CHAPTER 5: ALEC DURENGEO

Jardin had never woken to a more miserable morning then the following day. His clothes were still slightly damp, and on top of that, they were frigid as well. His back was stiff, his fingers and toes numb, and his body riddled with small sticks, rocks, and leaves. Turning over, he glanced at Romo, who fared similarly. His entire face was blackened with dirt smudges and bruises, save a line below each of his eyes where his tears had washed the filth away. Giving his friend a gentle shove to the shoulder, he said with a gravelly voice, "Get up, Romo. Time to go."

Romo stirred and groaned, running his hand across his forehead.

"Oohhh, my head. How long will it take us to get down the mountain?"

"I guess, at best, we could make it down in a good three or four hours. We seem to have put a lot of miles between us and the border last night."

"The sooner we get away from this hellish place the better," Romo glowered. "Let's go."

Picking themselves up and wincing at sore muscles, Jardin and Romo walked slowly down the barely visible path. They were thankful they had chocobos for the trip up, as the trail down was extremely steep. The mountain forests rushed past them, and soon the air was considerably warmer. After about an hour, the path became steeper yet, and Jardin and Romo couldn't help but run. Thus, only two hours had passed when they found themselves wandering into a large grass field.

"Well, where do we go?" asked Romo.

Jardin spun around twice in bewilderment. He had expected to find a road, not plains. As he rubbed his eyes for another look about, he realized that this was not a plain, but a huge plantation field.

"Romo, I think we need a rest. This is an alfalfa field! There's probably a farm over those hills."

They walked briskly over the fields. The soft soil proved to be much easier on their tired feet then the rocky mountain trail. Soon they had traversed the hills and, sure enough, a huge barn and mansion-like home lay around one hundred yards away. Over to the west was a large tobacco field, and to the east was a wheat field of similar size. They ran to the farmhouse, and Romo stepped up to the door, knocking softly.

In a matter of moments, an attractive, slender, young woman with braided brown hair answered the knock. She wore a simple blue dress with an apron over it.

"Hello-" began Romo.

"Good lord! What happened to you two? Come inside at once!"

They followed her into an enormous parlor, decorated charmingly but modestly with large widows complimented by red drapes, a leather couch, cedar coffee table, and three oak bookshelves filled with books. The woman led them to the couch where she motioned them to sit.

"Could you get the owner of this house please?" asked Jardin as he reclined.

"Oh, but I am the owner."

Jardin immediately blushed in embarrassment. "Oh.errrrr. well, that is."

The young woman laughed. " I know I appear to be a bit young, and that I'm dressed in simple clothes that aren't befitting of the size of the place, but I hate having people wait on me, and I despise the latest women's fashions. I am my uncle's heiress, and when he died, I received his plantation. I have workers who care for the plantation, and I keep things up in the house. My name is Isabelle."

Jardin cracked an embarrassed smiled, and said, "Well, in that case, let me tell you our problem. We have come through battle and death seeking a certain Alec Durengeo. Do you know where he is?"

"Alec. Alec. hmm. I can't say I know him, but Durengeo is a famous name. Their estate was in the middle of a desert not terribly far from here. The master of the estate was an archeologist," she said thoughtfully, stroking her chin. "I suppose I could take you there in my carriage." "Really, we couldn't trouble you-"

"No, I'd be happy to take you. I have nothing else to do today," she retorted, then added with a giggle, "provided you bathe."

She first led Romo upstairs to a tub, showing him where to draw the water, and after she made sure he was comfortable, she did the same with Jardin. In her bathrooms she kept a white cauldron full of water, which was reboiled twice a day. Besides that and the tub, however, there was little else in the room. The entire chamber was white- it was painted white, the floor was tiled with white tiles, and the cauldron and tub were white. It seemed that Jardin and Romo had come at just the right time, when the water had cooled to a perfect temperature after the reheating. As Jardin sank his aching body into the steaming water, he breathed a long sigh of relief. He didn't know why this lady was treating perfect strangers so kindly, but she very well may have saved their lives.

