The sun faintly shone through gaps in the thick clouds, edging up through distance trees, casting long black shadows, with demon shapes through falling snow dust.
I studied the shore and area with the prints repeatedly, and the paranormal scientists did the same, as we shuffled through thick areas of snow, and swiftly accelerated over thin areas, while going up and down small mounds and hills, and through thick and thin areas of vegetation.
I tried to grasp what sort animal it could be and how we should handle it, and I kept wondering what the two paranormal scientists would do if we found it.
What if it was like some form of massive lion and was hungry, and waiting to get a human alone! Our sightings clearly gave the loch ahead as the location of it!
“What’ll we do if we find the thing?” I eventually asked them, watching Higgins leading us forward faster.
“We’ll discuss that when we see what’s there,” he replied.
The brightening sunshine and white snow was blinding when the sun properly emerged, and early in the morning, and I had a hard time seeing what was in front of us.
“Over there ...!” Higgins moaned, looking at part of the ground ahead, where we followed his eyes to. “Footprints are visible!”
I examined the snow all around us, keeping my eyes peeled for anything, especially behind trees.
It was incredible the prints were there, but covered in some snow, and I knew that they had to belong to something immense, and larger than anything I had seen before, and we stopped in front of them amazed, and staggered at the enormity of what it was.
We strolled about them, and the two scientists took photos and measured them, and I started to realize with disappointment that we had not actually achieved our goal and they were covered in too much snow and the photos would not be enough to prove anything, and I saw that the snow was about to come down heavily on top of them and us, and I searched where the prints went and followed them down to the shore and out into the loch, where I saw something emerge in the dark water, like a black shadow, and I saw it shift, with amazement.
Chapter 7
The Wood
Fifteen armed soldiers arrived, and the police, and I kept wondering why the police had not been used in the first place, but I recalled hearing the soldiers had been nearby.
There was something different about the monster that was extraordinary and vastly dangerous that I could not fully grasp! All the soldiers and police were marching in a line through the wood, and they were ready with their guns as they started searching!
One marched with his rifle pointing at the undergrowth directly ahead, while officers watched at his side, and I saw their eyes wide and how alert they were, and ready for action.
It was incredible the monster actually existed and came out the loch further along from where we had been at the loch, but distant, but we saw the size of the thing and that it was far larger than anything we had heard of, and it had vanished into the wood, which they were searching.
It was a shame if they shot the thing or even captured it! Even though it would prove it existed!
I could not grasp how such a thing could exist there, and had not been caught, and going by the others they thought the same, and it was amazing seeing the soldiers discovering its footprints, and I waited to hear gunfire from the wood.
At the time I expected some form of flying vehicle to appear, as I had heard of stuff, and that there had been a form helicopter that had been experimented with, and I watched the loch go along the wood away into the distance and realized the creature definitely belonged in the loch, and I realized it would probably reenter it further along, instead of moving back through the wood, and I wondered why there were no soldiers there, and with amazement I saw it shoot out of the wood and shift swiftly into the water away in the distance.
A deep heavy thud echoed about the place and I realized it was an altered version of a gun being fired, and for a few seconds I gasped wondering if it had entered the loch after all and if they had just killed it.
I watched the most distant soldier, away in the depths of the wood, and him using a torch and its beam shifting around everywhere, while he stood aiming his rifle.
I realized how dangerous the monster was and that it could go crazy and I expected the thing to come flying straight out the loch, and I wondered if they could accurately shoot and kill it, and if their bullets could kill it!
Chapter 8
The Search
The entire front page of a major newspaper covered the story, of the Loch Ness sighting, and what had happened, but they had not authenticated the discovery or produced evidence, and its species was marked as unknown.
The story was seen all over the country, and tourists, reporters, scientists, people from other groups started to turn up, and the two paranormal scientists, with some luck, saved the day, just when we were about to leave Loch Ness with no proper proof of the monster’s existence, when they brought in conventional scientists, who had the technology to scan the loch, to the deepest depths, and even into regions of the ground.
Though it was not accurate, and produced some mapping below the ground, to a certain depth, it made it possible to observe some objects with some clarity, and perhaps even a dinosaur fossil, and it worked from a plane.
The scientists were also members of an exploration association, and they had been on a scientific expedition to uncover a legendry form of dinosaur in the Amazon, and they had declared how they could help them, and they gave them an insight into their technology and how it could be used.
Though dark clouds shifted in at nightfall and the heavy snow arrived, and it even looked as if we would be snowed in and trapped in the hotel, and unable to even reach the airport, to get to the airplane, but luckily in the morning it cleared.
