The Secret of the Stones (15 page)

“Almost
a third of the Cherokee, including John Ross’s wife, died on the way to
Oklahoma in the bitter winter of 1838-1839.”
 
Joe gave a grim chuckle, “Ironically, the three men who
signed the Echota Treaty allowing for the relocation were later murdered the
same way McIntosh was by the Creek ten years prior.”

Allyson
looked perplexed.
 
“Why did the
Indians need to be moved in the first place?”

Leaning
back, he crossed his legs and folded his hands.
 
“Excellent question.
 
The Cherokee had, essentially, become a part of society in the United
States.
 
They lived in homes
designed like the whites, dressed in the modern European styles, and ran a
system of government much like a democracy.
 
The Cherokee were a civilized part of America.
 
But the white settlers had discovered
something for which Conquistadors and explorers had searched for centuries.”

“Gold,”
Sean realized aloud.

“You
got it.
 
A vein of the stuff was
found down in what is now Dahlonega, ‘bout an hour from here.
 
Once that was discovered, the young
government needed no other reason.
 
Of course, they claimed that the area was overcrowded to justify their
actions, but the plain truth of it was that those innocent people were brutally
murdered and herded out of their homes like animals so that the search for more
gold could continue.”

“And
once the Dahlonega mines had been found, the probability of the El Dorado
legend became much more viable,” Sean rationalized.

“Bingo,”
he replied, spreading his arms out across the back of the couch.
 
“And there is one more piece to this
legend that you should know about.
 

“When
my dad was just a boy, he and a few friends were playing in the woods
forty-five minutes northeast of here, about ten miles from the Vann house.
 
They were running around in the hills
when suddenly, they happened upon a cave.
 
Boys never really have a good sense of fear, so the three of them
decided to go inside and take a look around.
 
What they discovered was astounding.
 
The cavern wasn’t natural; it had been
carved out of the rock by human hands.
 
Within the giant chamber, a large stone table sat in the center.
 
As the boys’ eyes adjusted to the
darkness, they could see carvings in the stone that encircled the room on the
wall just below the ceiling.”

Mystified,
Allyson asked, “What did the carvings say?”

“Well,
the boys ran back into town and told their parents about what they had
found.
 
The kids took their
families back to the cave to show them the strange site.
 
A few “experts” were brought in to
investigate, including an old Cherokee man who had returned to the area decades
before.
 
He was brought in to see
if he could interpret the writing on the stone.
 

“As
the old man read the inscription, his eyes grew wide and his face took on a
troubled look.
 
He urged the
families to leave the premises quickly and claimed they were all in great
danger.
 
After exiting the cave, the
group stood around outside the entrance, uncertain what was going on.
 
My grandfather was there along with my
dad.
 
Grandpappy asked the old
Indian what the carvings meant and what the danger was.
 

“The
Indian’s reply was grim, ‘It says the white man will never take our gold and
for those who try, death awaits.’”

“What
does that mean?”
 
Sean interrupted
the story.
 
“What was going to kill
them?”

“I’m
not sure.
 
All I know is that old
Indian was scared out of his wits.
 
Musta been something pretty bad.”

“So
what did everyone do?”
 
Allyson
rejoined the conversation.

“Well,
Allyson, they went back to their homes and started making phone calls.
 
Many of the locals wanted to excavate
the site and bring in archaeologists to study the room.
 
The funny thing is the whole area was
fenced off about a week later by the government.
 
Even stranger than that, the following year, a damn was
built nearby and the land was flooded.
 
That cave is somewhere at the bottom of what is called Carter’s Lake
now. ”

“What
happened to the Indian translator?
 
Did he stick around long?”
 
Sean asked.

“He
died a few months later; I think they said it was a heart attack or something
like that.
 
Can’t remember.
 
It’s a little odd, but the guy was old
so it was bound to happen at some point, I suppose.”

Silence
fell on the room as the facts and the strange sequence of events settled
in.
 
Suddenly, the telephone rang
in the kitchen, disrupting the moment and startling all three of them.
 
“I should get that.
 
It’s probably Evelyn.
 
She went to her mother’s tonight.
 
I’ll be right back.
 
Ya’ll need anything else?”

“No,
we’re good, Mac,” Sean answered for the both of them as his friend jumped up
and took off toward the kitchen.
 

In
the other room, they heard him answer the phone, “Hey honey.”
 
Then his voice trailed off in a
discussion about her staying at her mother’s for the night.

Sean
turned to Allyson as he lounged further into the soft material of the sofa,
“What do you think?”

“The
whole story is fascinating.
 
It’s a
lot to digest.”
 
She looked
thoughtfully into her empty cup.
 

He
couldn’t help but stare at her for a moment then, as her head lifted slightly,
he caught himself and averted his eyes.

“Yeah,
I just hope Joe can help us find Tommy.”
 
He picked up the conversation again.

“Alright,
what were you saying about me?
 
I
know I just heard my name.”
 
Their
host returned to the living room with a smile on his face.
 
Sean was glad his friend had come back
in time to end the awkward moment.

Allyson
smiled.
 