After the two-hour bath, he walked over to find his next surprise- clean clothes and polished armor and weapons. She must have cleaned them and slipped them in quietly, and since the wall jutted out between the tub and bathroom entrance, leaving only a door-sized entryway to the tub, he couldn't have seen her.

Until now, Jardin had taken for granted the glorious feeling of putting on a clean shirt, or the simple beauty of a well polished, dependable piece of armor. The pinnacle of the moment, however, came when he drew Excalibur. What a beautiful weapon it was! The blade appeared to be fashioned out of flawless crystal, but Jardin knew that it was made of a substance much harder. The blade traveled a full three feet before meeting the gold plated hilt, which was speckled with various gems. A strip of black leather had been wound around the hilt to prevent it from slipping from grip. Jardin marveled at the light weight and razor edge a moment before sheathing and girding it.

As Jardin strapped the various plates and ring mail of his armor onto his torso, he heard a soft knock on the door.

"Come in," said Jardin cheerfully.

Isabelle walked in and said with a smile, "Ahh, good. You're done too. Well, if you want, we can start for the Durengeo estate now." With that, she turned and walked to the door.

"Wait a minute," shot Jardin quickly. "I hope you won't find this rude, but why are you help us, two complete strangers?"

Isabelle turned slowly around, and looked him straight in the eye. "When I was a young girl," she began, "I was not in the state of luxury that I'm in now. I was the daughter of a homeless widower, and every day we'd go out to beg in the streets. When I was twelve, my father died. If it weren't for my "Uncle", a rich plantation owner who found me and brought me in, I would have starved. So, I've decided to pass on the favor to those who need refuge."

She then turned, as if once again seized with grief by her childhood tragedies, and left.

After a quick lunch of bread and soup, Jardin and Romo met Isabelle at the front door. A chocobo drawn carriage was ready and waiting. The brick red carriage was quite large, and looked very comfortable. Jardin, Romo, and Isabelle climbed in, and the drive gave a shake of the reigns, causing the chocobos to start a light gallop.

The inside of the carriage consisted of two cushioned benches two yards in length. Two sizable windows on each side kept the interior well lit, and a few small cuts in the wood kept it ventilated. Jardin and Romo sat down on the right bench, while Isabelle sat across from them on the left.

"It will be a few hours before we reach Durengeo manor. I suggest you sleep," said Isabelle, before she followed her own advice and reclined on her bench, turning toward the wall of the carriage.

Romo followed suit, but Jardin found the constant bumps and jolts of the carriage to be to much of a disturbance, and instead watched the scenery. That proved to be rather boring as well- there was nothing to see except a few green hills and pine trees. Slowly, however the trees became fewer and fewer, and the grass receded into rough, rock-filled terrain. Sand soon appeared, gradually swallowing the rocks with it's golden waves. Finally, the carriage stopped.

The three hobbled out, and Isabelle drew a shocked gasp. The blackened frame of a large house stood, and in it's center was a small shack.

"What happened here?" wondered Isabelle. "Do you want to go back?"

"No," answered Jardin resolutely. "You go on back, we'll be fine here."

Isabelle seemed reluctant to leave them at first, but finally she got in her carriage and drove off into the horizon.

Jardin walked toward the shack, when abruptly he became aware of something pulling at his leg. At the same time, a loud clanging of metal was heard. Looking at his leg, he found a near invisible wire of about one hundred yards in length, held taut by a stake at each end. One end of the wire lead into the shack, where the noise was coming from. Jardin stepped over the wire and walked closer, when suddenly, a grim voice stopped him.

"Stay right there, you @#$#%! I've got a pair of clackers aimed at your heads, and unless having your brain matter splattered on desert rocks is your idea of fun, I suggest you do what I say."

Jardin and Romo both gave a start, but did as they were commanded.

