Bones Of Contention: The McKinnon Legends - The American Men Book 3

by James, Ranay

“You are not in danger from any in this room.” Gage waited until Josh removed his hand. “What you see are the wizards' elite defenders of the treaty, Josh. These are The Protectors.”

  “So,” Josh felt the tingle trail his spine, the burning settle at its base, “they do in fact exist and are not just urban legends.”

  He was beginning to understand that elusive quality he sensed in this band. He understood the feeling and where it was coming from. It originated from their focused sense of purpose, the precision discipline, and a pack moving as one organism.

  This was not just a byproduct of hours of rigorous training. It was magic bequeathed by the wizards that strung them together, and tied them into a single bundle, a single entity comprised of many parts. It was subtle, yet strong, as he felt the blood quicken in his veins. It was magic oddly calling to him. “I read it myself in Jamie’s library. They were destroyed thousands of years ago. Even Jamie has confirmed this fact.”

  “Not entirely, Josh, another reason why we have kept their existence so secretive. It has taken thirty-six centuries to rebuild this core after the disaster of Thera,” Jacob offered, giving Josh the distinct impression this Maji king was more than just on the fringe of this revelation.

  Why, he asked himself silently, was he not surprised to discover this family, of which he was a part, was bone marrow deep in the enforcement of an ancient treaty brokered for the protection of mankind?

  Honor, Protect, Defend, Serve.

  They were not just a string of superior and strong words. Apparently not by accident, this was the creed on the family’s coat of arms. Through the ages, the McKinnon clan oftentimes found themselves drawn to law enforcement in one vein or another such as military commanders, intelligence agents, cops, personal security, secret service, special forces, and at one point in history even the personal guard to royalty.

  So, he wondered, just how deep was the family? How big of a part in assisting the defenders of the Treaty of the Sidhe Fae were they?

  Back up perhaps?

  Maybe at one point a McKinnon witnessed the Protectors, and rather than be put to death they swore allegiance, and from that point forward found themselves providing shelter and maybe even financial assistance to the Protectors themselves? The Templar Knights were few in actual number, but required hundreds of thousands to support them in their quest to protect the holy lands. Were Jacob and Gage assisting this group and now needed his help as well?

  “Josh, unbutton and remove your shirt if you will, please,” Gage politely requested. Yet, the undertone was unmistakable. It was not a request.

  “Why?” he questioned

  “Just do it!” Gage barked, clearly out of time and patience.

  Josh followed the command without further argument. Gage was the undisputed leader of the family when they were all gathered. Nevertheless, he still did not have to like it. Forcefully yanking the tail of his shirt out of the waistband of his jeans, he quickly unbuttoned the front of his shirt. Thinking the men wanted to see if he was carrying any other weapons, he did not completely remove his shirt, but instead he held it open leaving his chest bare.

  Jacob, hissing his disapproval at the blatant disregard for the command, moved with blinding speed. Taking the shirt by the collar, forcefully, he yanked it down to Josh’s elbows bearing the upper biceps of his arms.

  Not quite a scar or birthmark yet, not a tattoo either, Josh was self-conscious of the strange markings on his body that looked to be a conglomerate of random designs.

  As if on cue each warrior including Gage and Jacob, raised his or her right sleeve revealing an identical marking.

  Josh felt the room closing in. “Now, would any of you care to be Paul Harvey and give me the rest of the story?”

  Chapter 39

  London, England

  Jamie donned the dust mask just for good measure. She handed Darren one as well. The latex gloves and eye protection were a given.

  She had asked Dr. Goff, the professor she met on the airplane, to join her after their speaking engagement. He had eagerly joined her in this examination. Jamie felt sure he might bring some insight to the cause and brought him into the loop. They had spent a great deal of time with each other over the last few days. She liked him and they shared a lot of common ideas and philosophies. He was intelligent, thoughtful in his appraisals of the artifacts, and it also got under Josh’s skin, just a little added bonus, she confessed.

  Serves Josh right, as she thought back over the last tiff they had about the number of hours she and Darren had been spending together.

  “Is he moving in?” Josh asked her with that flat edged sarcasm she really hated. She had tossed a sofa cushion at him accompanied by a hearty “None of your damn business, Lawman.”

  The dark expression that comment garnered was almost not worth the price. The kiss Josh delivered afterwards was.

  She and Darren had been spending a lot of time together on a purely professional basis leaving Jesse and Josh to their own devices. She did feel just a little guilty about letting Josh stew. She, nonetheless, was not about to let him know that Darren had a live-in girlfriend of fourteen years and was in a very committed relationship with her. His partner, Joanna, was in the oil industry, and that was how Darren had ended up going to Texas Tech from Oxford.

  What Josh did not know would not hurt him.

  However, very soon she was going to clue him in because the game had become tedious. She had been poking the bear, something she knew better than to do. At least she knew better than to poke the bear with the frequency she had been the last few days. The jig was up.

  However, that was not going to stop her from utilizing Darren’s expertise before he went back to work in Lubbock.

