Strength

By Ryan Hartung

Hundreds of years in the making, a full worldwide war between the East and the West is brewing. The cataclysmic divide between the richer western nations and the poorer East has reached a breaking point. Shadowed behind the veil of impending war is new evidence suggesting the Greek and Roman gods of legend might have been real after all. Though hidden for many millennia, mighty weapons embodying the Greek god’s magnificent powers are beginning to be found. Each country fully understands the tremendous importance of finding the remaining god-like treasures before the rest. The race is on as each half of the world battles to gain possession of the enormously powerful ancient artifacts. The world’s fate is in their hands.
While Russia’s leaders push Vladimir Pavlov to use Hades’ Sphere to commit a horrible act against Georgia in an effort to return mother Russia to her glorious past, a multinational team of researchers is searching Iraq for Demeter’s treasure. Meanwhile, Colt Andrews and the Americans head to Greece in pursuit of Hercules and Cerberus’ joint tomb hidden at the bottom of Cape Lichada.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ryan Hartung
• Release date: Jan 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781942123057

Ryan Hartung

Dr. Ryan E. Hartung spent most of his life growing up in rural Nebraska. After earning his Ph. D. in organic chemistry from the Ohio State University he then made a quick stop with his family in the garden state before finally settling in Tucson, Arizona. Ryan continues to live in Tucson with his wife Elizabeth, his two daughters Amber and Keira, their dog Ginger and currently untamed hamster Brave. He is the author of the World's Divide series of novellas among other novels.

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Chapter

1

After twelve hours of driving over bumpy roads on dust covered highways, the Eastern nations’ crudely formed team finally arrived at their location in southern Iraq. Due to their stark differences in character, Jesus and Ahmed had opted to find their own transportation to the southern end of Iraq and its oldest city Eridu.

Salim and Nurtai barely batted an eye at the two military fanatics wanting their own ride to one of the most desolate corners of the earth. In actuality, they were happy when Jesus had brought up the idea of separate cars.

Even though twelve hours had passed since they left Damascus, Salim and Nurtai had barely stopped conversing the entire way. Their love of knowledge was a shared interest, while Salim was also quite intrigued in Nurtai’s training as a soldier. He was somewhat baffled why someone with Nurtai’s intellect would choose such an unintellectual position in life.

"Salim, you fail to understand the intricacies of war. You cannot simply attack your enemy. You must know them. Surely, you have heard of Sun Tzu and his military treatise The Art of War? That manuscript alone has been responsible for influencing hundreds, if not thousands, of military minds throughout the generations."

Yes, yes. Of course, I’ve heard of Sun Tzu, but are his writings really relevant today? From what I can tell, you can have a drone strike or a laser guided missile to take out any target of interest. I don’t think much planning is actually needed in those types of situations, Salim thoughtfully responded.

Ah, but you are confusing the act of destroying a target from knowing what target to destroy. Why are you bombing that building? Is it because a terrorist lives there or is it a front for a bomb-making factory? Yes, destroying some targets is as the Americans say, a piece of cake, but the strategy is deciding which targets to destroy in the first place. Of course, that is only a part of war. Where strategy is truly necessary is during a ground invasion. That’s where Sun Tzu’s teachings come into play.

Nurtai was about to continue educating his scholarly friend about the intricacies of war when Salim held up a hand for silence.

I’m unfortunately afraid our conversation will have to be tabled for the moment. We are here.

Nurtai pulled his gaze away from his Iraqi friend and looked out of the car’s window to view the world’s oldest city. However, what he saw was far from impressive. All he could see for miles and miles was brown sand and rock. To his right, a large mound of sand and dirt raised above the desert floor, high enough in fact that the ancient structures were possibly hiding below its surface.

Nurtai turned his head to look out of the back of his vehicle as Jesus and Ahmed’s car pulled in directly behind theirs. He could see the two soldiers shaking their heads with unhappy expressions, disapproving of their respective countries ferrying them into the middle of nowhere.

