Ark

Chapter 13

Maddock turned the triangular stone over in his hands, examining the carvings etched in its surface. Despite the warmth of the day, it sent a chill through him. It was difficult to believe that through it, one could indeed control animal behavior, but he’d witnessed it first-hand. Besides, he had to admit, it wasn’t the craziest thing he and Bones had experienced.

“The animal carvings are shallow, like whoever carved it barely managed to etch them in.” He held the stone out so Bones could take a closer look. They sat on a sagging picnic table in a small campground somewhere in the mountains of North Georgia. They’d wanted somewhere off the beaten path to lie low and plan their next move, and this place, little more than a gravel drive running alongside a mountain stream, with a few turnouts for parking, fit the bill. They didn’t even have to provide names or an electronic form of payment — only a few dollars stuffed in an envelope and dropped into the payment box. Even better, they were the campground’s only visitors.

“I wonder what this thing is made of.” Bones took it and swung it back and forth in half-speed cuts. “It’s heavy as hell. Almost like a meteorite or something. And even though it looks kind of like flint, it doesn’t seem brittle.”

“I had the same thought. It’s very strange stone.”

Without warning, Bones raised the stone, point down.

“Bones, wait!” Maddock shouted as his friend drove the point of the stone into one of the warped boards of the table top. It bit deeply into the wood and stuck there.

“Dude, you have got to chill.” Bones waved away Maddock’s concern. “I’m conducting an experiment here. You know, science?”

“What if it had broken?” Maddock pulled it free and returned to scrutinizing its surface.

“Then we’d have known for sure that it really was brittle. I was testing my hypothesis.” Bones stood and stretched, his back popping loudly. “Sleeping on the ground sucks. My back is one giant mass of knots. You think they’ve got a massage parlor in that town we passed through last night?”

“Maybe, but do you really want to get a massage from one of the locals? This place has got a Deliverance vibe to it.”

Bones shuddered. “You’re right. It’s probably like that topless place south of Cheyenne I stopped at that one time. I will never, ever unsee that. Stretch marks for miles.”

“You stopped during the lunch shift. What did you expect?”

Bones grimaced and shook his head. “Let’s get back to a happier topic.”

“You mean like, ‘Why is someone willing to hurt your grandfather just to obtain this artifact?’”

“Yeah, that.” Bones did a few toe touches and then returned to his seat. “Where do we go from here? The only way to get the Trident, whoever they are, off my grandfather’s back, would be to either give them the stone, or let it be known that we’ve found it.”

Maddock nodded. “Obviously, we can’t hand it over. Its power is incredible and we don’t know its limits. We have no understanding of what this thing is or what else it can do. Nor do we have any idea who the Trident is and what they want with it. Bossing around animals can’t be the full extent of it.” He couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d heard the name “Trident” before.

“In a perfect world,” Bones said, “we’d learn its origin and give it over to the tribe that has the best claim on it, assuming it’s a Native American artifact. But if we do that, I’m sure the Trident will just steal it.”

“Agreed.” Maddock had contemplated that very thing. “Obviously, we should try to learn all we can about this thing before we make any firm decisions.”

“Obviously,” Bones said. “We’d do that regardless.”

“Right. Second, we need to find out who the Trident is. If we’ve got another Dominion on our hands, I want to know about it.” The Dominion was an extremist religious group of whom Maddock and Bones had run afoul many times. “We also need to know if Tyson and Ahmed are connected to that group or if they’re free agents. It would be one heck of a coincidence if they’re unrelated.”

“Should we check with Tam Broderick? She’s a Fed who deals with this kind of stuff. Maybe she’s heard of the Trident.”

“I don’t know.” Maddock scratched his chin, eyes still fixed on the stone. “We just got out from under her thumb. I’m not sure I want to go to that well unless we absolutely have to.” Tam was on the right side, but she always had her own agenda and she seldom shared it with anyone else. She also never failed to call in a favor owed.

“Your sister still works for her, doesn’t she?”

“Good idea. If the Myrmidon files contain something about the Trident, she’ll hopefully be able to access it.”

“That’s a plan,” Bone said. “Now, how do we get the heat off of Grandfather?”

“Unfortunately, I think we need to let it be known that we’ve found Esau’s treasure. It’s possible that Eddings really did get the word out about us, but we should make our own efforts in that regard. We’ll be the rabbit the Trident is chasing.”

“Holy crap.” Bones buried his face in his hands. “We spent enough time yesterday being chased. It’s already getting old, but I think you’re right.”

Maddock couldn’t disagree. “Maybe a rabbit is a bad analogy. We’ll be the bait in the trap.”

Bones eyed him, a curious look in his eyes. “I guess that’s a little bit better, but you realize, even when the trap works, the bait tends to get eaten.”