When Devin walked along the central hallway he saw a woman leave the restrooms. It was obvious that more time was spent on her than any of the sculptures standing behind her. Devin had never been anything other than weak against beautiful woman, but thankfully he had a much more pressing matter to distract him from the pigtailed beauty. 

The Museum was still mostly empty with the bus tourists still in the courtyard getting their pre-tour talk. The only ones who had tickets and were in the museum were the early to rise backpack travelers. Thankfully they aren’t the kind who invest a lot of time in stuff that isn’t both old and photographic. Their blindness was something Devin was happy to take advantage of. 

Making his way up the stairs Devin finally reached the room he wanted. He saw it closed off and was happy that a large plastic sheet was up blocking people’s view of the whole area. He flashed his badge to the guard and then walked through without waiting. The guard didn’t follow so Devin seemed to be in the clear. The first second he looked around the room he spent admiring all the maps and artifacts around him.

The room was a paradise for any cartographer fan. Maps were all over the walls and navigation tools were displayed throughout the floor of the room. All were amazing in their own rite, but only one held a specific secret. Glancing at the different maps on the wall Devin scoured the room until he came across a map encased in a massive glass display case. Looking at the full map he noticed some tearing around the edges. 

‘Shit’ Devin thought to himself. The tearing was fine, but the small fibers that came out from the tear told him that the material it was made of wax paper when the real map was made from papyrus. The one in the display was a fake. Something he hadn’t planned for. He was told that the maps were kept in climate controlled displays and due to their more or less ‘neat, but not that neat’ factor with the public they weren’t often duplicated for display. Devin had the ready availability of flash photography on phone to blame most likely. 

Exiting the room and again showing his badge to the guard he muttered something about getting some of his tools. He had no interest in the room anymore and saw a full week of planning quickly spiral down the drain. While taking the steps he heard a rather scathing voice echo throughout the hall. Looking down he saw the woman from earlier talking with the man Devin recognized as the curator for the entire museum.

“Excuse me?” Devin said. He didn’t know what the conversation was, but seeing the curator meant he could do some damage control. “Hi, my name is Matthew Keller. I am with the antiquities protection department for this facilities insurance firm. I was instructed to review the security for your astrological section, but I noticed some of the maps were the duplicates. Could one of you assist me in getting to the lower basement to check on the real deals?” 

Devin realized he was supposed to be a computer and security nerd and not a well versed artifact appraiser. Even if he were to back up the unusually high knowledge with the age old “I am an enthusiast” the duplicates at this sort of museum were top of the line. “At least I was told in an email. Heck knows I couldn’t tell old from older around that room.” He gave a warm smile to the man and then a much warming smile to the woman.