would be their first mission where they weren't paired with each other. Riley didn't want to think about what that might mean. <br/>
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"Bullshit," she grumbled, her voice rough with sleepiness. She grabbed her laptop from the top drawer of the desk and retreated back to her bed to open her own email.<br/>
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<i>Ms Kent,</i><br/>
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<i>Since joining our ranks,</i></span><i><span style="font-size: 15px"> you have proven to be a valued archaeologist and a fantastic representative of Adventure Corporation and its values. This next assignment has been failed by many and it is agreed that you are the most qualified to succeed in finding this lost treasure. </span></i><br/>
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<span style="font-size: 15px">Riley raised an eyebrow at the screen. They couldn't even be arsed to write an original opener for her. They'd literally just copied and pasted exactly what they'd said to Sera, or the other way around. This was not unusual, but it always struck Riley how very dumb these people could be, especially knowing all that they regularly got away with. You'd think it would take geniuses to do, but no, apparently not. <br/>
</span><br/>
<i><span style="font-size: 15px">Several months ago, we received intel that suggested locals from a fishing village in the Nugaal region of Somalia - known as Eyl - have legends of a lost city that may have basis in fact. Their legends say that the city, Baiae, existed on a small island not too far off the coast of Somalia. Their people were, of course, fisherman but they were unique in their deep diving abilities. It is said their best warriors and fishers could hold their breath for almost thirty minutes. This made them a highly sought after trading city for the other coastal villages, as they had rarer and harder to obtain fish. </span></i><br/>
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<i><span style="font-size: 15px">According to their stories, there was a great growl deep within the earth that shook the very foundation of the world. It stirred and angered the ocean, causing a massive wave unlike any they had ever seen to sweep over the coastal villages, decimating everything in its path, including the city of Baiae. When the sea finally settled, the island and it's city were nowhere to be seen. </span></i><br/>
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<i><span style="font-size: 15px">The first team we sent out was able to glean some of the facts hidden in the fantasy of it all. Through their research, they found trustworthy recordings of what was likely an earthquake which had triggered a tsunami. It is not outside the realm of possibility that an earthquake, coupled with the power of a tsunami, could drown an entire city. The problem with finding this city is that no one knows where it is. </span></i><br/>
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<span style="font-size: 15px"><i>The latest recordings of Baiae are over 2,000 years old and buried deep in fantasy. One of the villages that supposedly did most of the trading with Baiae no longer exists, but locals near that area continue to tell the story of Baiae because of a series of caves, inscribed with pictures of the coastal villagers and the people of Baiae interacting as well as words and phrases in an unknown language. Members of our team believe the words and pictures inscribed are directions to Baiae, but none of them have been able to interpret what any of it means. </i><br/>
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<i>That is where you come in, Ms. Kent. We believe that you expertise in linguistics, especially your knowledge involving dead languages, will be the key to unlocking the location of this illusive city. Your partner will be our diving and underwater expert, Jonathon McPherson. His contact information and a couple reports from the last few missions to Eyl are attached to this email. </i><br/>
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Riley sat back against the headboard with a heavy sigh and a loud squeak of protest from the bed, folding her arms across her chest. Not only were they splitting her and Sera up, but they were sending Riley out of her element. The majority of Riley's mission in the past were land based, as she'd stated early on that she wasn't a strong swimmer. This was going to be an embarrassing and difficult mission. Riley wondered if they knew how long it would likely take. Interpreting a dead language was going to take a lot of research, maybe month of pouring over old tombs and pictures of the text and sitting in the cave. <br/>
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"This feels like a punishment," Riley noted, glancing up from her laptop to watch Sera's anxious pacing across the room. It was a bad habit of Sera's that she never showed any interest in kicking. "Do you think they know about...what I've been up to?" <br/>
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For the past year and a half, Riley had been working with Antoni Wright, a former employee of Adventure Corps, to expose their heinous misconduct. Adventure Corps was notorious for traipsing through sacred or restricted areas without any regard for the rules. Any member of the team who refused to cooperate with this law-breaking attitude would see themselves promptly fired and completely blacklisted from ever working in the field again. They stole artifacts from their country of origin without an regard for the reigning governments. They had no respect for the cultures they encroached upon and even less respect for the scientists and explorers they employed. <br/>
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Worse still, they didn't always sell their finds to respectable museums. Adventure Corps had a policy of selling to the highest bidder, which was often times shady black market dealers and rich snobs with an obsession for old, important looking things to decorate their yachts with. Often times, the things Adventure Corps found weren't safe in the wrong hands, and often times, those were the hands they ended up in. <br/>
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Anyone who tried to speak out or expose Adventure Corps met the same fate as those who refused to cooperate with their any-means-necessary policy. Antoni Wright was one such victim. After realizing that a dangerous substance he found on one of his first missions was sold to a black market dealer, he'd raised unholy hell and threatened to go to a lawyer with everything he knew about their nefarious business strategy. Daniel Bain, the CEO of Adventure Corps, had responded by carefully explaining how nothing Antoni said in court would hold up, fired him, and then blacklisted him from every working in the field again in a campaign that last several, drawn-out and dramatic months. <br/>
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Riley was just starting to get uncomfortable enough to want to speak out when all of this went down, and decided to wait a few months before contacting Antoni to hear what he had to say. During this time, she figured out how to set up a secure email, separate from her work email, so that it couldn't be tracked by Adventure Corps. It was the worst kept secret in the company that they monitored all of their employees personal and work emails, as well as their social media activity among many other things. <br/>
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During this time of preparation, Antoni had not been idle. He'd talked to a lawyer to figure out exactly what he'd need to take Adventure Corps down. And Riley fit the bill. It didn't take long for him to recruit her to his side and put her to work. Ever since then, Riley had been collecting evidence and information to use in the eventual trial that Wright would take them to. It was hard, slow work, especially because Riley had to make sure the conditions were right so that she wouldn't be caught. Not to mention, not all of their missions were so poorly executed with such disregard for rules and respect. <br/>
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Sera helped were she could, foiling their plans and giving Riley any information she came across, but she wasn't directly involved the way Riley was. Even still, if Adventure Corps had caught wind of what Riley was doing, it would come as no surprise if Sera was punished as well, lumped in with Riley by association. </span></span>