Algorithm - Book 1 - The Medallion

Chapter 1

Part I 

The Medallion

                                                            Chapter 1

Dr. Adam Dove finished his curved chalk line, drawing an arrowhead which indicated the path a pair of electrons would take to complete a complex chemical reaction mechanism. And yet, he was still in his father's workshop twenty years ago, holding aloft the mystery medallion, his golden enigma. A cough from the audience shattered the flashback, and the gold in his upheld hand morphed into chalk. He turned to look at the classroom. The only sounds throughout the large auditorium were those of pens, pencils, and laptop keyboards belonging to students engaged in keeping up with second-year Organic Chemistry. A distant period bell signaled the end of class and completed Adam's return to the present day—a fall semester Monday in the year nineteen ninety-nine in the sprawling eastern Pennsylvania campus of the Schill University School of Medicine, just outside Scranton, where Adam taught and conducted research in Bio-organic Chemistry. His other hand had been unconsciously fiddling with the medallion hanging beneath his shirt, a habit born of many years and of which Adam had become barely aware.

A short walk along the adjacent hallway brought him to a second floor research lab and his inner sanctuary—a glass wall-enclosed, smallish office populated with piles of books, unfinished manuscripts, and uncorrected test papers stacked precariously in a random pattern of towers of various sizes, each threatening to topple onto his scrimshawed oak desk. He sunk into a cracked leather-lined swivel chair, balancing himself on the three working casters, and reached up to the top of the nearest and most threatening pile. He paused a moment.

Soon I'll be wandering around the hallways, lost in my thoughts, feeling my way along the walls while students point and snicker.

Adam had a good job, enjoyed the teaching and research. It was a scheduled life, one that seemed to be outlined in a course syllabus. At times, that structure was exactly what he needed, but there were moments that gave him pause, turning his mind inward, drifting him off to some far away imaginary world.

A gentle tap on his office door drew him back. He was still holding a sheaf of papers when he looked up to see a young woman's smiling face through the rectangular door window. Her long black hair was neatly tucked into a ponytail. Her eyes were big and brown, highlighted by dimpled rosy cheeks. The collars of a white lab coat finished the portrait. Adam knew her as the molecular biology prodigy from MIT, recently hired by the biochemistry department to coordinate and analyze incoming data from the Human Genome Project. Her name was Linda Garcia, and she was outstanding, both in intellect and looks.

He nodded and she let herself in. "Professor Dove?  I was wondering if you would like to be a part of the Human Genome Project analysis team?"

Her speech held the barest traces of a Hispanic lilt, made all the more exotic by her tanned complexion and beguiling smile. It was typical of Linda to speak directly, often without the usual schmooze associated with departmental politics. Most folks knew about the Genome Project, and most knew that Dr. Garcia was the hotshot coordinating efforts at Schill. To be a part of the team to help analyze the human genome was not only a great honor, but a great scientific opportunity.