by Leji Albano
She turned to Alexander with a curious look. He smiled at her bemused expression, then walked over to the keypad on the wall and entered a nine-digit code. With a loud click, the locks released, and he swung the door open.
He reached around the entry and put his hand on what she assumed was the light switch, but rather than use it, he stopped and gazed at her with playful eyes. “Do you know what Howard Carter’s response was to Lord Carnarvon, who asked, ‘Can you see anything?’ when he first peeked into King Tut’s tomb?”
Tina shook her head in negation.
“He said, ‘I see wonderful things.’….” Then Alexander flipped on the lights.
She couldn’t see much from where she was standing, but what she did see took her breath away. Alexander took her by the arm and led her into a room filled with items on exhibit, shelves filled with artifacts, and bookshelves lined with ancient manuscripts. He paused after a few steps and released her arm. Still grinning, he said, “Take a look around. This is only part of what we have stored here.” Then he shrugged carelessly. “Some of it will never be sold…call it my personal collection.”
Tina walked to the first display case and gazed down at beautifully carved figurines and amulets. “Those are jades from the Shang dynasty,” Alexander’s voice said softly from just behind her. “We also have some bronzes that are not currently on display, as well as bronze weaponry from various early Chinese periods.”
The next case held Japanese swords of varying sizes. She recognized the shapes and the style of craftsmanship. “The straight, single-edged sword is the oldest. It is Chokuto style, and very delicate. I think it was made in the 7th century, but that’s just an educated guess,” he said.
Alexander walked over to a different display and beckoned her to come. When she stepped up beside him, he raised a questioning eyebrow. “Have you ever seen an original Gutenberg Bible? This one was printed in the 1450s. Of course, I still prefer the older Illuminated Manuscripts.”
He chuckled and said, “Yes, we have some of those too.”
As Alexander walked away, he tossed over his shoulder, “Feel free to look around, I have to grab what we came here for. Just remember, if you break it, you buy it.” He erupted with laughter when he saw the horrified look on her face. “Just kidding…mostly.”
She quickly realized she knew virtually nothing about most of what she was looking at. And if she was honest with herself, she didn’t even know what most of it was. To be fair, she could say with a fair amount of certainty that an artifact was a coin. Still, she would be at a loss to tell you where the currency came from, its age, or any other identifying information.
One display, in particular, held her attention. Gold, silver, and various gems glittered back at her through the glass. There was no rhyme or reason to the collection, as even she could tell that the artifacts came from different time periods and cultures. But they were all exquisitely beautiful. One necklace had an emerald the size of a golf ball prominently displayed as the central pendant. Tina sighed as she realized that such prizes were far beyond her reach.
Alexander startled her. “I should have known I’d find you drooling over the jewelry.”
She elbowed him. “Don’t scare me like that! And yes, they are lovely.” Eyes squinted in a calculating way, Tina asked, “Ball-park figure, what’s it all worth?”
“Roughly? I have no way of answering that. Some of what I have here is priceless, one-of-a-kind items that even Sotheby’s would be hard-pressed to price.”
Holding the box in his hands out to her, Alexander said, “Come on, let’s get out of here. I’ve got to prepare these Warring States period jade stamps for delivery to our customer.” He turned out the lights and secured the room before they made their way back to the Destination Unknown Antiquities offices.
Tina had just finalized the travel arrangements that Alexander had requested. She was happy that he had finally decided to include and introduce her to this side of the business. Travel via a private charter flight from Spokane International Airport to Charles de Gaulle outside Paris, France. They would be staying in the City of Lights for a week, then returning home. She hoped there would be time for sightseeing, as she had never traveled internationally before. Her only regret was that her birthday would fall during their time in France, but she figured it was a fair trade-off.
“Excellent. Then I can be assured that the watch will be waiting for me when I arrive on Wednesday?” Alexander asked the man on the other end of the phone as he gazed out upon the grey sky that seemed to crouch down on the city. He could smell the rain that hadn’t yet begun to fall but would soon make its presence known. “Thank you, Henri, as always it has been a pleasure. I will see you in a few days.” He wore a satisfied smile as he disconnected and cranked up some music, in this case, Make Me by Rail. It really was too bad that they had never made it big, but MTV didn’t play their music enough, and thus their popularity never took off.
He picked up the jade stamp that he had set aside when he placed the call to Henri. As his fingers deftly worked the polishing rag into the carved symbols, carefully removing any dirt or dust, his thoughts turned inward.
Alexander knew he was taking a risk by planning the surprise he had in store for Tina. Still, it was only fair that she received some form of compensation for being out of the country on her birthday. A deep sigh escaped him, not to mention that you really want to get a gift for her, and you can tell yourself all day that it is purely platonic, but that doesn’t make it so. A quirk of one side of his mouth indicated how amused he was. You never have been very good at lying to yourself.
All of which was true, and yet, he was still going to go through with it. Tina had been working for him for a couple of months now, and he had somehow managed to avoid any major mistakes that would lead to any sort of unfortunate entanglements…. Still, it was becoming harder and harder to do. Especially so, given the fact that she had been practically throwing herself at him for weeks. Ignoring the offer was wearing on him if the truth were to be known.
