by David Wood
The two women shook hands politely but eyed one another as if they were sizing each other up. After an uncomfortable pause, Jade invited them to sit.
“What’s the latest with Isaiah?” Maddock asked. “How’s he doing?”
“Better. He’s in Denver staying with friends while he recoups. He wanted to go back to the dig, but it’s not his anymore, so…” Bones shrugged.
“So, where is the rancher guy you had with you?”
“Dropped him off with some relatives in Grand Junction,” Bones said, settling into a chair opposite Maddock. “I think he’s going to be fine. He’s a tough old fellow.”
“That’s good,” Maddock said. “So tell me about what you found in the cave.”
Bones reached into his jacket pocket and extracted something wrapped in cloth. He removed the cloth with great care and laid the golden disc on the table. Bones had already described the disc to Maddock, but seeing it was amazing.
He turned it over in his hand, narrowing his eyes the writing that spiraled around the golden circle. It was like nothing he’d ever seen before. Or was it?
Jade slid her chair against his and leaned in close. Her soft hair brushed his arm and her soft intake of breath seemed to tingle in his ear.
“Maddock, she said. “The writing! Do you think it’s the same?”
She didn’t need explain what she meant by the same. It definitely looked to him to be the same writing they had found on the artifacts: a version of Hebrew. He couldn’t say for sure, but Jimmy could find out for them.
“I think they are the same,” he said. “It’s one hell of a coincidence, though. Bones finding this disc and us finding the artifacts…”
“It can’t be a coincidence,” she said. “They have to be connected somehow. We’ve got to get this translated.”
“I’ve already sent it to Jimmy,” Bones said.
“Did he tell you anything?” Jade asked, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.
“Yes. He told me he already had a real job, and if we keep dumping all this crap on him he was going to start charging us for it.”
Jade groaned and sank back into her chair. “I hate being stuck waiting around like this. I want something to do.”
“Bones told me you were trying to identify some symbols on an artifact,” Amanda said. ‘Perhaps a fresh set of eyes would be of some help.”
“Why not?” Jade said without much conviction. Maddock wondered what had gotten her so down all of a sudden. The possibility that Bones and Amanda’s find could help them in their search had him feeling good about their prospects.
Jade brought out a high-resolution picture of the breastplate along with a set of papers. Each paper had an image from the breastplate at the top and a list of notes, thoughts and possibilities were jotted below.
“We’ve solved these two,” she explained, indicating the moon-like icon that represented Chaco Canyon and the jagged promontory that was the foot of Sleeping Ute Mountain. “We believe that each has some association with solstices or equinoxes. We’ve also found Fray Marcos’s personal symbol, a cross inside a clover, at each location. Maddock noticed that the layout of the second site, Yucca House, was clover-shaped as well.”
Saul grunted in surprise and everyone turned to stare at him.
“What?” Jade asked her voice still cold with anger at her assistant.
“Well,” Saul said, hanging his head, “I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you. I figured out another of the clues.”
“Which one? Where?” Jade asked.
“This icon here,” Saul said, pointing to the image that reminded Maddock of the palace of an evil sorcerer. “It’s Ship Rock. It’s not shown from the angle that most people see in photographs, but it’s definitely Ship Rock.”
“Heck, I could have told you that,” Bones said, rocking back in his chair and grinning. “It looks like Dracula’s castle. It’s wicked cool.”
“Bones, I e-mailed you a picture of the breastplate several days ago,” Maddock said. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t know then!” he said, still smiling. “But I saw that thing in the distance as we were driving down here, and that’s the first thing I thought of just now when Jade showed us the picture.”
Jade buried her face in her hands. For the first time, Maddock noticed that her knuckles were scarred—probably from field work.
“We drove down that long stretch of highway with Ship Rock in our sights and never once did I even think about it. All I had my mind on was Yucca House and wondering where Saul had gone, and I didn’t even notice it.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Maddock said. “What’s important is we know where to find another piece of the puzzle.”
“It’s not that simple,” Saul mumbled. “When I got caught trying to get onto Sleeping Ute Mountain they took me in for questioning, but let me go after I convinced them I was just a flaky New-Ager trying to have a spiritual moment. While I was there, a photograph on the wall caught my eye. It was Ship Rock from the perspective you see on the breastplate.
“I thought about trying to climb it, but then I considered the solstice connection. I remembered that white settlers used to call it “The Needle” and wondered where the shadow of the most prominent point would fall at the various solstices. I found a library with internet access and started poking around with satellite images until I found a promising location: a formation of three hills and a butte that made a clover shape. I didn’t have any way to perform the calculations necessary to test my theory, so I figured I’d check it out.”
Everyone was silent. Even Jade was now listening attentively, her previous anger abated.
“When I got there, I found a kiva right smack in the center, hidden by scrub and yucca. The roof was gone, of course, but when I cleared away the rubble, I found that the sipapu, you know, the ceremonial hole in the center, had been sealed. Or rather, it once had been sealed. The seal with Fray Marcos’s symbol was lying broken off to the side. Anyway, there was a box like the one Maddock found at Chaco. Empty.” He shrugged as his tale came to an end. “Somebody else found it. Probably the same guys we saw before.”
