"And you trust him?" Ed asked.
"I have confidence in my ability to read his thoughts," Mouse explained. "That makes me an excellent judge of his character. Besides, if we cannot contain the Stone-Coats we will use him to inform the US Government with immediate credibility."
"We will?" asked Mary.
"Only as a very last resort." Mouse admitted.
The box containing the Bear Claw was finally safely placed in the lab. There it sat atop a heavy steel table with a hole cut in the middle that was positioned in the center of the elongated lab building. Below it a kerosene heater burned, providing direct heat to the bottom of the containment box. White Cloud quickly attached leads to connectors on the box, and activating and accessing the lights, video cameras, microphone, and temperature gages inside the box.
Meanwhile Running Bear exchanged greetings with Ed and Mary, and was introduced to Jack and Doc by Mouse. "I have read all your papers concerning Native American ancestry," Running Bear told Jack, surprising everyone except Mouse. "You have contributed much to our understanding of our ancestors."
"And I have heard of you also," Jack responded. "As a Native American rights advocate in a number of court cases, you have helped deny my access to a number of important archeological sites."
Running Bear smiled. "Now that you are officially a Native American you will be able to access some of those sites."
That caused Jack's jaw to drop. "By the gods, I hadn't thought of that! Maybe there are more advantages to being a Native American than I realized!"
"Yes!" said Running Bear, with a small smile. "We Native Americans are truly living the dream!"
"Holly shits!" exclaimed Doc, when the computer monitor abruptly came to life. Ed, Jack, Mary, White Cloud, Mouse, and Talking Owl collectively gasped and stared, while Running Bear stoically watched everything with great interest. Filling the screen was the sharp bedazzling image of the Bear Claw!
Ed was astonished. He had seen incredible mineral exhibits in natural history museums where dazzling gemstones were displayed, and what he was looking at now reminded him of those, except this was more spectacular than anything he had ever seen before. How the hell had it been constructed? It was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen! It was shaped like a clawed finger-tip perhaps two and a half feet long and thick as his thigh. The claw itself was over a third of its length, and seemed to be a single flawless, translucent gemstone, pointed at its tip, with a sharp, serrated, inner edge designed to cut into whatever it grasped.
The 'finger' tip it was attached to was covered with plum and fist-sized, multiple faceted scales that also glinted clear/white in the light. This 'skin' appeared to be a coat of gigantic many faceted diamonds! Beneath those outside scales there was a vague impression of semi-translucent elongated crystals of various shades of blue, green, and red. There were dark streaks of black also, threaded around and throughout the crystals.
"How is its surface so sparkling clean?" Mary asked. "Did you guys hose it off after you pulled it out of that ashy fireplace?"
Talking Owl shook her head. "Dirt doesn't accumulate on it. It absorbs whatever collects on its surface."
"The scales and the claw look like diamonds!" Jack exclaimed.
"Possibly they are diamonds," White Cloud agreed. "That is something we hope to determine. It can't be ice, not at two-hundred degrees Fahrenheit."
"That's the temperature of our thermometer inside the box," noted Doc. "We still have to confirm that it is also the temperature of the Claw. But I suspect you are right; it is some sort of mineral and probably not ice. Quartz perhaps."
"Likely," agreed Jack. "Living in Giants' Rest Mountain would provide access to plenty of quartz. Quartz is the defining abundant mineral in granite, and it is damn near as hard and durable as diamond, being silicon based. Only carbon, silicon's close cousin in the periodic table, forms stronger multiple covalent bonds and harder materials, with diamond the hardest material of all."
"Let's rotate the object to get some other angles and lighting," suggested Doc.
"Angles and lighting!" Jack exclaimed. "Damn! We've simply got to rig up some sort of laser and measure optical refractive index! And that Geiger counter better get here soon too!"
White Cloud turned a crank that caused the center portion of the box's bottom to slowly revolve, along with Claw that sat atop it. Light from the small light-bulb in each box corner reflected and refracted off and through the artifact, causing a dazzling multi-colored light display.
"Wow!" exclaimed Doc. "This reminds me of a disco light show back in the 80's."
"Its surface where it broke off from the rest of the Stone-Coat doesn't look any different than the rest of it." noted Mary. "It has the same big shiny scales covering there as it has everywhere else."