  These mummies, if you could call them that, were in remarkably good condition considering they were over three thousand years old. She began piecing together facts from her initial visual inspection and the archeologists’ field notes. This group of individuals belonged to the household of what was most likely a wealthy trader.

  The underground cellar where they were initially discovered, by all the accounts and the pointed evidence, had been filled with two priceless minerals that for the time period would be worth a Fort Knox fortune. There was salt, whose molecular content traced its origins to the dead sea and crushed limestone used to this day as a major ingredient of concrete.

  The limestone, coupled with the heavy volcanic ash thrown off from the eruption and the addition of water from the tsunami, produced the environment and provided the elements needed for perfect preservation. The limestone and ash were not enough alone. Water invading the space by the tsunami was actually the last and final ingredient to produce the concrete-ash mixture that encapsulated the bodies and preserved them until they were finally unearthed. As seven of the eight bodies decomposed, the loose, powdery limestone slowly replaced the organic materials of most all the bodies which resulted in a very strange petrifaction process. The end result turned them to a stony material. In other words, these people were fossilized.

  Unfortunately, she could feel nothing more from these bones than if their likeness had been carved from the very stone composition they had become. These definitely were interesting, magnificent specimens, and extremely rare even for small organisms, much less specimens this size and of this nature. However, she could not assist the scientific community other than the visual inspections that she and Darren had completed before turning their attention to the one exception.

  The eighth victim found over on the opposite side of the storage space was more what she would have expected to find at such an archeological dig. As with any natural disasters, some things just could not be explained away. The mosaic under her body, while in a room full of destruction and devastation, was perfectly preserved.

  Jamie viewed the photos of the room and wondered if the woman had been protecting it for some reason. She found it odd that the woman was found separated from the other seven. Perhaps the force of the water or s
ome other divine intervention pushed her into the small alcove away from the large stores of the limestone. She had not been buried alive and then drowned by the tons of crushed stone and water. Her cause of death could be something other than asphyxiation.

  Jamie began as she always did by first turning on the recorder on the overhead microphone. This left her hands free to explore unencumbered. Adjusting the overhead lamp, she began.

  “The date is currently January 13, 2011, eleven hundred hours, British Museum, inspection room number one. Inspection being done by Dr. Jamie Gillman, Texas Tech University, accompanied by Dr. Darren Goff, Oxford. I am beginning examination of Crete Exhibit item number W-13136. Item type-skeletal remains. Plaster cast has already been completed for future inspection and measurement. Plaster cast tagged as item W-13136-A.”

  She would let the cast dry while doing the physical inspection later and enter measurements of her skull into the computer for a visual 3-D model.

  “This is definitely a female, post-puberty based on the brow ridge and pelvic structure. The woman was obviously young based on the conditions of her bones and teeth. Molars fully erupted,” she said delicately lifting the skull.

  “I concur,” Darren agreed.

  Then she took a closer look shining her high intensity light on the second molar from the back.

  “What the hell is this?” she exclaimed. “Oops.” Then she rewound the recorder back to the point before she cursed.

  “Wow, this is highly irregular,” Darren was truly surprised.

  “I’ve never seen this in any remains which were not at least twentieth century,” she said looking at the dental work.

  “Is there any way the data could be wrong?” he questioned.

  “I do not see how. The bodies were completely undisturbed. I understand that the civilization was far more advanced than previously thought. I suppose dentistry could be included in the knowledge. Still, I’m going to ask for a carbon dating.”

  Regaining her professional composure, she turned the recorder back on.

  “I have discovered something interesting and will, as a result, request a carbon dating to verify the age of this specimen. It looks as if she has a cavity filled using post-modern dental techniques. The filling material is white, almost perfectly matching her enamel material. I almost overlooked it. I would recommend taking a sample of the dental material if possible to see the composition of this material. I estimate her age to be 16 to 18 years. There is one small patch of long dark hair surviving along the right side of the skull. My theory is it was protected and preserved due to the limestone dust along the cellar floor. Skull was found in direct contact with the flooring. Petrifaction of the scalp in this one spot is consistent with other bodies found in proximity.

  I’d say she was well-to-do based on the very fine pieces of jewelry found attached to and near her body.

  Footnote to self: Reexamine items documented to have been found on or within a three-foot radius and take a closer look at the mosaic. I would like to see exactly what it was she felt she needed to protect, if that was what she indeed was doing.”

  Darren offered to bring the artifacts back to her leaving her alone in the room to continue.

  “All right, back to examination. She is either a very favored slave, which I doubt, or the lady of the manor. That is my guess. I base my theory more on the fact she led a very pampered life, the result being a fine bone structure with very small areas marking the joining of connective tissue at the wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Her joints show no sign of stress as would be evidenced in a household slave even one as young as this. Spine is in perfect condition showing no aging or stress.”

  Jamie paused in the recording changing position along the examination table.

