The Emblem Rock

By Aston Var

Follow Archaeologist Cooper Roth as he makes the discover of a lifetime. It's a discovery that can alter the course of history. Unable to contain the knowledge of the discovery's location, an ancient evil sect learns of the news and will do anything to beat Cooper to the find.

• Language: English
• Publisher: El Chupacabra Independent
• Release date: Aug 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463578292

Aston Var

Aston Var has written five novels. Enjoying family and spending time with his wonderful wife and sons, he’s always on the lookout for their next adventure. Author of The Amazing Story of Billy Jim Hill, Ancient Youth, Found in London, The Emblem Rock, and Total Ascendance. Find paperback editions and discover more of Aston Var's adventures at www.astonvar.com.

Book preview

The Emblem Rock

by Aston Var

© 2018-2023 ECI

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please visit Smashwords.com, or any authorized reseller, and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

About the Author

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

About the Author

Aston Var has written four novels. Enjoying family and spending time with his wonderful wife and son, he’s always on the lookout for their next adventure. His other works include Ancient Youth, The Amazing Story of Billy Jim Hill and Found in London. Find paperback editions and discover more of Aston Var's adventures at www.astonvar.com.

Thanks for reading.

Chapter 1

Beneath the hardened and callused tips of his fingers, Cooper Roth felt the dirt crumbling as the earthen ledge threatened to collapse from the weight of his country-raised, fit, and masculine frame. Undeniably frightened from the predicament, his eyes never betrayed the confidence of resolve, that he would find a way out, that he would survive, and that the gold coin nestled safely in the fifth pocket of his favorite blue denim jeans would keep its place and remain secure in his possession. It was the type of artifact that would easily fetch dollars in the range above seven figures—maybe more.

He shunned himself for neglecting his safety. Having been focused on the coin and delighted to have made the discovery, Cooper couldn’t help elevating the right corner of his mouth in a smile that revealed a feeling of bitter-sweet happiness. The quick smile betrayed his feelings of complete despair before his attention swiftly returned to the dire situation.

Oh, for eff's sake, f… he stopped himself before quietly finishing the sentence. There was no use in cursing, yet he couldn’t help but thinking up a volley of expletives that would have been appropriate at that exact moment. A shift of his weight caused even more of the dirt ledge to crumble and fall deep into the darkness which made up the chasm below him.

Illuminating the confines within a several-foot radius, the ultra-bright LED headlamp securely tightened around the crown of his head cast a brilliant though slightly bluish light that revealed his immediate surroundings. Cooper turned his head upwards to inspect the dirt ledge beneath his hands, as more dirt continued to give way. The shadows cast by the light danced around the cavern in a strange way, almost as though the rock and dirt walls of the confined spaces were alive and moving.

Turning his head and attention once again, he looked down only to see the light of his lamp fading into the blackness of the hole beneath his dangling legs. As his grip tightened, the dirt ledge continued to threaten breaking, along with promising the assured plunge to a guaranteed demise. Cooper couldn’t help but wonder how he was going to pull himself up over the ledge to safety, before either his hands, or the earth, inevitable gave out.

Another millionth of a second passed when for a brief moment, for some reason, his mind looped around the thoughts of what had brought him to the cavern. Thoughts of the excavation and even the warnings he’d dismissed from the local farmers entered his mind. For at least two generations of his life, which was now approaching the wrong side of thirty, Cooper had studied the area. Although he hadn’t been the only one to know of the geography and history—including both recent and ancient. He was one of the few with the means to finance an expedition which others would have considered little more than a twisted version of a pipe dream that had no real merit or value. A flight of fancy. It was something that others could imagine, but practically it was a very unworkable way to go through life.

For Cooper, it started as a pipe dream that he now supposed would have been better to remain in the pipe. For a moment, with certain death looming, he wondered what it would have been like to have a wife, a son or daughter, or maybe both. He thought about whether or not he’d have the patience to own some kind of animal as a pet. A dog. Perhaps one of the larger breeds. As soon as the thoughts came, they went. Closing his eyes, his face shifted in a wince, as though he’d bitten into a raw lemon. Shaking the thoughts of the past and future from his mind, he took a deep breath and held the air for a moment before moving every ounce of energy in his body to his forearms in an attempt to pull himself up.

