The Artifact
Well... probably not an Amway pitch I think to myself. I must be tired. Lou, who had been irritated and on edge is now relaxed and open. Must have been those drinks that Chris gave us.
You can really feel the hum of the engines from here. If the purpose of this room is to guarantee absolute secrecy then the sound of the engines would be helpful to that end.
Angelica pulls several black and white photographs out of a folder in her briefcase and places them in front of me and Lou. They are underwater photos of what looks like a large salad bowl, crusted over with sea-life as though it has been in the dining room of the Titanic for the past ninety-six years.
“Do either of you know what this is?”
Oh… great, a test.
We both shake our heads. I suppose calling it a salad bowl is out of the question.
Mrs. Antonelli straightens up in her seat as though to signal us of the importance of the coming explanation.
“That is a Clarok. It is a ceremonial vessel used by the Mayans fifteen hundred years ago.”
She pauses for a moment to allow us to examine the photographs. There is really nothing to see. There is nothing to compare it to for size. The Clarok is half buried in what must be the bottom of some ocean. There seem to be handholds all around the top of it. So it is either very large indeed and requires many hands to carry it, or those handholds serve another purpose.
“What are we looking at here?” Lou says, drawing one of the photographs closer. “How big is this thing?”
"According to the glyphs our team have found at the site, the Clarok is approximately three feet in diameter." Angelica sets another photograph on the table, this one in full color. It is of a temple that is emerging from a thick jungle, overgrown and in control.
"This is the temple site." Mrs. Antonelli motions to the photograph. "My husband was involved in a recovery effort for this item. The secret of the glyph was revealed to us by a disenfranchised research scientist. He sold my husband the secrets and made the connection to this artifact. This man's name was Arturo Montoya."
I look at Lou and he and at me. Arturo Montoya, aka Arnold Menton, the man that owned the yacht we dove on. His part in this whole episode is now taking on a new dimension.
"He was an expert in many things; Mayan civilization, UFO phenomena, and the Bermuda Triangle. It is with his knowledge of the latter that he made the connection with a part of the glyph at the temple."
Well, I can tell right now that I should be taking notes... but I don't. I am hoping that between me and Lou we will remember what is coming next.
"In 1917, between March 6th & 27, the freighter Timandra was under sail, bound for Buenos Aires from Norfolk with a cargo of coal. On board as well was the Clarok, sold at auction to a collector in Argentina. In those days that was the fastest way to deliver the item to South America. But the Clarok never made it into the hands of this collector. The ship, twenty-one crew members, and the ships captain, Richard Lee and his wife, who had decided to accompany him to Argentina, were never heard from again."
She pauses and a suffocating silence displaces everything in the room.
"The Timandra went down in the Bermuda Triangle. There was no official record of wireless traffic or sightings, but a "pirate" vessel... German raiders on the ship Seeadler witnessed the what they thought to be a sailing vessel just as the the ocean claimed her."
Wow, this just gets better and better.
On cue, Angelica pulls out several copies of age old transcripts... written in German, pages from private diaries of witnesses on board the Seeadler.
"The only ship of that size in that particular area had to be the Timandra." Angelica adds, "and these entries, coupled with the ships logs of the Seeadler gave us an approximate position."
Chris, who has been silent until now, joins their side of the table.
"Boys, that is why my father had the KOZANOSTRA in the Caribbean. He had already recovered the Clarok and was working on the other pieces of the puzzle."
"The diamonds?" I ask.
He nods. "Didn't know it at the time. I just thought it was another one of my dad's "deals" he was constantly making."
His mother nods.
"Yes, the diamonds were more than just a pay-off. They all looked similar, but only a few were absolutely perfect. We found Montoya's journals in a storage locker in Puerto Barrios and found that we only needed three for the artifact."
My hand goes up to the Antonelli family crest hanging on the chain around my neck.
Chris smiles, "Yeah, Jake, safest place. I didn't know the real story about the rocks until I was already in Vegas. I figured I would take the finest of the lot and leave them with the people I trusted most. Even though we offed Justin didn't mean that he didn't have more associates trying to get them back."
I feel a sense of pride at that statement, and a sense of loss at this latest development.
"Can we have them back when you are through with them?" Lou asks, the feeling mutual.
"When we are done with them, Lou." Chris takes his from around his neck and we follow suit. "This is something I cannot trust with just anyone."
We are in the special room for close to an hour listening to this tale unfold. It is just too hard to believe.
This Clarok thing, it was used by the Mayan priests to "soul travel". Something to do with the sun at a certain time of year, and the gold that Chris was after in the Amazon. The diamonds are supposed to diffuse the sun's energy into the Clarok. The unique gold of the Yanomami from that particular site has properties that when melted and poured into place on the Clarok create a resonant vibration of sorts when the Clarok is struck. Apparently the gold and diamond inlays in the Clarok originally had been removed by treasure hunters before it surfaced for auction.