Jade swore and covered her face with her hands.
“Well, at least we have two of the pieces,” Maddock said.
“May I see the ones you already have?” Amanda asked.
Jade brought Amanda the pieces, and Amanda laid them on the table, pushing them together to form a quarter of a sphere.”
“You know what this looks like to me? One of those Egyptian beetles.”
Maddock stared at the piece which now was looking oddly familiar to him, but he could not name the shape.
“A scarab,” Jade breathed. “Most are ornate, but this one is plain. That’s why it was not readily obvious to us what it was.”
“I see it now,” Maddock said, feeling both excited and confused. “The ridges around the bottom are the legs.” He thought for a moment. “There are six symbols on the breastplate, which means that the scarab was cut into six pieces. When we find them all, we’ll have the entire message. Or at least, we’ll have five out of six pieces. If Jimmy translates it all, I’ll bet we can still make something of it.” He paused, mulling over this odd discovery. “But why would someone take a scarab—an Egyptian artifact, write some lines in Hebrew on it, cut it up, and hide it in America?”
“The legend does say that they hid treasures of religious significance,” Jade said. “And there was frequent interaction between the Hebrew kingdom and that of the Egyptians. Perhaps this scarab was a part of that treasure.”
“Weird,” Bones said. “It’s not how I imagined the cities of gold.” His face tautened. “Wait a minute…”
“What?” Maddock asked.
“Dude, does this mean we’re going after another Bible treasure?”
“Whatever it is,” Jade interjected, “we need to keep up the search. We’ve already lost one of the clues. I don’t want to slow down and risk missing
any of the others.”
“Do you have any ideas on the other locations?” Amanda asked, mulling over the icons.
“Nothing definitive,” Jade said. “This one,” she indicated a tower-shaped structure, “is not distinctive-looking, but it could be one of a number of structures at Mesa Verde.”
Bones whistled. “Talk about a needle in a haystack. That place is huge. How many ruins are there?”
“Oh, about six-hundred cliff dwellings and four thousand or so archaeological sites,” Jade replied. “But I’ve scoured the maps, and it’s the only likely location. Plus, I’ve used the solstice connection to narrow the search, and I have a few ideas.” She smiled. “Shall we pack?”
Chapter 15
"And you want me to climb down there?" Maddock gazed down into the sheer-sided canyon. Set beneath a deep overhang, Square Tower House looked remote and inaccessible. "Isn't there a service road? How do the rangers get down there?"
"I told you," Jade said, sighing. "There isn't one. They use ropes and ladders to get down there. Unless, of course, you want to try the Anasazi handholds."
Maddock shook his head. "That's something Bones would go for. I'll take the rope." He paused and looked her up and down, admiring the snug-fitting faux ranger uniform she had cobbled together. The boots, khaki shorts, NPS t-shirt, and Mesa Verde cap looked good on her. Of course, she made everything look good.
"You know that getup would be more believable if you had not shaved your legs," he kidded. "You know-- go natural like the ranger women."
"Shut up and get going," she said, giving him a shove toward the edge.
"You did put up the sign, didn't you?" Maddock asked, knotting a rope in a bowline around his waist.
"Of course," she said. "This Trail Closed For Maintenance. It should fool tourists, maybe even a really lazy ranger. Now hurry." She took hold of the safety rope he had secured around his waist, wrapped it once around the base of a nearby tree, and secured it to a larger one. She would play the line out as he descended. He probably wouldn't need it on the way down. He would be sliding down the other rope they had hooked to the same tree. Where Jade would really come in handy would be on the way back up, when her added strength would help him with his free climb up the rope. It was the most unsafe, ridiculous-looking rock climbing setup he'd seen since he was a stupid teenager, but they didn't have the time or equipment for real rappelling.
Donning his climbing gloves, he got a good grip on the rope, hooked it around his ankle, and slowly backed over the rock face. Jade kept tension on the rope as he worked his way down. He was an experienced climber, and the first several feet made for an easy descent. The rock soon curved back beneath the hill, forming the overhang. His boots began to slip, telling him it was time to change tactics. The drop was just over one hundred feet, but it looked farther from this vantage point. Much farther.
"Okay! I'm going down!" he called.
"Go for it!" Jade shouted back.
He kicked free of the wall and immediately the hands of gravity yanked him downward. The rope burned his thighs and palms through his clothing and gloves as he shot downward. He squeezed tighter and his descent slowed a little. He felt the jolt from the balls of his feet to the base of his skull when he hit the ground. His foot tangled in the rope and he sat down hard, rolling a little on his hip to minimize the impact.
"Some action movie star I'd make," he muttered, looking around for spectators he knew were not there. He untied the safety rope and hurried over to Square Tower House.
Overlooking the ancient Anasazi ruins, Square Tower House loomed four stories high, set against the back wall like a lone skyscraper. He navigated through the remains of foundations and walls, worn smooth by wind and time. He soon found himself at the base of the tower. His destination was the top room, where, according to Jade's research, was a window through which the sun struck a peculiar outcropping on the day of the summer solstice. It wasn't the most definitive clue, but it was worth checking out. He hoped the climb would not be for nothing.
