The Purloined Pictograph Read online

  The Adventures of Tremain & Christopher

  THE PURLOINED

  PICTOGRAPH

  Terry Marchion

  The Purloined Pictograph

  The Adventures of Tremain & Christopher, Book 2

  Copyright © 2016 by Terry Marchion.

  All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Join “The Club” for sneak peeks, free short stories and first looks. Click the contact page on http://www.terrymarchion.com

  Contact Terry – [email protected]

  Cover design by Danielle Romero – CoffeeandCharacters.com

  Book Formatting by Terry Marchion

  ISBN: 978-1540568588

  First Edition: November, 2016

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  “Isn't it exquisite?”

  The exclamation echoed through the atrium as Christopher walked in from the ever bustling lobby of the Hawking labs building. He half ran, one hand holding tightly to the straps of his backpack, the other a purple and gold ribbon around his neck, at the end of which hung a gold medal. First place at the Science Fair! It was his favorite event every year with this one being his favorite of all, for obvious reasons. He strode over to where his uncle Tremain stood along with a short, rotund man, the source of the booming statement. Professor Hollis Perlmutter, Dean of Archeology at Capitol University, stood sweating in his tweed suit, a throwback to the good old days, he would say. In his hands was an object which he held delicately in his pudgy fingers. Tremain towered over the older man, his arms crossed, his chin cradled in one hand as he studied the article held before him. He happened to glance over as Christopher approached them.

  "Christopher!" Tremain turned and gave his nephew a pat on the back. "You've come at a good time. Look what Hollis here has brought."

  Christopher squeezed himself between his uncle and the Professor, who was wiping at his forehead with a well-used handkerchief, and caught his first look at the object of admiration.

  It was a shard of stone with symbols carved on its face, jagged all around, apparently having been broken from a larger piece. The symbols were very interesting in and of themselves. A part of a hand, followed by a vertical line, a swirl, and then a grouping of lines in a bursting pattern. Christopher thought it must be a flower of some sort.

  Perlmutter was practically bouncing. His bushy eyebrows arched, his brown eyes were bright and ablaze with excitement. The man was almost vibrating. Christopher held back a giggle.

  "One of my graduate students found this." He exclaimed. "See how it appears to be from a larger carving? I can't wait to get the funding together to mount a full expedition!" He chuckled to himself. "Nothing like this has ever been found!" He produced the ever-present handkerchief and mopped his forehead. "We've looked, you know, always looking for some sign of the lost tribe, but we've never found any sign of them."

  The lost tribe, Tremain knew, was the term given to the group of people who had lived in the Earth-like habitat area of the Mayflower, the first and only colony ship to bring humanity to New Earth centuries ago. After an almost catastrophic accident, while hundreds of colonists slept in cryogenic chambers, some crew members made the decision to live in the habitat section.

  Over the course of generations, while the ship slowly made its way to its destination, they had become a separate society unto themselves with their own customs and traditions, not even realizing they lived their lives on board a space ship. A short time after planet-fall, they had broken away from the main colony, choosing instead to continue living their own simple way, the modern technology and vastly different way-of-life being too much for them. The colony government, such as it was at the time, gave the newly dubbed Mayflower tribe every comfort they needed and let them go.

  No contact was ever had again.

  Perlmutter shook the pictograph in front of them. "This is the first! The FIRST!" He chuckled again, tucking the piece of stone into a clear, plastic container. He sealed it and placed it in his blazer pocket. "Young Jenkins was exploring some uncharted regions, too many of those for my tastes, you know. Digging for a subject for his thesis, no doubt." He gave a barking laugh at his own joke. "Found a veritable trove of artifacts. I can't wait to explore this!"

  He sang to himself as he left the atrium, heading for the lobby, his "Brum, brum bruuuum" in time with the bounce in his step which caused his considerable bulk to jiggle this way and that. Christopher laughed a little as he watched.

  "Be nice, Christopher." Tremain chided, none too sternly. "Hollis may be a bit anachronistic, but he is a good friend. And," he said, turning to the lab door, "is a brilliant man in his field." He took a sideways glance, noticing the new ornament hanging around Christopher's neck. "Hold on, is that a medal?" Tremain stopped, holding it in his hands. Christopher beamed.

  "Yup. Science fair. Gold medal."

  Tremain gave the medal a playful yank.

  "Which one was it? You had a few ideas, if I remember correctly."

  "The quantum light bulb experiment." It was, to Christopher, the easiest to perform. He had set up a stand with a light switch attached to a battery for electric current. The switch was, in turn, connected to a circuit board. On the other side of the room was another stand which had a similar circuit board, but with a light bulb adorning it. He held a signal jammer, which, once activated, eliminated the possibility for the bulb to be lit by any other means. No wi-fi, no electrical current, no radio waves, etc. The only way the bulb could get the current needed to light was by quantum linking, which the circuit boards conveniently were. One flick of the switch and the light bulb blazed as predicted.