There is just too much to digest, and I am not quite sure what it has to do with us past this point.
"Gentlemen... " Mrs. Antonelli stands, "We have located the wreckage of my husband's ship and recovery efforts will begin within the week to recover the Clarok. That gives us approximately one month before we test the artifact."
With a quick nod to Angelica the security door opens and they both exit the room, the door closing behind them.
"What the fuck was that all about?" Lou is back to his irritated self.
"Yeah, Chris... why the history lesson?"
Chris holds the three medallions in his hand, looking at them.
"She wants us to use the Clarok."
"Use the Clarok? For what, a dinner party?" Lou stands and paces. He tries the door and it won't budge.
"Open this fucking door, Chris." All of a sudden Lou looks like a trapped animal, not a good side of him.
"Wait, guys. Just hold on. This is important." Antonelli stands and walks over to the door. He puts a hand on Lou's shoulder. "My father wanted you two to be in on this. He trusted you guys. It was the last thing we talked about before those pirates boarded our boat."
That stops Lou's pacing. Now just a steely gaze that is as hard to look at as the sun. "You better not be bullshitting us."
"Nope... no bullshit."
Before the door opens, Chris tells us that the team wants to have the artifact ready to "test" within thirty days. We leave the room in silence and don't speak again until we are on the aft deck of the ship with a cold Negro Modelo in our hands.
"What do you think?" I ask Lou, who looks as though this whole thing is a huge inconvenience.
"I think we need to go and get Naomi and leave all this shit to the scientists."
Chris opens his second beer. "There are no scientists, Lou. Just Montoya's notes and the recovery team. They don't know what the artifact is supposed to do, just that they are being paid big bucks to retrieve it from KOZANOSZTRA and restore it to its prime."
"And the team? Why don't they test this... artifact?"
"The team she is referring to is the recovery team. Once they give us the Clarok and we inlay the diamonds and the gold that I removed from the chamber, it's all on us. It's all in the material we recovered from Montoya's stuff... you'll see."
It doesn't seem like we are ever going to get back to El Corazon. Lou is insistant that we get Naomi before we do anything else. I agree with him. That little plane was a gift from Bear. It is as important as this "artifact" business. Chris asks if he can go along. He will supply the transportation to the Sea of Cortez and Rocky Point. Along the way he better let us in on everything. There sure as shit is more to tell, so he better lay it all out on the line or we won't be coming back with him.
You can really feel the hum of the engines from here. If the purpose of this room is to guarantee absolute secrecy then the sound of the engines would be helpful to that end.
Angelica pulls several black and white photographs out of a folder in her briefcase and places them in front of me and Lou. They are underwater photos of what looks like a large salad bowl, crusted over with sea-life as though it has been in the dining room of the Titanic for the past ninety-six years.
“Do either of you know what this is?”
Oh… great, a test.
We both shake our heads. I suppose calling it a salad bowl is out of the question.
Mrs. Antonelli straightens up in her seat as though to signal us of the importance of the coming explanation.
“That is a Clarok. It is a ceremonial vessel used by the Mayans fifteen hundred years ago.”
She pauses for a moment to allow us to examine the photographs. There is really nothing to see. There is nothing to compare it to for size. The Clarok is half buried in what must be the bottom of some ocean. There seem to be handholds all around the top of it. So it is either very large indeed and requires many hands to carry it, or those handholds serve another purpose.
“What are we looking at here?” Lou says, drawing one of the photographs closer. “How big is this thing?”
"According to the glyphs our team have found at the site, the Clarok is approximately three feet in diameter." Angelica sets another photograph on the table, this one in full color. It is of a temple that is emerging from a thick jungle, overgrown and in control.
"This is the temple site." Mrs. Antonelli motions to the photograph. "My husband was involved in a recovery effort for this item. The secret of the glyph was revealed to us by a disenfranchised research scientist. He sold my husband the secrets and made the connection to this artifact. This man's name was Arturo Montoya."
I look at Lou and he and at me. Arturo Montoya, aka Arnold Menton, the man that owned the yacht we dove on. His part in this whole episode is now taking on a new dimension.
"He was an expert in many things; Mayan civilization, UFO phenomena, and the Bermuda Triangle. It is with his knowledge of the latter that he made the connection with a part of the glyph at the temple."
Well, I can tell right now that I should be taking notes... but I don't. I am hoping that between me and Lou we will remember what is coming next.
"In 1917, between March 6th & 27, the freighter Timandra was under sail, bound for Buenos Aires from Norfolk with a cargo of coal. On board as well was the Clarok, sold at auction to a collector in Argentina. In those days that was the fastest way to deliver the item to South America. But the Clarok never made it into the hands of this collector. The ship, twenty-one crew members, and the ships captain, Richard Lee and his wife, who had decided to accompany him to Argentina, were never heard from again."
