by Tom Norton
Hendrick looked at John as to say, “That was a short version alright.”
John asked, “Any anthropological artifacts predating 800 AD?”
“No, some sea mammals, whale bones and the like. Damned wonder anything could live here with the volcanoes.”
John replied, “It’s warmer than I thought it would be here.”
“Warm ocean current from down south. A lot of fog. I really don’t know what an archeological expedition could find that we don’t already know?”
John replied, “I think you’re right,” and he reached in his pocket and retrieve a small cloth sack, removed the disk and held it in front of the professor. Have you seen any of these?”
“I don’t know if they are exactly like that, but you can buy them down the street at the tourist shop.”
John, Hendrick and Rick quickly exchanged glances and John asked, “What is it?”
“I think Viking artifacts. Loot they plundered somewhere. That’s not solid gold. They are gold plated lead as I understand, for the tourists. Why, do you want some more?”
John said, “No. one is enough. Speaking of gold, is there any gold in Iceland?”
“Some. Enough to pan here and there. Real fine stuff, but pretty.”
John asked, “Does it ever get light here during the day?”
“Oh yes, a couple hours a day, but if we get a heavy overcast and fog it is nearly dark.”
“Like yesterday?”
“Yes.”
Hendrick asked, “Do you have a geology department at the University?”
The professor replied, “One of the best in the world.”
“Why is that, on an island with few mineral deposits like gold?”
“Geothermal resources. The entire city is heated with steam and hot water and our geothermal resources generate most of our electricity. For that you need geologists and mining engineers. We are constantly drilling to tap into steam producing areas under high pressure.”
Hendrick said, “That must be quite dangerous?”
“It can be, but we have developed our technology throughout the years.”
John asked, “Do you have a historical museum in Reykjavik?”
The professor replied, “Yes. On fourth and Main Street.”
“Well I don’t foresee us being back, so we might as well do a little sight-seeing. At the risk of being forward, do you have a student that could drive us around the countryside during the daylight hours?”
“Better than that, I will do it myself as a gesture between universities. Can you be here at eleven tomorrow?”
“We certainly will be, and thank you.”
From the cab, the three went immediately into the hotel café and sat at a far table.
John said, “At the tourists shop? Are you shitting me?”
Rick said, “Well it took my breath away.”
Hendrick interrupted, “settle down you two, he said they were fake. Made out of lead and plated with gold. There has to be an original, that’s the one we want to see.”
John said, “Fine Hendrick. Then we will discover the original was brought here by the Vikings twenty-three thousand years after the operation.”
Rick said, “You know what I think?”
“Tell me.”
“What the professor is talking about isn’t like what we have. He said he didn’t know if they were the same.”
John replied, “I have completely lost touch of where we are on all of this. But I think we need to prove the gold is from Iceland and there were people here twenty-five thousand years ago. Am I wrong?”
Rick replied, “At least some of that.”
“Well, obviously we can throw out there being people here twenty-five thousand years ago, so it doesn’t make any difference if there is this type of gold here, there was no one to mine it or bring it to Poland.”
“Rick said, “What if our gold came from here and there was no other place on earth there was this type gold?”
Hendrick said, “Someone else mined the gold in Iceland and brought it to Poland.”
“So they must have lived somewhere close.”
John said, “We’ve been through this. “I’m going to the room and watch a reality show, something I can believe.”
At ten thirty they were back at the University of Iceland and in another half hour they were being driven out of town by the professor in his four wheel drive suburban. They were shown the electricity generating plants and the insulated steam and water piping heading for the city. They were shown the new and ancient volcanoes with one belching smoke and warm water streams running into the ocean.
The professor drove them to many drilling sites with buildings and drilling derricks where crews were drilling for steam vents. The professor said some of the drill holes were a thousand meters in depth and explained the difficulties and danger of drilling into a high pressure vents.
There were several different companies doing the drilling and some of these had been at it for decades. It was slow and tedious work.
John asked, “Do they own the land?”
The professor replied, “No, they lease small portions from the government for the geothermal drilling. We don’t have enough land that we can tie it up with geothermal leases. Well, its getting dark, let’s head back to the city.”
Now back at the city in the late afternoon, the three had a cab take them to the tourist shop. There were all kinds of imitation Viking artifacts and immediately the three noticed several round gold disks of various sizes and all had either one hole or two. The shapes were far from being perfectly round and the holes were somewhat disfigured. They had a shiny gold finish and were heavy, but definitely not a match for the Neanderthal disk.
John said, “That’s either good news or bad news, but I couldn’t tell you which.”
Rick said, “I guess tomorrow it’s the University geologist. Maybe he can tell us something.”
