Cibola

Chapter 10

Shouldn’t we open this thing in a lab?” Saul asked, leaning over the makeshift work table Dane had created in his hotel room. A white sheet draped over the study table, plus all the lights they could garner, comprised his work area. The three of them wore gloves and dust masks they had picked up from the local home improvement store. All in all it was a poor excuse for a scientific environment, but Dane had his reasons for doing this privately.

“What lab, Saul? And even if we managed to find one around here, who’s to say it would remain a secret? I don’t know who those guys in the helicopter were, but I’ll assume they’re no friends of ours until I have reason to believe different.”

“I agree,” Jade said in a distracted voice. Her attention was focused on the box Dane had recovered from the wall at Chaco Canyon. Working with a set of tiny chisels and hammers, she gradually chipped away at the solder that had held the box closed for, they hoped, a half-millennia. “Help me out here, Maddock.”

Dane took hold of one side of the box and, following Jade’s instructions, they worked the lid free. It came loose reluctantly, but in short order the box lay open on the table. Ancient fabric enshrouded whatever was inside. Jade lifted it free, muttering soft curses as the dry linen crumbled at her touch. Saul laid out a square of clear plastic to catch the debris. Jade turned the bundle over, laid it on the plastic that covered the table, and unwrapped it.

A shiny black object about half the size of Dane’s fist lay inside. It was black rock, carved into an eighth of a sphere.

“It looks like someone cut a grapefruit in half, then quartered the half,” he observed. “Weird.”

Jade held it up to the light. “Onyx,” she whispered. “I’m almost certain.” Dane and Saul both leaned forward for a closer look. The rounded top was perfectly smooth, with an odd lip running along the curved bottom edge. Jade turned the artifact over, and took a long, deep breath. Faint lines were etched into the bottom surface. They were worn and difficult to discern, but they were definitely letters of some sort. They gazed at the artifact for a long while before Jade laid it gently on the plastic.

“What do you think?” Dane asked, puzzled by the odd piece. He had never seen such a thing, though his background in marine archaeology was not the best preparation for this project.

“I think the artifact has been cut. Possibly into quarters based on the shape of this piece. Look at the straight edges. You can see markings as if someone sawed it. It’s mostly smooth, but lacks the perfection of the other sides. So…” she paused.

“So Fray Marcos has gone to the time and effort of setting us on a scavenger hunt through the American Southwest. Is that what you’re thinking?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense, considering what we know so far. Marcos chopped up the artifact and hid the pieces, or had someone hide the pieces, in various locations. The shield provides us with a map of sorts.”

“Find the pieces, put them together, and it leads us to Cibola,” Dane said. The prospect was exciting. “So what we need to do now is figure out where the next piece is hidden.”

“Got it covered,” Saul said, his perpetually sour face even more puckered, if that was possible. He returned shortly with the briefcase in which they kept the pictures of the shield along with their maps and notes. “I have to tell you,” he said, spreading the photographs on the bed, “I’ve given this a great deal of thought, and most of these images are a mystery to me. I also wonder if we need to visit them in any certain order.”

“If we’re collecting pieces of this artifact in order to reconstruct it, I don’t imagine it would make any difference what order we found them in.” Dane rubbed his chin, feeling the stubble that announced evening was fast approaching. One of these days he would grow a beard. “There has to be some key to understanding the instructions. Chaco Canyon was a lucky guess. The place had a distinct shape. I don’t relish the idea of roaming the desert southwest looking at every landform and ruin that resembles these icons.

“These two,” he indicated the images that lay on the center of the cross, and on the left, “could be two of I don’t know how many different peaks. And the images on the right, at the cross point, and at the top look like ruins, but which ones and where?”

“How did we find this artifact?” Jade asked. “The solstice was important, and so was the number seven. Can we use either of those to help us?”

Dane’s mind was turning over an idea at a rapid pace. The number seven was tumbling around in his thoughts. There was something he had come across in their research. Something to do with travel and direction.

“Are you planning on telling us what you’re thinking?” Saul snapped. He stood with his hands folded across his chest, leaning toward Dane to emphasize the two inches by which he was taller than Dane.

