The Artifact: Natasha Burrows Series Book One

by Phillips, Michelle

  “But” he said earnestly looking her in the eyes “doesn’t it just make you feel like we need to take every precious second of our life and make the most of it?” he asked.

  “I.. I guess so” she looked at him confused by his heartfelt confession, “but at this moment all I’m worried about is getting back safely through this jungle, and after that….. Well, what the hell do we do with that orb? I seem to think that it was probably better where it was.”

  “Why do you say that?” he asked confused.

  “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, well.. I read the tablet last night and it seems this thing has a massive potential to heal, but also the same potential to harm. Only back then when it was used, it unintentionally caused great harm, so they decided it could not be used in that manner again. In fact, they believed it was inherently dangerous and did not think that it could ever be used safely. No-one should have the power of a god. They also couldn’t find a way to destroy it.”

  “So how did we get it to work safely?”

  “I really don’t know. It seems to activate itself, I don’t think we particularly did anything.”

  “What else did the tablet say?” he asked sensing she was holding something back.

  “It… well it said that back then the alien hybrid offspring were looking for it. Some of them survived the deluge. That is what I gather, and they were keen to get their hands on the orb. I mean that shouldn’t surprise us I suppose, that was definitely some kind of alien that we were looking at in there. But where did they go, they hybrids?” She was blathering a little, trying to get her thoughts in order.

  Xavier just shrugged, unwilling to postulate. ”So what do we do now?”

  “I really don’t know. I want to get back to uncle, he’s the one that got us into this, hopefully he will know what to do, because I certainly don’t.” She picked up her rucksack and slung it onto her back.

  She was about to take her first step forward and Xavier shouted “Stop.” She paused her food mid-air and stepped it backwards. Lying almost concealed amongst the grasses and next to a log right in front of her was a bushmaster snake. It was normally a nocturnal feeder, but it had been attracted by the warmth of the fires during the night. It was huge, almost 6 metres long with a thick body and triangular shaped head.

  “Move very slowly, away to me” said Xavier holding out his arm towards her. “It can be very aggressive, and it's very deadly. They are the world's largest pit viper and they can bite multiple times with fangs that are as sharp as a hypodermic needle.” She looked at Xavier and stealthily reached for her machete.

  “Whoa” he said shocked, “what are you planning on doing?” He gave her a warning look “don’t do it” he said. The snake, detecting her heat, lunged forward at her. Anticipating the attack, with one swing on the machete she lopped its head clean off and it fell to the ground in front of her. She wiped the machete clean of blood on her handkerchief and hung it back on the side of her rucksack.

  “What the hell just happened here?” he asked looking at her with disbelief. “Did I miss something? Have aliens actually replaced you in the night?”

  “I’m sick of every goddam thing trying to kill us” she said with determination. “This jungle is going to play on my terms now.”

  He looked at her with a new form of admiration. “Remind me not to piss you off” he said.

  The remainder of the trip back to the camp was relatively uneventful. They knew to avoid the spot where they encountered the bees and they seemed to cover the terrain faster this time, more sure of where they were going. They returned to a hero’s welcome from the tribespeople. Her uncle was there as well, drinking and laughing with the natives.

  “Uncle” she cried, running to wrap her arms around him, practically falling into his arms, tears in her eyes.

  “Tasha” he cried returning her hug.

  “I have so much to tell you” she burst out.

  “Really?” he said, excited and then saw the fatigued condition she was in. “Come on love” he placed his arm around her shoulder “you need some food, drink and a lie down, then you can tell me.”

  She smiled weakly and nodded her head. Although she was practically dying to tell her uncle all about what happened, she knew herself that she was completely and utterly bagged.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Snakes Come in Many Forms...

  Tasha and Xavier spent the rest of the evening explaining the events in the jungle and the cave to her uncle. His eyes shone with elation when she explained the coffin they had found in the secret chamber and its contents including the orb that it contained. She showed him the photos she had taken of the hieroglyphs and the tablet. When they finished talking Tasha looked at her uncle expecting him to speak.

  “So, where is it? Can I see it” his excitement at seeing it was palpable, his eyes shone with anticipation and his face became animated.

  Tasha realised he desperately wanted to see the orb, it was the part he had been eagerly waiting on all this time. “Oh, here” she said retrieving it from her backpack and passing it to him.

  “After these thousands of years, I’m sitting here holding it” he was unable to control his excitement, his hands shaking slightly. “Pretty unassuming looking, but so powerful” he said rolling it around in his hand almost gleefully, feeling the weight of it. It was equivalent to the size of a tennis ball, only slightly heavier.

  “That’s what we thought, until it lit up and it felt like you could see the entire galaxy through it.”

  He looked at her with wonderment, “I wish I could have seen that.” He reluctantly handed the orb back to her. “We need to keep it safe.” She nodded in agreement. He looked up at her slowly as if measuring the words he would say next.

  “I need to confess” he said slowly. “I’m not all that I seem.”

