Rico looked over what was in his hand and frowned. "So… it's a book?"
"No, it is a grimoire. Like for magic. It was found during an archaeological dig we were conducting in Biaylia. We found a bunch of things. But the main thing we found was an underground pyramid. It contained so many things that brought to light the existence of an empire that was bigger than even the area that Alexander the Great conquered." The professor explained as he showed off the photos.
"Okay, aside from this…grimoire. I think you can keep the rest of that. You can use them and your background in archeology to get a job teaching either in Gotham or just about any other city. But I would suggest Metropolis." Rico told the man as he handed the book to Artemis who looked it over with a frown.
The Professor grinned happily and quickly took back the photos before racing out of the office. He watched him quickly run out of the front door. He would probably need to start his whole life over. But Rico gave him a thousand in walking around money that he could use.
"What do you think?" Rico asked as he looked at the book. It was mostly worn leather but the few engravings on the face sides of the book were filled with some type of blue ink. They had several different hieroglyphs but the center most one was a blue beetle.
"I think… that there are exactly two people who I can contact. We can easily sell this to one of them. But the other is a bit… difficult." Artemis answered. "But we should keep quiet about this until it is out of our hands. There are plenty of ancient sorcerers who would kill to get an unknown grimoire."
"Not to mention the alien species that were clearly looking for it as well." Rico sighed as he spun around in his seat. He thought about their situation for a few minutes. They had T-Dog planning the heist to retrieve Doctor Fries' wife. Then he also had those 'events' that were arranged for him. If he could deal with this quickly then it was better. "Okay, then let's get this out of our hands quickly." Rico decided.
Artemis nodded and put the book under her arm and grabbed the greataxe with her other arm. "We could also hand it off to the Amazons." She offered as they walked down the steps.
"How would that profit us?" Rico asked with a chuckle as he grabbed a coat. It was getting to be the colder months of the year.
"It wouldn't." Artemis answered.
Rico shook his head. "Then we won't. Do you need to call ahead?" He asked as he walked to the alley door and went out and right to the garage where Gearbox was working. "Gearbox, is the towncar good?"
"Yep, modified with armor plating and bullet resistant glass. Barring a shell from a tank, it should be fine." Gearbox answered from his workdesk where he had a laser spear pulled apart and was dissecting it. "Hey, just so you know. I need a few materials to make some laser weapons of our own. They are rare but not expensive. Can I get them?"
"Prototypes first, Edgelady should already have a budget you can use." Rico answered as he pulled the towncar's keys off a hangar and walked to the car that was sitting in front of the garage door. The armored truck was sitting farther back because Gearbox clearly planned on using it.
"Yes, sir." Gearbox answered and got back to focusing on his dissection of alien technology.
Rico climbed into the driver seat and opened the garage door with a button. While Artemis climbed into the passenger seat with the grimoire in her lap. While she pulled out her phone. She dialed a number as her phone connected to the car.
Rico pulled out of the garage and closed the door behind him as he started driving. "Where am I going?"
"Metropolis." Artemis answered as it rang for a few seconds.
Rico began driving down the road. Then the call connected.
"This is Zatanna." A voice grumbled in annoyance. Rico raised an eyebrow and looked at Artemis who looked similarly confused.
"Hey Zat, this is Artemis. You are on speaker. Are you still open to buying anything strange and magical that I come across?" Artemis asked as Rico pulled into a line of traffic and groaned. There was not supposed to be traffic on this street.
"Artemis… you know that joining that mercenary group does not make you any friends." Her voice sounded a bit far from the phone.
Rico frowned and then nodded in understanding and whispered to Artemis. "She has you on speaker as well."
"Zat, I came across a magical grimoire. Am I selling it to you? Or do I have to reach out to the less reputable individuals to sell it?" Artemis asked with a sigh. There was silence for a moment as they were clearly muted before suddenly Zatanna answered again. Her voice was much louder and sounded a lot less annoyed.
"Sorry Artemis, I was in the middle of the meeting and they demanded to hear what you were going to say." Zatanna explained as she was clearly moving. Probably walking away from whatever room she was in. "I will gladly buy the grimoire if it actually is a magical one. Does it have a bit of background or a known name?"
"Nope, not as far as I know. It was dug up in Bialya during an archaeological dig. A… individual we smuggled out of the country gave it to us in exchange for safe passage. He got it from an Egyptian style underground pyramid. There is a big blue beetle on the front cover. I have not opened it." Artemis explained. More like they could not open it easily. There was a twine not closing it. None of the people who had held it wanted to risk opening it.
"Interesting, definitely nothing I have heard of before. Where do you want to meet up?" Zatanna asked in excitement.
"We are on our way to Metropolis now. So we can-" Artemis was cut off as there was a spout of fire in the distance. "Scratch that. How about we meet up for dinner? We can hand it over then and you can give us the amount you want to give us for this thing." Artemis explained as she looked a bit up and saw Gotham's Firefly setting a building on fire. "Hey if Batman is there, tell him Firefly is setting Main Street on fire."
"Ha… Gotham's villians. Always inconvenient." Zatanna sighed in annoyance. "I will pass on the info. I will also text you a good place for dinner."