Story of the Century

by Tom Norton

  Story

  of the Century

  Tom Norton

  Copyright © 2018 Tom Norton

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 9781731311320

  ISBN-13:

  DEDICATed to

  Those who would rather write a book than read one

  CONTENTS

  Foreword

  i

  1

  Discovery

  1

  2

  Hide Sam

  34

  3

  Iceland

  69

  4

  Gold disk stolen

  96

  5

  Bug drill sites

  130

  6

  Everyone is screwed

  165

  FOREWoRD

  The Neanderthal skulls and bones that have been discovered in Europe predate 40,000 years in the past. The proof for any later than that may just be due to lack of discovered artifacts and if they occupied Europe after that time, Neanderthals were few in number. In this fiction story, (Sam) a Neanderthal died some 25000 years ago, so he would have been one of the last or possibly the last Neanderthal.

  Atlantis has been described by the Greek Homer and it is not clear whether it was just a fable, a civilization that lived during Homer’s time or he was just relating knowledge passed down for thousands of years. The popular consensus is that Atlantis was an island containing a civilization that was far more advanced than those at the time of Homer some 2000 years ago. It is also not clear why this civilization was socially and technologically more advanced considering it was of a limited population and isolated from other civilizations. One theory is that they were advanced in all aspects, because they had been that way for many thousands of years and how they originated as a people and culture can only be guessed at.

  In fact, there is no evidence that Atlantis ever existed, except as described by Homer and a few that may have been influenced by Homer. The existence of Atlantis, that was believed to be an island, has never been confirmed and historic beliefs are that the island of Atlantis sank into the sea and disappeared.

  It is a stretch to believe that Neanderthals and the people of Atlantis were present on the earth at the same time, but never the less, this fiction story is about such a possibility.

  The suspected and unproven connection between Neanderthals and Atlantis was discovered at a cave site in Europe by the three archeologists in the story and this created an ongoing problem for the three archeologists that made the discovery. The consequences of their yet unproven theory that the Neanderthal (Sam) and people from Atlantis had interacted, is the story in this book.

  chapter 1

  Discovery

  “Come in and sit down John.”

  John closed the heavy wood door behind him and entered the room whose wall shelves were cluttered with actual and castings of skeletal remains of prehistoric man. “What’s so important it won’t wait until Monday?”

  Dr. Mathew Hendrick replied, “You know the archeological site in Poland?”

  “Yes I know, and how long can we keep that site a secret. One small bone fragment and we have been at that site for six months.”

  Hendrick replied, “You know why the site is secret don’t you?”

  “Yes, so we’ll not look like fools because of the time and money we’ve wasted there.”

  “Exactly. You can say that for every archeological site in the world.”

  John said, “We’re bailing out?”

  Hendrick replied, “On the contrary, we are trying to find a way to acquire more funds for the project.”

  “More funds? My God man, we are underwater on this thing now.”

  The tall German, Hendrick, stood from behind his desk and towered over his English associate John Thomas and replied, “John, there’s some encouraging mail from Poland.”

  “The site or are the Poles running us off?”

  “The site. The cave floor has been removed to a depth of five hundred millimeters with continuous fireplace deposits, worked rock chips and splintered animal bone. At five hundred millimeters a bone was discovered and believed to be a distal phalange; finger bone.”

  John asked, “Neanderthal?”

  “Suspected Neanderthal. We only have students on site and they don’t want to commit themselves.”

  “Well, I can understand that, what better way to end a career.”

  Hendrick replied, “We’ll have the suspected phalange specimen here in the lab in two days. The students had the good sense to stop excavating immediately and flag the precise location where the bone was discovered. It was well back in the cave where there was no evidence of fireplace deposits, so that won’t be a problem for the condition of the specimen, but it won’t help with Radiocarbon dating.”

  John said, “That young Rick Hansen is on site isn’t he?”

  “Yes he is.”

  “What does he say?”

  Hendrick replied, “Reading between the lines, he implied that it is a distal phalange of a humanoid or ape like creature.”

  John said, “Well, we can rule out ape like creatures at that site.”

  “Yes we can. He is trying to low key the find with the other students.”

  “I hope. We don’t need any leaks. The Poles are like everyone else, they don’t mind you digging around until you find something of value and then they want to jump in with both feet.”

  Hendrick said, “We don’t want to get too excited yet, it could be a solitary fragment carried in the cave by a big cat or something.”

  John replied, “That’s usually the case, but even at that there should be other fragments unless they were consumed by the predator. It’s not like predators to leave a finger lying around.”

  “I’m hopeful there will be more.”

  “What about the students, they go into Suwalki; will they keep their mouths shut?

  “We have the normal non-disclosure agreements with all of them and witnessed by their Institute professors, so I think we are ok there.”

  John replied, “Good.”

  Hendrick said, “What we do now depends upon the specimen. Meanwhile, rack your brain for funding sources.”