  The judges were amazed. It was much more advanced than the baking soda and vinegar volcanoes, the Old Earth dinosaur terrariums, the make-your-own-tornado-in-a-box exhibit and bug or rock collections they were used to seeing. He won hands down. Tremain beamed.

  "Perfect. They were blown away, I'm sure." He opened the lab door to see one of the interns standing there, a small, dark haired girl of about twenty, staring out at the atrium. Her eyes focused on something only she could see. "Don't you have something better to do, Leesa?" The girl blinked, as if just noticing them and with an exclamation of surprise, hurried out of the lab. Tremain shook his head. "Can't find adequate help these days. I have to pull new students from the University. They're less than useful sometimes." Christopher set down his pack.

  "Uncle, That artifact Professor Perlmutter showed us. How could it have come from an uncharted region? Haven't we charted the entire planet?"

  Tremain sat down at his desk and kicked his feet out in front of him, lacing his hands behind his head.

  "Well, yes, using satellites, we have indeed mapped much of the planet." He thought
for a moment. "But mapping and exploring are two different things. The gross shapes are mapped; major bodies of water, landmasses, etc, but actually getting down into the nitty-gritty of the areas, that just hasn't been done on a grand scale yet. Until Hollis and his group of graduate students, that is." He chuckled to himself. "I haven't seen him this excited since he first wore that tweed suit." They laughed at the thought. "But think about it, Christopher, it's been many, many years since those people left and practically vanished. They've almost become a myth. Finding some sort of sign of them at long last is a good thing. Maybe we can make contact with them once again, who knows?" He rubbed his face. "But now that pictograph was pretty interesting. It makes me wonder what the rest of the carving looks like." He stood and walked around a bit, stretching. "Not only that, but if Hollis is able to find it, piece it back together, will we be able to read it?" He gazed out into the distance. Christopher saw that his uncle's curiosity was piqued. He smiled to himself. Tremain was many things and voraciously curious was at the very top of that list. It was what made him such a good scientist. Christopher's gaze took in the room as his uncle sat lost in his thoughts.

  The lab exhibited the usual piles of equipment, the in-progress experiments and the clutter that seemed to always be there. Christopher noted the transmitter, one of his uncle's newest inventions, in one corner. They had given it the test run of all test runs a few months ago, and lived to tell the tale too. Aside from a short, scary trip to literally the middle of nowhere, they had actually found themselves on the Mayflower and had met members of the tribe living in the bowels of the ship. After they returned, Tremain made sure to make some changes to ensure the machine could be used safely from that point on. Christopher noticed there had been some physical improvements too. There was now a sort of casing around parts of the platform. The cables that were usually wrapped around and over the top were now tied back neatly. The whole thing looked more like a big box with a side missing. A box with translucent walls, that is. It looked cool to Christopher. Next to it, on a workbench, was something new to him, it being a couple of days since he'd visited the lab. Walking over to the bench, he examined the objects that had attracted his attention.

  A collection of small silver blocks sat scattered over the work area, about an inch square on all sides, smooth and slightly slick to the touch. Christopher picked one up and shook it. It made no sound, it was solid. But it was so light, it practically floated.

  "I see you've found something I've been playing with." He turned to see Tremain, walking over to him, smiling.

  "Aren't we too old to play with blocks, uncle?" Christopher laughed.

  Unperturbed, Tremain pulled his tablet from his pocket. He unrolled it to its full size.

  "Those aren't just any old blocks. Watch." He tapped a few icons and the entire pile jiggled.

  Christopher jumped back as some of the blocks shifted, changed form and morphed into a small chair. The look on Christopher's face made Tremain laugh out loud.

  "What the heck are they?" Christopher asked, bewildered. Tremain twisted his fingers on his tablet and the pile changed again, becoming shaped more like a person. As the features resolved, Christopher could see it was a near duplicate of himself.

  "They're my latest invention of sorts. Quantum locked objects. I'll have to come up with a fancier name than that, but that's what they are. All it takes is a little current and they will form almost any shape I want them to, within reason."

  Christopher tapped the figure before him. It was solid.

  "But . . . how?" He stared at the mannequin as he walked around it. "They were blocks before."

  Tremain nodded.

  "Yes. The default state is small blocks. That way I can see them. But you noticed how little mass they had? That's due to the amount of space between the actual nano particles. Don't want to lose them, now do I?" He reset the tablet and the mannequin became a pile of blocks once again. "They'll come in handy for some project or other, I'm sure. The beauty is they can be configured to almost any shape. I'm working on refining it so we can have walls made of the stuff. Can you imagine, a push of a button and you have a table and chairs. Or a couch. And,” he was warming to the subject, "If we can somehow incorporate the smart material with this, there will be no end to the possibilities." He sighed, his eyes bright with excitement.

  Christopher picked up another block. He had to admit it was a pretty cool invention. He had a hard time imagining what life would be like with it.