"Ummm." shouted Jardin, perplexed. "We're looking for Alec Durengeo. We want him to take a look at an artifact we have."

The shack door suddenly burst open, and a young man, pointing a pair of strange bronze objects at them, walked out cautiously. He looked to be about eighteen or nineteen, with blue eyes and light brown hair combed backwards except for two large tufts which fell across either side of his face, and was dressed in a simple black shirt and dusty brown pants. He wore a pair of mythril greaves from the knees down, and over everything was a brown leather trench coat, which hung open. Jardin thought he could see signs of some light armor under the shirt, but he was not sure.

The young man eyed them up and down suspiciously. "Hmmm, your Ivalicians, or I'm a moogle!" he said, grinning. "Sorry for the hostile welcome, but I've been having trouble with most visitors lately. I'm Alec Durengeo, and you are?"

"YOU'RE Alec Durengeo? The artifact specialist?" gaped Jardin incredulously.

"Uh, yeah. Who else would I be?"

"B-but. You're younger then me! I was expecting a patriarchal old scholar! "

"Well," Alec responded, drawling slowly for effect. "A wise man once said, 'Looks may belay the man'. If you want, I could tell you all about your weapons and armor as well. Wanna know how I knew you came from Ivalice? Your armor- the way the metal is hammered just so- unmistakable work of the great Ivalician blacksmith Hugurd Rempall. But since now, in his old age, he only makes occasional armor for high ranking Ivalice soldiers, and that armor doesn't look all that old."

Jardin stared in dumbfounded amazement. At the most, this kid couldn't have been a day over twenty, and yet he knew more about armor then he could hope to learn in thirty years.

Alec read his amazement and grinned, saying, "Some say I'm a prodigy- after all, I am only eighteen- and who am I to deny it? But when you have all the literature you'd ever need to instruct you, and all the time in the world, you catch on pretty fast. Here, why don't we go in and get out of the heat?"

The three walked over to the shack and entered. Once again, this proved to be a justified reason for another case of stupefaction. Inside the large shack were the most unusual odds and ends Jardin had ever seen. On various wooden tables were mechanical balls, large cylinders with tubes protruding from the ends, and others he couldn't even begin to describe. There were also many objects similar to the ones that he had brandished at them. This flared Jardin's curiosity.

"Uhh, Alec?" he ventured. "What are these things over here, the things like those that you're carrying?"

"Oh, these?" he said, picking one up. "These are ancient weapons called 'guns'. They shoot a projectile called a bullet out of this tube called the barrel. These that I'm carrying now I call 'clackers' because of the unusual sound they make when they chamber another round. Oh yeah! And these two that I'm carrying are ultra-rare handguns. See this large cylinder? This is the chamber, which hold the bullets. These special chambers hold a whopping fifty bullets each, because they're FULLY AUTOMATIC HANDGUNS!"

Jardin and Romo stared blank faced at his enthusiasm. Alec groaned.

"You don't get how amazing an automatic handgun is. Do you know how hard it would be to make a handgun chamber hold fifty bullets? Anyway, see this little thing right here- that's the trigger. It makes the gun go boom. With most guns, you shoot it, then have to chamber the next round manually, usually by pulling back the hammer. Some- known as semi-automatic- chamber it automatically, but you have to lift your finger off the trigger before you can fire again. With these, you can blast everything around you like nobody's business, without even lifting a finger!" Alec apparently found his last statement hysterically funny, and burst out laughing. Jardin and Romo just didn't get it.

Once Alec recovered with a snort, he continued. "Anyway, ever heard of materia?"

Jardin shook his head, but Romo's eyes lit up. "Materia!" he exclaimed. "I just read about some guy who found a materia during a job, and walked away with tons of gil after selling it!"

"Yeah, that must've been a Huge Materia," returned Alec, "but normal materia is quite common in my excavations. It's basically manufactured magic that the ancient civilizations used to make. No one knows how to use it, so the small stuff is pretty much worthless. But I figured a way out."