"Yes," agreed Doc. "It healed itself. It's as though a layer of skin has grown over the broken surface. I can see why the Tribe concluded that it's still alive."
"Alive?" Ed remarked. "So far we've seen nothing but rock and no signs of life at all! Give me a gem collection and some Elmer's Glue-All and I could produce something very similar."
"True, it will take more than what you see here to convince some of you that Stone-Coats and this Bear Claw live," said Mouse aloud, before switching to telepathy. "LEAVE YOUR WIFE AND FRIENDS HERE WITH THEIR CAMERAS AND LIGHTS, RACCOON. THEY CAN INFORM YOU LATER ABOUT WHAT THEY FIND. IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO TALK TO TURTLES."
"I'VE BEEN TRYING TO DO THAT FOR MORE THAN A WEEK, OLD MOTHER. WHAT WILL HELP ME THIS TIME?"
"RUNNING BEAR AND TALKING OWL WILL TAKE YOU TO A PLACE NEAR WHERE SEVERAL TURTLES DREAM AND MAINTAIN THEIR LONELY VIGIL, RACCOON. THEIR THOUGHTS WILL BE LOUDEST THERE."
"WHERE IS THAT?" Ed had to ask. "NEAR THE CREEK MAYBE? I WAS THERE FOUR DAYS AGO."
"THE SITE IS NEAR HAIRLESS BEAR," Mouse replied. "TALKING TURTLE GROWS WEAK. WE HAVE DECIDED TO STATION HUMAN WATCHERS TO OBSERVE HAIRLESS BEAR. YOU AND RUNNING BEAR WILL TAKE THE FIRST WATCH."
"SWELL."
****
CHAPTER X
The Red Eye
Ed, John, and Talking Owl found the hiking and camping gear they needed waiting for them at the entrance of Turtle Man's Great Lodge and together they set off for Hairless Bear. Fortunately the walk was short, as the Lodge was long ago positioned to be near Hairless Bear, and a path through the snow had already been cleared by other tribesmen. They each carried large backpacks, with Running Bear effortlessly carrying by far the largest pack that included the tent.
"Is it far, Princess?" Running Bear asked Talking Owl, as they set off.
"I prefer Talking Owl," she told the Mohican, but she smiled. "Why would you call me Princess?"
"I am sorry, Talking Owl; I mean you no disrespect. As I spied on all of you I formed provisional names for those of you for whom I did not yet have a proper name."
"But why choose to call me Princess?" she asked again.
"Your beauty and bearing made the name choice an obvious one," Running Bear explained. "I have spoken it in my head a thousand times and grown quite used to it."
She laughed before replying. "Continue to use it if you wish, Running Bear. I do not want to confuse you."
"Only if you will call me John," Running Bear answered.
"Agreed. To answer your question, John, we are almost half-way to the Hairless Bear already; hardly a challenge for a man that can travel into our remote reservation while carrying all of this heavy camping and surveillance gear."
Ed said nothing, largely because he was short of breath from hiking while carrying what he considered to be an enormous weight. He was relieved when they arrived at the site of Hairless Bear and he could take off the heavy backpack. A large area for their tent and campfire had been already been cleared of snow by the Tribe and hadn't yet drifted back. Even the Hairless Bear itself and the woodpile around it appeared to have been cleared of snow!
"Ieeee!" the usually taciturn Running Bear exclaimed, when he looked up at the ro
cky stone figure that towered above them. "It is much bigger than I expected from legend!"
"Most Stone-Coats in the Mountain are said to be smaller, though some are also said to be even larger," said Talking Owl.
"This one is large and realistic enough! Well over ten meters tall, I'd say! Maybe fifteen or more!"
"You favor the Metric system, John?" Talking Owl asked.
"Chiefly because it is not English, but also because it is far more sensible, Princess," Running Bear said.
John and the Princess were suddenly staring into each other's eyes. Ed couldn't be sure, but he thought that he saw Talking Owl blush. Maybe it was due to the cold.
"I'll set up the tent," Running Bear announced, breaking eye contact with Talking Owl as he shed his own backpack and started unloading tent-parts from it. "It's an NSA tent and provides good protection against cold. Plenty of room in it for two."
