Antonius stared at his online tax form. He knew, from experience, that it was fifty pages long, and he needed to fill it all up. He sighed. This was Hell. Only if he had someone to deal with this part of treasure hunting.

Yes, he was going to get an assistant. He minimized the tax form and went to the first work site he found. Then, he began crafting the job ad.

Do you want to travel? Are you an accountant? Then I need you to become my assistant. The pay is five thousand dollars per month. The insurances and pension found are outside that.

Must be discreet and be ready to move from country to country without any notice. Housing and food are provided by me. I also cover the travelling expenses. Must have nothing against getting shooting lessons and basic hand-to-hand lessons. Again, paid by me.

You must be:

—Discreet.

—A history enthusiast.

—Outgoing.

—Good with filling in tax forms.

This job ad will be available for three days. This is my zoom. Send your CV, I don’t need a picture. If I like your CV, I will reach out to you. Your cover letter must be no bigger than one hundred words.

With that, Antonius clicked the submit button and went back to his tax form site. He was on the twelfth page, wondering what the time in which he earned the money had to do with anything, when he got a message.

Desperate to get away from his boring work, he went to see who had applied. He saw some Chinese writings and gave it a pass. He didn’t know Chinese. Guess he should have been more specific. Then again, if the people couldn’t tell that the job required for them to know English from the fact that the ad was in English, maybe he didn’t need them.

He was just about to go back to his tax form, when he saw a submission in English. He clicked on it.

Name: Cesare Agosti

…. 

Date of birth: 03.02.1994

….

Antonius skimmed through the university information. He noted that Cesare had a master’s degree in accounting, which was nice. Then, finally, he went to the cover letter.

Dear Mister Lesovski,

I write to apply for your job offer. I have always wanted to travel, and I would also like to add that I have a black belt in karate, so I can handle myself. Furthermore, I already know how to shoot, although I have done so mostly with a hunting ruffle.

Your offer sounds like a grand adventure and I would like to be a part of it.

Kind regards,

Cesare Agosti

Well, Antonius thought as he smiled, that meant he wouldn’t need to wait for Cesare to get trained in basic combat before he went on another hunt. That was good.

Quickly, Antonius wrote Cesare a quick email to tell him that he was waiting for him in zoom in an hour. If Cesare didn’t show, then he didn’t want the job enough. Antonius was pleasantly surprised when he got a confirmation minutes later, and he went back to his tax form.

When the time for the meeting came, Antonius minimized his tax form and went in zoom. Cesare was already in the meeting room.

Antonius took a good look at the man. He had brown, wavy hair that went pass his ears. And, he had hazel eyes with just enough green in them for people to wonder if they weren’t actually green.

“Hello, Mr. Lesovski,” greeted Cesare, and Antonius waved.

“Hello, Mr. Agosti. Do you mind if I call you Cesare?” Cesare smiled faintly, some tension leaving his shoulders.

“I have nothing against it,” Antonius nodded.

“Good, you may call me Tony. Antonius is such a mouthful, isn’t it?” Antonius ran a hand through his blonde hair as Cesare nodded again. “Well, I saw your CV, but I have some questions for you. Question number one: how do you feel about people finding things and then not going to the lost and found with them?”

Cesare was silent for a full minute and then spoke.

“I think that it is not the right thing to do, but it is not like it is stealing, in and of itself, is it? Is that what you do, Tony? Find lost things and then sell them?” Well, Cesare had caught on quickly. Antonius was pleased.

“Not things, relics. I found the lost treasure of Alaric the Visigoth just yesterday,” proclaimed Antonius, and Cesare’s eyebrows rose.

“So, the legend about the river Busento is true? How big was it?” Antonius didn’t let himself be too surprised that Cesare knew where it could be. The man was Italian. And Alaric had left his stamp in the history of the peninsula.

“It was quite disappointing, actually. Just a jewelry box. The best peace was a signet ring that had the sigil of Caesar Augustus,” which was probably the reason Antonius had fetched such a sum as he did.

“Well, Alaric most likely had to pay the horde first,” spoke Cesare thoughtfully.

“Question number two: Where do you think the holly bowl of Buddha is?” Antonius needed to check the history knowledge of Cesare about things that were outside Italy.

“Well, it should be somewhere in Nepal or India. But something tells me you made sure it is now in a private collection,” Antonius nodded, pleased.

“Final question, how fast can you fill a tax form?” Antonius got to the crux of the matter. Because he needed Cesare’s help for tax forms, above all.

“In under half an hour. An American, right?” Antonius grinned and send his unfinished tax form to Cesare.

“I got to page twenty, so you will have thirty minutes to fill in the rest, a minute per page sounds fair. Go,” Antonius saw Cesare’s eyes leave his image and he heard typing and clicking sounds.

Twenty minutes passed in silence and, finally, Cesare spoke.

“I just need to know how much you earned and under what I should list it,” Antonius went to his bank statement and forwarded it to Cesare. The man’s eyes nearly bulged out of his eyes.

“I think stock exchange would be the only believable thing, Tony,” spoke Cesare, and he finished with the tax form and send it back. “I also fixed some calculation mistakes you have made that would have made the administration return it.”

Antonius looked at the filled out form and grinned.

“Where are you? In Italy? I can come pick you up,” Cesare nodded and began typing. Soon, Antonius had an address and an accountant partner in crime.