Mutt Jones was not pleased. He had received a letter today from his father, and he scowled as he hunched down lower on his motorcycle, the words running through his head as he cut through the wind.
Dear Junior,
Look after this painting, it's very valuable and I don't want it falling into the wrong hands. I'm in a bit of trouble and I don't want your mother to worry, so I sent it to you, don't follow me.
Sincerely,
Your Father
Mutt looked at the small painting strapped to the back of his Harley and scowled. He recognized it, and he knew whatever his father had gotten himself into was bad, really, really bad. He had not spent the last 10 years trying to live in his father's footsteps for nothing.
He had gone back to school and went to college. He had studied archeology and history, he had learned the dead languages and been to ancient ruins. But he hadn't been on an adventure like the one his father had taken him on all those years ago. Adventure seemed to follow his father where ever he went, the really crazy adventures seemed to happen every 10 years or so.
But he had been forced to save his adventuresome dad only a few months ago from some cannibals in the Amazon. It wasn't fair, and now he had to go save him again, but at least this one was more exciting then fending off the FBI.
They had been trying to hire Mutt for months now, and would probably chain him to a desk, making him translate stolen transmissions from around the globe. He craved adventure, he just wished that he didn't need his father to do it.
He knew his father was in China, and somewhere in the Lintong district. The painting was very distinctive, but not actually worth much, except as a curiosity that someone might have acquired on their travels.
I didn't know what it had to do with dad's disappearance, but I knew I was going to find out. I had heard about Dad's and Grandpa's crazy adventures, and I wanted my life to be like theirs, instead of the eternal tag-along.
I know the letter said not to follow him, but surely he know that if he writes something like that then I'll go after him all the faster. It was uncannily similar to the stories dad had told me about how he had found the holy grail. Grandpa had sent him the book and he had followed. He was too old to be going on these crazy adventures anymore, and one day it would kill him, which would kill mom.
I thought back to our last grand adventure, and I thought of Ox, rest his soul. There was one man I would miss, he taught me more about history then any other professor, except maybe my father. I could still hear his voice sometimes, right before I fell asleep.
A thought popped up into my head, what if it wasn't the painting that was valuable, maybe it was hidden in the painting, or under the painting. Father had been chasing an old Chinese legend for the past 8 years. The legend of the First Emperor of China, Ch'in Shi.
It was rumored that he had been buried in jade and was sent floating in a lake of mercury, inside of his massive underground burial pyramid, and somewhere inside of that pyramid was the meaning of life, and the means for immortality.
So, I supposed that I was heading for China, and another crazy adventure with dad in it's very center. But first, I was going to investigate that painting.