"How?" queried Jardin and Romo simultaneously.

Alec whipped off his trench coat, and strapped to his back was a long gun. "This is called a rifle," he explained. "And materia fits in this particular one's chamber perfectly. I fire it, and not only does it do normal projectile damage, but it also unleashes one of it's contain spells. So a lightning materia would do either Bolt, Bolt2, or Bolt3, respectively. I call it Materia Shot."

"You said something about an excavation before," said Jardin. "What do you mean?"

"I'm an archeologist by trade. Ever weekend my cousin's men come over and we excavate my dig out in back. My cousin has about twelve digs under his command, and I supervise this one. We have a huge claim. Wanna see the last thing we dug up?"

He led them to the center of the shack, where propped up on a stand was a broad mass of bronze colored metal reminiscent of the human figure. On it's large torso was set a half circle head with bulbs for eyes.

"This is a robot, a mobile machine with artificial intelligence to serve its owner. This seems to be a military robot. Oh, here's something interesting. See how this robot is seems to be made of bronze? He's not, but you see, the ancient civilizations developed a chemical that, when applied, would keep these things in perfect condition even after years of dormancy. But the chemical stains the metal to that particular shade. Anyway, lessee if we can get her running, eh?

He opened a hatch in the robot's head, which he said held the power source, and reached for a mass of materia orbs glued together. Placing the materia delicately in the head, he closed the hatch. Then, turning the eye bulbs to the right, he stepped back and watched anxiously.

At first, nothing happened, but presently, something inside the thing began to whir, and so the eyes flashed green. The robot stood upright, booming in a deep voice, "Robot Z-83 online! What is your order?"

Alec grinned slyly, but suddenly the eyes started flashing red. "WARNING! WARNING! Power source disrupting! Systems failing!" it blared, arms flailing up and down frantically. Alec's grin had turned into a look of frustrated rage.

The robot began booming out various phrases imbedded into its memory, and its deep voice went through dramatic changes. First it went down several octaves, the up several. It screamed, "DANGER! DANGER, WILL ROBIN-" before Alec interrupted it by connecting a hammer to it's head. The eyes clicked to the left and the robot bent over, powerless.

"Yeah, ya $%#%@!! See what happens when you $%@^%# with me?!" hollered Alec crazily.

Jardin stepped back a pace with a start. Both Romo and Jardin stared at Alec, slack-jawed.

"Wow!" said Jardin. "The last time I heard that word was when I interrogated the Limberry serial killer!"

Alec blushed, but replied defensively, "Yeah, well I have a quick temper. So what?"

That just didn't register with Jardin. "You have the patience to excavate ruins with a toothbrush, but you go ballistic when an ancient machine doesn't work?"

"Hey, what's with the third degree?" snapped Alec. "I'm just mad cuz' I wasted all that good materia. Anyway, what are you here for again?"

"We need you to take a look at an artifact for us. We have money to pay you," said Romo.

"Hold it!" burst out Alec, raising his hands. "What makes you think I need money, huh? We're surrounded by the fruits of forty years of labor in our dig! If I were to sell all this stuff, I don't doubt that I could pay off the Tabreum national debt! I don't need your money. But I do have my price."

"What?" asked Jardin, raising an eyebrow.

"Those @%#%$ claim jumpers! They've recently discovered the enormous profit of our dig, and they've been raiding my dig! You look like combat oriented folks. Why don't you help me out, and then I'll see what I can do for you."

Jardin ran his hand across his forehead, closing his eyes. Visions of blood washed fields, gore stained swords, and mutilated bodies passed before his eyes. "Ugh.More fighting?" he groaned, clenching his teeth.

"Wait a minute, stupid," said one voice in his head, "What are you going on about? 'More fighting'? Yeah, if you're gonna beat Readon and set things to rights, you're gonna have to do a heck of a lot more fighting!"

"No!" urged another voice. "Haven't enough died? