The Project

Chapter 6

The Project Chapter 6

"Here's the thing Arna," explained Alex, "We have to finish high school yet, we won't graduate until next June, and this is only the first of October, in a week or two, the snow is going to start falling, and falling hard, you wont be able to land here anymore, or otherwise, people will see that something strange has landed here. You could go back to the old ghost town, but again the snow's going to get pretty deep around there, and we won't be able to see you there either. We're talking maybe six months before the snow is gone, but it could be as long as seven. Oh, I almost forgot I brought you a bunch of books and reference materials, to study; they are in that bag over there."

Arna sat down next to Kelly on the bed, and said,

"I do have someplace to go, in fact, when the time comes to leave together, we shall visit there, I shall prepare the way." Alex wasn't sure what she meant by that, but let it pass.

"Well it's getting real late, we've been up here longer than I'd planned," stated Alex, "Take us back home…Captain."

Before they left the Karla-Ann, both Alex and Kelly hugged Arna, and wished her a safe journey,

"I will return on this date in seven of your months,"

"So long Arna!" exclaimed Alex and Kelly. They stood back, as Arna lifted off,

"Do you think we'll ever see her again?" Asked Kelly, Alex grinned, and nodded, Oh I know we will."

As they walked down the street, Alex said,

"Don't take this wrong Kelly, but it might be a good idea for us to remain strangers in public, nothing on face book or twitter. Don't store my phone number in your phone; if you need to talk, call me at home around eight o'clock in the evening."

"So does this finally mean I get to go?" Alex stopped, and looked at the funny Goth girl,

"Yes Kelly, it does, I had you figured all wrong, and it's something I'll never do again, welcome aboard."

Both agreed that getting the information to Dr. Frick and selling the two jewels, were first on their list, but plans had to be made right now.

Kelly took on the job of figuring out a way to contact the doctor, while Alex worked on the problem of the jewels, and knew how he was going to do it.

Some time ago, he had read of a man who discovered a cache of ancient gold coins while digging in his garden someplace in England, the coins had apparently been stored in a metal box that had long since rusted away but Alex knew he could do much better than that.

He paid one last trip to Coryville before the snow came. The day he rode there, the weather was really starting to get bad, but he knew the snakes would all be hibernating, so he could explore freely. With the aid of his metal detector, it didn't take long to find what he had been looking for. In the ruins of what must have been the general store, he found a small tin box, along with a couple old coins and a jackknife. Digging around in the bank, he found a couple silver dollars that must have fallen through the cracks in the floor; he also found a woman's wedding ring. Smiling to himself, he packed everything up, along with several pieces of old wood, and some small pieces of tin sheeting. He knew a place between the Amimas River, and the railroad tracks, that would be perfect for his scheme. There were traces of early mining attempts consisting mostly of old test holes, and the beginnings of mine tunnels that were never finished. A couple years ago, right after he moved to Durango, he had gone down there to poke around, in fact, it was where he had met Wyatt who was fishing with his big brother.

Together, they had returned there to look fro gold that hopefully some miner had overlooked. They didn't find any gold, but instead plenty of traces of human activity that was where he would stash the jewels. Making sure he wasn't seen, Alex snuck down to where previous diggings had been found, then moving downstream several feet, he found a small test hole, almost like a mini-mineshaft.

Carefully building a container with the old wood, and tin, he made sure it looked as though someone a long time ago had purposely built a protective box to hide their treasure in. When he was satisfied that everything looked "authentic" he carefully placed the tin box down into the cache, then carefully placing flat rocks over it all, he place a larger rock over everything. Then taking a picture with his camera, he made tracks out of there.

All winter long, he worried that someone would stumble on his cache, then in the spring, the Animas River flooded, causing him several sleepless nights worrying that the water would uncover the box. Alex also had other problems on his mind as well. One of them was the matter with Kelly, it was harder than he first thought to act as though they didn't know each other, or had ever spoken. Once, he was forced to keep moving when he passed some kids teasing her in the hall, pretending it was none of his business. Later, when they talked on the phone, he apologized.

"I'm so sorry Kelly,' he began, "I just wanted to stop those assholes from picking on you."

"Ahh don't worry about it," she replied, "I'm used to it.

"How are you coming on the business with the jewels?" She asked.

"Everything is in place, I just have to wait until the spring, just keep watching the news. How are you coming with Doctor Frick?"

"Actually getting in touch with him might be easier than I thought, he's got a face book page, I've also got his email address as well, but it might be better to get that stuff to him just before we leave, it might cause quite a stir, and it might blow back on us."