She pauses and a suffocating silence displaces everything in the room.
"The Timandra went down in the Bermuda Triangle. There was no official record of wireless traffic or sightings, but a "pirate" vessel... German raiders on the ship Seeadler witnessed the what they thought to be a sailing vessel just as the the ocean claimed her."
Wow, this just gets better and better.
On cue, Angelica pulls out several copies of age old transcripts... written in German, pages from private diaries of witnesses on board the Seeadler.
"The only ship of that size in that particular area had to be the Timandra." Angelica adds, "and these entries, coupled with the ships logs of the Seeadler gave us an approximate position."
Chris, who has been silent until now, joins their side of the table.
"Boys, that is why my father had the KOZANOSTRA in the Caribbean. He had already recovered the Clarok and was working on the other pieces of the puzzle."
"The diamonds?" I ask.
He nods. "Didn't know it at the time. I just thought it was another one of my dad's "deals" he was constantly making."
His mother nods.
"Yes, the diamonds were more than just a pay-off. They all looked similar, but only a few were absolutely perfect. We found Montoya's journals in a storage locker in Puerto Barrios and found that we only needed three for the artifact."
My hand goes up to the Antonelli family crest hanging on the chain around my neck.
Chris smiles, "Yeah, Jake, safest place. I didn't know the real story about the rocks until I was already in Vegas. I figured I would take the finest of the lot and leave them with the people I trusted most. Even though we offed Justin didn't mean that he didn't have more associates trying to get them back."
I feel a sense of pride at that statement, and a sense of loss at this latest development.
"Can we have them back when you are through with them?" Lou asks, the feeling mutual.
"When we are done with them, Lou." Chris takes his from around his neck and we follow suit. "This is something I cannot trust with just anyone."
We are in the special room for close to an hour listening to this tale unfold. It is just too hard to believe.
This Clarok thing, it was used by the Mayan priests to "soul travel". Something to do with the sun at a certain time of year, and the gold that Chris was after in the Amazon. The diamonds are supposed to diffuse the sun's energy into the Clarok. The unique gold of the Yanomami from that particular site has properties that when melted and poured into place on the Clarok create a resonant vibration of sorts when the Clarok is struck. Apparently the gold and diamond inlays in the Clarok originally had been removed by treasure hunters before it surfaced for auction.
There is just too much to digest, and I am not quite sure what it has to do with us past this point.
"Gentlemen... " Mrs. Antonelli stands, "We have located the wreckage of my husband's ship and recovery efforts will begin within the week to recover the Clarok. That gives us approximately one month before we test the artifact."
With a quick nod to Angelica the security door opens and they both exit the room, the door closing behind them.
"What the fuck was that all about?" Lou is back to his irritated self.
"Yeah, Chris... why the history lesson?"
Chris holds the three medallions in his hand, looking at them.
"She wants us to use the Clarok."
"Use the Clarok? For what, a dinner party?" Lou stands and paces. He tries the door and it won't budge.
"Open this fucking door, Chris." All of a sudden Lou looks like a trapped animal, not a good side of him.
"Wait, guys. Just hold on. This is important." Antonelli stands and walks over to the door. He puts a hand on Lou's shoulder. "My father wanted you two to be in on this. He trusted you guys. It was the last thing we talked about before those pirates boarded our boat."
That stops Lou's pacing. Now just a steely gaze that is as hard to look at as the sun. "You better not be bullshitting us."
"Nope... no bullshit."
Before the door opens, Chris tells us that the team wants to have the artifact ready to "test" within thirty days. We leave the room in silence and don't speak again until we are on the aft deck of the ship with a cold Negro Modelo in our hands.
"What do you think?" I ask Lou, who looks as though this whole thing is a huge inconvenience.
"I think we need to go and get Naomi and leave all this shit to the scientists."
Chris opens his second beer. "There are no scientists, Lou. Just Montoya's notes and the recovery team. They don't know what the artifact is supposed to do, just that they are being paid big bucks to retrieve it from KOZANOSZTRA and restore it to its prime."
"And the team? Why don't they test this... artifact?"
"The team she is referring to is the recovery team. Once they give us the Clarok and we inlay the diamonds and the gold that I removed from the chamber, it's all on us. It's all in the material we recovered from Montoya's stuff... you'll see."
It doesn't seem like we are ever going to get back to El Corazon. Lou is insistant that we get Naomi before we do anything else. I agree with him. That little plane was a gift from Bear. It is as important as this "artifact" business. Chris asks if he can go along. He will supply the transportation to the Sea of Cortez and Rocky Point. Along the way he better let us in on everything. There sure as shit is more to tell, so he better lay it all out on the line or we won't be coming back with him.
posted by Jake Allen at 6:18 AM
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