Talking Owl turned her attention to Ed, though he noticed that she frequently glanced towards Running Bear. "This is your big test, Ed Rumsfeld. Your best hope is to lie quietly in the tent and relax with eyes closed and ears covered, leaving your mind open to quiet, slow turtle thoughts. Their thoughts form very slowly in your head, I am told."
"Thoughts form pretty darn slowly in my head normally," Ed noted. "What you describe sounds like an easy job."
"Not at all. But in a short time you have learned to do all that I can do with other animals, so your potential must be truly great."
"I'll probably simply doze off," Ed noted.
"That could be a good thing, Raccoon. Turtle Man often receives his best communications when he sleeps or is on the edge of sleep."
"Great! I'm a damn good sleeper," Ed noted. "One of the very best."
"John won't let you overdo your sleep," Talking Owl said. "He has been briefed by Mouse on how to help you." She reached into a pocket and pulled out a small plastic bag full of small roundish objects. "Use these earplugs. They will stifle sounds that might otherwise distract you. Besides, John might snore." She shot John a smile.
"Or if Ed snores I might be the one to need the earplugs," noted John.
"Good luck to both of you," she said with another little smile, before turning away from them and walking back towards the Lodge.
Both men attentively watched her go, and missed her company already.
"Wow!" said Running Bear, when she was finally out of sight.
"Ditto," agreed Ed. "Princess is a damn good name for her! Of course I'm married to a cutie already and I'm damn near old enough to be Talking Owl's father. But I'm married, not dead."
"Is she married?" Running Bear asked.
As Running Bear finished setting up the tent Ed told him about the White Cloud/Talking Owl dilemma.
"So far I much like White Cloud," said Running Bear, "but he's a fool that doesn't deserve her if he values Clan leadership above her."
"She seems to like you," Ed noted.
Running Bear snorted. "She's possibly mildly amused by me. I'm a Mohican NSA agent and far below her status. No Ed Rumsfeld, I am an outsider here and a realist. She is far beyond my reach. But I'm only a man. She cannot be beyond my thoughts."
They spent the next hour setting up the camp. They constructed a circle of rocks to contain a campfire and put equipment in the tent. Most food was hung high in a tree by Running Bear. "That should keep our food away from wolves, bears, and your little cousins the raccoons," he explained.
The two men entered the tent and sat down across from each other. The ground under the tent was frozen solid and it was colder than a refrigerator inside, but at least there was no wind or drifting snow to contend with. "What is this stuff?" Ed asked about the small parcels of food that John had left in the tent.
"MREs, Ed. Genuine government issue Meals Ready to Eat: dehydrated goodies. When it gets dark later we'll get our fire going and cook it up in a pot of hot water. Then we'll eat like kings. Well, like kings on a shitty restricted diet maybe."
"Swell! We wouldn't want to over-eat."
"Actually we'll both be eating and drinking more than usual, Ed. Out here in the cold we'll burn a lot of calories, breathe a lot of dry air, and make a lot of yellow snow. In the meantime let's talk about our mission. As Mouse explained it to me, my mission is to support you, and your mission is to learn how to telepathically talk with turtles and then mind-meld with this stone statue of a bear."
"Very true," agreed Ed.
"It all sounds a bit crazy to me. Could it be simply some kind of ruse to get me away from the artifact study?"
"I don't think so," said Ed. "My, but you are the suspicious sort, aren't you?"
"I'm NSA. And I'm also the sort of man that likes to be sure about what's going on around him, Ed."
"Me too, John."
"The bear-shaped rock formation creeps me out," admitted John.
"Me too," Ed admitted. "My spidey sense is tingling."
"Maybe it's supposed to creep us out," said John. "This whole Stone-Coat thing has had Native Americans creeped-out for centuries. Maybe the Tribe still doesn't trust me and putting me out here with you keeps me out of their hair."
Ed was quiet for a few moments before he replied. "Mouse told me that they sent you out here largely because you know how to set up your nice warm NSA tent and how to camp-out and keep me comfortable in the cold."
"When did she tell you that?"
"Just now, telepathically. I'm afraid that she's been eavesdropping on our thoughts. Human telepathy is her specialty, even at a distance. Don't expect to keep many secrets from her."