Subconsciously, his right hand drifted to the large medallion that he wore around his neck. This odd-looking, yet seemingly ordinary hunk of metal had set everything in motion back in 1903. Of course, he had no real idea as to what it was or the functions it performed back then, because the concepts didn’t even exist yet. All he knew for sure at the time was that it had somehow passed a lifetime of memories to his fevered brain, memories that weren’t his.
Over the intervening years, he had gained a better idea of its capabilities and the purpose it served, but the truth of the matter was that he was convinced there was far more to be discovered. It was part recording device, somehow scraping experiences out of his brain and storing them internally, ready to be passed along to whoever the next owner might be. And it was also a miniature nano-factory that ensured a constant supply of the nanites that supercharged his body was on hand when, and if, they were needed.
It was the combination of the compiled memories and nanites that made him so different from other Weres. The ability to draw upon other people’s experiences and utilize them while in the midst of a decision-loop gave him a distinct advantage in desperate situations; he didn’t have to make the same mistakes, nor suffer the consequences his progenitor had. Not to mention, a thousand years of political infighting, warfare, and dealing with both Normal humans and enhanced species gave him a leg up in nearly every situation Alexander could possibly find himself in.
Toss in the nanites that took his already ramped-up body and pushed it to greater heights, and you had a winning combination that couldn’t be beaten. The average Were was exponentially stronger, faster, and far more durable than a Normal human. On average, a run-of-the-mill werewolf could manage three times the weight, run faster than an Olympic sprinter, and survive damage that would kill a normal man. Pretty impressive. However, the nanites flowing through Alexander’s bloodstream bumped all of these abilities by nearly double the amount. If needed, the nanites wo
uld assist with repairing any trauma that was beyond the normal regenerative abilities that the initial virus imparted.
So, if the average werewolf was considered superhuman, then Alexander was in a league of his own. Moreover, the changes made to his body optimized him in all three of his available forms. In addition to keeping him at the same apparent age of twenty-seven that he was the day he became infected, the combination of virus and nanites ensured that his body was at its maximum level of fitness at all times. His optimized wolf form was at the very top of the scales for the species, somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-five percent more massive than average. As for his Battle form, the hybrid of wolf and man, well, it too was much larger than others, towering over a non-enhanced werewolf.
All of this had a purpose. Only the Alpha of any of the enhanced species would have been given these advantages via an amulet, such as the one he wore upon his chest. These were to be the leaders, those who led armies, or managed slaves, for the gods. There were limitations, of course. For instance, his amulet could not be used to upgrade anyone who wasn’t a Dire Wolf. If he tried to upgrade a vampire, it would do nothing other than kill them most painfully. This specificity was probably one of the reasons that his was the last functional device on the planet…as far as he knew.
He shook his head, clearing away these random thoughts, and focused once again on the task at hand. These jade stamps needed to be ready and packaged prior to their trip to Paris.
7
“…Looking upon their new home, the Anunna set about making plans for what would be needed to successfully colonize this new world. It was obvious that no technological society existed, nor even primitive civilizations. The biodiversity of the habitats was amazing and offered vast opportunities for exploitation. Arguments broke out over where their first permanent colony should be located, and when no consensus could be reached, the decision was shelved temporarily. Enough other decisions needed to be made, such as setting up an HE3 mining and processing facility on the moon. This fuel would be needed to keep both the ship and its shuttles fueled over the coming centuries. Advanced 3D printing made the creation of both habitation modules, and the basic equipment needed for mining, to be generated relatively quickly and put into production….”
Excerpt from the diary of Alexander Matthews
October 1947, Excavations at Eridu in Iraq
Alexander wiped the sweat from his forehead with the handkerchief he kept in his back pocket for just such an occasion. The desert was always hot, and digging through the layers of compact sand and mud didn’t make the job any easier. He was sifting the dirt for any artifacts that might be present but had to admit that, for the most part, this expedition had not yielded much of use to his quest.
The amulet he always wore had passed on the knowledge that the Anunna had initially settled in a now-flooded part of the Persian Gulf. He was searching for any indications of surviving technology or culture that might exist in the oldest cities in the area. After all, it would only make sense that as the waters rose at the end of the last ice age, the inhabitants of the region would have migrated up the rivers to higher ground. Considering that several of the oldest cities, Eridu among them, were founded circa 5,400BC, it was entirely possible that at least some of the survivors would have brought their culture with them. Granted, much had probably been lost along the way, and the long span of time between 11,000BC and the founding of the cities was unaccounted for.
He suspected that the ‘gods’ of Sumer were the remnants of that earlier society, probably some of the few Anunna descendants that had managed to last that long. It didn’t help that the history contained within the amulet abruptly ended with the death of his progenitor circa 13,000BC, and made all his assumptions little better than guesswork.
