Algorithm - Book 1 - The Medallion

Chapter 19

That explains nothing.

At this point both Adam and Linda began to accept such technological eccentricities from their guest and in doing so, accepted that he really was not from the neighborhood. Implicitly, they had also come to believe Alpha's story surrounding the disk.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Linda.

The question verged on the rhetorical. But before anyone could take a shot at an answer, everyone's attention was diverted by a story unfolding on the twenty-inch screen. A reporter had announced that she was at the Brookhaven Laboratories, and that a statement was forthcoming from one of their leading scientists. She started to say that it dealt with the discovery of a prehistoric artifact when a mob of reporters spilled out of a building behind her. Adam recognized the building. The broadcast cut to a different view, a close-up of the reporters gathered around a scientist. It was Percy Wild. In his hands he held printouts and a photo.

"Ladies and gentlemen, by now you know that we have analyzed an artifact millions of years old. Further investigation has revealed that the artifact, a disk made of gold, contains data. The ramifications of the findings are staggering and will change the way we view ourselves as a species forever."

A reporter in the crowd yelled, "What kind of data?"

Another asked, "Have you analyzed the data?"

Percy took his time answering, which had a two-fold effect—giving the mob a chance to simmer down, and hyping the drama, something that Adam guessed was the principle objective of the interview.

"Quite, quite. We can announce today that we have found an artifact estimated to be millions of years old that contains a coding which appears to be a copy of human DNA."

For a moment the crowd became silent and then, as if a trigger on a bomb was pulled, the mob exploded, drawing closer to Percy, jostling his body and jabbing at his face with microphones and cameras. In spite of being surrounded by a riot of reporters, he managed to go on, happily screaming into the nearest set of microphones.

"These are pictures of the artifact and printouts of the analyses. We are currently studying the data with the help of scientists from around the world. These findings will revolutionize our thinking about the origins of humans on this planet, and perhaps the origins of life itself…"

            Percy was abruptly swept away, either by his colleagues or by the force of the crowd surrounding him. The camera shot cut back to the network anchor who quickly closed with a promise of more information as it became available.

Linda continued staring at the screen even as a commercial came on. "I guess the cat's out of the bag," she said.

Adam said, "The reporters will dig out the source of the artifact, and then we'll be in the news and the whole sordid story will catch up with us."

"It is time I make my position clear," Alpha said. "As I pointed out earlier, it will be your decision to give me the disk or not."