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They never bothered trying to explain how Acres made it into the country without a ticket on a plane or a boat.
2
I didn't like his tone much.
3
But they speculated all through the trial about where the gold came from, offered me deals.
3
The prosecution liked the idea that Acres was my smuggler's mule.
1
I was a one man gold cartel in the news.
3
"So you sure you're not a cop, Charles?"
0
I'm just wondering what they'll think when they open that vault in Kentucky.
2
And I still wonder why Charles picked me?
3
But mostly, I'm wondering what will happen when I try to make those gestures, that "device" right here in my cell?
2
Acres said it was dangerous, but maybe I could find my way back to the mound or Easter Island even.
2
I figure it can't be worse than the lethal injection that's waiting for me at dawn.
2
I stared him down until he flinched.
3
I don't really believe I'll make it or I wouldn't say a thing.
2
But if I do make it, it won't matter what I tell you, because there won't be a jail that can hold me.
2
Wish me luck.
2
I out of here.
0
As I did, I noticed just how tired he looked around the eyes.
3
Charlie Boy had been working hard lately, I figured.
3
'm not a cop
0
He sighed and went on in softer, sadder voice, "I guess I'm a thief now."
2
I looked around.
0
Charles might be for real, but he was still going to get me in deep trouble.
2
Let's make real clear right now that you were joking, buddy.
3
Otherwise this conversation is over.
2
I've got a parole officer to explain things to, and he wouldn't like that kinda talk.
2
Right.
0
Right.
3
Sorry.
2
Charles looked out the window at the passing traffic push through dirty slush for awhile.
0
Like I was saying.
3
I'm a researcher, I've come into some valuable material that I would like to find a buyer for, and I don't want to have to explain myself to anyone.
3
He said he had a "business proposition" for me.
1
The pie came and I waited until the waitress was gone, before going on, "Why me?"
2
You were the first person who came to mind.
0
First person?
0
Twenty years out of high school?
3
How much of this 'valuable material' are we talking about?
3
Four Hundred ounces for a start.
0
Four Hundred.
0
I pulled out my palm phone and looked up a number.
3
That's alot.
3
I'm staying in town.
1
Let me show you something.
0
I thought about it and made a quick call, just telling a buddy that I was "postponing our meeting," for a couple of hours, meaning he should come looking for me if I didn't show up.
2
He sounded surprised and said no, he needed me to help him get rid of "a large quantity of gold."
2
Charles might not look like much, but I hadn't made it through my life taking that kind of chance.
3
I put away the cell and used the motion to cover checking the knife in my sleeve and used one leg to check the other in my sock.
3
I had been an amateur magician for years.
0
One of my best tricks was pulling a knife out of thin air.
0
It never failed to amaze.
1
Sure.
0
Let's go," I said.
3
There was only one chair, so I sat on the edge of the bed as he handed me a book open to a picture of some sort of stone tablet.
1
Rapa Nui," he said, "Easter Island.
0
This codex is one of the few remaining examples of a form of writing known as 'rongorongo.
0
For a long time no one was able to decipher it, although by deduction, Steven Fischer deciphered some of it in nineteen ninety four.
0
I told him I'd meet him for coffee at the diner down the street at seven.
3
But he ignored the inscriptions on skulls and the 'Birdman' statuette.
0
I didn't see much money in hieroglyphic porn.
1
He talked on about people with long ears who built the big statues, the "moai" and people with short ears who conquered the people with long ears and ate them and how the short eared people didn't really know the secrets of the long ears and had pulled down all the moai statues and destroyed some of the tablets.
2
And how the missionaries came and the converted natives had destroyed more.
0
He flipped pages to another image, "But notice something here in the arrangement of the moai.
3
See here how they form a pattern, very similar to this?
3
He pulled out a small leather diary and opened it to a yellowed page marked with yet another small sticky note.
0
There was an ink drawing and writing in a tiny neat hand that I couldn't read from where I sat.
1
he was already there, sitting in a booth, warming his hands on a cup of coffee.
1
This is the diary of a mysterious explorer named Samuel Curlew who investigated a Mound Builder site in this area in the early eighteen hundreds.
1
He closed the little book and just about hugged it with satisfaction.
1
I want to show you that mound.
3
You know it was these very mounds that originally sparked my interest in history, archeology and then linguistics.
1
And this mound is where you found gold?
2
Was this some crazy treasure hunt?
2
Or maybe this guy was just a wacko who wanted to take me out on a dark road and kill me.
2
No, it's more complicated than that, but I need to show you the mound for you to understand.
3
He looked like jerked meat on the bone.
2
The drawings and the books seemed to wake him up.
2
He was smiling now and his eyes weren't so tired.
1
I was having serious cash flow issues back then and had payments to make, so I said, "yes," but my patience was running out.
2
Charles Acres called me on a Thursday afternoon, just like that.
1
It was dark as we left.
0
The drive was shorter than I expected.
1
He was wearing a new jacket and snow boots, but he had on a Hawaiian shirt underneath and khaki shorts of all things.
3
When he killed the headlights there was no light but moonlight and stars on a light dusting of snow.
3
A low, black hill blocked the sky right in front of us.
0
We spent the next hour stomping around the hill while he said things like, "it was right here."
0
My patience was long gone, and I was back in the car to warming up when Acres tapped on the window and told me he had found whatever he was looking for.
2
We trudged back up the hill and he led me to little patch of ground with a stick poking up from it.
3
It looked like a bamboo walking stick.
0
"This is it," he leaned down and motioned for me to look at something on the ground.
3
I casually slid a knife into my palm just in case.
3
See how the lines form the pattern in the journal, the same one as the moai.
2
"So you drew this?" I asked vaguely, slow to catch on.
2
So you drew this?
1
He looked hurt and rapped on the ground with his finger.
2
It's stone.
3
Ancient.
0
For the first time he looked cold and stiff in his tourist gear, making me glad I was in a suit.
3
His tan was obviously deep and old, but it looked like a work tan, not the kind you get at the beach.
0
Here stand beside me," he said.
0
I'm not sure if I can take you with me so I need to show you the device.
3