The technology of the ancient space-faring race had already been failing even before that timeframe, and the chances that much would have survived into historical times were slim. Still, some knowledge was not dependent upon machines. Language, including writing, astronomy, agriculture, building techniques, and perhaps even maps of the world could have, and probably did, survive the rising of the seas. He suspected that functional technology would be uncommon, and certainly, it would be fought over as the Anunna attempted to maintain control over the areas within their reach.
Sumerian gods were always depicted as being much taller and more muscular than the ordinary people, and this fit in with the fact that the Anunna were a larger species than mankind. Pale skin, red or blonde colored hair, and sensitivity to light were also traits of these people. The distinctive “hand bags” and “watches” that they were often modeled with may have been mythical in nature, but fragments of recollection implied these were real. He discounted the oversized eyes as being cultural because his ‘memories’ did not show that to be the case with the actual aliens. In fact, they were no doubt the origins of the legendary giants that existed in cultures all over the world. Proof continued to elude him, though, as did actual artifacts that he could study and gain additional knowledge.
Alexander was seriously considering making a trip to an actual battle site that he had managed to identify from what the amulet had transferred into his brain. The sheer size of the excavations needed would be immense, and the expense ungodly, but it might come down to that to accomplish his goals….
Early morning sunlight streamed in through the window next to his seat, bathing Tina’s slumbering form in a soft glowing nimbus. She was reclined in a luxury seat, face turned toward him as she slept, mouth slightly open, and hands tucked under her chin. Alexander reached across the aisle and pulled the blanket up a little from where it had slipped during the night, and resisted the urge to tickle her ear. He looked at his watch and determined that he would wake her an hour before touchdown if she hadn’t managed it on her own by then.
Her initial excitement at being on a private jet headed to an exotic location had gradually worn away as the sheer boredom of travel set in. Night had fallen before they refueled in New York, and despite her best efforts, sleep had claimed her not too long afterward.
Now, with the dawn breaking over the Atlantic Ocean and only a couple of hours out from their destination, he pondered the situation he found himself in.
A wry grin passed over his face as he continued to watch the woman who so easily unsettled him on the most fundamental level. What was it that made Tina different from other women he had met over the years? Certainly, he had had affairs, trysts, and one-night stands aplenty. Yet, any sort of long-term connection, much less commitment, had escaped him. If he were completely honest with himself, he would admit that this mostly had been because keeping people at a distance was a defense mechanism. He couldn’t be hurt if he didn’t let them in.
To make matters even more convoluted, Tina was a Normal, someone who didn’t even know his kind existed. On the rare occasions when he allowed himself to indulge in a fling, it was always with another genetically modified individual. Such an entanglement was cleaner, far less likely to result in complications.
Sighing heavily, Alexander resigned himself to the fact that he was no closer to solving the problem that slept just two feet away, and he turned to stare out at the sea.
Tina stared dully out the window of the limousine that she and her boss were riding in. The trip had been exhausting so far, especially as the initial excitement of flying in a private jet had worn off much sooner than she had anticipated. Oh, it was much better than flying coach as she had on her infrequent trips before coming to work for Alexander, but most of a day cooped up in anything gets old fast. Nor did she get much sleep on the flight, and jetlag was hitting her hard, the nine-hour time difference brutal. On the other hand, the smug bastard sitting next to her appeared to be as fresh as a daisy. It should have been impossible. She knew for a fact that he did little more than take a short nap somewhere over the central part of the US, and yet he seemed unaffected by sleep-deprivation.
She got her first glimpse of the Four
Seasons Hotel as the limo turned the corner onto Avenue George V. The building was an Art Deco wonder, and typically, Tina would have wanted to spend time exploring it. But right now, all she wanted was a bed. And maybe something to eat, but definitely a bed.
Alexander paid the driver as the hotel staff approached, and like magic, the small pile of luggage that had been unloaded disappeared into the hotel. He took her by the arm and led her past the doorman and onward to the front desk. As he approached, the smiling concierge said, “Welcome back, Sir. We have two adjoining suites prepared for you and Miss Ferrante. Your luggage is already on its way up to your rooms. Will there be anything else?”
“Not at this time, Lucien. Thank you.”
“Come along, sleepyhead,” he said as he gently steered her toward the elevator. When the lift doors opened on their floor, they stepped out and turned left, then continued down the hallway to where one of the hotel staff was standing next to a door. Two keys, and a huge tip, exchanged hands, and then Alexander opened the door and let her into what she assumed was her room. It was gigantic and beautifully decorated. The view from the large sitting area showed the Eiffel Tower not too far in the distance. Tina was confident she would enjoy it more later…after her impending coma.
She made a beeline for the couch with every intention of collapsing face-down into its beckoning embrace, but Alexander intercepted her halfway there. “That is a terrible idea, young lady.” The answering growl from her only made him grin.
“You may hate me now, but you’ll definitely thank me later.” He pointed to her luggage. “You need to unpack and take a nice warm bath. I guarantee you will feel better after that. If I let you go to sleep now, your internal clock will never reset, and you’ll feel like this the entire time we’re here.”
