Whetstone of the Mind: Jack Wellington UN Attaché

By Gerald Goble

Jack is called to the Port Authority Warehouse to look at a bowl discovered inside a wall. The bowl leads him to a thief in Italy. The thief says he stole antiquities from a Library and Museum in Italy at the behest of an unsophisticated oil man from Oklahoma. This sends Jack across the US looking for antiquities stolen from a Library and Museum in Italy. In the back country of Oklahoma, he finds an assassin is trying to stop him. When he finds the stolen items in California, there is a surprise hidden in the midst of the stolen antiquities that leads him to the Vatican Library.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerald Goble
• Release date: Jul 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370781409

Gerald Goble

Gerald Goble has PhD in Theoretical Physics and has been a research scientist, teacher, federal employee, businessman, manager, and martial arts instructor. He is author of several scientific publications, U.S. Army Publications on Ammunition and Explosives, non fiction books "The Way of Two as One“, "The Bear Slayer – Women’s Self-Defense“; the fiction books, the Bunko Club Murder series, and the Jack Wellington UN Attaché Series, Westerns “Jacob’s Coat”, "Strays" and "Warrior Woman" and Science Fiction, "The Majestic Committee."

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Whetstone of the Mind

Jack Wellington UN Attaché’

By

Gerald Goble

Whetstone of the Mind

Jack Wellington UN Attaché’

By

Gerald Goble

Whetstone of the Mind

Jack Wellington - UN Attaché

By

Gerald Goble

Copyright © 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this book maybe used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical including photocopying, recording, taping by or by information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author with exception of brief quotations.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either, the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

For Joan my friend my love.

A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.

George R.R. Martin

Chapter 1

Jack sat in the conference room of the UN down from Warren Oak’s office. The table was a pile of letters and cards on his left. A laptop computer in front of him and a pile of letters on the right, he mumbled to himself, God I hate this answering letters from grade school kids.

The phone on the table to his right rang. He reached for it and on the other end Fran said, Jack there is a man calling you, named Jeffery March, from the Port Authority. Are you available?

Jack said, God, am I available. Put him on. The phone went silent for a moment and then the sound of humming appeared. Jack said, Wellington here. Is that you Jeff?

Jeffery said, Jack I ran across something here in a warehouse we were remodeling that appears to be in your area. I think you should come over and look at it. It’s a bowl that looks very old. I don’t want to just hand it over to the Admin Office. They would probably fill with peppermints or something.

Jack said, I’ll be right over, er where is this warehouse?

Jeffery said, I’ve got it at the 111 Eighth Avenue building in the basement. I didn’t want to leave it at the building down by the dock. Just come down the elevator I’ll see you when you come in.

Jack picked up the letters and laptop and went out of the small conference room and down the hall to Warren’s Office. He placed the letters on Fran’s desk, the laptop on the floor and turned to Warren. Jack said, Warren I need to go out to the Port Authority to see Jeffery March. Remember him; he was the one who helped me in handling the antiquities we sent back to Egypt after I got back from the Tsunami job? He has something he found that he thinks is an antiquity.

Warren smirked and said, Is this real or are you hallucinating after answering all the Grade School kids letters. Warren was as usual dressed in a suit and tie with a jacket that would not button.

Fran said, Well the phone call was real, and he might as well go, he’s only answered three letters in the last hour. Warren waved his hand and Jack went out the door, Fran winked at him.

Twenty minutes later Jack emerged from the elevator into the basement of the Port Authority Building. To his left was a glassed in office with a desk, filing cabinets a table and a couple of chairs. Jeffery March was at the desk and waved at Jack. When Jack entered the office Jeffery pointed at a cardboard box on the table. Jeffery said, We found this inside a wall at the warehouse down by the dock. As near as I can imagine it must have gotten in there in the late 90s when we were building an office. They later moved all the people over to the main building and we were tearing the office down to clear out more storage space and I found it.