  “What do you mean?” exclaimed Tasha, looking at him with bewilderment. “Are you about to tell me you’re actually a Spy working for the CIA?” She joked. “A secret agent man?”

  He ignored her jest, continuing. I’m just going to lay it all out for you. I figure it can’t be any stranger than aliens and orbs.” He took a deep breath “I’m part of a secret society, called ‘The Brotherhood’ we track down ancient artifacts and things of wonder, and we ‘secure’ them. Sometimes the artifact may prove useful to us in our work, or if we cannot use it, we store it in a secure place. We protect ancient wonders so that others who may seek them to use them for their purposes, never find them.”

  Tasha looked at her uncle “What?” She was convinced he had finally gone senile.

  “What?” he exclaimed slightly exasperated “so you believe in carnivorous reptilian like aliens with hybrid offspring and a sacred terraforming golden orb, but me being part of a secret society, that’s a stretch?” he asked incredulous. He hung his head down shaking it with disbelief.

  “Well, when you put it that way” said Tasha stifling laughter, “it makes you sound quite mad.”

  “Oh I get it, you are playing with me. I never took you for having a sense of humor” he looked at Tasha curiously.

  “Let’s just say, the events of the last week have developed in me a sense of, oh I don’t know, fear for my life, abject terror at times. The humor helps me laugh it off.”

  “You're mad at me?” he said reading between the lines.

  “Just a touch. You are part of some secret society, have been for how many years?” She raised her eyebrows at him questionly. “All that time, I have been running to your rescue. And now, now you finally put my life and Xaviers at risk to do your dirty work, and you don’t even have the decency to tell us.”

  “It’s not like that” he was beginning to realise just how resentful she was.

  “What is it like then?” she asked, snorting angrily.

  “I honestly didn’t think you would believe me. You needed to see it for yourself.”

  She stood up angrily, “well we’ve seen it alright. Xavier almost died
for it.” She stomped off, angry that her uncle had been lying to her all these years.

  “Tasha…” he called after her futilely.

  “Don’t bother” Xavier regarded her stubborn sway, folded arms upturned head. “When she gets like that it's better to let her cool off.” Her uncle looked at him knowing he was right. Xavier looked at her uncle, he knew of The Brotherhood, but he decided not to get involved.

  Tasha went to her hammock, withdrawn and introspective with all kinds of thoughts swirling around her head, like a vortex, sucking her further down a rabbit hole with no bottom. She remembered the past, times when her father and her uncle had special business trips, and how he had died on one of these very trips.

  Was her father one of The Brotherhood? She couldn’t stop wondering now. It felt like a mist rolled in and settled on her brain, obscuring the world she knew from view. She guessed he probably was, and it threw her whole world into instant upheaval. Was the story of how he died even true? She fell asleep restlessly dreaming of being attacked by snakes and drowning in underwater caverns.

  The next morning she approached her uncle, her mind heavy.

  “You haven’t been honest with me Uncle. I put my life in danger for you, and you withheld things from me. Now you have me wondering what else you haven’t been honest about.”

  He sighed, “I know” he said shaking his head in agreement. “So what's really on your mind?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked exasperated. “Was my father part of this secret society, was he one of ‘The Brotherhood’?”

  “Yes, he’s actually the one who got me involved with them.”

  “For how long?” she started to unravel, tears forming in her eyes.

  “Since you were a child.”

  “So, the story of how he died, was that true?” she caught her breath, not knowing what to do with herself she started unconsciously wringing her hands.

  He looked at her hesitantly. He could see she was unravelling but he didn’t want to lie to her anymore. “No, not exactly.”

  “Not exactly!” She knew it. “You either exactly die or your don’t, there's no inbetween on that one.” She blew up, putting her hands to her temple, pacing like a wild animal. Xavier came over trying to comfort her.

  “It’s ok,” he tried in vain to reassure her, “it will be ok” he held on to her arms and then pulled her to him. She lingered for a moment, internally grateful for his support and then pushed herself away.

  “No, my Uncle whom I trusted, relied on since my father died, coming to his rescue a million times has been lying to me, about my own father.”

  “I’m sorry” the old man looked down at his hands despondent “your father wanted it that way. He didn’t want you wrapped up in” he waived his hands around “all of this, and neither did your mother, she was quite specific about that.”

  “And so you get me, wrapped up in all of this” she said rolling her eyes and folding her arms.

  “Because I believe that you can be so much more” her uncle uncle leaned for ward slightly raising his voice commensurately. “I have seen you grow, your interest in archeology and your intellect. Because I wanted to tell you the truth…. I.. I’m getting old now, my time is running out. But how do you do that after so many years of … lies?” She looked at him, looking altogether sad and despondent, like a vulnerable frail old man and she started to calm down a little, realising the effect her anger was having on him.

