The Lost Treasure Map Deluxe Book Collection (2017 Edition)

by V Bertolaccini

  At the front window I watched shades of light play with my vision in animated motions, over the bright loch, and snow covered hills and mountains, while the plane rushed through the air, and I watched the scientists at work, constantly examining their technology and readouts to discover anything, and anything to make improvements, for them to introduce, or for them to make any breakthroughs with.

  The two paranormal investigators sat along from me, sitting opposite beside each other, at a table with a map stretched out across it, searching the area ahead and about us, while they discussed it.

  It was strange as there never looked as though there was anything there, especially so desolate, and there was little about the plane with anything, and the region looked far colder and too far north. Yet we knew what place the monster could be, even though it could be virtually anywhere there, and I was surprised that they finally asked the pilots to fly lower, and I looked out the side window and saw that the hotel was away up ahead.

  It was incredible when something occurred, and few minutes later it did, and the equipment reacted, which was unbelievable, even as I knew something could be there, and the equipment started showing more reactions and giving incredible readouts and the scientists, who had not seen the creature, could not comprehended what was there, and as it was vague, which could have been off anything, but when they shifted the airplane over to where the source was they started getting better and more comprehensible readouts, and one scientist even started suggesting something else there could be creating the disturbance.

  At a screen where reactions were being displayed, and a blurred but visible image of a massive creature emerged, and they all started discussing what they thought it was, and at least one thought it was something else, as they could not comprehend what could cause it, and I saw that another was disappointed.

  I realized something and gasped, and I saw the two paranormal scientists notice it and follow my eyes and surely realize what I thought and that the detected object was not in fact under the loch, and was under an area of land beside it, which was in a desolate spot near our hotel.

  Chapter 9

  The Science Convention

  I was surprised to see reporters I knew and the media from throughout the globe arrive at the annual conference of the exploration association and I realized straightaway that the whole story of the Loch Ness monster and occurrences that had taken place would become well known and documented, and be on newspapers, magazines, television, and many other media sources.

  All the scientists and explorers were packed together around a stage platform and some were being interviewed and filmed! Luckily the scientists with our investigation of the Loch Ness monster and the cavity avoided them and telling anything and the majority of the people never knew what had really happened either, and the media was mainly investigating things and doing news updates on the story.

  I recalled everything that had happened and our explorations of the cavity we found, where the object was under the area of land beside the loch, which we used a photo of the airplane scan and of a photo of the loch from outside the airplane to find, and put it on a map of the loch.

  We used divers to investigate the loch about the cavity and they found the entrance, and filmed its interior, which was startling, and had many signs of the monster having been there, and the remains of food it had eaten, including fish, sharks, and the skeleton of a large cow.

  Yet, even though we found it, the mission was unsuccessfully as we were unable to capture it and get anything on the monster itself, and it never appeared there again, and it had gone into hiding, and we never had any proper proof of its existence, except vague hazy photos we collected from people there who had seen it, and one I took when the divers were in the cavity, of its black distant shape, away in the distance, watching us, and I saw it vanish away in the distance, surely never to return.

  I was astonished that the exploration association was mainly unknown and that the media had not noticed the group, and its accomplishments. They had many mentions of their explorations and adventures over many years! And the large conference hall was packed solid with famous and major scientists from all over the globe that were members!

  I even realized, from something someone said, that within the club there was a form of secret society, which I never fully grasped the objective of!

  The two paranormal investigators, with me there, vaguely told me of some of their discoveries that could well rival major discoveries at the time, which were never reported, and which they had vast amounts of evidence and documentation of.

  It had activities that gave colossal amounts of new findings, and I was astounded at the connections and potential assistance they had and provided.

  Chapter 10

  The Treasure Investigation

  The streets and lanes glowed in the last rays of sunlight, surrounding the headquarters of Reality Investigations, and it looked as though it was altering into a form of modern ghost town.

  Pale golden shadows swept out from city structures, in gigantic shapes, probing out into the skyline.

  Marple grabbed a bottle of whisky and poured me and him glasses full of whisky, and he firmly screwed the cap back on the bottle and put it away, and we sat back at the fireplace, and listened to a distant vehicle and vocal tones absurdly mingle and I realized Marple had something.

  A few minutes later the phone’s ring disturbed him, and put him off what he was doing, and it had him going through the clients that he might have overlooked, but it eluded him, and he rushed over and answered it.

  He listened and agreed with the caller and put the phone down and sat back in his seat, drinking his whisky, listening to crackles from the fire, and I discussed our past adventures, and he promised me more.

  About an hour later I heard someone enter the building below, and his secretary announced an arrival through an intercom.