They visited the University of Iceland the next day and the professor in charge of the geology department was out on drilling sites, but there was an assistant that offered to answer any questions they had.
John said to the assistant, “I have something here I would like you to see,” and he handed the assistant the spectrophotometer report and he examined it for a few moments and replied, “Native gold, it has not been refined. What do you want to know?”
“Is this Iceland gold?”
“I have no idea. It is hydrothermal, but a lot of the gold recovered is hydrothermal gold.”
John replied, “Nothing out of the ordinary?”
“No, nothing, why?”
Oh, just an argument we have with a student that said he panned some gold in Iceland and being professors with the equipment, we thought we would prove him wrong. This is the result of the test we ran on his gold.”
The assistant said, “If you have twenty krona, I have some I panned here and you can take it back and compare it. You surely didn’t fly to Iceland over an argument with a student?”
John replied, “Oh no, we were here anyway on maybe an archeological student exchange between your university and the University of Berlin.”
The assistant said, “Well, I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help, but you’ll have the answer if you care to buy my gold.”
“Ok, it’s a deal and I bet you ten to one the professors are wrong again.”
The assistant laughed and said, “Students usually think they are.”
In the cab, Hendrick said, “I’ve seen enough. We are barking up the wrong tree with Iceland. I always did think we should have been looking south to the Mediterranean area.”
Rick said, “I think you’re right. I have read a dozen Atlantis theories and they were all in the Mediterranean. A lot of volcanic activity there and always has been.”
John said, “Well let’s get the hell out of here and back to Berlin. I have a lot to think about and one of the things is how much money I have spent on this thing.”
When back in Berl
in, they had a spectrophotometry exam run on the gold from Iceland and it was far from a match to the Neanderthal disk gold.
On the last day of March the three were again having beer and some Chinese food Hendrick had brought to the lab.
Rick said, “We’re screwed. Short of going to the Mediterranean area which would do nothing for us, we have researched every possibility of a twenty-five thousand year old civilization and the Mediterranean being the source of gold for the disk. I’m beginning to think it had to be aliens and by the texts I’m getting from the students, some of them are damned sure of it.”
John replied, “Well, here it is gentlemen. We come clean about the entire affair, lose our careers and get fired by the University. To say nothing about the reputation of the University of Berlin. And then in the newspapers and scientific journals as frauds at the worst, and archeologists with no ethics at the best. The die was cast when we didn’t publicize the discovery of that first finger bone. I don’t think the three of us are comfortable with any of that. We only have one viable option; the Neanderthal skeleton and all the data cease to exist and a Neanderthal was never discovered. I am for the; we have no other option. And you two?”
Rick said, “What about the students?”
“We flat out tell them that we have no choice and the skeleton, data, skeleton reproduction and gold disk are gone. If any of them want to say otherwise to anyone, we will deny it to our death and their careers will take a turn for the worse.”
Rick replied. “I don’t like it.”
“I don’t like it either, but it is what it is. They keep quiet and we help further their careers. They don’t and they are screwed.”
Hendrick asked, “When are we going to tell them?”
John replied, “You know we have to get that damned Neanderthal out of that cave?”
“I’m well aware of that. A hint of this whole thing and we will never have another chance.”
“Check with the Poles about the site and tell them we have to get back in the cave to make measurement with some new laser equipment before we close the file on that expedition. We’ll be there a couple days at the most. We tell the students when we have everything here in Germany in a secure location.”
Rick said, “How in the hell are we going to smuggle that stuff into Germany?”
“I’ll work on that. I wasn’t always a professor.”
Within a week John contacted the government offices in Suwalki and requested an archeological permit to revisit their previous dig site and he was told that paperwork would be faxed to him at the University. He received it the next day and like the paperwork required for the previous year it was extensive. John pawned this off on Rick and they agreed to meet at the lab to go through the final product and sign the paperwork.
John said, “This is bullshit for only two days.”
Hendricks replied, “You can tell by the paperwork it doesn’t make any difference if its two days or two months.”
“Well, whatever, it’s done. When can we get away? The sooner the better. I’ve made some arrangements in Poland and I have to give them some advance notice.”
“To get the stuff out of Poland?”
“Yep.”
Hendrick said, “The first week of June would be fine with me.”
Rick said, “I’m in his class, I don’t have any choice.”
“Ok, we will be in Poland the first of June and plan on three days max. We will have to fiddle around with those government people some when we arrive and leave.”
“Fly or drive?”
“Fly there and rent something big enough to haul everything out of the hills.”
Hendrick said, “I’ll send this priority and call them in two days, we don’t want this just sitting on someone’s desk.”
John replied, “That’s good.”
Three days later John’s cell phone rang and Hendrick said, “You are not going to believe this, there is a group scheduled for the cave sight before we can get in.”
