"Helio's Eye!?" Miss Demode exclaimed.
"Yes. Helio's eye. Please, take a seat and, once the others have turned up, I shall explain in full detail." Peter waved her to a seat and went up onto the stage, where a lab rat sat behind a computer desk, preparing the power point he had made for Peter Abbandon.
A lot of people turned up, three curators, referred to as Sir or Miss, six librarians, referred to as Words, five restorers, referred to as Bones, and sixteen board members, informally referred to as Boring members.
Once everyone had taken a seat and the talkative atmosphere died, Peter began, waving his arms around like the enthusiastic schoolboy he truly was. "Thank you for coming." He started. "Now I'm sure when you heard my terrible beckoning you all expected you were either being promoted or fired." He paused for effect, nodding to the lab rat for some reason. "Well I gathered you here because you're all fired."
There was silence. The lights dimmed. No one dared to speak, not for one second presuming he might be kidding. He nodded again and the lab rat, made a note.
"Only joking." In unison, everyone exhaled loudly, relieved at the prospect of keeping their jobs.
"Apart from you. You're literally fired." He pointed at Bone Stevenson, who left crying.
The lab rat tapped the keyboard and the gigantic display at the back turned on to reveal the Colossus of Rhodes. "Does anyone know what this is behind me?" He gestured to the screen.
"The green giant going for a bath?" Some cried.
"Close. It's actually one of the seven wonders of the world." The screen flicked to another image. "The Colossus of Rhodes was built by Charles of Lindos to celebrate the victory of Rhodes over the ruler of Cyprus. Depicting the Greek titan Helios, it stood at 98 feet tall, which shockingly is the same height as my grandson."
There was laughter.
"It was destroyed in 226 BC by an earthquake. An earthquake, on an island, destroyed a statue that stood in the sea. Tell me, do you think much survived?"
"No." Was the general reply.
"You're wrong." The screen flicked on again to another picture. "According to rumour, most of it was sold to a wealthy jew, who took it away to be melted down, but recently, in continuous correspondence with the Public Alexandrian Museum, the modern day counter part of the original Museum of Alexandria that kept many of the original lists, we've discovered several remaining aspects of the six destroyed wonders of the world. Most of them were trivial, but there was one we were quite interested in. The eye of Helios. What's important is that we believe the eye of the Colossus of Rhodes, or alternatively Helios' Eye, is valuable, and we don't trust the Public Alexandrian Museum with it. So, I would like to send a team of you to go and retrieve the eye before they can sell it. Now, before I can sanction this, I need the board members permission, as for some reason you don't trust me."
"I can't see why, Mr Abbandon." The head board member replied. "Not all of us like this idea, but our opinion has never stopped you, so we've decided to condone it nonetheless. Still, if it all goes wrong, we won't be bailing you out."
Peter smiled. "Thank you for your continued support and help, my favourite board members. I wouldn't have been able to get through this without you. And trust me, you're all invited to my funeral."
"Really?" Asked the lab rat, following some script Peter must have written.
"Over my dead body."
The audience laughed greatly.
Peter bowed, lapping up the laughter, and said, "Miss Demode, Word Chain, Bones Piern and Mister Baled, if you could choose a lab rat I would much appreciate if you could meet me in my study and we can start to plan our attempt to retrieve Helios' eye. Thank you."
Within twenty four hours, they were on a plane to Alexandria to retrieve the eye of the seventh great wonder of the world.
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