  Marple put out his pipe and briskly considered the case, from different perspectives, and I spotted he was confused over what we were dealing with, and he eventually laughed, confusedly, and eventually just relaxed into his seat.

  Outside the traffic and voices seemed to vanish, like into mist, and I sat in deep thought, and it became more intriguing!

  His secretary rushed up the stairs and swiftly let the man in the room, without knocking, and I was staggered when I looked around and saw Dr Barrymore, as he shifted wearily forward, and I realized straightaway he was dreadfully ill and he could now hardly even walk, and clearly had serious medical conditions.

  I examined him quickly wondering why he had gone to such lengths to get there, and it made me gasp, and I considered the war once again, and the dangers ahead, and wondered if the current events and intense bombings had helped his demise.

  Dr Barrymore rushed into a seat, rested, exhausted, trying to recover, but not properly, and I noticed he had some documents he held firmly in his fist.

  He observed us sitting around the table drinking and removed chewing tobacco and chewed off a lump, placing the remainder in his interior pocket.

  Marple rushed over and got a drink for him, and returned, and placed it in front of him.

  “What’s happened?” Marple asked. “What have you?”

  “It’s that eighteenth century document and treasure!” he announced, and we looked up, from staring in the fire.

  He rested, and continued, “The information on the artifact I’ve been looking for comes from accumulated sources, only known by me, and the individual sources, which have been proven to have occurred in 1568 …”

  I was still surprised in what he said, and as I had forgotten of what he had told me at our last meeting, and Marple seemed to come to and recall what transpired.

  “According what I’ve found,” Dr Barrymore continued, “Valuable jewels were left near where it was concealed!”

  “Near the artifact?” Marple instantly asked, confused. “Was that some form of clue?”

  “Perhaps! For centuries the lost jewels
have been thought to exist by a few explorers, who have carried out searches.”

  “So you still want us to help you find it?”

  “I’ve recently located a form of map!” he gasped, trying to rest.

  “What do you want us to do?” I asked, curiously.

  “I discovered something of significant importance that could be of great interest to mankind! Yes! I will need your help!”

  “Mankind!” Marple gasped, and sat back examining him, and silently gulped, and lit his pipe.

  “According to legends some people have been found dead after searching for it …”

  “They’re just legends?” I joked, smiling.

  He nodded, and examined me a little more closely.

  For a moment I considered there being a danger and wondered why it would still exist, and doubted the value of the objects, as all the archaeology and museum discoveries were currently usually worthless, except to historians like him.

  I knew that he had been given a major clue to its location, and I watched him open the document and remove something from its interior, and hand it over to Marple, and I sat next to Marple, examining the ancient tattered piece of parchment, where there were lines and words scribbled over it, as though the person had been doing something and was in a great rush to finish it!

  “What date do you make it?” I asked, amazed at its age.

  Before Dr Barrymore replied Marple replied, “Around 1568!”

  “So it’s a 1568 map?” I asked Dr Barrymore, and he agreed.

  I thought about it but still did not know what it meant, and I wondered what he wanted us to do!

  Marple finally finished examining it and placed it on the table, and looked over and asked, “So you want us to find the place on the map? With our experienced investigators …”

  “Yes! Marple! I’d really like that! I also want you to search for it when you do, and phone me for any information, which I may be able to provide! I’m sure the treasure is still there, and I’d really just like it to be found!”

  What I could not understand was why he was so confident with so little clues, and I wondered if he had been checking such things and proving their authentication, and it occurred to me that if everything he said was true then the accounts of its deadliness could also be true!

  Chapter 11

  The Haunting

  What was incredible was I realized I had not solved anything in my first case and what had happened to me at Craigmillar Road, and I could not grasp what would happen, as every puzzle and mystery seemed to be or was being solved everywhere else, by some means, and Marple forced me into taking another visit there, and ordered me to solve it as quickly as possible.

  I realized he had read my report on what had happened and had entirely missed what had occurred and what I meant, and I could not explain any further anything of what had happened and he never seemed to think anything had happened to me, and I realized again that even though he had a great interest in investigating the paranormal he never believed it, and consistently explained it with logical solutions, and he believed that he could explain virtually anything, and as I made my way back to the house at Craigmillar Road I realized that I would really like to find something of that nature, and which he could not answer!

  The elderly woman was delighted to see me and did everything to welcome me in and not put me off the case, and at dinner we discussed the case and she told me what had been happening since I left and she told me that the haunting had continued occurring every night at the same time, and had increased since my visit, and that neighbors in the surrounding buildings and streets had witnessed strange occurrences like it, and she showed me mentions of it in newspapers and other publications.

