Algorithm - Book 1 - The Medallion

Chapter 2

"Dear Adam. I trust you are doing well at Schill. I thought you might be interested in the enclosed article. Best wishes to you and Helen. Don't be a stranger when back in town. Please feel free to drop by."

Adam's family had moved out of the old neighborhood while he was at prep school.  A letter from Wujciak after so many years seemed a bit odd even though the two had developed a kinship when Adam was a child. His curiosity piqued and he quickly unfolded the paper. It was a photocopy of what appeared to be an old newspaper clipping. On the upper edge of the page, printed by hand, he made out 'Morrisonville Times, June 11, 1891.'   The hair on the back of his neck bristled as he read the column's title, 'Gold Chain Found Inside Coal.'  The article went on to describe how a Mrs. S. W. Culp was shoveling coal into her kitchen stove when a large lump broke in two and out from the center of it fell a gold chain. The chain was about ten inches long and was described as being of 'antique and quaint workmanship.'  Investigators were convinced that the chain had not been accidentally dropped into the coal since one portion of the broken lump still clung to the chain while the separated part bore the impression of where the chain had been encased. The article went on to discuss the ramifications of such a find, especially as the coal was said to have been from the Pennsylvania era, which suggested that it could have been over one hundred million years old.

As he slumped back into his easy chair, Adam's mind began racing. He read and re-read the article, oblivious to everything, including his mom's incessant call to come for dinner.

A gold chain in a piece of coal. Why did Wujciak send me this information?  Was there anything else on the chain?  Where was the chain now? 

His mom raised her voice, prompting Adam to refold the clipping. He tossed it on the coffee table and resigned himself to a delicious pot roast dinner.

The next morning, after his mandatory cup of java and sugar-frosted donut, Adam checked up on the progress of the DNA analysis using his laptop. It appeared to be proceeding as expected—slowly  and without any result as yet. He then ran a few searches on the internet to see if there was anything he might dig up on the 1891 article. To his surprise he came across hundreds of references to Mrs. Culp and her gold chain. However, his elation waned as he found himself wading through a vast electronic heap of equally curious archeological oddities. There were articles offering proof of a conspiratorial theory involving government cover-ups, ancient human civilizations, catastrophe theory, creationist dogma, and even indisputable proofs of time travel and teleportation. Aliens, mostly the gray, stringy kind, were in the mix as well—a possibility for which he felt an odd attraction.

***

Schill University had a small, but well-equipped, chemistry department situated on the first floor of the science building, McArdle Hall. The newspaper article had both re-awakened Adam's curiosity regarding his secret little artifact and given him a mental kick in the butt,   prompting him finally, after so many years, to do a little investigating of his own. As a child, he had always thought that the medallion had simply been an old coin. Now, he had to admit that such a thing was very unlikely.

Adam wandered along the central hallway guided only by the touch of his fingers along the wall, much as he feared he might be doing eventually as 'The Absent-minded Professor of Schill University.'  He bumped into one of the senior denizens of the analytical labs, Dr. George Freedman, a good friend.