The Find
By Sergio PALUMBO ( nickname: "ente per ente" )
Facts are often weirder than fiction, and some finds are even more unpredictable than others…As an experienced Archaeologist, Bill well knew that. Soldier, Mercenary, Adventurer and Traveler, the man had been “playing” all those many roles during his life and finally he had learned how to gain a good outcome from that.
After completing his PhD at 26, the man had been spending some time out in various parks, surveying historic sites and sometimes excavating artifacts and other ancient remains. That way, he had stumbled on some very weird finds which had began making him think about the way to get the most from those…
Bill had always been an active scholar and enjoyed research so- as he liked to engage students in the process-among his many appointments, he had organized several courses about archaeological excavations in the desert and was almost going to become an Associate Professor at one important Faculty of Science and Anthropology abroad.But he was forty-six years old by then, his hair had begun turning white- even though he was still good-looking…- and he knew he had other roads to walk for sure… The man had had varied and amusing experiences on the field here and there,too: he had worked closely with American Indians, Australian Aboriginal, Japanese Ainu, and so on and many of his discoveries had made him well- off, even though not so famous, as they had been included into some private collections whose legality could be considered- at least- “dubious” ,indeed
After all, Archaeologists usually helped to study and preserve the history and cultural heritage from the past by making sure that important man- made features from ancient times were protected and could be understood, shared and appreciated from other people.Well, that wasn’t exactly what Bill did…he acted differently, in a way…much differently…
Many people were usually interested in Archaeology, as they thought it was continuously filled with constant excitement. In reality, however, the excavation process was commonly very slow and time- consuming, involving strenuous work in grueling heat. Many of them surely would have given up if only had tried anyway…
So,it had been a long excavation work which had taken him exactly to his place, where he was now, in the middle of nothing, within the Acacus Mountains mountain range,deep into Lybia, under the insufferable sun.Here he was, after sending to the tents all the personnel involved, just to stay alone, in peace.
Because he had something important to do…for himself…
The common legend has it that even the famous writer Frederick Pohl had found during the 50s some interesting and unexpected archaeological finds in Arizona and gave immediately news to a famous Museum which, on the contrary, made everything disappear then and arranged so that afterwards the access to that area was prohibited to everyone…True or not, such finds had never been heard of since then…
Who knows?Maybe the “impossible” object Bill was keeping in his hands at present would have been able to rewrite Mankind’s History in many ways…Whoever had built it? When, exactly? And what were those strange drawings on its ornate surface? They resembled a sort of regular, incomprehensible language, maybe even numbers with orbits and stars….
The Archaeologist had learned many years ago not to make too many questions about that sort of thing… money, and especially his personal income, were much more profitable and interesting, obviously… he had only to examine attentively the find, figure out its overall potential and the value it could get on the right market…then the next step was finding the appropriate buyer, of course…
He made a shot by means of his digital mini-camera, sent it to the appointed buyer via cell phone – just to prove its authenticity…- and kept waiting for some minutes under the sun which was inundating the site he was in at present…
The reply was fast at getting to him…Ok, the image sent was quite enough for the guy at the other end of the world…So the amount shown on the display as the price for doing what he had to do was adequate for him, too…
Soon after, Bill set fire to the object in order to destroy the drawings on it, broke the burnt thing into many pieces and placed them into an hole where he launched a hand grenade to be sure nothing from that could survive around…He meticulously filmed the whole process by means of his phone and sent the brief but accurate video to the buyer. A few minutes after, an alarm coming from the display informed him that his bank account had received the money agreed for his actions…
At times, it was more profitable to keep something secret and hidden forever or even to destroy that…it was only a question of finding the right person interested, of course…
Bill sneered. As the saying goes ”Speech is silver…” or as the man liked better "…but silence is golden…”
- - -
"I'm an Italian public servant who graduated from Law School working in the public real estates branch. I've published a Fantasy RolePlaying illustrated Manual, WarBlades, of more than 400 pages.Some of my works and short- stories have been published on American Aphelion Webzine,WeirdYear Webzine, YesterYearFiction,Another Realm Magazine, AlienSkin Magazine and will appear soon on Antipodean SF Magazine. I am also a scale modeler who likes mostly Science Fiction and Real Space models, some of my little Dioramas has been shown also on American site StarShipModeler or MechaModelComp and SFM: UK site.
