Michael Collins - The Knife

The knife was golden. Well, the blade was. The handle was obsidian.

It was a sacred object from the 17th Dynasty of an ancient civilization whose name was lost to time. Such a knife was unique... Hence worth spilling blood over: either that, or it was a cheap fake made in some grubby corner of the world best avoided by decent folk. Who would know? Well, it was the job of Peregrine Aloysius Smith to find out.

And find out he would. For Smithy loved a challenge...And cared deeply about truth, justice, and all that was good and noble in the universe. He gave little thought to the 20% commission which would come his way should the artefact appear on the up and up. No sir, Smith was in it for all the right reasons.

The flight to South America was long and tiring: fraught with anxiety... Made worse because he should have been going to South Africa. It was an oversight which Smith would live to regret. It would prove costly. Very, very costly. In time, once he had recovered from the jet lag, Smith did indeed catch the correct flight. And naturally suffered another bout of jet lag upon arrival in South Africa. This put him out of action for about five days. Unfortunately, that was just enough time for the leads to run cold.

Yes, quite regretful!

Smith could almost taste his quest for truth, justice, and all things good...including the commission disappear... Like sand through an hour glass... (Yes, it was, indeed, one of the days of his life...)  He again contacted the museum which had hired him to explore the current situation. They were not pleased! In fact, they were ready to fire Smith on the spot if he could not give them something. So he lied.

"Yes sir", he said, "it's all good...I can practically assure you that the knife will be validated come tomorrow morning." This was an absurd assertion, of course.

Still, Smith had a plan. It was his usual go-to plan when things went completely skew-whiffy. He would fake his own death, and assume yet another identity. Not a brilliant plan... Still...it had worked for him.  For this was Smith's fourth name change in as many years... Each one more ridiculous than the last. And the knife? Well... I'll tell you what happened to that...It was an obvious fake. Any fool could tell that. And I was not just any fool. It was me who sent Smithy on his journey... his futile journey... I was playing for time... I had my reasons... I, too, had my reasons.

End of part one