  "You should call them nano-blocks,” Christopher noted.

  "Nano-blocks." Tremain scratched his chin. "I think you may be onto something there. That's catchy." He walked over to a work bench and picked up a hand-held gadget. "I've also been working on something else. It might help Hollis in his expedition, but it's not quite ready yet." He tapped a few more icons on his tablet and handed it to Christopher. He pointed the face of the gadget at the wall. "Once I pull the little trigger here,” He tightened his grip, there was a click, "now look at the tablet."

  Christopher saw an image of the lab wall.

  "It's the wall of the lab."

  Tremain shook his head.

  "But what don't you see?"

  Christopher looked again. There was the wall. Nothing else.

  Nothing else! No tables, no piles, no other equipment. Nothing. Christopher's eyes grew wide, making his uncle laugh.

  "There's nothing to see, Uncle. We're looking through everything?"

  Tremain nodded and turned a dial on the top of the device. On the screen, the wall now faded away, replaced by the view outside. Capitol city sprawled away before him. Christopher gasped. "Why did you make this one?"

  "Oh, to be honest, it was to make sure I never lost another sandwich again."

  Christopher lowered the tablet and looked at his uncle.

  "Really, Uncle? For finding food?" Tremain looked askance, tilting his head a little

  "Well, you know how I keep misplacing things, sandwiches among many others. This will help find them again. Without the need of moving piles of stuff. Well, until I have to." He put the device back on the workbench and took his tablet back. "There will be other uses for it, but like I've always said, necessity is the mother of invention and all. I had a need and I invented something to help." He nodded, then smiled at his nephew. "Besides, if I don't come up with this stuff, who will?"

  Christopher shook his head. Only his uncle would be able to create something brilliant for something so silly. He backed up a little, knocking a pile of papers and schematics off his uncle's desk. They fell to the floor, splaying all over the place.

  "Oh, Uncle, I'm so sorry!" Christopher said as he began gathering the papers.

  Tremain grimaced as he saw the mess.

  "Don't worry about them, Christopher. These are just some old plans for the transmitter." He picked up a roll from the floor, unfurled it and gave it an once-over. "They were flawed, for sure. Thankfully, I found the more deadly ones and fixed them before I actually built the thing." He tossed the roll back onto the pile. "I was going to shred these today, but got distracted." He helped Christopher with a huge pile and tossed the lot into an empty box that was conveniently by the desk. "I'll get to them tomorrow. No sense having useless plans around, is there?"

  Christopher breathed a sigh of relief. He thought for sure he'd messed up something important. He ran over to his backpack and put it on.

  "Oh. Mom wanted you to join us for dinner."

  Tremain stood and winced.

  "Dinner? Tonight?"

  Christopher smiled.

  "Yes, Uncle, tonight. You don't have any other plans?" Before his uncle could answer, they heard a commotion in the main lobby, outside the atrium, loud enough to carry all the way into the lab. His brow knitted, Tremain's long strides took him out of the lab, looking for the source. Christopher followed.

  As they emerged past the reception desk, three burly security guards rushed by them, heading towards the archeology wing. Ahead of them were
another group of guards, Professor Perlmutter leading them. Tremain looked over to the receptionist, only to see she had gone for the day. With a glance at Christopher, he motioned for the two of them to follow the guards.

  They jogged down the archeology wing, displays of dinosaurs, Egyptian obelisks and headdresses, Sumerian tablets, Roman centurion uniforms and many other relics fell past them in a blur as they wound up at a door marked Storage. It was half open, Hollis hovered outside, in apparent distress. His face red with emotion, he wrung his hands as he paced back and forth. Seeing Tremain and Christopher, let out a yelp and beckoned them over. He grabbed Tremain by the lapels of his lab coat and looked him square in the eyes, his gaze intent and worried.

  "The Pictograph!" He yelled, "It's been stolen!"

  Chapter 2

  Christopher was stunned. Stolen? How could it have been stolen? The Professor only just showed it to his Uncle.

  Tremain patted his friend on the shoulders.

  "Hollis, tell me. The artifact was stolen. How?"

  The Professor closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. He ran his hands through what hair he still had on his head, whipped out his handkerchief and mopped his forehead with it.

  "I wish I could tell you." He stammered. "Jenkins was taking it to storage here. We had put a notice on the web about gathering funding for the coming expedition and drawing up the proposal just before he left. He didn't come back, so I came to check on him. I found him in there." He pointed towards the storage room door. "I wasn't sure if he was breathing or not." He grabbed Tremain's arm again. "The poor boy! He was so excited for his dig." He lowered his head. Christopher wasn't sure what to do. Tremain put his arm around the Professor's shoulders in support.

  "We'll get this figured out, Hollis, we will." The Storage room door opened a little more. Two security guards, supporting a groggy Jenkins, exited. They sat him along the wall to the left of the door, where he slumped and rubbed the back of his head. Christopher squatted next to him.