  “She is in excellent condition. I see all indication she was in apparent good health when she died. Cause of death based on the physical evidence is most likely drowning given what we now know of the eruption of Thera. No bone fractures except to her pelvic bone which is consistent with a breeched birth, no obvious bone contusions, and no cancer or bone loss. She was not suffering from malnutrition as bone density shows to be excellent.

  This specimen is tall for an ancient woman, five ten maybe more, but definitely less than six feet given the length of her femur,” she spoke as she made her assessment.

  “The only obvious wound she carries is to her pelvis as previously noted. The woman gave birth only a day or two at the most before she died. I suppose it could be argued childbirth might be cause of death, but I still hold to my earlier assessment of drowning as the most apparent cause of death. Had she died before the eruption, she would have been ceremoniously memorialized per her status in the manner and the custom of this civilization. There was time and she is someone important. They would not have carried her into the cellar after death for several reasons. Disease is one as they used the cellar for food and wine storage. I believe she was alive at the time she made her way into the cellar space.”

  She turned off the recorder to rearrange the examination tools, stretch, and take a drink. Turning the recorder back on, she continued without ever looking at the time.

  “I am now drilling to capture a small amount of material from the left top molar for DNA testing.” Taking the fine drill used by a dentist, she captured the fine dust and placed it carefully inside the sterile container. She marked it W-13136-B.

  “My inspection of item number W-13136 is now complete.”

  She turned off the recorder, recovered the remains back with the protective padding, and closed the crate where the woman was carefully housed. Then she stripped off the eye protection and stuffed them back into her duffel bag and set the lighted headset aside. The dust mask and latex gloves were next, tossing them into the biohazard trashcan.

  Putting her hands at the small of her back, she stretched backwards to relieve the kinks. She had been working all day, first with the other seven that morning, and now the lady. As was more the norm than the exception, she had lost track of the time, losing almost six hours in doing this inspection of the woman alone.

  Having Darren help her had cut the examination time considerably. It was nearly time for the museum to close as she heard the muffled announcement coming through the ceiling above her.

  “Well, that is my cue,” Darren said as he, too took off his protective wear and began pulling on his jacket. “Thank you for allowing me to join you. This was a wonderful opportunity.”

  “Your flight leaves tomorrow for Lubbock?” she asked wishing she would have the opportunity to work with Darren at the university. She did take to heart that he and Joanna had purchased her house. He was a brilliant mind and had a great personality, who made her laugh and think and question more deeply. However, like two ships their professions had just passed each other on different currents.

  “Yes, at seven o'clock in the morning.”

  “Best of luck and let me know how it is going. You will know where to find me - here in this musty cellar.” She looked around at her new office.

  “Oh, I get the feeling there will be one person who will see to it you get some sunshine every once in a while. Don’t sell Josh short, Jamie. He is a good man.”

  “I know, but...”

  “No buts. Give him a second chance. I have to go. I still have packing to do.”

  “Thank you, Darren. You are a brilliant man and a good friend.” She gave him a big hug, again lamenting the fact it would be years before she had the opportunity to see him again.

  “Remember what I have said. Josh is exactly what you need,” he said just before kissing her on the cheek and leaving her alone in her musty cellar.

  She stood there for a few moments thinking about his parting words.

  Was Josh good for her? She knew she was still drawn to him. Uncomfortable with her thoughts, she turned her attention back to someone else who drew her, just in a very different way.

  As if pulled by some supernatural force she could not deny, she was dra
wn to this faceless woman as she carefully removed the mold from the plaster. Then on impulse, she decided to do a facial reanimation. It would be marvelous if she could put a face to this lovely lady. The museum had not contracted her to do this; nonetheless, it would be her gift to the museum, the world, and to the faceless woman who deserved for the world to know what she looked like as well as how she lived and died. Putting a face to the dead always made it more personal.

  It often felt as if the dead were crying for her to bring them back to the living. As was often the case, she felt driven to complete the clay sculpture. If it were good enough, it would ultimately go on display.

  Working all through the night, not even stopping to eat, the face that finally emerged was one of delicate and exquisite beauty. A face that could have rivaled Helen of Troy launching a thousand ships, a face many would have lived and died to protect. It was a youthful, beautiful face that broke all boundaries of logic.

  What she saw there in that face was impossible to reconcile with the facts as she knew them. She was a scientist and still the evidence was irrefutable. As she worked with the raw clay letting her hands bring the clay to life, simultaneously she ran the computer models as a dual, more scientific approach to the reanimation.

  In the past this technique had helped her to gain the buy-in of other more skeptical individuals of the scientific and law enforcement communities. It was a process she consistently used because it helped her to focus on the art and let the science take care of itself. She had science and computer animation backing her ability as a sculptor, which took the human element completely out of the equation. She was one of the best in the world at what she did, and her art and the science usually merged flawlessly, effortlessly. This time looked to be no exception as she compared her handiwork with the 3-D model staring back at her from her computer screen.

  “What the hell is going on here?” she whispered, not trusting her own eyes.

  She was looking into a face that could easily be Jesse McKinnon complete with the long dark hair.