Behind and to the right of their car, which Nurtai hadn’t noticed until now, sat four giant excavators and two dump trucks parked off to the side. He opened his car door and stood on the dusty landscape. Into the sun, he could see a circle of six men, all smoking cigarettes, standing next to their construction equipment.

Do they even know why they’re here? he asked Salim over the car’s roof.

They shouldn’t, no. I think they were told to dig where I instructed them, and when I say they’re done; they’re done, no questions asked, he replied looking up at the late day’s sun. Although they’d left early in the morning, only three to four hours of sunlight remained and that was if they began digging right away.

While Nurtai waited for Salim to gather his charts and maps from their car’s back seat, Jesus and Ahmed exited their vehicle. Ahmed’s dark skin started glistening with perspiration almost instantly after leaving the car’s air-conditioned interior.

It’s hotter than two rats making love in a wool sock out here, he complained after only taking a step away from the car. He pulled a grey rag out of his back pocket and wiped his forehead.

Jesus looked at Ahmed and raised an eyebrow at his comment. While twirling a long Bowie knife with deep serrated edges in his hand, he slapped his comrade on the back.

Just between us it could be ten times hotter and even more desolate in this God-forsaken land. Although I doubt that’s possible. The only thing I care about is that we get what’s coming to us, he said, referring to the one million dollars the Iraqi government had agreed to pay each member of the team, if Salim was to find one of the ancient artifacts on his home country’s soil. They all knew what the money meant. If they found the treasure, Salim was to be the one to touch it.

Ahmed smiled in agreement and wiped his sweaty brow for a second time with his quickly dried handkerchief. He, along with Nurtai and Jesus, watched Salim walk from his car, barely able to hold all of the rolled up maps in his arms. To Salim’s front was the circle of Iraqi contractors waiting for him to tell them what to do.

After at least twenty minutes of watching Salim point to various points on the map and in some cases almost shouting at the workers as they shouted back in return, all in Arabic, he gathered up his mangled sheets of paper and returned to them. The workers then dissipated and began firing up their large digging machines and dump trucks, driving them to where Salim had ordered.

What took so long? Ahmed thundered to Salim as he returned. They work for you right? There should not have been any yelling at your directions. They should have followed your orders whether they agreed or not. If Ahmed had been in Salim’s shoes, and one of the workers had dared to raise his voice at him, the worker would have immediately regretted it. Jesus nodded in complete agreement at his friend’s words.

Yes, in a perfect world that would be true, but they are worried they are not going to get paid for their work, Salim quietly responded.

Why is that? Nurtai wondered with genuine curiosity.

As if Salim was almost ashamed to admit the reason for their disagreement, he stared down at the ground and kicked at a dirt clod before answering. They are Shiite Muslims, and I am a Sunni, so they don’t trust me to honor my word, he said rather sadly.

I see, Nurtai said without pressing the subject. Although he wasn’t a follower of Muhammad himself, his country had many Muslims. While the Sunnis believed that Muhammad’s four caliphs, or four successors, had the right to rule the Muslim nation, the Shiites maintained that only descendants from the fourth caliph had the hereditary rights to lead his followers. In any case, Nurtai found it sad that two peoples following the same religion could have such distain for their Muslim brothers. Obviously, Salim felt the same.

Before any of them could ask Salim additional questions about the religious confrontation, one of the workers called him to examine something they had just unearthed after only minutes of digging. Although they were using gigantic machinery to excavate a structure that could be well over two thousand years old, the construction crew was being as careful as possible.

Look at the end of my shovel, the excavator operator said, as Salim approached. Salim followed the massive steel scoop down and into the hole where a portion of yellow sandstone wall was showing through.

No, this is not it, Salim informed his fellow citizen, seeing the yellow stone.

What? This is a new structure. You have never even seen it before. How do you know this is not what you’re looking for? the excavator asked, indignant at Salim’s simple dismissal of his hard work.

Do we have a problem here? Jesus asked, approaching and flipping his knife