There it was within arms reach gleaming at him like a crown jewel, like the holy grail. He inched closer to it with sweat rolling down his cheek and forehead. He tried not to breath too hard, but he was so nervous. Finally, he grabbed it and pulled it into his arms without making much of an audible sound. Abruptly the hollow chamber shook violently forcing him to grunt.
Jack Canyon wasn't about to give in just yet. He was tougher than nails, sometimes. He kept the dusty old book close as he spun on his heels and moved out of the way just as a boulder crashed down where he stood. He looked back for just a moment and sighed heavily. That was close! He jolted to the side as the ground shook and split open in several places. Holes opened up, swallowing parts of the floor. Son of a. . . And again. He jumped across to solid piece of ground. The floor was now like swiss cheese and the solid ground pillars holding him up.
He continued across the checkerboard of solid earth trying to get to the exit. He slid the book, which had a single coin-shaped medallion embedded in the leather cover, into his messenger bag and leaped across to another pillar, which gave way at the edge, almost dumping him into the dark abyss below. He held on for dear life, but was slowly slipping. He wasn't sure he'd make it. Then the ledge gave way dropping him into oblivion.
SPLASH! Jack hit a lake of water below, or what he thought to be a lake. The temple of Neptune/Poseidon housed a pool for the deity. The writing on the wall near the entrance had given Jack the comfort to continue his trek for the book. He was set to find that ALL religions of the world were centered around a single deity, regardless of what you called him. The book in his sack was called The Book of Origin.
Jack came up for air, breathing deeply as he looked around the dim chamber. Torches along the wall were scarcely placed. He couldn't see much, let alone anything right in front of him. He floated on the top, bobbing up and down. Was there a way out?
The sudden sound of gushing water wasn't good. Jack's head darted around looking for waterfall pouring water in, but he saw none. He was baffled until he felt a jerk. Water wasn't pouring in, it was pouring out! Before he knew it, he was sliding down stone slants, and then plummeting several feet to another slide that went the opposite direction. Finally, he ended up in a raging river that sent him rushing downstream.
The white rapids rolled across the top of the water and passed rocks. Jack smashed into one and continued down the river without much control of where he could go. He just went with the flow. He latched onto a small branch as the water kept beating against him violently. He held on until the branch broke and he drifted on.
The bend in the river didn't look fair or friendly. It was quite horrific and scary, clad with rocks and roots. He smacked into the roots and tried to hang on, but the swift river was overpowered him and sent him along. Finally, he reached the calmer end.
Beaten and battered by the ferocious stream, Jack washed up on a stretch of sand far from the temple and in the middle of The Grande River of Sicily in the province of Palermo. He breathed slowly as the sun beamed down on his face, until someone shadowed the sunlight. They stood overhead. The shadow was of a feminine figure. He looked up without much effort, since she shielded him from the bright sun.
“How did you find me?” Jack asked with a silly grin on his face.
“It wasn't hard, Jack,” she stated kneeling down to him. “You told me to wait outside the entrance, so I did. I heard the loud noises and rumbling of the place and then the water pouring out.” She tilted her head to the side. “I saw you flushed out like you were sewage, Jack.”
“Oh, fine way to think of me, Sophia,” Jack stated, pretending to be hurt by her words.
“Do you plan to lie there all day or do I have to pull your bloody arse out all the way back to Palermo?” Sophia Stone didn't play around when it came to her American boss. She was British by birth and raised in America by her parents, who were in someway involved in archaeology. She got entangled with Jack years ago, unfortunately, and has regretted it everyday since. Sophia shook her sandy blonde hair as she turned away from him.
“Not going to ask if I got the book?” Jack teased.
“Jack, we both know, due to that awful rumble back at the temple, that you got the book,” Sophia said blatantly. “I'm not stupid.”
“I didn't think you to be, princess,” Jack said rising to a seated position.
“Don't call me that,” she argued. “My father called me that. You, sir, can't!”
“Don't get your panties in a wad there, Soph,” Jack told her as he got to his feet. He dusted off his faded green Carhartt canvas pants and dark gray t-shirt, though now the dirt was mostly mud. There wasn't much he could do with his short brown hair since it was soaked.
“Don't start thinking you had an affect on my panties, Mr. Canyon,” Sophia said in a professional tone. “Now, can we get back to the hotel and back home, please?”
“Sure,” he told her as he adjusted his messenger bag and followed her up to the jeep.
Once in the jeep, Sophia started up the vehicle and headed back towards the city they were housed at. She couldn't believe her luck. Three years ago, she had decided to look into a secretary/assistant/librarian job for a local archaeologist, who is better known to the world as a grave robber. She sighed as those thoughts rolled through her mind. Maybe now was time to quit? Her father would never forgive her for that, though. She didn't understand how her father and Jack Canyon were colleagues.
She looked over at Jack, who was skimming through the book he had just stolen from the Roman/Greek temple. “So, what's that supposed to do or tell you?”
“It's supposed to tell of how all the religions of the world are connected, thus proving my theory,” Jack admitted.
“So, this isn't so much fortune and glory is it? It's more about your ego and pride.”
“I'm hurt you'd think such a thing,” Jack said with a fake pouting expression on his face.
The poor girl could only roll her eyes at her boss as they reached the city limits of Palermo. “I'll be glad when I'm back in the office at my desk. I do believe that was the job I applied for.” She shot him a scornful glance.
“Hm,” Jack thought for a moment as he closed the book and looked over at her. “Actually, you're an assistant. You assist me in anything I do, which includes field work.”
“I really did like this adventure better than the adventure you held in India,” she reminded him.
“You'll never let that go, will you?” Jack asked.
“Never,” she stated coldly. “I'm not the one who stole the Dagger of Wisdom from the temple of Ganesha to not only piss off the Indian government but the archaeologist, Yashodhan Tej. He trusted you.”
“It's not entirely my fault,” Jack argued.
“Yes, it is, Jack! It took a lot of convincing on my part to get Professor Tej to let you keep it.”
“I was almost out of the country,too,” Jack lied, which got another look from Sophia. “I apologized.”
“After they threatened to cut off your--”
“Okay, let's not get into that again, okay?” Jack asked fearfully.
Sophia smiled slightly at him. “I don't blame you, though. If I had one of those and someone threatened to just cut it off in the most painful way, I'd beg for mercy, too.”
“I never thanked you either, did I?”
“Nope,” she said pulling into the parking garage of the hotel. “You know, I'm sure Yash should be sending you a copy of his well acclaimed Hindu book soon.”
“Really?”
“Well, you did help him locate the temple, find the dagger, and the possible location of the Babylonian sundisk,” Sophia told him.
“Yeah, still uncomfortable about that,” Jack admitted. “I mean, a powerful disk that can capture the sun's rays and destroy entire cities, possibly countries, is unsettling to me.”
“But he let you keep the dagger,” she reminded him as she parked the jeep and stepped out. “Let's just go home and sort this out. We have yet to find trouble here. I don't want to run into trouble. It'd be a nice change.”
“Oh, come on, your lack of faith in me really weakens my ego,” Jack told her as she continued onward toward the room.
“That's the point, Jack,” she told herself as she neared the elevator. “Are you coming?”
Jack walked quickly to the elevator and stepped on. He sighed heavily as the doors closed and it headed up.
To Be Continued. . .