“Sean was just saying that
if anyone could help us find Tommy, it would be you.”
 

His
face took on a serious expression.
 
“We’ll find him, buddy, and whoever is behind all of this.”
 
He gave his friend a sincere nod.
 

Another
thoughtful moment went by before Allyson spoke up again. “So what happened to
Joseph Vann and his family when the Cherokee were moved to Oklahoma?”

“Glad
you remembered.”
 
Joe collapsed
back into his spot on the couch.
 
“Vann and his family relocated to Oklahoma and picked up right where
they left off.
 
Of course, losing
all of their land in Georgia hurt, but it needs to be noted that the forced
move did not hurt the Vanns nearly as much as the rest of the Cherokee
population.
 
The family prospered
in Oklahoma almost as much as it had in Georgia.”

“How
is that possible?
 
Was Joseph just
a better businessman than the rest of his fellow tribesmen?”
 
Sean was interested.

“Possibly.
 
There isn’t anything concrete, but
there is an interesting end to the Vann story.
 
A hundred and twenty years later, in 1958, the Vann house
was turned into a state historic site.
 

“A
year or so after that, four dark-skinned men walked into the old manor one
day.
 
The park’s curator offered to
give them a tour, but they said nothing. They simply walked by and went
directly to the fireplace.
 
The
park ranger watched as the men knelt down and started removing some of the
bricks from the back of the chimney.
 
Mesmerized, he stared as the strangers reached into a secret compartment
and began removing gold bars from the hole.”

“Gold
bars like the ones at the waterfall?”
 
Allyson could barely contain her curiosity.
 

“Exactly
the same, and with similar carvings on them as well.
 
We can only assume that the symbols the state worker saw as
the men walked out were identical to the ones that were discovered in the
waterfall cave.”
 

Sean
piped in, “So you think that the Vanns had some of that gold when they
left?”
 

“It
would certainly make sense as to how they were able to keep up the type of
lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.”

Allyson
wasn’t sure.
 
“If the Vanns did
have a bunch of Cherokee gold, how did they transport it to Oklahoma without it
being seized by the army?”

“You
really must be a great journalist, Miss Webster, to ask all the right questions
like that.”
 
Joe gave her a quick
wink, causing her to blush momentarily.
 

“To
answer, yes, transporting any amount of gold would have been a difficult task
not only from the point of keeping its existence unknown to the army, but also
from a logistical front.
 
They had
few wagons and were certainly under constant supervision from the soldiers who
were escorting them west.”

“Well,
how’d they do it then?”
 
She was on
the edge of her seat.

“I
think most of the gold remained right here in the state of Georgia, hidden in a
secret location.
 
Only a select few
would be able to interpret all of the clues that would lead to the larger deposits.
 
That being said, the Cherokee still
must have taken quite a bit of the loot with them as they went west.”

“Yeah,”
she was becoming impatient, so she asked the question again.
 
“So, how did they move so much gold
without getting caught?”

McElroy
scooped up the empty coffee cups and started to make his way to the kitchen
with them.
 
“Tell me something, you
two.
 
How much do you know about
Mormons?”

Chapter
24

Georgia
Mountains

Tommy
sat defiantly at the breakfast table, arms crossed.
 
His two guards stood on either side of him, anxious and
uncertain.
 
It had been about
thirty minutes since the bigger guard had called Ulrich and requested that he
return to the mansion immediately.
 
After being dragged inside, Tommy had refused to do anything else except
for pulling up a website about lost worlds.
 
Once that was done, he simply sat there until they had
telephoned their boss.

“You
better not be toying with us,” the smaller guard remarked in his almost
unintelligible accent.

Tommy
replied with a sarcastic smile, which only seemed to anger the man even
more.
 

Sounds
of dogs barking came suddenly from somewhere else in the building.
 
A few moments later, the tall blonde
man burst through the door, dressed in an expensive looking suit like he had
just stepped out of the pages of GQ.
 
“Jeez, man!”
 
Tommy laughed,
“You just come from a wedding or something?  Kinda late to be dressed like
that isn’t it?”

Ignoring
the question, Ulrich strode purposefully towards the table.
 
He stopped a few feet away, produced a black
handgun from his pocket, and pointed it at the insolent prisoner.
 
“Why are you not working?”

Having
a gun pointed at him seemed less unsettling every time it happened.
 
Apparently, Tommy was getting used to
it.
 
“Put that thing away, man.
 
Last thing you need right now is to
accidentally shoot the guy who just figured out where the next clue is.”
 
His demeanor remained cool as Ulrich’s
icy blue eyes searched him for the truth.

Ulrich
didn’t lower the weapon.
 
“If you
are lying to me in the hope that someone is going to come to your rescue, you
will be sorely disappointed.”

Unwavering,
Tommy unfolded his arms and spun the laptop around so that the screen faced the
man with the gun.
 
“Track Rock near
Brasstown Bald,” he said triumphantly.

He
lowered the gun slightly as he glared at the computer screen that displayed
photos of some large boulders, each one riddled with odd symbols and shapes
painted on them.
 
