Blackbird

Chapter 1 : Scorpion

Somewhere in modern day Turkey:

It was midnight and Hans Geissler was scrolling through an old ruined map. He had been digging for three days in this ancient site of ruined temples and had barely come up with something worth a few bucks. He had set-up camp in this god forsaken desert with his band of mercenaries and was losing valuable time and money. The desert heat and sand had ruined the health of this 45 years old shrewd ex-diplomat and he was getting desperate to find ‘the object’ by any means. He wore a khaki shirt and an old pair of jeans. He had an slim elongated face with dark hollow eyes and his hair combed to the side. He looked tired and frustrated and was occasionally taking sips from his whiskey glass.

This whole archaeology thing was not his cup of tea and he was only holding on because he knew that the site held a powerful secret that it won’t give up so easily. The only clue he had was this 3000 year old ruined papyrus map written in a lost language and marked with strange symbols.

In his 12 years as a secret operative working for the C.I.A. he was never so anxious to find any ancient artefact- but unfortunately since three days all he found was dust and rubble and a few broken pieces of pre neo-lithic slabs ot cuneoform tablets scribbled with strange markings.

The generator was broken and some men were trying to fix it while Hans toiled inside the makeshift tent in darkness and heat under the light of a hurricane lamp. A big strong man with a bald head entered the tent strapped with a sidearm and a knife on either side of his waist. Hans was still stooped over the map with both of his hands on the table.

“We need him Rocko …we need the expert.”, said Hans looking at the man.

“The Archaeologist sir?” ,asked Rocko.

“Yes him…or else we will be digging holes in this desert for weeks…I need someone to interpret this map …”, said Hans sitting down on his chair.

“But that would expose this project…we agreed to keep quite Sir…”, said Rocko walking upto the table.

“I know what we agreed upon…pay him, pay him a s**t ton of money and tell him to shut his mouth…and bring him here asap..”, replied Hans annoyed at being questioned about his decision.

“Heh..ok…I know how to keep him quite Sir..I will inform Hanna..” , said Rocko tapping his sidearm.

“Remember we need him asap…we only have a few days here or else people are going to notice….and tell the men to fix the generator now! “, said Hans in a commanding voice while picking up his glass of whiskey.

“Yes Sir …” said Rocko and exited the tent.

Hans took a sip of his whiskey and lit a cigarette. As he puffed off the smoke he looked towards his left through an open window in the tent. The site was still visible under the fading moonlight.

“Gobekelitepe!... the world’s oldest temple…huh…what secrets are you hiding?”

Suddenly his sat phone buzzed. 

“Yes?” said Hans putting down as he put down his glass on the table and picked up the phone.

“Any progress?”, asked a voice from the other end.

“Not yet Madam, but we are calling in the expert tomorrow..” , replied Hans.

“I want results soon, we can’t keep this a secret for long…you’ve ten days”

“Yes I understand madam..” replied Hans as the call got disconnected.

“Huh.. these people, they think its that easy to excavate a 10000 year old ruin…let them come here and pick up a shovel…ugh! Once I find it I will show them who’s the boss!!”, murmured Hans angrily biting his teeth. He then collapsed in his chair and kept smoking and drinking until he fell asleep.

Thousands of miles away in California, back in one of the CIA’s hidden bunker sat Hanna in front of a computer with six monitor screens. She was another one of Hans’s employee, who handled logistics and analytics for Scorpion.A few minutes earlier she was instructed by Rocko to find out and contact a certain Patrick Hoffman- bounty hunter, conman and a surprisingly good archaeologist. She typed his name in the search bar of her custom made search engine and a photo of a young man with long hair and shabby beard popped up along with his address and personal phone number. She then clicked the locate button on the browser and in a few seconds a map opened up showing the current location of the man based on GPS location. 

“There you are…”, exclaimed Hannah and sent the data to another three operatives whose job was to inform him and board him on a plane and send him to Turkey to meet Hans. At 3 a.m. in the morning the three men received their instructions and set out in a black SUV to find Patrick.