"Good idea," replied Alex, "Well, it's going to be a damn long winter, Merry Christmas, and I guess I'll see you in the spring…I wonder how Arna is doing?"

Spring couldn't come fast enough for Alex or Kelly, all through the winter he knuckled down and worked hard in school, even Kelly brought her grades up to the amazement of her friends and mother. Alex continued to collect reference materials, even asking for a k****e for Christmas so he could download reference books. Once again his parents pressed him to make a decision on college, along with the course of study he was going to pursue. Around the end of February, Alex finally decided that he was really going to the stars and that all the plans his parents had for him just weren't going to happen. He started getting melancholy, every time he looked at his parents, as he thought how he was going to explain his decision, as well as disappearance. It was going to be damn hard on them, at one point, while riding in the car with his mother; he came right out and asked her,

"Mom, if say, something happened to me would you and dad get a divorce?"

She almost drove off the road, but replied,

"What on earth made you ask a question like that for?"

"I was talking with a guy at school who lost a cousin to cancer, he was an only child, and eventually his folks split up over it."

"That's terrible!" She replied, "I like to think our marriage could stand up to something like that…No Alex, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't divorce."

"That's good mom, I'm glad to hear that."

The weather had turned unusually warm in early April, so Alex headed down to the river nervously wondering if someone was watching him, or if his treasure was till there. The riverbank was littered with washed up tree limbs and brush, but with the aid of his picture, he found his cache site. Carefully moving the rocks he let out a sigh of relief, when he found the tin box still inside, Water or snow melt must have leaked down inside the cache, because the box was even rustier than before he put it in there, but that was OK, it only made things more "Authentic." Quickly looking inside, he saw that the diamond and ruby, along with the ring and coins were still there. Carefully sticking it in his pocket, he hurried home rehearsing he announcement of finding buried treasure.

By the time he got home, Alex could hardly breath, his mom was at the store, and his dad was getting ready to leave as well.

"Hey dad, look what I found down by the river."

As he fully expected, he had to show his dad exactly where he had found the little box. His dad got down on his knees and carefully examined the cache, making Alex glad he had taken the trouble to "dress" it up with the old wood and pieces of tin.

"Well it definitely looks like someone hid that box here a very long time ago."

Alex also figured his folks would bring the cops in on this as well, and he wasn't disappointed. The contents were examined by the local museum curator, who declared everything original, and that the cache must have been dug back when gold and silver had first been discovered in the 1860's, however the coins were dated 1876, and 1879, so the cache must have been created sometime after that.

Alex got his name in the paper, but the article merely stated that he had uncovered a small cache of old coins and a ladies ring down by the river, prompting a small wave of treasure seekers to prowl along the banks.

Alex's treasure was kept by the police for a couple months while inquiries were made concerning stolen gems. When nothing turned up the treasure was returned to Alex. Once this had occurred, a local jewelry shop was consulted but the owner was unable to give an accurate appraisal as the gems were flawless. The next stop was Denver, and a professional jewelry appraiser, who proclaimed he had never seen such flawless gems, but after careful examination, he called the diamond at $2000 dollars, and the ruby, which impressed him even more, at $2500. There was also a small diamond in the ring but it was only worth about $500.00, Alex decided to hang on to it.

As he expected, that $4500 was going into his college fund, although he was allowed to spend five hundred of it. As he told Kelly,

"I was really hoping those gems would go for a lot more, but I guess I'll have to get rid of my ATV after all, but I've got a couple of ideas kicking around."

At school, he gained some fame, Palmer even showed renewed interest, although Alex figured she just smelled money. As much as he hated to, Alex sold his ATV, giving his folks the impression he had loaned to a friend who was going to an ATV park up near Montrose. He then started ordering the uniforms having the deliveries made to his grandmother's motel, telling her people had been stealing packages off doorsteps around his neighborhood.

All winter, Alex had been perusing the tactical clothing websites selecting what he felt were the proper uniforms for three space adventurers. For the trousers, he chose ACU tactical cargo pants in subdued urban camouflage, a color that would go well with Arna's grayish metallic color. Lightweight short sleeve military style grey shirts were also on the list, as well as black TAC 1 field jackets and full face balaclavas with face pieces. He also ordered hats, boots and black tee-shirts as well as tank tops for Arna and Kelly. Another little touch was shoulder emblems and name tags like the military used.

The emblems depicted a rocket with a trail behind it leaving a planet below done in black and grey. So far his plan was on track, and hopefully Arna would be returning in just over a month.