The roads were cleared by the evening and we got to the airport and airplane and started investigating their new technology, trying to grasp what we could from what they gave, and we left on the airplane from the airport towards Loch Ness.
The two paranormal investigators were enthralled with their setup and operating methods, and thought that it could be a major breakthrough, and in their investigations, grasping its full potential and the future possibilities that it could offer their various forms of scientific exploration.
At the same time I investigated what I could and how the technology functioned in far greater detail and what its capabilities were. It soon began to look too hard to produce and use, but my thoughts of it and the mission altered once we started investigating large regions of the loch.
How could they fail? The creature had to be around where our hotel was, and they were swiftly exploring the entire loch!
The equipment system was monitoring everything perfectly and I sensed that they could detect the monster and I considered if they had deliberately given incorrect information on the distance of the scan to hide its faults and power, as it was expensive equipment!
I later became sure from things some of the scientists on the plane had indicated that they were carrying out a more distant and less accurate scan, which I was sure could not detect it without it being close up.
At the front window I watched shades of light play with my vision in animated motions, over the bright loch, and snow covered hills and mountains, while the plane rushed through the air, and I watched the scientists at work, constantly examining their technology and readouts to discover anything, and anything to make improvements, for them to introduce, or for them to make any breakthroughs with.
The two paranormal investigators sat along from me, sitting opposite beside each other, at a table with a map stretched out across it, searching the area ahead and about us, while they discussed it.
It was strange as there never looked as though there was anything there, especially so desolate, and there was little about the plane with anything, and the region looked far colder and too far north. Yet we knew what place the monster could be, even though it could be virtually anywhere there,
and I was surprised that they finally asked the pilots to fly lower, and I looked out the side window and saw that the hotel was away up ahead.
It was incredible when something occurred, and few minutes later it did, and the equipment reacted, which was unbelievable, even as I knew something could be there, and the equipment started showing more reactions and giving incredible readouts and the scientists, who had not seen the creature, could not comprehended what was there, and as it was vague, which could have been off anything, but when they shifted the airplane over to where the source was they started getting better and more comprehensible readouts, and one scientist even started suggesting something else there could be creating the disturbance.
At a screen where reactions were being displayed, and a blurred but visible image of a massive creature emerged, and they all started discussing what they thought it was, and at least one thought it was something else, as they could not comprehend what could cause it, and I saw that another was disappointed.
I realized something and gasped, and I saw the two paranormal scientists notice it and follow my eyes and surely realize what I thought and that the detected object was not in fact under the loch, and was under an area of land beside it, which was in a desolate spot near our hotel.
Chapter 9
The Science Convention
I was surprised to see reporters I knew and the media from throughout the globe arrive at the annual conference of the exploration association and I realized straightaway that the whole story of the Loch Ness monster and occurrences that had taken place would become well known and documented, and be on newspapers, magazines, television, and many other media sources.
All the scientists and explorers were packed together around a stage platform and some were being interviewed and filmed! Luckily the scientists with our investigation of the Loch Ness monster and the cavity avoided them and telling anything and the majority of the people never knew what had really happened either, and the media was mainly investigating things and doing news updates on the story.
I recalled everything that had happened and our explorations of the cavity we found, where the object was under the area of land beside the loch, which we used a photo of the airplane scan and of a photo of the loch from outside the airplane to find, and put it on a map of the loch.
We used divers to investigate the loch about the cavity and they found the entrance, and filmed its interior, which was startling, and had many signs of the monster having been there, and the remains of food it had eaten, including fish, sharks, and the skeleton of a large cow.
Yet, even though we found it, the mission was unsuccessfully as we were unable to capture it and get anything on the monster itself, and it never appeared there again, and it had gone into hiding, and we never had any proper proof of its existence, except vague hazy photos we collected from people there who had seen it, and one I took when the divers were in the cavity, of its black distant shape, away in the distance, watching us, and I saw it vanish away in the distance, surely never to return.
I was astonished that the exploration association was mainly unknown and that the media had not noticed the group, and its accomplishments. They had many mentions of their explorations and adventures over many years! And the large conference hall was packed solid with famous and major scientists from all over the globe that were members!
I even realized, from something someone said, that within the club there was a form of secret society, which I never fully grasped the objective of!
The two paranormal investigators, with me there, vaguely told me of some of their discoveries that could well rival major discoveries at the time, which were never reported, and which they had vast amounts of evidence and documentation of.
It had activities that gave colossal amounts of new findings, and I was astounded at the connections and potential assistance they had and provided.
Chapter 10
The Treasure Investigation
The streets and lanes glowed in the last rays of sunlight, surrounding the headquarters of Reality Investigations, and it looked as though it was altering into a form of modern ghost town.
