Algorithm - Book 1 - The Medallion

Chapter 13

            Linda said, "Then he may have a number of the other parts.  Maybe they all go together in some way. Just look at the fit between your piece and Adam's disk. He could be trying to rebuild whatever this thing was."

            Adam said, "Yeah, whatever it was, so many millions of years ago."

***

            Dazed. Herman was dazed. He sipped his morning tea and placed it back on the serving tray propped up on his lap.  His maid tucked up the pillows behind his head, and straightened out the blankets at the foot of the bed before she slipped out of the heavily draped bedroom.  She was almost invisible in the wan indirect lighting of night table reading lamp.  Herman methodically spread a wad of butter substitute on the single scone before him, and returned it to its plate intact, and stared into the gloomy interior of his bedroom.

            Mumbling to himself, he proceeded to mentally outline the previous evening's events as if attempting to discover what exactly went wrong. 

The two hired men turned out to be useless.  One had gotten lost in the breaker, while the other idiot, still wearing a policeman's uniform, was unable to find a way down from the upper floors … like some foolish cat ascending a tree without considering how to get back down. 

Then there was his own mistake.

He underestimated that Linda woman.  And Dr. Adam Dove … clearly a very resourceful man who managed to evade pursuit, hide the artifact, and make a clean getaway.  The next time, and there would definitely be a next time, nothing would be left to chance. 

***

Back in the motel room, Adam had connected his laptop to the internet link at the writing desk, and was busy typing at the keyboard, while the women finished packing. Linda zipped up her overnight bag and looked over Adam's shoulder. "Hey. What's that? It looks familiar."

            Adam stopped typing to point at a corner of the screen. "It's the percentage of the DNA analyzed so far."

            "That's what you're doing? Running the DNA analysis?"

            " Seventy-five percent done."

            Linda placed both hands on her hips, having trouble deciding whether to be annoyed or impressed. "And, what have you found out so far?"

            "It's still too early to say much, since the correlation analyses really need to assimilate all the data before we can make any conclusions."

            "Any trends?"

            "There does seem to be one interesting trend. There are parts of this so-called nonsense DNA which might be referring to other parts of the sequence."

            "And what does that mean?"

            "Like I said … too early to tell."

            Hedda asked, "Do you want this?"

            She pulled out Herman's Luger from her jacket and held it out. "I got not use for this."

Adam said, "I'll take it. Maybe we'll give it back to Herman, and then, maybe not." He pocketed the weapon, and his cell phone rang. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for remembering to charge it last night. He tucked the pistol into his laptop bag and flipped open the phone. "George!"

Linda and Hedda finished packing and sat at the foot of the bed as Adam spent the next few minutes in an animated conversation with his colleague, wandering from one end of the room to the other while relating the events of the past twenty-four hours.

When he ended the call, he looked at the seated duo, but before he could say a word, Hedda stood. "Listen you two.  I'm too old for this kind 'o runnin' around.  I'd be thankful if you could drop me off at the museum.  Ben is likely lookin' for us and I expect he'll find his way there eventually. Here, ya might as well have this too."

She offered up her artifact. "It's done me no good and since Herman clearly wants it, I'd rather be rid of it than have it fall into his hands.  Besides, it and your medallion seem to have a match.  Just let an old lady get back to her life.  If Herman has the gall to show up askin' for it, well then, I'll have the pleasure of lettin' him know you have it."

She finished the last remark with a smile and patted Adam on his back.

***

Linda looked back at Hedda and waved as they dropped her off at the museum. She asked Adam, "Well, where to?  Are we going back to Schill?"

"We could do that … if that's what you want.  But …"

"Okay. So what's up? Something you and George came up with?"

"Well, yes. That is … George has been thinking about the medallion's composition, and I guess, that goes for me too.  As you know, his analysis indicated that the medallion contains tiny bits of carbon-13.  He suggested we get a closer look. He feels that the carbon-13 may provide further insight into the medallion's purpose."

"And, I suppose he also suggested where we could go to get that look?"

"Yup.  But there's no reason you need to tag along. It might be best if I take you back to the university."

"Are you kidding? I'm way too curious now. There's no hurry to get back. Where exactly are you headed?"

Adam considered arguing with her, but found himself unexpectedly pleased.  She was beginning to interest him on more than just one level.

"Okay then.  We're headed out to Long Island.  To the Brookhaven National Laboratory."

"Isn't that where they smash atoms with cyclotrons?"

"Among other things."