Jack went over and opened the box. Inside was a heavy bowl about nine inches across and three inches deep. It was made of black soapstone with etched Greek styled inlaid figures in gold on the side. The small stand on the bottom had a leaf-like pattern inlaid in gold.

He placed the bowl on the table then looked at the box. On the front was the lower left hand piece of a label and a darker colored area indicating the glue of the label. The label had been ripped off leaving only a corner with the word Strada and below it a line with the words Via del Bruzi.

Jack said, Did you get any shipments from Italy in the late 90s?

Jeffery smirked and said, Come on Jack in the late 90s I was just out of high school. Jeffery was in his late twenties, with light brown hair cut short and was dressed in blue jump suit and work boots.

Jack said, Oh OK, sorry. Anyway this is an antiquity alright, maybe more than a thousand years old. I assume someone will have reported it missing. If not then it is a piece of contraband. Have you talked to your front office?

Jeffery said, I would rather give it to you. If I go over to there alone I will get roped into a lot of work trying to chase down who it belongs to

Jack frowned, So you want me to do the work.

Jeffery grinned, Well you do it all the time and have resources to do it.

The two men left the basement and went up to the Admin office. When Jack walked into the office the head of the Admin Office, Mr. Mitzner walked over to him and said, Your Mr. Wellington from the UN, I remember you from when we helped you with the return of the antiquities to Egypt. What brings you here?

Jeffery said, I called him when I found this box in the wall where we are doing the remodeling at the dock warehouse. It looked like an antiquity to me and I wanted his opinion.

Jack opened the box and showed him the bowl and said, Jeffery was correct this is an antiquity. I believe that it is Greek in origin and the box has words on it indicating it came from Italy. He paused and then said, Jeffery said he thought the walls were built in the warehouse in the late 90s. He drug me over here trying to get me to do the investigative work to find out who it belongs to.

Mitzner grinned, Well he has deadlines on the reconstruction work. Actually it was a pretty good idea. Jeffery, why don’t you go on back to your crew over at the warehouse and I’ll take Jack to Carol.

Jeffery looked at Mitzner then to Jack and grinned, Good luck Jack. I’ve got to go. He turned and went back out the door. Jack blinked at the sudden exit as Mitzner pulled on his arm leading toward an office to the right of the main office.

Jack followed across the open Admin Office. The office had three women at desks typing or working on a computer. Beyond the desks was a line of cabinets and beyond the cabinets was a door with an opaque window labeled Records, C. Loading.

When the two men stepped into the office, a woman in her late thirties sitting at a desk facing the door looked up at the two men and sighed. Her hair was in neat red curls. She wore glasses that were oval shaped that allowed her to look over the top if she intended. She was wearing a black suit made of a silky material with a blue scarf as an addition for style. The room had the appearance of a place where everything had a place and was in it. The items on the desk formed neat lines. There were two chairs in front of the desk each lined up with one edge of the desk. Jack made a quick glance about and the filing cabinets each had neatly typed labels and appeared to be locked. There were no pictures, no vase with flowers or other personal touches usually placed in an office of a woman.

Mr. Mitzner gave a quick rundown of what Jeffery and Jack had told him. As he ended, he said, Mr. Wellington here needs to know if there are any records of the late 90s about the time the warehouse was remodeled to include the manager’s office of a way the item could have gotten there. He nodded toward the bowl.

Carol looked at Jack and nodded toward a small table next to the desk. Jack sat the cardboard box down with the bowl.

Mr. Mitzner said, I’ll leave you to it then. He turned to leave.

Carol said, Just a minute Mr. Mitzner you owe me the lists of people that were at the mandatory Equal Opportunity Program briefing, and the training seminar signup lists. To meet the deadline from the City I need them as soon as possible. Mitzner rolled his eyes and was out closing the door quickly but quietly. Jack took a seat being careful not to move the chair from its place. Jack retrieved a business card from his suit pocket and placed it on her desk, My card.

Carol turned to Jack looking him up and down and Jack had the thought, she has that drill sergeant look.