  “I’ll try. I have a class in ten minutes, I’ll check back with you in the morning.”

  “Ok, John, cross your fingers and hope on the finger bone.”

  “That it is or it isn’t Neanderthal? Well, we can talk in the morning.”

  At nine a.m. John again entered Hendrick’s office and laboratory and said. “Any news yet on the specimen?”

  “It’ll be here around noon, Rick Hansen is hand carrying it from the site and that’s quite a trip everything considered.”

  “Yes, and one of these being that he is smuggling it out of Poland.”

  Hendrick replied, “As far as we know it’s a wolf bone. Tea?”

  “Two sugars. You say at five hundred millimeters?”

  “That’s what they said.”

  John said, “Down in the sandstone, huh?”

  “Should be.”

  John continued, “How old is that sandstone?”

  “We don’t know for sure, we didn’t have a lot of money to pump into this project. We did core drill the cave floor and there are multiple individual layers of clay and sandstone from the cave being underwater at times in the past. The cave had to have been next to a large lake or river at some time. There’s about two meters of material making up the floor and the top twenty five millimeters being recently deposited with the fireplace ash in it. This top material accumulated in the cave well after the flood deposits.”

  “If it’s Neanderthal, what are we going to do about the Poles? We don’t want them involved.”

 
; Hendrick replied, “Let’s see what we have before we worry about that. I’m having lunch for two brought in, we’ll just wait it out here until Rick shows up.”

  At one thirty in the afternoon there was a knock on the door and Dr. Hendrick opened the door and greeted Rick Hansen. “Come on in Rick, we’ve been waiting for you. Do you know Dr. Thomas?”

  “No, but I have heard of him, nice to meet you Dr. Thomas.”

  “John is good enough for me, and I have heard good things about you.”

  “That I can keep my mouth shut?”

  “That too. Now let’s see what you brought us.”

  Rick was quite familiar with the office laboratory setup of Hendrick and he walked immediately to the examination table that had several large magnifying glasses on adjustable arms. He retrieved a candy bar from his pocket and removed the cover revealing a column of cotton that he laid on the examination table. He then unrolled the cotton revealing what was supposed to be a distal phalange or finger bone of a Neanderthal.

  With neoprene gloves now on, Hendrick picked up the specimen and held it under his large magnifying glass and said, “No question about it,” and handed it to John.

  After a moment, John said, “That’s what it is alright. Rick, do you think there’s more?”

  Rick replied, “I’m sure of it.”

  Hendrick said, “Why is that, son?”

  “This bone was found below the top of the sandstone in an area of sand stone two meters by one meter. A rectangle hole had been chiseled into the sandstone and refilled with cave dirt.”

  John said, “Big enough for a Neanderthal?”

  “Yes sir. The soil was removed a millimeter at a time and this was the first object we encountered. At that point I marked the location and halted the excavation. Here I have pictures of the bone in place and the area I was talking about. You can see the discolored rectangle area.”

  Hendrick replied, “That’s excellent,” and he and John examined the photographs.

  John said, “We definitely have a burial site there.”

  The three examined the bone and compared it with known reproductions and photographs and finally Hendrick said, “I am taking you two to dinner to celebrate the occasion. Is Chinese alright? I know a place with private cubicles and it’s quiet and we can talk.”

  Rick replied, “After eating in the field for months, I don’t think a good meal would hurt me; not to slight those airplane peanuts.”

  The three arrived separately at the Palace Of Gold and were individually led to their eating area with Hendrik showing up last.

  John said, “Well, it’s as you described, Hendrick. I suggest you order for the three of us. The hostess and you seem to be quite friendly; one might say overly friendly.”

  Hendrick replied, “You noticed huh?”

  “How could I not, you followed her around like a puppy.”

  Hendrick replied, “That bad huh?”

  “Yes. Planning on making an honest woman of her?”

  “Well if you two couldn’t keep a secret, we wouldn’t be here; I already have.”

  John said, “Have what?”

  “I married the poor woman years ago.”

  “Well Hendrick, I don’t doubt you, but I know she doesn’t live with you. I’m over there all hours of the day and night.”

  “I wasn’t always home was I?”

  “No.”

  “Lin Lou keeps a home for us next to the river.”

  John said, “Well good for you Hendrick; does she have a sister?”

  Hendrick replied, “As a matter of fact she does and we can discuss that later. Now to our problem, or I should say problems and our options. How do we proceed from here John?”

  “Well as far as options go, we only have two. We notify the Poles and watch things turn into a circus or we continue a clandestine operation and accept the consequences down the road.”

  Hendrick said to Rick, “Rick, you know the lay of the land there in Poland, do you think we can excavate the site in total secrecy?”

  “We can, but only if there are no noticeable changes at the site. But I’ll tell you right up front that I draw the line at removing any artifacts from Poland.”