Pale golden shadows swept out from city structures, in gigantic shapes, probing out into the skyline.
Marple grabbed a bottle of whisky and poured me and him glasses full of whisky, and he firmly screwed the cap back on the bottle and put it away, and we sat back at the fireplace, and listened to a distant vehicle and vocal tones absurdly mingle and I realized Marple had something.
A few minutes later the phone’s ring disturbed him, and put him off what he was doing, and it had him going through the clients that he might have overlooked, but it eluded him, and he rushed over and answered it.
He listened and agreed with the caller and put the phone down and sat back in his seat, drinking his whisky, listening to crackles from the fire, and I discussed our past adventures, and he promised me more.
About an hour later I heard someone enter the building below, and his secretary announced an arrival through an intercom.
Marple put out his pipe and briskly considered the case, from different perspectives, and I spotted he was confused over what we were dealing with, and he eventually laughed, confusedly, and eventually just relaxed into his seat.
Outside the traffic and voices seemed to vanish, like into mist, and I sat in deep thought, and it became more intriguing!
His secretary rushed up the stairs and swiftly let the man in the room, without knocking, and I was staggered when I looked around and saw Dr Barrymore, as he shifted wearily forward, and I realized straightaway he was dreadfully ill and he could now hardly even walk, and clearly had serious medical conditions.
I examined him quickly wondering why he had gone to such lengths to get there, and it made me gasp, and I considered the war once again, and the dangers ahead, and wondered if the current events and intense bombings had helped his demise.
Dr Barrymore rushed into a seat, rested, exhausted, trying to recover, but not properly, and I noticed he had some documents he held firmly in his fist.
He observed us sitting around the table drinking and removed chewing tobacco and chewed off a lump, placing the remainder in his interior pocket.
Marple rushed over and got a drink for him, and returned, and placed it in front of him.
“What’s happened?” Marple asked. “What have you?”
“It’s that eighteenth century document and treasure!” he announced, and we looked up, from staring in the fire.
He rested, and continued, “The information on the artifact I’ve been looking for comes from accumulated sources, only known by me, and the individual sources, which have been proven to have occurred in 1568 …”
I was still surprised in what he said, and as I had forgotten of what he had told me at our last meeting, and Marple seemed to come to and recall what transpired.
“According what I’ve found,” Dr Barrymore continued, “Valuable jewels were left near where it was concealed!”
“Near the artifact?” Marple instantly asked, confused. “Was that some form of clue?”
“Perhaps! For centuries the lost jewels have been thought to exist by a few explorers, who have carried out searches.”
“So you still want us to help you find it?”
“I’ve recently located a form of map!” he gasped, trying to rest.
“What do you want us to do?” I asked, curiously.
“I discovered something of significant importance that could be of great interest to mankind! Yes! I will need your help!”
“Mankind!” Marple gasped, and sat back examining him, and silently gulped, and lit his pipe.
“According to legends some people have been found dead after searching for it …”
“They’re just legends?” I joked, smiling.
He nodded, and examined me a little more closely.
For a moment I considered there being a danger and wondered why it would still exist, and doubted the value of the obje
cts, as all the archaeology and museum discoveries were currently usually worthless, except to historians like him.
I knew that he had been given a major clue to its location, and I watched him open the document and remove something from its interior, and hand it over to Marple, and I sat next to Marple, examining the ancient tattered piece of parchment, where there were lines and words scribbled over it, as though the person had been doing something and was in a great rush to finish it!
“What date do you make it?” I asked, amazed at its age.
Before Dr Barrymore replied Marple replied, “Around 1568!”
“So it’s a 1568 map?” I asked Dr Barrymore, and he agreed.
I thought about it but still did not know what it meant, and I wondered what he wanted us to do!
Marple finally finished examining it and placed it on the table, and looked over and asked, “So you want us to find the place on the map? With our experienced investigators …”
“Yes! Marple! I’d really like that! I also want you to search for it when you do, and phone me for any information, which I may be able to provide! I’m sure the treasure is still there, and I’d really just like it to be found!”
What I could not understand was why he was so confident with so little clues, and I wondered if he had been checking such things and proving their authentication, and it occurred to me that if everything he said was true then the accounts of its deadliness could also be true!
Chapter 11
The Haunting
What was incredible was I realized I had not solved anything in my first case and what had happened to me at Craigmillar Road, and I could not grasp what would happen, as every puzzle and mystery seemed to be or was being solved everywhere else, by some means, and Marple forced me into taking another visit there, and ordered me to solve it as quickly as possible.
The Alien Artifact 9 (Novelette) Page 3