"That creeps me out almost as much as does Hairless Bear," said John, "but that sort of thing has also been long rumored of this Tribe."
"I'm getting to know and trust these people, and I'm getting rather used to telepathy," admitted Ed. "It's a gift. A creepy gift, but a sort of nifty one too. And I've learned how to do it a lot better over the last couple of weeks. I've shared thoughts with a lot of critters, but I'm still not at all sold on talking to turtles or on the existence of sleeping Stone-Coat Ice Giants. My friends and I plan to prove to the Tribe that Stone-Coats don't exist so that they can move out of these cold mountains to someplace warmer and nicer."
John laughed. "White men are always thinking of nice warm swamps and deserts to move their beloved red brothers to. I wonder what Mouse thinks of your plan? But I want to get to the bottom of this Stone-Coat business also."
"Why?"
"Like your Uncle Jack I have a great curiosity about Native American myths. I'd like to know if there is something real behind this one. I sort of hope that there is, actually."
"You do?"
"Native Americans have a lot of myths and there is a lot of wisdom tied up in them. I wouldn't mind finding out that there is some truth behind some of them. Call it a hobby."
"You're a complex guy, John."
"You are also. I'm supposed to let you do telepathy with turtles as you rest quietly here in the tent. Nothing simple about that."
"I suppose," Ed admitted.
"While it's still light outside I'll let you get to it while I have a look around the camp area some more. I like to know where it is that I'm sleeping."
"Sounds like a plan," Ed remarked, as John Running Bear slipped out of the tent and zipped it closed behind him.
Ed opened his sleeping bag and lay down upon it. Being on the padded bag was softer and warmer than being directly on the tent floor but the ground beneath was still relatively hard and irregular. However there was something primal and reassuring about lying on the solid ground; Ed felt like he was somehow part of the Earth and not merely laying upon it.
He relaxed, closed his eyes, and began to telepathically take inventory of the creatures in the area. Aside from John and a few rodents and birds, nothing was readily apparent nearby, though a bit further off he sensed wolves. This was a quiet, deserted patch of woods, all right! He wasn't looking forward to spending the night without Mary; this would be the first time they would
be sleeping apart since they were married. He was glad that she was safe at the Lodge though, instead of being camped alongside Hairless Bear. He was also very glad for the company of the stoic Mohican. He couldn't imagine spending the night here alone, even though he still didn't believe in Stone-Coats. However, though he couldn't see it he was acutely aware that Hairless Bear towered only a couple of giant steps away.
John Running Bear circled the camp area several times, creating pathways through the snow and becoming familiar with every square foot and every rock, tree, and bush. It would be a dark, moonless night, but he would be able to move about quietly even without a flashlight, if he had to. He looked for evidence of other humans besides himself and Ed, but found none. Further away from the camp and the pathway to it he found only his own footprints and those of a few animals in the two-foot-deep snow. This included numerous wolf and bear tracks, arranged in a rough circle some distance from Hairless Bear. The Tribe clan animals seemed to be watching Hairless Bear from what they considered to be a safe distance. He in fact sensed several wolves nearby.
Running Bear at last turned his attentions to Hairless Bear. He climbed the great mound of fire-wood that surrounded it to get a closer look, snapping photos with his small ruggedized digital camera as he went. Half way up he noticed rock that almost poked through the wood-pile. He cleared away some of the wood and was astonished to discover a huge stone hand with three fingers each as long and nearly as thick as his own body! They matched perfectly the Bear Claw being studied back at the lab, including scales that sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight. After taking a couple of dozen photos he covered the clawed hand back up with firewood. When he did so he noticed that some of the wood looked like it was partly eaten away. It wasn't singed; it seemed to have simply melted away!
He continued climbing towards the head. He expected to find a vaguely shaped rock, but the closer he got to it the more it looked like a perfectly shaped head. It was much bigger than it looked to be from ground level; instead of being as large as an elephant's head, it was closer in size to an entire elephant. He didn't see ears or nostrils, but otherwise it looked much like the head of a huge creature of some sort; a bear perhaps, or a muskrat or beaver. The apparent eye on the side of the head he faced was a round black area saucer in size, while the 'skin' of the head was covered with the same big gem-like scales as the fingers.
Ice Giants Wake! Page 11
