Algorithm - Book 1 - The Medallion

Chapter 6

"Black damp?"

"Oh, sorry. The black damp's just old air where a lot o' the oxygen is gone and replaced with a mix o' carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Mines are full o' the stuff, and it can kill ya."

"So what happened to Luke?" prodded Linda.

"With it being dark, and he not knowin' which way to go, he started yellin'. Meantime, the river was still rushin' in, louder than him, sweeping right nearby. He started panickin' and decided to go up into the side tunnel away from the sound of the water. After a long time, sloppin' through mud and rock, Luke came across another shaft. He yelled again and again, as here the water's noise wasn't as bad. Then he heard other voices, and he thought that maybe these were others trapped like him. A few steps on, and he saw some light. It was a rescue party."

Hedda stopped for a moment to regain her composure and then went on, "It was late at night when he made it back home. I thought he were a goner, but the Good Lord brought him home to me."

Adam and Linda stared at each other in wonder. The silence in the museum was a blanket, cutting them off from the dreary reality outside. Then Adam spoke up. "Hedda, it sounds like you must have gone through quite a lot back then." After a beat, Adam asked, "Do you think it would be possible to speak with Luke?"

She straightened up a bit before answering. "Luke passed away a few years back ... in a mining accident. Why would ya want to talk with 'im?"

Adam and Linda once again looked at each other, and Adam replied, "It's complicated. This is going to sound odd, but we were wondering if you had seen or heard of anything unusual being found in the mines ... maybe just before the flood?"

Hedda's eyes widened. She stood up and glanced at a glass case on the far side of the room. "Strange is right. I'm not at all sure what you mean by unusual."

Adam added, "Maybe some kind of artifact. You know, like a piece of pottery, an odd piece of metal, tools..."

Before Adam finished his hypothetical list, Hedda interrupted. "Odd piece of metal?"

Adam recognized a change in her tone of voice. It had become stronger. "Well, something you wouldn't expect to find in a coal mine."

Hedda walked over to the case and said, "You mean something like this?"

Adam and Linda followed her and the three of them gathered around a display table with a rectangular glass case protecting a variety of artifacts laid out beneath. There were lamps, gloves, nails, screws, drill bits, batteries, and a shiny gold-colored metal rod. Adam read the faded, type-written label affixed near it. 'Metal artifact found in the River Slope Mine, January 21, 1959. Origin unknown.'  Adam and Linda both bent over and to take a closer look at the unassuming metallic rod.

Adam straightened himself out and looked to Hedda. "This little metal rod here. Do you know anything more about it?"

"That there piece o' metal were somethin' that Luke found the night before the flood. He brought it home with 'im, and in fact, told me that there were more like it up in the mine. He planned to get at the rest the next day."

"More?" Adam asked, letting his breath out. "Do you think we could take a closer look at this rod?"

Hedda reached into the back pocket of her dungarees and pulled out a set of keys. A moment later, she propped open the glass case and Adam's hands gently caressed what appeared to be a simple three inch-long solid metal cylinder, but upon closer inspection revealed the slightest hint of a groove at either end, as if the ends had diameters slightly less than the rest of the body. Adam reached up to his neck and pulled up the chain holding his medallion. Hedda's mouth opened wide as Adam freed it from the chain, held it in one hand and the rod in the other, and then brought them together side by side. Both Linda and Hedda looked on speechlessly, as Adam placed the end of the rod into the hole of the medallion. The two pieces slid together in a perfect union, with the end of the rod precisely flush with the surface of the medallion. The fit was snug, it was perfect, it was incredible. That this was a chance event was impossible. Adam knew that the tolerances built into the medallion were extremely precise. The rod matched the radius of the medallion's hole and its thickness. Adam thought about the millions, perhaps billions, of years these two parts had been separated, and now, they were united in the Port Griffith Mining Museum and held in his sweaty palm. Of course, he had no idea what they were. He could be holding the wheel and axle assembly for an ancient toy car. Holding up the construct for Linda and Hedda to see, he started to spin the rod between his fingers, twirling the assembly like a top. As the three of them were being entertained by this most interesting development, Linda interrupted.

"Adam, there's someone at the window."

 Partially obscured by the hanging display maps, Adam saw a man in uniform, a policeman's blue uniform. The man was standing in front of the museum, looking out into the street as if waiting for something. Adam started to have a queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He hunched over and moved closer to the back of the window display for a better viewing angle and caught a glimpse of the man's face. Turning to Hedda with a grim, expressionless face, he whispered, "Is there another way out of this place?"