The Quest for the Golden City

Chapter 2

The plane ride home was a tedious one. Maura was itching to learn what the journal said. She was also going to try to date both the book and the gold bar. When the plane landed in Boston, she hurried off, with Jesse following closely behind.

At her office, she put her suitcase next to her desk and grabbed her lab coat. She pushed open the glass door to the lab. Neil Phillips sat at his desk in the back of the room, typing furiously on his keyboard. A waffle hung from his mouth and his feet were on the table.

"Feet off your desk, Neil. And eat your food, this isn't a pigsty." Maura told him.

He whipped to his feet, his lab coat fluttering behind him. He grabbed the waffle from his mouth. "Maura! You're back." His face turned red and he rubbed his neck. "I thought you weren't gonna be back until Friday."

"We found this." She brought in a cardboard box and set it on the counter. Inside was the box, journal, and the bar.

"Oh my god! That's real gold?" Neil exclaimed through a mouthful of waffle.

"I think it is. We found this journal with it." She took it out of the box. "It's written in Spanish, so I'll need you to translate it."

"Yes, sir." He nodded and took the book from her. He spun around to go back to his desk.

"And Neil." He turned to look at her. "Be careful with it. It's probably hundreds of years old."

"Got it." He sat down and went to work.

She turned to the gold bar. She took samples of it and tested them. It definitely was real gold, and the tests showed that it was thousands of years old. "That's incredible..." She whispered to herself.

"What is?"

She jumped at the voice behind her. It was Neil, and he was holding the book along with multiple pieces of paper. "Oh- the tests show the bar is thousands of years old. Have you found anything yet?"

"I sure have- you'll love this." He set the papers on the counter and leaned in next to her. "Read it."

The translated text showed that the journal had belonged to a Spanish adventurer named Francozo Pinarsca, and he had traveled through the Amazon Rainforest search for the rumored city of gold. He had described the wearisome weeks he had spent searching- but they paid off.

"It's been months, but I've finally discovered it, the golden city." Maura read aloud. "The city is made of pure gold, gleaming with riches." She turned to Neil and they were face-to-face. "This is it, Neil, this is proof that it exists." Her green eyes gleamed with excitement. She hugged him, but quickly realized what she was doing. When she pulled away, Neil cleared his throat and Maura's cheeks were pink. She brushed her lab coat of wrinkles awkwardly.

Maura turned towards the door. "I need to go make arrangements for the trip." And with that she left the room.