"The Talisman"

Excerpt from Chapter 1

Jace Neffi watched as the little man carefully worked. He appeared in no hurry; the small trowel moved lightly against the earth, scraping a fraction of soil, one pass and then another until the trowel caught ever so slightly, causing the man to hesitate a split second before lifting the trowel to scrape against the obstruction – a bone or something else? He was like a surgeon performing a very delicate operation – on a body long dead.

Voices chattered all around, being picked up by the microphone embedded in the camera. The little man’s voice quietly droned on – the surgeon of archaeology, explaining each move and its resultant effect, speaking loud enough so that his voice masked the cacophony of noises coming from the groups off to his left on the sun-baked burial mound in the background.

Jace intently watched the video as the little man began the delicate task of lifting the obstacle from around the neck of the skeleton; most likely one of Jace’ long ago relatives – a giant Susquehannock Indian. Jace could almost feel his DNA straining inside his body, reaching out to the dead warrior who stared out through his large, dark eye sockets on the monitor. Sacred ground, but who would sound the alarm when all his ancestors supposedly disappeared so many years ago? Jace certainly couldn’t, unless he wanted to announce that the line had not died out, that he may be the lone survivor to that once proud and fierce tribe.

He continued to watch, for the . . . how many times had it been now that he watched this same video, over and over again? He had lost track and he’d only had the video for a few hours. But each time he watched, he felt it told him more about what the finding of the object meant, what it was that he had to do to discover more about what the object could tell him – an object that appeared to be a medallion of sorts.

“Are you going to watch that all night or are you going to come to bed?” Angie leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed and that look of “are you at it again?” in her eyes.

“Yeh. I’ll be right there. Still can’t figure out why he sent me this without letting me know it was coming.” Jace’ eyes never left the screen; watching the little man, Professor Frank O’Malley, slowly remove the amulet from around the warrior’s boney neck.

“Or why he just didn’t bring it over or have me come over there.” Jace’ eyes remained glued to the flickering screen.

“Well, you aren’t going to find out tonight, unless you want to go over there and wake the poor man up – if he is even there.” Angie walked into the room and stood behind Jace, putting her hand on his shoulder, watching the Professor hold the medallion up as he told the camera what he saw and what he thought he could be holding.

“Can’t understand why he didn’t answer when I called earlier. Since his Maggie died, he doesn’t sleep much, so if he didn’t answer, he had to be out – but Frank just doesn’t go out at night anymore. Strange.” Jace took the disc from the computer and started the Shut-down process as he reached up with his left hand to touch Angie’s hand, now resting lightly against his neck.

“Other than the possibility of the burial mound being Susquehannock, I can’t figure why he sent it. I guess it will have to wait, as you said, until tomorrow.”

Jace got up from the computer, slipping the disc into its plastic case and turned off the desk lamp. He looked down at the disc before putting it up on the top shelf of the computer desk.

“Until tomorrow,” he said as he turned and followed Angie off toward the bedroom. He loved watching her walk, especially when she was naked – that little butt, so perfect, and her back, oh how he loved her back – smooth, delicately curved and inviting. Sleek was all he could think, almost like a lioness – femininely muscular, yet so soft and smooth, something only a God could create. One of these days, he thought, we just have to get married.