After an audible grunt and loud exhalation of air, his body rose mere inches before a relatively large mound of dirt disintegrated in the palm of his left hand, which swiftly lost its grip, swinging around his back and leaving him dangling in an even more precarious position than he’d been only seconds ago.

Now, with only one hand holding him and with a fundamental knowledge of physics, he realized it was the end. What was supposed to be a very routine morning had suddenly become his last. There was no time to think of the harness and rope he’d left behind, in favor of a swift peek into the caves. There was no reason to think of the figure eight descenders or rappel racks that his camp regularly employed for deep explorations.

It was, after all, a cave they’d explored before. In every sense of the word explore. A dizzying array of instruments and all manner of technology had been used to survey the caverns which were well known around the area. Having spent more than three years living just a few miles to the south in the small town of Kanab, Cooper had gained an intimate knowledge of the rocks and geography of the place, although he was far more interested in the history.

With his team of expert archaeologists and the like, Cooper had quite literally mapped out no less than every grain of sand and speck of dirt in the area of the caves which, in total, covered less than half of a square mile.

These caves were man-made, there was no doubt. The indications of such ancient efforts and the labor of man from times past echoed their way through time and provided an exhaustive yet confidential peek into the past. From the evidence, the team had come to the conclusion that the caves were made in the range of 1,200 to 1,300 years before their present intrusion.

Despite the long history and age of the caves, Cooper was decidedly more fascinated in the more recent developments which he believed, had brought travelers from Central America to the same caves around three to four hundred years ago.

Those travelers, he speculated, were the stragglers and remnants of the once great and defeated Aztec Empire. On a mission to keep their prized collections from the hands of a greedy Cortez and abominable Spanish invaders, a small group of high priests had delegated themselves the task of moving the great Aztec Treasure of Montezuma to a land far north of their old empire’s boundaries.

In no less than what could be considered a lightning bolt stroke of luck, Cooper remembered the rush of adrenaline he felt when his eyes first fell over the golden coin embedded into the rock which only revealed itself on the summer solstice using an ingenious method of strategically placed stones. Of course, he knew luck had little to do with it, considering the time he spent studying the history and lore of the caves.

Having only found the single coin and nothing else, Cooper knew finding it had put him on track for potentially making the greatest finding since the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb. Even though luck had nothing to do with the discovery of that tomb or the gold coin bearing Aztec marks in his pocket, he wished he had just a little luck, in time, before finally losing his grip and plummeting to a rocky doom.

With those thoughts fresh in his mind, he timidly stole another glance of the dark void beneath him before the remainder of the dirt ledge gave way.

Chapter 2

A sky which was more azure, and the deepest blue could not be described or found anywhere on earth that resembled the sky which met the red rock sand of the Brackman ridge formed many hundreds of millions of years ago. As the minute hand hovered over and met the hour hand of Jasmine Lee’s finely crafted Swiss watch, she shielded her eyes from the blazing white-hot sun and peered into the distance over the red rock ridge and into the bright, deep, blue sky. Taking a few seconds in consideration to wonder over the whereabouts of their fearless leader, she took a deep pull on the straw delivering the welcomed coolness from the iced tea, refreshing every cell of her slender and sun-baked body.

Surrounding her, the variety of applications and data on a series of flat-screen glass shielded OLED displays were only visible thanks to the shade provided by the one of the many shear rock cliffs towering high above, blocking a third of the same sky she’d been admiring. She was decidedly happy about the choice to have camp set up near the base of the cliff.

Hey! she yelled in a feminine wisp, If Cooper isn’t back by one, I quit! she quipped jokingly to her colleague, Rex Roman.

I didn’t know we can quit, Roman replied sarcastically. His uniquely deep voice vibrated with a resonance akin to a large antique bomber plane with rotors humming at a low RPM in idle, or like a grizzly bear relaxing after having devoured an entire river of salmon. His imposing physique and stature fit the sound of his voice like a well-worn leather glove. For a moment, Jasmine wondered if she noticed an amount of dust vibrating free from the cliff in response to Roman’s bellowing low pitch.

Jasmine raised her eyebrows in slight disbelief, "I’m surprised you’ve even heard of the word quit."

I’ve had worse jobs, he said bluntly.

Is this a job? As a matter of pride, Jasmine felt privileged to enjoy her work.

"As long as Coop keeps paying us, it is."