“Holy shit, what are they doing there, they must know we turned that cave upside down?”
“I don’t know, but this isn’t good.”
“Who are they?”
“Some outfit called the PNCD, whoever that is. The site is committed until the first of July.”
John said, “I’ll see you at your lab in twenty minutes, call Rick.”
“He’s right here.”
John stormed through the lab door and said, “What in the hell are they doing there, this PNCD bunch?”
Hendrick replied, “I don’t know, but they filled out the paperwork for an archeological dig.”
“We’re screwed if they find that damned Neanderthal.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
“Rick said, “I wouldn’t think they would find it back under that wall.”
John replied, “I wouldn’t think you would have found that little room either, but you did.”
Hendrick asked, “What’re we going to do?”
“How long can you hold your breath? That’s about all we can do until the first of July. Meanwhile, let’s find out who this damned PNCD outfit is. No university I have ever heard of.”
Rick said, “Well let’s do it,” as he led John and Hendrick to the computer area.
After a few minutes the three were reading what was on the computer monitor and John said, “It’s a religious group, an offshoot of the Catholic Church. What in the hell are they looking for, I wouldn’t think it would be Neanderthal remains?”
Rick said, “Maybe they are digging to prove there aren’t any.”
“Why there, why now? That damned cave has been sitting there for twenty-five thousand years without someone digging in it.”
Hendricks said, “I smell a rat. I think we have a leak.”
John replied. “I think you’re right. Rick, how many Catholics students do we have?”
“Including me?”
“No, besides you, I am fairly confident you aren’t going to shit in your nest.”
“I don’t know for sure, three I know of.”
“Let me guess, and one of them is that pretty little thing that asked about the scriptures?”
“Yeah, her for sure. Should we ask her about it?”
John said, “I don’t know, what’s the point? She doesn’t know where the little cave is, I assume she thinks we took everything off the site.”
Hendrik replied, “Maybe they think there’s more there.”
“Have you ever heard of the Catholic Church digging for human bones twenty-five thousand years old? I don’t think so. Let’s hold off talking to her for a while. If they find something in the cave I’m sure we’ll hear about it. If not, we’ll just keep an eye on her from now on.”
The month of June passed very slowly and Rick made a tourist trip to Suwalki and drove to within field glass distance and viewed the site. There were two trailers and four or five men who were seen with shovels and had obviously been digging in the cave. CAPD was stenciled on one of the trailers and the men were in the cave most of the time.
Rick left confident that at least they hadn’t found anything yet.
On the first of July, John, Hendrick and Rick pulled up to the cave site in the big suburban and there was no one there. The trailers were gone and the area had been cleaned up obviously to the satisfaction of the Polish authorities.
John said, “Let’s just cool it for a while, there may be someone keeping an eye on us.”
Rick replied, “That’s what I would do.”
“We are going to have to do this at night in the dark. Rick, in an hour or so, you wander into the cave and look around.”
Rick slowly walked into the cave and there was enough light he could see that the floor had been raked and any holes had been filled in. He made his way to the wall behind where the small cave was located and the floor of the cave next to the wall had been raked as well.
He looked for any sign that the large container containing the Neanderth
al and the data had been dragged across the floor and there were none. He wandered back out, took a leak in broad daylight and made his way to the suburban.
“I think we’re in the clear. No sign of any kind that the small cave has been discovered.”
Hendricks replied, “That’s a blessing.”
Well after dark the three made their way to the cave. With the use of a small pen light they located where they would have to dig to enter the small cave. When there was a hole large enough, John said, “Rick, you crawl on in and Hendrick and I will keep working on the hole.
As John and Hendrick enlarged the hole they saw Rick’s hand signal them to stop digging and he stuck his head out of the hole in the light of John’s pen knife and Rick said, “It’s not there.”
“Real funny, Rick.”
“No, seriously, its not there.”
“It has to be there, here take my pen light.”
Rick yelled, “Dammit, it’s not there.”
Hendrick said, “The whole box?”
“The whole box, it’s not there. Crawl in here and look for yourself.”
John crawled through the hole and waved his pen knife around and screamed an echoing scream in the small cave, “This is bullshit.”
Back out of the cave, Hendrick said, “The Catholics have it.”
“No shit. Let’s fill this hole and get back to Suwalki.
On the way to Suwalki, Rick said, “What do we do now?”
John replied, “I would suggest writing up a resume like me and don’t forget to emphasize idiot in it.”
Hendrick said, “You would think we would have heard about it in the news, a complete Neanderthal skeleton has never been found before.”
“Well they sure as hell are not going to say that we found it and they stole if from us. They will watch every minute of the video so they can tell everyone just how they did it.”