She began in short sentences with a break between them as if she was talking to a child. She said The Port Authority only regulates commerce or government use of the ports in and out of the City. She paused then said, We do not participate in the transport or delivery of goods. Again she paused looking at the door Mitzner had just past through then said, To have such an item here it would be lost in shipment due to misrouting or breakage of the outer packaging, and the shipper sent it to us assuming we actually handled goods passing through the port. Again she paused for a moment, Before Mr. Mitzner took over another man was in that position and the office was less precise in its activities."

At this pause, Jack held up his hand, I deal with this all the time. First of all, I cannot arrest anyone, and I do not report anyone. My job is to protect old stuff. You’re trying not to tell me someone in your office; my guess is the previous supervisor used his position and the office at the warehouse to bring contraband into the US without customs or anyone else knowing. The bowl being here is not going to wind up in the New York Times.

Jack paused, I was kind of hoping there would be some kind of record somewhere telling me where the bowl came from other than the ‘Del Bruzi’ street label on the box.

Carol looked again at the door, Mr. Cook the previous supervisor was rumored to have made a lot of money with his activities, but he hid it away. When he left, I went over all of our records in detail and found nothing. He went to work in the Trade Center after he left here and was killed on 911. His widow lives in Long Island. I wouldn’t want you to cause her heart ache but Mr. Cook was the kind to keep two books. He may have had records at home. None of the money he was supposed to have showed up after his death.

Jack looked at her face and had the passing thought, She’s sad about something.

Carol looked down at the papers on her desk then back up, Alina, his wife lost her house and had to move in with her parents.

Jack said, Well there is a ‘No Questions Asked Reward’ for return of antiquities to a member state of ten percent of their value if she can provide information leading to their recovery.

For the first time Carol smiled, You’d do that?

Jack said, Yes, it is how I am able to get access to most of the items I return.

Carol picked up the business card and said, Alina’s mother is very protective of her because of bill collectors and other people. I could give her a call and tell her who you are and maybe she would let you see Alina. But you have to promise you won’t bother her if it doesn’t lead anywhere?

Jack nodded, That would be very helpful.

Carol picked up the phone and dialed a number, Hi Lilly. I’m fine. How have you been? There was a pause as she picked up the card, There is a man here from the UN, a Jack Wellington, who is from the Office of the UN Protocol on Cultural Preservation. He would like to talk to Alina. He is interested in whether her husband David left any old records from when he worked here. She listened to the phone for a moment then said, There was an item found at our warehouse that appears to be from Italy. He has the job of trying to get it back to its owners. He says there is a reward for information that will allow him to do that.

Again there was silence as she listened then she covered the phone with her hand and said, She says Alina is at work and they have some old records of Mr. Cook’s in a warehouse for storage. They could meet you there at four this afternoon. Jack nodded and she continued on the phone, He says that will be fine. She made a note on a note pad then said, OK you two take care. She hung up the phone and handed Jack the note with the address.

She looked at Jack then said slowly, I am going to trust you at your word that you won’t bother Alina too much. Her parents will be with her. I don’t want her to have anymore heart aches She picked up his card then said, I know where you work.

Jack smiled and said, I promise.

It was four in the afternoon when Jack entered a red brick building on 37th Avenue in Long Island City. A man sitting at a desk said, They are waiting for you at the back row of the first floor and pointed to an open garage door outside of the office. Jack weaved his way through stacks of boxes and cars on blocks each inside a numbered yellow square on the floor. At the back wall three people stood waiting. The man in the group was about six foot, with white hair in a light weight jacket and slacks waved at Jack when he appeared out of the next to last row of stored goods. The man said, You must be Jack Wellington, I am Greg Lubinski and this is my wife Lilly and my daughter Alina Cook. Jack moved to shake his hand then the hands of the two women.

Jack said, "I suppose Carol told you, but I work for the UN on a protocol for member states to help them protect and preserve their antiquities. I had met one of the workers at the Port Authority on another matter and he called me when he found a bowl in a box that appeared to accidentally been closed in a wall of the warehouse office when it was built in the