  Hendrick replied, “That’s a line we won’t cross, because there is no point in it anyway. They would just come after the artifacts no matter where we took them.”

  John spoke up, “What will we need at a minimum to accurately document the excavation to the scientific community’s satisfaction as well as the Pole’s?”

  Hendrick replied, “We’ll need a sophisticated computer on sight in conjunction with a ground mapping lased for measurements during the excavation; of course some photographic and video equipment.”

  Rick said, “Any of that would throw up red flags to the Poles if they saw it.”

  “Then we can’t let them see it.”

  “Everything has to go through Customs.”

  Hendrick asked, “How are those three trailers holding up?”

  “Two are livable, but the water lines froze in the third, so the six of us guys are in one and the six girls in the other. The third trailer we are just using for storage.”

  John said, “We had a bitch of a time getting those trailers in there, Hendrick.”

  “I know. Rick, what would your Polish contact in Suwalki say if you showed him the damaged trailer and said we are sending a replacement?”

  “He wouldn’t have a problem with that if we showed him the damage and were subtle about it.”

  Hendrick asked, “Is that guy going to be a problem?”

  Rick replied, “Not unless something out of the ordinary attracts his attention. He never comes out to the site. They have to furnish their own vehicles and he has a Porsche that he is not going to drive in there.”

  “Good.”

  John asked Hendrick, “What’s your thought?”

  “We incorporate what we can into the mechanics of the trailer and bullshit about the rest. I think we can pull it off. Worse case situation, we make someone suspicious and they come out to the sight. We dig a few other holes, dust things up a bit and let them look around, there’s nothing to see. It looks to me like our biggest threat is the people we have on sight. It’s damned hard to keep twelve people quiet. Rick, how often do they go into Suwalki?”

  “Saturday night, stay the night and back Sunday night.”

  “Is there any drinking?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well that could be a problem with a bunch of college kids.”

  Rick replied, “I think it’s manageable if every one of them is responsible for each of the others, as well as they understand the importance of absolute secrecy. These are college kids, nothing they would like better than a good secret adventure. To say nothing about what this discovery could do for their future.”

  John asked, “How old are you Rick?”

  “Twenty-one sir.”

  “Well I guess you would know.”

  Rick said, “And we have those two satellite telephones.”

  “Well those are going in a closet as soon as you get back to the site. Everything said on them is surely monitored by the Poles for national security reasons.”

  Hendrick interrupted saying, “I want to commend you Rick on the manner in which you contacted me about the find. I could hardly understand it myself. Your message being just page eighty seven and page three forty-two almost threw me, but I figured it out. I hope I didn’t scare you telling you on the phone that your mother was sick?”

  “No sir, I figured that out too.”

  John said, “We are going to have to make duplicates of every bone we recover or we are going to walk out of there empty handed.”

  Rick replied, “We can do that sir.”

  Hendrick said, “Now the real issue. Our funds are exhausted for this project and we will need financing. The more people that know about this the bigger the risk.”

  John replied, “I know someone that can keep his mouth shut and has the
money.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “Me.”

  Hendrick replied, “That’s like pouring water down a gopher hole John, there is no way to recover your money.”

  “I’m assuming the University would like the notoriety of being involved in the project and we will have a lot of information we will be more than eager to sell.”

  “I’m sure of it but they can’t turn loose of any financial support without it going through the board of directors and that sure as hell wouldn’t work for us.”

  John said, “Ok then. Rick you get back to the sight and take that bone with you. Excavate a few other holes in the cave and look for other artifacts. Cover up the good excavation with dirt over a canvas. How long will it take you to haul that trailer back here?”

  “About three days considering the site road and the red tape getting here.”

  “Ok we’ll call you when we have the gear and you can take the trailer to your Polish contact and head this way to Germany. Meanwhile we’ll be working on the new trailer. Use the same book for a code for anything you can’t say on the satellite phone. One of us will accompany you back to the site in the guise of a trailer maintenance man going to set up the trailer. And Hendrick, no pillow talk.”

  They all had a good laugh and finally were served their Chinese food and discussed other things.

  The next morning Rick caught a flight out to Poland and John and Hendrick sat in Hendrick’s office listing items to be purchased and what could be taken from the laboratory. A trailer salesman was contacted and a trailer purchased and parked in the large garage of the laboratory well out of sight of any University staff or professors.

  With the new university decals, there was little chance of the trailer being x-rayed at the Polish border and they would have paperwork for its destination being an archeological site. It certainly might be inspected at the border, but there were areas in the walls and false compartments to conceal most of the equipment and some was just in plain sight with a logical reason for having it at an archeological dig. There were bags of cement and lime in the back of the pickup pulling the trailer and the white lime had been replaced with Plaster of Paris for making molds of Neanderthal bones. There was a twenty-five liter bucket of what was marked as construction molding, which was actually material that would eventually be the bone artifact duplicates.