Lose Control (The Jewel Project #5)

30.1.|| Asking for Trouble

Jimmy shifted in his seat too, obviously noticing that something was off.

"Hey guys," Sam said before they could ask anything. "Nice to see you."

"You too," Jerry said, his voice small.

"I'm sorry, I want to dive right into this before I lose my train of thought," Sam continued. "We can catch up at the end. Is that okay with everyone?"

Jimmy and Jerry nodded. Tom and Kyle didn't answer, but they'd obviously agreed on this before the call.

"Great!" Sam turned the laptop and it left their faces and focused on the opposite wall where a photo was duck-taped to the corner of a blackboard.

He moved the camera some more to make sure Kyle and Tom were also in the frame and everyone was seeing everyone, even if it made the blackboard a little hard to see.

"By now, you're all aware of this photo." Sam took it off the blackboard and gave it a proper presentation.

Yes, they were. Sam had showed them the Egyptian fresco and hieroglyphs the moment he got his hands on the photograph.

"I've managed to read all the text and it's a legend speaking of the lights of the gods," Sam continued, dropping the photo and picking up another one. "That reminded me of something I've read before, so I took this out." He showed them another photo, this time of Mayan writing. "It was on the walls of the temple in which we found the ruby and I keep thinking it can't be a coincidence. I mean sure, all ancient cultures became sun worshipers the moment agriculture replaced hunting as the main source of sustenance. Of course they needed to sun to grow crops. But the wording..." He turned back and returned with a different photograph.

"This is Shiva," he said, as if his brothers who'd been to India with him could forget that. "And, as you remember, his earring was meant to blind all nonbelievers. What does that translate to? The light of the gods. And then there's this." Sam pulled out another photograph of more drawings.

This one was clearly native american and depicted a field of corn, locals, and two suns.

"I dug a little into the culture of the native tribe whose descendants imprisoned us in Montana," Sam said.

"Why?" Jerry asked before he could help himself. He could see where Sam was going with this, but it seemed so unlikely.

"Because this is killing me." Sam put the Egyptian engraving in center stage again. "Ra's chariot is flying across the sky. Ra is the sun god. He's gifting his people with something. Something that broke into seven. This is what I wanted to talk to you guys about. This thing," he said, pointing at the chariot, "is a meteor."

Silence greeted Sam's words.

"Ra's chariot is a meteor," Tom said, blankly.

"No." Sam waved his hand around. "This thing that broke into seven was a meteor. You've all seen the jewels. They're not diamonds or any other precious stones. That ruby was surely not a ruby."

"That's true," Kyle interjected, his tone thoughtful. "That orange thing we found in Montana almost molded when I squeezed it a little harder. They're not precious stones."

"That would explain their strange properties when you shine any type of light through them," Jimmy said.

"Exactly," Sam said. "They don't reflect light, they amplify it in a way we've never seen before."

"Not even like mirrors," Tom added. "It's a really violent burst of light."

"Exactly," Sam said again. "So there's no way that thing is of this Earth. I've even done some geological research to make sure I'm not being full of crap."