THE HEART OF ENKI

By Mary Travis

William Styles stared at the headline and tried to dispel the sliver of fear without much success. The articles found on the third or fourth page of the newspaper was hardly front page news in a world where German nationalism was growing out of control and German Jews were fleeing the country in droves. The country was still in the midst of an economic disaster it was still trying to claw its way out of and even with the President's promise to put people back to work, America had much better things to occupy itself with than a foreign curiosity that was of interest only to history buffs or treasure hunters.

Tossing the paper aside, he tried not to think about the ramifications of that headline and knew he would not sleep tonight. As it was, the last six months had become an exercise in insomnia. The twilight hours saw him tossing and turning, unable to fall into a good, restful sleep because he feared the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head would finally drop. An old man shouldn't be afraid to die and yet he was. He was terrified.

Back in his youth, he had been fearless. Of their quartet, William was the one who encouraged the others to embark on their often ill-thought adventures. Donald Avery of Donnie as he was known to his friends, would tsk tsk at him and try to offer a more reasoned course of action but in the end William, who was handsome and charismatic won their companions over. Henry 'Hank' Conley would shrug and shift anxiously, adjusting the spectacles on the bridge of his nose before finally agreeing to it. This would lead into Orin Travis slapping him on the back and praising him for his sense of adventure.

Now only he and Orin remained and if they came for him, the burden of being the last would fall to Orin. He did not want to die but with the headline in the newspaper, their coming was inevitable.

Hank died six months ago, although some would say he had been gone for longer. The man's spirit had been broken years ago when his daughter and grandson were killed in a fire. Hank had been treading water ever since then. While there was every reason to assume Hank's fall down the stairs could have been simply an accident, William was not that certain.

Orin, who was always the practical one among them, told him he was being silly but then Orin always kept his head better than all of them. It was Orin who pulled him back when he was behaving recklessly. Even if Hank's death wasn't the cause of old age or foul play, William knew his death would almost certainly be an act of murder. In fact, he was rather surprised, they hadn't come for him already. Perhaps, they would try for Orin first. In any case it didn't matter, they would still be coming.

With the Heart found, they could do nothing else.

With the discovery of the Heart, everything changed. The four friends who once went to Arabia on a treasure hunting expedition had gone blundering into the ancient world, without any idea what mysteries they were in danger of unleashing on the world. Like entitled Americans of their generation, they sailed across the sea, seeking adventure while intoxicated with tales of ancient cities and buried treasure. Not one of them spared a thought to their act of desecration as they planned to plunder the relics of civilisations ancient when Caesar crossed the Rubicon.

Embarking on an expedition with Sir John Evans who was going to Mesopotamia to make mineral surveys, to four young men, it sounded like the journey of a lifetime. Since none were married and all were in possession of a good fortune, it seemed like just the thing to occupy their attention until it was time to come home and take up the responsibilities of life.

What they found, was the ancient city of Ur, used for almost 4000 years as a necropolis.

There was treasure to go around as they looted the ancient corpses, laden with jewelry and gold, completely oblivious to the sacrilege they were committing because they were young and foolish. Then, in a chamber so secret even when the city was young, they found a temple. In it was the mummified corpse of a priest of no religion they recognised, though their guide claimed it was the false gods who ruled the world before Muhammad. Dating to the Sasanian Empire, the crypt in which the priest was entombed, came with four slot for storage at each corner. It was Donnie who broke open one first and discovered what was inside.

Ironically, it was also Donnie who also died first.

They each claimed the booty of a slot, which ended up being an ancient cylinder containing a cryptex. Each cryptex was sealed, only to be opened when a final missing piece was found - the Heart. Once opened, it was claimed the cryptices contained knowledge to destroy the world. All four men scoffed at this and their guide shrugged away the indifference of Americans. Sailing home, without a care in the world, they returned to their lives in the four corners of America, meeting yearly during summer and winter to catch up oon old times and relive past glories.

Two years after they returned, Donnie died.

Someone broke into his home and slit his throat, taking the cryptex. Donnie had been a father for less than six months, leaving alone his wife Eleanor with a young daughter named Julia. Only then, did the danger became real to them, if not the superstition around it, and they took steps to protect the cryptex in their possession. William didn't believe in prophecy but the fanatics who killed Donnie did and so each man hid the cryptices and were ever vigilant after.

They never spoke of the artifacts again, not even in private when they saw each other. When Hank passed six months ago, William assumed it was an accident until he realised the place where Hank stored his cryptex was broken into and the object stolen. Whoever murdered Donnie was still searching for the rest of the cryptices.

Now he understood why. The Heart was found.

William who became an expert in the cryptices the ancients called Pillars, knew what this meant. The fanatics would be on the move again and while it might be superstition compelling them to fulfil their god Erran's bidding, William could not be so sure. Writing to his daughter Alexandra, presently at university in Pennsylvania, he told her his sorry tale and hoped if anything happened to him, she would know what to do.

More importantly, she had to ensure his piece of the puzzle would never fall into the hands of the fanatics who would use the cryptices to uncreate the world.