The giant stones
were surrounded by crude, steel cages.
 
Eyebrows furrowed, Ulrich inquired, “What am I looking at?”
 
His voice had grown slightly less
menacing.

“What
you are looking at is a place called Track Rock.”
 
Tommy repeated the name then added, “It’s the only spot that
makes sense.”

“You
are certain?”
 
The gun lowered a
little more, though the killer was still alert.
 

“Dude,
I’m sure.”

“How
are you so positive this is the right place?”

“Okay,
let me explain it to you,” Tommy said in an exasperated voice.
 
“First of all, I’ve been sitting here
all night with the Cosmonaut twins searching every friggin’ possible place in
the world.”
 
The two Russians
turned their heads giving each other a confused shrug.
 
“Secondly, you have to understand the
context of the riddle.”

“Tell
me,” Ulrich said as he came around the edge of the table, leaning in closer to
the monitor.
 
The gun was now
hanging unthreateningly at his side.

Tommy
was a little put off by the man’s lack of awareness of personal space, but he
went on nonetheless.
 
“The riddle
says that the stones will mark your path and that of the chariots of heaven,
right?”

A
quick nod was all he received.

“Right…So,
we went outside for a minute,” Ulrich’s head turned quickly to the guards, eyes
flashing in anger.
 
The two
subordinates didn’t offer an excuse.
 
They just stood there trying to look professional.

“Take
it easy,” Tommy came to their defense.
 
“I was getting sleepy, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
 
I just asked them if they would take me
outside for some fresh air for a minute.
 
They were both with me the entire time.”

His
explanation seemed to be satisfactory and Ulrich’s attention came back to the
matter at hand.
 
Tommy began again,
“So we were outside when I saw a shooting star.
 
That’s when I realized the answer.”

“A
shooting star?”
 
Ulrich sounded
unsure.

“Yeah,
a shooting star.
 
You know, a
meteor?
 
Streak of light that goes
across the sky?”
 

A
nod again told Tommy that the guy knew what he was talking about.
 
“Anyway, that’s when I realized what
the riddle meant by chariots of the heavens. The real meaning behind that
phrase comes from many different pagan mythologies.
 
Chariots were considered to be not only a powerful weapon,
but an honorable mode of transportation.
 
Kings and generals used them not only for ease of movement, but as
symbols of their greatness.
 
In
many ancient cultures, it was considered an honor to be in the chariot corps of
a royal army.
 
So, it was only
natural that the religious leaders of the time wanted their gods to look both
powerful and yet relate them to a high human position.
 
Imagine if you were a child growing up
in ancient Egypt and you saw a shooting star flash through the sky.
 
Every single child was probably told
that it was one of their gods on his chariot, coming to aide a human on earth.
 
It was a better story than Santa
Claus.”

“Interesting,
Thomas.
 
But what does any of this
have to do with the place you are showing me on the computer?

“It
has everything to do with it.”
 
He
pointed to the screen with an open hand.
 
“Brasstown is the only place on the continent that even comes close to
having anything remotely similar to what is described in the riddle.”

“And
why is that?”

“Because
it’s the only location in this part of the world that has large stones with
what many historians believe to be a significant celestial event recorded on
them.”
 
He threw up his hands.
 

His
hand moved back to the computer screen in an effort to describe the picture the
man was seeing.
 
“These symbols
right here are constellations.
 
But
the other stuff that appears all over the rock face, those are some kind of
anomaly.
 
The only explanation
would be some kind of occurrence such as a meteor shower.
 
Seems like the early settlers in the
land felt the need to document whatever it was that happened.”

“Where
is this place, this Brasstown?”

“It’s
a little over an hour northeast of here, up in the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

Ulrich
seemed to contemplate what Tommy had presented.
 
Schultz was a renowned historian of ancient cultures.
 
Surely, he had found the answer to the
riddle.
 
Still, something made him
hesitate.
 
“What about the birds in
the riddle, the raven and the dove?
 
Do you have an explanation for that?”

For
a moment, Tommy thought about making up some kind of story with the birds, but
he decided to go with the truth for now.
 
“Honestly, no.
 
Best I can
figure is that the raven and the dove are a separate part of the puzzle.”

“Separate?”
 
It was a good sign that his captor
wasn’t too upset by the lack of an answer.

“Yeah.
 
You see, throughout history, most
riddles, maps, clues, whatever you want to call them, have all had one thing in
common: duality.
 
At least, every
single thing like this that I have ever come across has had that feature.
 
There is either more than one meaning
to a riddle, or it is two separate mysteries combined into one.”

“So
what do you suggest we do?”

Finally,
a little respect.
 
“I say we go up
to Brasstown and check out the site.
 
My guess is, whatever is there will point us in the right direction.”

Ulrich
sat, considering what to do for a minute.
 
“Get the truck ready,” he finally said to the shorter guard.
 

The
man nodded and quickly exited the room.

“I
hope, Thomas, that you are correct.”
 
He raised the gun back up until the cold, black barrel was pressed
firmly against Tommy’s temple.
 
“Because
if you are trying anything funny, you know what I will do.”