Algorithm - Book 1 - The Medallion

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Adam backed away from the window. Hedda peered over the maps to see who or what was out there, careful to avoid detection, and then looked on as Linda asked, "What's going on?"

Adam whispered, "Remember the science building fire?" 

Linda nodded.

"Well, when I went back to get my laptop, there was a policeman standing guard at the front entrance. I had a chance to speak to him. I remember his face."

"And, that policeman is out there now?"

Adam nodded. Hedda looked at the pair of them, listening carefully.

"How can you be sure he's the same guy?"

"I'm sure."

Hedda interjected. "What's the story with this copper?  How are ya tied up with him?"

Something was telling Adam to get out of there. There was no time for explanations, no time for polite conversations. There was no way that this cop was here by coincidence. Adam heard Ben Wujciak whispering in his ear, "Get out now or you'll be next."

"Hedda. It's too long a story to get into right now. It has to do with the medallion. I think someone is out to get it, and they'll stop at nothing."

"I don't know what this is all about, but don't get me mixed up in it!  And, give me back that rod. It belongs to me."

The rod came out with a pop, not unlike a thumb popping out of a perfectly machined bowling ball hole. Adam dropped it into Hedda's outstretched hand, and nodded in the direction of the cop outside. "I think we need to get out of here without him catching on."

Adam looked about the room. "I think you'd better come with us, Hedda. Some strange things have happened to artifacts like these. And sometimes to the people who owned them."

He held the medallion in his hand for a moment before going on. "Just a couple of days ago, the laboratory where I had this medallion analyzed blew up, and elsewhere, an old friend died under mysterious circumstances, an old friend who tried to warn me."

Linda tapped Adam's shoulder. "He's turning around. I think he may be coming in."

Hedda motioned with her arm. "This way."

The trio slipped through a set of hanging drapes into a hallway. Linda, last in line, pulled the drapes together and stilled them, as the entrance bell announced the arrival of a visitor. They huddled behind the thick drapes, afraid to move and draw attention to themselves. The sound of leather shoes clapped across the hardwood floor and stopped at the display table that had housed Hedda's curious little artifact. A few moments later, they heard the visitor's voice reading aloud, "origin unknown," a grunt, and the leather slapped again. The sounds grew louder as they neared the hidden alcove.