By Sergio PALUMBO ( nickname: "ente per ente" )
Facts are often weirder than fiction, and some finds are even more unpredictable than others…As an experienced Archaeologist, Bill well knew that. Soldier, Mercenary, Adventurer and Traveler, the man had been “playing” all those many roles during his life and finally he had learned how to gain a good outcome from that.
After completing his PhD at 26, the man had been spending some time out in various parks, surveying historic sites and sometimes excavating artifacts and other ancient remains. That way, he had stumbled on some very weird finds which had began making him think about the way to get the most from those…
Bill had always been an active scholar and enjoyed research so- as he liked to engage students in the process-among his many appointments, he had organized several courses about archaeological excavations in the desert and was almost going to become an Associate Professor at one important Faculty of Science and Anthropology abroad.But he was forty-six years old by then, his hair had begun turning white- even though he was still good-looking…- and he knew he had other roads to walk for sure… The man had had varied and amusing experiences on the field here and there,too: he had worked closely with American Indians, Australian Aboriginal, Japanese Ainu, and so on and many of his discoveries had made him well- off, even though not so famous, as they had been included into some private collections whose legality could be considered- at least- “dubious” ,indeed
After all, Archaeologists usually helped to study and preserve the history and cultural heritage from the past by making sure that important man- made features from ancient times were protected and could be understood, shared and appreciated from other people.Well, that wasn’t exactly what Bill did…he acted differently, in a way…much differently…
Many people were usually interested in Archaeology, as they thought it was continuously filled with constant excitement. In reality, however, the excavation process was commonly very slow and time- consuming, involving strenuous work in grueling heat. Many of them surely would have given up if only had tried anyway…
So,it had been a long excavation work which had taken him exactly to his place, where he was now, in the middle of nothing, within the Acacus Mountains mountain range,deep into Lybia, under the insufferable sun.Here he was, after sending to the tents all the personnel involved, just to stay alone, in peace.
Because he had something important to do…for himself…
The common legend has it that even the famous writer Frederick Pohl had found during the 50s some interesting and unexpected archaeological finds in Arizona and gave immediately news to a famous Museum which, on the contrary, made everything disappear then and arranged so that afterwards the access to that area was prohibited to everyone…True or not, such finds had never been heard of since then…
Who knows?Maybe the “impossible” object Bill was keeping in his hands at present would have been able to rewrite Mankind’s History in many ways…Whoever had built it? When, exactly? And what were those strange drawings on its ornate surface? They resembled a sort of regular, incomprehensible language, maybe even numbers with orbits and stars….
The Archaeologist had learned many years ago not to make too many questions about that sort of thing… money, and especially his personal income, were much more profitable and interesting, obviously… he had only to examine attentively the find, figure out its overall potential and the value it could get on the right market…then the next step was finding the appropriate buyer, of course…
He made a shot by means of his digital mini-camera, sent it to the appointed buyer via cell phone – just to prove its authenticity…- and kept waiting for some minutes under the sun which was inundating the site he was in at present…
The reply was fast at getting to him…Ok, the image sent was quite enough for the guy at the other end of the world…So the amount shown on the display as the price for doing what he had to do was adequate for him, too…
Soon after, Bill set fire to the object in order to destroy the drawings on it, broke the burnt thing into many pieces and placed them into an hole where he launched a hand grenade to be sure nothing from that could survive around…He meticulously filmed the whole process by means of his phone and sent the brief but accurate video to the buyer. A few minutes after, an alarm coming from the display informed him that his bank account had received the money agreed for his actions…
At times, it was more profitable to keep something secret and hidden forever or even to destroy that…it was only a question of finding the right person interested, of course…
Bill sneered. As the saying goes ”Speech is silver…” or as the man liked better "…but silence is golden…”
- - -
"I'm an Italian public servant who graduated from Law School working in the public real estates branch. I've published a Fantasy RolePlaying illustrated Manual, WarBlades, of more than 400 pages.Some of my works and short- stories have been published on American Aphelion Webzine,WeirdYear Webzine, YesterYearFiction,Another Realm Magazine, AlienSkin Magazine and will appear soon on Antipodean SF Magazine. I am also a scale modeler who likes mostly Science Fiction and Real Space models, some of my little Dioramas has been shown also on American site StarShipModeler or MechaModelComp and SFM: UK site.
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