  “You’re young now, you have no idea what things you will get to regret as you get older. Mistakes you wish you could take back, and ones you have to live with fermenting away on your conscience. Your father was the one who was involved with this group, when he met your mother, my sister, he drew her into it, and then me eventually. But your mother, when she had you, she decided to leave. She had always desperately wanted to be a mother, above all other things. She was a very special woman.” Tasha remembered her mother, her kindness and strength. She sat back down, prepared to listen to her uncle.

  “Your mother quit, but your father was one of the best. He would never leave. You could say he was addicted to it in a way. Your mother asked me to join him, to help him and keep an eye on him which is what I did for many years.” His eyes glossed over in deep reverie. “He went to India in search of a Naga, it's a mythical half human half snake. Some of the people in these places worship them as a deity.”

  “What, and are they real?”

  “Throwbacks, with some unusual powers, physically they look quite human. Very rare that they come out in the open and expose themselves. There were reports of one, terrorising some villages. They always go to places where technology hasn’t kept up. He was sent to investigate.”

  “And then what happened?” she demanded.

  “He… well he just disappeared?”

  “What, so he didn’t die?” she exclaimed jumping up again.

  “No, no I didn’t say that. We don’t know what happened to him, however, it's most likely after all these years he is dead.”

  “Did you even look for him?” she asked angrily, the perfect vision of her dottery doting uncle shattered now for all time.

  “Of course I did. I went to the village, there was no sign of a Naga or your father. The villagers didn’t recognise or remember seeing him. We think it was a trap.”

  “A trap?”

  “To capture him, torture him and find out what he knows.”

  “But you don’t know that he is dead” she repeated emphatically, anguished.

  “Look, I’m not telling you this so you can anguish over your father. He’s gone, and you deserved the truth. But you need to move on.”

  “You don’t have the right to tell me to move on” she growled.

  “I know, I know” he said bowing his head “but don’t you think I didn’t spend years looking for him, the last few I wanted to quit, but I kept going at the behest of your mother. I have been consumed by this, I know he wouldn’t want you to be as well.”

  “Look, we take a vow to keep these artifacts of special importance out of the hands of those who would wield them for their own power or profit. We need to stick together and get this orb to a secure place.”

  “I know. It’s just all these years, not knowing. Mum declared him dead you know?” Her uncle nodded. “We had closed coffin funeral. We buried an empty box.” She felt like a broken record, but she didn’t think words could really convey accurately just exactly how betrayed she was feeling right now.

  “I’m sorry” said Xavier chipping in “but it does sound like your Uncle has done everything in his power to protect you.”

  “What would you know?” she asked, her eyes flashing at him, daring him to get involved.

  Xavier bravely pressed on, like a man with a death wish facing an oncoming train. “I know you had a mother who loved you, and a father who loved you as well, and an Uncle who seems to care for you just about as much as they did. I figure despite what has happened, you can find a way to forgive. You have everything, growing up I had something quite the opposite.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, her eyes widening. “How can you compare the two, your life to mine?” She looked a little like a ticking time bomb, only there was no countdown clock to indicate when she might go fully ballistic.

  “Your father” Xavier pressed on, a marked man judging by the look in her eyes. “At least you know he loved you. You had a father, I never had that. Don’t get me wrong, I had a father but in name only. I never needed money, we had plenty, more money than a person could ever need, but that was all I got, tutors and boarding school and two weeks a year with him. Spent in the family business, with him as my boss.”

  She looked at Xavier with a glare that would wither a pot plant, but internally she saw him in a new light. She thought he was rich and spoiled and spent the world travelling on reckless adventures just to feel alive, because nothing else thrilled him anymore.

  “I spent the world travelling,” he continued “in searc
h of something, hoping I would find a place somewhere that I was needed, loved. You never had to because it was always right there for you.”

  She resented him right at this moment, but she also knew he was right, and she had to find a way to move past this, a paradigm to allow her to accept it all, and Xavier's explanation was as good as any. Plus, something her uncle had said was now playing on her mind.

  “You mentioned artifacts, plural just then, how many of these things are we talking about and like what? What other artifacts are there?”

  “You would be surprised” said her uncle “do you think that was the first time this planet was visited by alien entities?”

  That was a lot for Tasha to take in. “So who is seeking the orb?” she asked simply.

  “An ancient society have been chasing it, you would have heard their name mentioned. They are The Illuminati. They have been searching for this for centuries, scouring the world for this very artifact. They know of its existence, of its god like power to control life and the elements. The ancients must have used it to terraform planets, and to heal.”

  “What now then?” she asked. “Wouldn’t we have been better off leaving it in that cave. It was doing a good job of staying hidden as it was.”

  “No. I got to that map in France just before they did. We have been looking for this orb for years, they got too close, closer than we had ever gotten. We take it back, and get it secured,” said her uncle.

  “I have one more question” said Tasha. “The tablet said they didn’t believe we could use the orb without creating destruction. So how did we use it without blowing the planet up?”

  Her uncle shook his head “I don’t know, that part is a mystery.”

  “Well, David is back from their commission, we can catch a ride back with him” said her uncle, getting up and ending the conversation.