He entered the ground floor room of the tower. It was less than five feet high and cramped. The walls were blackened with soot from ancient fires, but here and there he could make out traces of the stucco-like substance the Anasazi used to cover their walls. Where it had chipped away, he could still see evidence of the fine stonework. There was a small hole in the ceiling through which he could gain access to the upper levels. He wasn't tall, but his shoulders were broad, and they made for a tight squeeze. With difficulty, he worked his way up to the top level.
Reaching the fourth floor, he stood, forgetting the low ceiling and banging his head. How small had these people been? Of course, Bones claimed the Anasazi were actually aliens who built fancy cliff dwellings then flew away, inadvertently leaving their pet chupacabras behind. He was pretty sure his friend was joking but was not one-hundred percent certain.
Where to begin? He looked out the front window and got his bearings, and then scanned the small room. Square Tower House sat on a south-facing cliff. Sunken as it was in a valley, sunrise and sunset would not be visible to the structure. Most likely, the solstice marker would have been based on the mid-day sun, meaning the center of the far wall. He used his knife to scrape away the ancient plaster. Once again, he felt guilty at damaging an ancient structure, but hoped the end result would reveal a prize of such historical importance that it would atone for his acts of minor destruction.
The plaster came away in sheets, and soon he was looking at the bare, ancient stone. The building blocks were much larger than those of Chaco Canyon, but they were pieced together with the same precision. For a brief moment, he wondered if Bones was right about aliens building this place. It was almost unthinkable that primitive people could create such an architectural marvel. He ran his fingers across the surface, feeling the joints where the stones fit together so neatly. He could find no indication of a compartment that would hide the next piece of the puzzle. Scratch this site off the list. No point in making the climb without giving it a good effort, though. He moved closer and scraped away at the stone. Something caught his eye.
In one spot, the consistency of the stone was somehow different. It dipped in ever so slightly and the stone felt grittier. His fingers traced the indentation like a blind man reading Braille, and they looped around in an oval pattern. He scraped away at the stone with greater intensity and soon uncovered a clover-shaped engraving that had filled with the ancient plaster, thus making him miss it at first glance. Given that Mesa Verde was abandoned a good three-hundred years before Fray Marcos and Estevanico made their journeys, whoever had secreted something here must have plastered over the stone himself. He obviously didn't want the clues lost forever, but neither did he want to make it too easy. But to what were these clues leading?
He worked the stone loose and was rewarded with a box exactly like the others they had found. He slipped it into a drawstring backpack and replaced the masonry as best he could. Peering out the window, he scanned the buildings and ledge for signs of rangers, but he could see no one. He felt a momentary pang of regret that he could not stay and admire the spectacular scenery for a while longer, but time was of the essence.
Climbing down was much easier than climbing up, though squeezing through the small holes was just as uncomfortable. He made his way quickly back to the ropes which still hung where he had left them. He gave the climbing rope two tugs-- his signal to Jade that he was ready to make his way back up-- but there was no answering tug. He tried again, but still no answer. She might have walked away, or encountered some tourists and had to perform her improv ranger act. He didn't want to entertain the possibility of anything more serious. He let two minutes tick away on his watch and tried again. Still nothing. He checked his cell phone though he knew he would have no reception at this remote location. Sure enough, there were no bars showing. He tried the call anyway-- a remnant of his upbringing by a father who believed in leaving no stone unturned and no detail unattended. No, dice. He deb
ated calling her name, but a gnawing feeling of unease had crept up his spine, and he now felt that something was wrong. If so, circumstances might dictate that announcing his presence would be a bad idea.
Dreading the climb he was about to make, he took both ropes and scrambled up onto a nearby boulder. He pulled the safety rope taut and cinched it around his waist. Without Jade to take the slack out, it wouldn't keep him from falling should he lose hold of his climbing rope, but by starting higher than ground level, it would break his fall before he hit the ground. Of course, it could break his spine as well, but he was confident that if he lost one rope, he could grab the other before he went tumbling. With no more preparations to make, he donned his gloves, grabbed the climbing rope, and swung out.
He had scarcely begun his climb before something went wrong. A vibration like the plunking of a guitar string ran down the climbing rope and he dropped about a half-inch. He knew what that meant.
"Oh no!" He hastily grabbed the safety rope in his left hand, transferring as much weight as he could. The climbing rope shuddered again and he grabbed onto the safety rope with his other hand. He hung there catching his breath. Something had caused the climbing rope to fray. A few more seconds and it would have snapped completely. It was a brand new 11mm rope and should not have frayed under any natural conditions. That left the possibility that someone had tampered with it. And if they had tampered with the climbing rope...
The realization struck him just as the safety rope to which he now clung gave an inch. Cursing roundly he slid quickly down the rope. He reached the limit, forgetting he had shorted it to keep from falling, and found himself spinning like a wind vane ten feet above the rocky ledge. He had only a moment to consider the absurdity of the situation when the rope parted, dropping him like a sack of potatoes onto the ground. His breath left him in a sudden rush. He rolled over onto his back, his mind ticking off the curses his body lacked the breath to articulate.
