Chapter 2372 Spell, Crook And Handle:>20
- The entire group gathered around the dig site. Hassan, the team leader, stared at the structure with renewed interest. He walked around the circumference of the tower and shook his head. He asked me how tall I thought this tower might be. I shrugged but it could be as short as twenty feet or as tall as a ten story building, only time would tell. The team took turns looking at the triangular pattern and all of them shook their heads. None of them had seen anything like it. Sadly this was going to be a find I couldn't speak about due to the nature of this recovery mission. It was a career making find and I couldn't tell a soul in the academic community. Perhaps in a few years I could work something out with the government here and dig officially. I didn't like my chances of that happening. America was at odds with many of their political affiliations.
- When the diggers went back to work I did a second walk through to see if any of the other buildings offered a better chance at housing our treasure. I stopped and examined the fallen pillars and looked at them more carefully and discovered a very telling sign. The pillars had not simply toppled they had been broken off from their bases. This area was seismically active so it was likely an earthquake had struck the area and caused some serious damage to the buildings here. It seemed like a majority of the building materials was a very hard dark stone. I suspected it was either granite or diorite. The more I learned the more I grew to respect this culture. It was most assuredly not Assyrian. I began to do the math and suspected this site predated the Assyrians by centuries or even millennia. If that was true this was a historic find of the highest order.
- Aaron, the sniper, found me and was carrying my weapon belt. He was frowning that I was on my own unarmed. He clucked his tongue in disapproval. I slipped the belt on and adjusted its fit. He walked with me as my silent shadow for a long time.