The Secret of the Stones, Ernest Dempsey [popular books to read TXT] 📗

protected the spirits of ancestors who were already on the other side. It was also believed that sometimes the bird itself was a long-gone relative who had returned as a guide for a person or people. Seems logical that whoever built these would have put an owl here to protect their greatest secret.”

Ulrich stood up straight again. “So, what do we do now?”

Tommy sighed, thinking for a moment. “There must be some kind of key we have to use here. If my guess is right, whatever the key is probably fits into this owl’s mouth.”

“Why do we not simply pick lock?” The guard suggested in broken English.

“We can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Do you honestly think that the ancient people who put this here would have hidden everything so well and simply closed it up with a padlock? My guess is it is probably rigged with some kind of antimanipulation device. If we try to mess with it without the correct key, we may lock ourselves out of the chamber forever or something worse.”

“So how do we find this…key you speak of?” Ulrich asked, as if Tommy could make it appear out of thin air.

“You mean this key?” The male voice interrupted the conversation from behind.

All three men turned around quickly, surprised by the sudden intrusion. Sean, Joe, and Allyson stood about fifteen feet away, guns trained on the two villains.

In his left hand, Sean held something small and white, precariously gripped in his fingers, was a quartz arrowhead.

54

Eastern Georgia

The astonished looks on the faces of Ulrich and the guard were priceless. Tommy’s head went back and forth, not sure if he was hallucinating. “Boy, am I glad to see you guys.”

“It’s good to see you too, Schultzie.”

Joe echoed the sentiment. “We weren’t sure if we were gonna see you again.”

“Likewise,” Tommy replied, reflecting on the past forty-eight hours.

The guard and the blond man stood frozen, a deer-in-the-headlights look on each of their faces.

Sean cautiously stepped toward the group. “Wasn’t that difficult to find you, actually.”

He glared at Ulrich. “Shooting the old man was a mistake, but leaving him alive was a bigger one. He gave us the final clue.” Sean laughed. “Although I have to admit convincing the park that the IAA center needed to borrow this arrowhead for analysis was a bit more difficult than it should have been.”

Tommy stepped away from his kidnappers. “Thanks, gentlemen. It’s been real.” He smiled, “So, Sean, how did you know that the arrowhead was the key?”

Wyatt handed the little rock to his friend. “I remembered seeing a presentation about this place a few years ago. The speaker had mentioned the oddity of the quartz arrowhead that had been buried with the body in the bird effigy. That’s when it clicked with me, “The key with sacred bones does lay.”

Realization washed over Tommy’s face. “Of course. I should have thought of that.” He raised the arrowhead to examine it more closely, admiring the precise detail. Every edge of it appeared as though it had been shaped by a laser.

The pinkish-white stone was small, only about three inches long and half as wide. “It must go into the mouth horizontally.” He walked back to the pole while his captors eyed him warily.

Then he motioned toward Allyson. “Who’s the girl?”

“Allyson Webster,” she answered.

“She’s with Axis,” Sean added.

“An agent? Really? Did you make a phone call or something?”

“Actually, no. Pretty sure she was already on your trail.”

Allyson just smiled back, obviously not interested in giving away any more details.

Wyatt turned his attention to Ulrich and the bewildered guard. “Now if you two boys don’t mind, please move out of the way.” He waved his gun in a motion indicating they should step to the left. “First, though, you are going to need to go ahead and drop those weapons that you’re carrying in your jackets. And do it real slow. I have more than enough excuses to waste you two right now.”

They complied, carefully reaching into their jackets then dropping the guns to the ground.

“Good. Now step away.”

The two shuffled sideways, moving away from the pistols. Ulrich never took his cold gray eyes off of Wyatt. Even unarmed, the man’s gaze was menacing.

With his free hand, Sean reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. Keeping the gun leveled at the two men, he held up the device up to his face.

“Detective, we got ‘em.”

“What do you mean you got ‘em?”

“We got Tommy and the guys that kidnapped him. Joe and I are holding them at gunpoint as we speak.”

“What’s your location?” Morris’s voice sounded urgent.

“A couple of miles from Rock Eagle, standing in front of eight big totem poles.”

“Okay, I’ll get the local authorities over there as quickly as I can. Will and I are on our way; we’re about fifteen minutes from there.”

“You drove down here?” Sean was a little surprised at the cop’s persistence.

“Like I said, I got a lot of questions for you. You won’t be able to answer them if you’re dead. And I thought you could use some backup.”

“Don’t worry about us, Trent. The situation is under control. See you in a few.”

Tommy had been busy taking a closer examination of the quartz and the mouth of the owl. “I hope we don’t need to get it back out.”

With that, he cautiously slipped the arrowhead into the mouth of the chiseled bird. It was a perfect fit. With his index finger, Tommy pushed the quartz all the way into the open hole. As the projectile went deeper, there was a click then a few more until it was completely inside.

Suddenly, the large totem pole and the earth underneath their feet began trembling.