Reducing their financier’s name to a single syllable was one of the stranger ways to save time, Roman thought. He wondered how he would take it if people called him Rom.

Jasmine smiled at Roman while resisting the urge to stick out her tongue in a juvenile display of silliness. Returning to her work, she felt less than focused as raw data from their very low frequency scans filled another screen’s worth of space.

Breaking up the silence and calm atmosphere of their station, Jasmine and Roman turned to see a large plume of dust rising from the dry reddened earth road. The dirt lane made up the only path by vehicle into and out of the site. Sounding them, clearly audible in the dry air and just over the desert horizon east, an abruptly repetitive horn wailed and grew louder as the plume of dust enlarged with the approaching vehicle.

That’s not necessary, Roman said quietly, referring to the horn blaring loudly. As if they wouldn’t notice the large cloud of dust or noise from the engine, he couldn’t figure out why anyone would need to use the horn in such a remote location with no traffic.

From the vanishing point on the edge of the horizon, the bright neon-yellow paint of customized Jeep Wrangler was impossible to miss and if sight were sound, it would have been louder than the horn. Less than half of a minute passed before the vehicle had arrived at the series of umbrellas and tents making up the station near the base of the cliff. A crunching of dry dirt sounded beneath the vehicle’s wheels as it slowed to a stop. With a shift of gears into park and the cutting of power to the engine, serenity returned to the location while the dust from the road slowly returned to earth and atmosphere.

We have a problem.

A stern looking man, the familiar face of the Navajo native in the driver’s seat was a welcome sight to the team. For the as long as they had worked in that part of the desert, the team was happy to have a local guide in their midst. Going by his short name Falcon, the Navajo man generously knew the others would have difficulty pronouncing his full given name. In the passenger seat next to him, another man, a Mexican immigrant, smiled wryly, as if trying to keep optimistic while knowing something wasn’t right.

Jasmine moved from the comfort of the shade, swiftly over the brush, trying to avoid the cacti she’d come to loathe. Nearing the vehicle, she pulled the brim of her hat down in an attempt to shield her eyes from the sun and spoke promptly, What is it?

Taking a deep breath, his broad Navajo chest lifted high before speaking, We need to leave now. Immediately, the seriousness of his eyes completed the statement.

Okay, but what’s the problem?

Rain.

Rain? she asked perplexedly and continued, What are you talking about? There’s not a cloud in sight! she said, nearly laughing.

Doesn’t matter, he replied like a rock unwilling to budge.

You’re being ridiculous Falcon, she said with her hands on her hips, There’s no way I’m leaving until these samples are finished for the day.

We’ll all be finished if we don’t leave right now, he replied plainly with determination. It was, in reality, a matter of fact.

For as many years as humans had inhabited the area that made up much of the southwestern United States, there had been dry and wet seasons. Presently, the team at Brackman ridge had enjoyed working through the dawns and dusks of the desert during the summer months. That particular summer had been entirely dry for a period that was soon approaching nine weeks. Without a cloud in the sky, there was no reason for any of them to imagine something as foreign as a rainstorm in the desert.

Hearing the conversation, Roman turned his attention to the commotion and asked, You’re talking about a flood?

A big one, The Navajo man replied. Thinking of the similarities and if she didn’t know any better, Jasmine supposed Falcon and Roman could have been brothers, despite their ethnicity.

Having spent his youth on the Najavo reservation, Falcon was happy to have settled to the northeast in Kanab, well outside of the reservation. Finding work was easy having graduated magna cum laude, though he spent little time reflecting on his past. He found a niche in geology and for the better part of his adult life had enjoyed working in the outdoors, in the land that was dear to him.

Didn’t we think about that when we choose this spot? Jasmine asked incredulously.

Falcon took another deep breath and replied, Yes, we did.

So, we have perfectly clear skies and a great location which hasn’t seen rain for months, Jasmine couldn’t stop the tirade surge of thoughts from forming, And… she paused for moment to purse her lips and squint her eyes, "we picked this location with the knowledge that if it did rain, there certainly wouldn’t be any irregular flows in this area," she finished the thought in a single breath.

We’ve had this site for years without a problem, Roman added. Why would it be any different now? he asked, fearing the answer he knew would be coming. Unless… he trailed off and looked toward the cliff, "unless there were