Lose Control (The Jewel Project #5)

30.1.|| Asking for Trouble

Jerry shifted in his seat. Sam had been right. This was a reason to call and it was incredibly interesting. "Okay, I think we can all agree that's very possible."

"Here's my question to you," Sam said. "How did this thing end up with other ancient cultures? Why are some of them in America, others in Asia? I'm ruling out Europe for now because Europeans could've taken it from Egypt directly."

Everyone fell silent at the question. Jerry's mind worked feverishly to process everything Sam had said and come up with a potential explanation.

"If it's a meteor," Kyle said, "how can we be sure that it just didn't break off as it landed and just... fell? Ancient cultures were very fond of shiny rocks."

"That is one of the possibilities." Sam disappeared off camera and returned with a mobile wooden panel where he'd pinned a map of the world. There were colorful pins where they'd found the jewels and one in Egypt.

"Didn't you say the Europeans took the one in Egypt?" Tom asked. "It could be the same rock we found in France."

"We can't be sure," Sam mumbled. He started drawing lines from the pin in Egypt. "If we assume the drop point was Egypt, I've tried figuring out where the rest of the jewels could've fallen." He pulled back, drumming his fingers on his chin.

The other lines spread out to Russia to mirror the one in Montana, somewhere in Brasil for India, and the Philippines for Mexico.

"You're distances are wrong. And it's not like they fell in a pattern," Jimmy pointed out. "You can't even be sure this thing hit the stratosphere above Egypt."

"They're the only ones who mention seven," Sam said. "All the other cultures only mention one."

That was another good point.

"So you think it actually landed in Egypt entirely," Tom concluded.

Sam nodded, nibbling on his lower lip, his eyes glued to the map.

"There's no guarantee that there are just seven," Kyle pointed out.

"That's right," Jimmy agreed. "A meteor would be likely to break into a lot more pieces."

Sam moved the wooden panel and started scribbling on the blackboard. They waited in silence before their leader pulled back, the blackboard completely filled with messy writing.

"There are two main hypotheses," he started. "Either they fell in different places, or the entire block landed in Egypt. I think the second one is a lot more likely since it's the only culture who mentions there being more than one."

"And they all have the same shape," Tom said.

"That's right," Jerry said, shocked that he hadn't thought about that earlier. "It indicates the same craftsmanship."

"Another great point," Sam said, pointing his stick of chalk at him. "So we can safely assume that at least the bulk of it made it to Egypt."

"But that means there really are seven," Kyle said. "Same craftsmanship means they knew how many they made."

The load on Jerry's chest seemed to lessen as he accepted that Kyle's words were solving a huge problem. The chances that they would blindly search for years had reduced considerably.

"I need more information," Sam mumbled, tapping his chin with the chalk. "There were seven. It fell in Egypt, they were made in Egypt. They scattered. Why and how many of them?"

"You're thinking the other three might still be in Egypt?" Jimmy asked.

"That's the best and only guess we have at the moment," Sam said with a curt nod. "At least until I figure out some sort of pattern as to why the other four were where we found them. I need to get to Egypt. Even if to only see the place where this picture was taken and search for more information."