  What could it be? I was left baffled, once again! I had considered everything, and only had the metal detector that had activated it, and it never added up to anything!

  I realized that the two paranormal investigators had not even known what it was, and I realized that they should be the ones that should solve it, and they could at least witness the occurrence, and information, and I realized from the information they had given that they had not actually given me any mention of such an occurrence, and I was sure that they had not told me of anything authentic of a supernatural nature, and which they had confronted, and I was sure that they had not properly found anything as solid as it, and that their stuff was not really authentic, and going by Marple’s view of them and their work he never believed that they had discovered anything of that nature.

  I left the building and got to a phone and called them up, and I explained the situation and the occurrences and Higgins was astounded, and he sounded more astounded than I had heard him, and he was deeply surprised, and was not able to explain anything to me, and he put Oswald on the phone, and he was confused, and they agreed to come and see the occurrence, and they decided to bring their best equipment, and try and help the woman.

  It was amazing that I had not fully realized the idea before!

  I had been too busy not wanting to go back, and had no interest in finding out what was there, and the damage I had been bad!

  It was incredible that all the time I had been with them I never properly explained what had happened, and I still believe they never picked up what I meant.

  I recalled how powerful it was, and that their other scientists could also help out, and I told her about them, and their experience, and she was excited at the outcome and glad to have me bring them.

  So I phoned Marple and told him of what occurred and he just ignored the occurrences and told me the two paranormal scientists had become famous over the Loch Ness monster story, and he agreed that their technology had vastly improved, and that if anyone could find anything they would be the ones.

  Chapter 12

  The Paranormal Scientists

  Paranormal scientists and technicians rushed back and forward setting up their new equipment all over the woman’s corridor, while Oswald and Higgins checked everything.

  I watched on, and the woman in her living room relaxing, joyously listening to the scientists at work.

  They gave me the impression that they might be going to do something or come to a conclusion, and that they might well have found the right location to do it.

  I started to realize the implications, and recalled what had happened to me the last time, and that it might be deadly, and I realized that they might find something was there of deadly origins and be of great danger to everyone there and even in the region! Yet when I thought of it I could not realize anything that could do such a thing!

  Higgins quickly told the scientists, “Investigate all these walls, the floor, and roof ...”

  I felt tiredness from the events of that day and wished that I could have rested.

  When I examined the equipment they now had I was surprised at how advanced it had become and at its capabilities and I wondered how they could make a large enough profit to pay for it, but realized it surely was funded somewhere.

  Their visit there was clearly giving them far more of an insight and knowledge of things than I had realized, and they had gained a great deal of information from their earlier questioning of the woman, who had been desperate to get them to solve the problem.

  I was becoming positive that they had found far more than they had indicated, and were keeping secrets from me.

  I wanted to grasp what they all knew that I should know, and I regularly strolled about examining the equipment for clues, and recalled something that I had forgotten and reading about some of the work that the two paranormal scientists had done years ago, after they had given documents on their paranormal investigations.

  I recalled their stuff had been surprising, and even alarming, which had drawn my attention at the time, but I recalled that I had just dismissed it later as them using it to advertise their work!

  At times I thought they were deliberately putting the psychic research there to cover their real work and discoveries! Whatever that was! Th
ey never mentioned anything on other stuff that they did, which I had found existed at occasions, and I had hardly even seen anyone even check them.

  They informed me that they were checking for virtually all known forms of disturbance, energy and matter disturbances, in and around the haunted region and I was sure that they could, from what I had heard earlier from some of the other scientists, which just confused me even more later as I could not grasp what they were actually talking about at times, and I realized that so far I just never knew what was there!

  Eventually I started to get sleepy and at some point I fell asleep in a chair in my room, after a long day, and I was suddenly awoken from one of the strangest dreams I have had, and thought I sensed something strange, which I could not grasp, and kept trying to awaken myself further and prove that it was the dream and my sleepy state of mind. Yet there was something strange and I felt as though there was something there, but I could not grasp what, and I was sure I had not encountered it before, and I listened to all the scientists at work and their low level conversations, and I checked them outside my door, to discover if anything had been detected.

  Suddenly, in the darkness at the end of the corridor, two figures came rushing out, resembling a sort of dream view to me in my tired sleepy state, and the figures turned out to be two of the scientists, who I had thought had left the building, and I realized that they were working outside, checking stuff on their equipment about the zone, and building, and one whispered something in Higgins’s ear, making him look slightly surprised.

  Higgins’s face turned dramatic, making me wonder what the hell was going to happen, and I stood staggered waiting for something, anything, anywhere, and even regretting bringing them there, and I saw he was desperate to do something, and he rushed away with the two scientists to where they had been, and outside.