“The roads,” Dane said, ignoring Saul for what felt like the thousandth time since Jade and her assistant had crossed his path. “Remember? The Chacoans built a series of roads leading out of the canyon. They were special because they were so straight and well-engineered.”

“That’s right. There were seven of them,” Jade said, her voice indicating cautious interest. “What are you thinking?”

“Six of them scatter out in various directions and don’t go very far,” Dane said. “But the one in the center shoots straight up, and it’s much longer than the others. It stands out to me. I’m suddenly wondering if it points at anything in particular.”

Saul leapt to the charts, obviously not wanting to feel left out. He sorted through them until he found the one with the ancient roads. “Is this the one?” he asked, pointing at the center avenue. Dane nodded. Saul took his time, checking orientation and marking the roads on a larger map. Finally satisfied, he laid a ruler along the edge of the road and drew a faint line in pencil. The line ran out of New Mexico and into Utah. With his finger, Saul traced the implied path of the ancient road. “All of this is barren land. It doesn’t seem to intersect any of the known sites. In fact, it pretty much covers empty land all the way to…” he stopped.

“Sleeping Ute Mountain,” Dane and Jade said at almost the same time. They looked at each other, and Jade grinned.

“Look at the image in the middle of the cross. It’s not the entire mountain, but compare it to…” she paused as she sifted through her papers until she found a silhouette of the famed mountain. “This picture. What do you see?”

“It’s the foot of the mountain,” Saul said. “That’s why we didn’t recognize it. The outline of the entire mountain we’d have recognized, but not such a small section.” He stared at the pictures Jade held up, then looked down at the spot where his finger touched the dot marked Sleeping Ute Mountain. “Does this mean the artifact is hidden on his foot?”

“I don’t know,” Jade said. “I don’t know that something could be hidden there. I feel like there should be something more specific. We’re onto something, but we’re missing a critical piece.”

Saul picked up his laptop that he had left running on the bedside table, and clicked on the icon for internet access.

“We have the number seven connection. I guess now we need the solstice connection.” His frown quickly turned to a smile. “Aha! There’s a flat area up on the mountain where the Utes hold sacred dances, get this, in conjunction with the solstice! That’s got to be it!”

Something did not ring true for Dane, but he didn’t have a better idea. “Can we get up there?”

“It says you have to have permission from the tribe, and be escorted to the top,” Saul replied. “We can get around that, can’t we?”

“I’ve never been there,” Dane said. “I don’t know what’s around there or if we can even get close to it.”

“Let’s try and do it the honest way,” Jade said. “I’ll make some calls tomorrow and see what I can arrange. If we can’t work it out, we’ll decide what to do next.”

“What? You’re going to ask some Ute bigwig if you can take a shovel and metal detector and maybe dig up their sacred dance floor? Yeah, that’s really gonna’ work,” Saul sneered.

Jade pressed her palms to her temples. “Saul…”

“I know. The decision is yours. But I’m registering my objections, okay?” He shut down his laptop and snapped it closed. “I’m gonna’ grab something to eat, then hit the sack. I assume we’re heading out early tomorrow?” He didn’t wait for Jade’s answer, stalking out of the room and closing the door just hard enough to make it obvious that it was intentional.

“I feel like I’m teaching Junior High,” Jade groaned, falling down on the bed. “Maybe if this all works out, if we can solve the mystery, I won’t need the backing anymore.”

Taking a chance, Dane sat down on the bed next to her. He pulled her hands away from her head, and began massaging her temples with his fingertips. Her satisfied groans sounded like purring, and set his nerves on an excited edge. Forcing himself to go slowly, he massaged her scalp, her neck, then her shoulders. Gradually the tension drained from Jade’s face, and was replaced by a satisfied smile. His fingertips trailed down her sides, stroked her stomach, and slowly made the climb up her taut belly. She breathed deeply. He ran his hands up her sides and across her chest. Propping on one elbow, he stroked her cheek and leaned in close, his lips close enough to feel her breath…

…His ears close enough to hear her snoring.

Chuckling, he carefully rolled off the bed and let himself quietly out of the room. Would his luck with women never change?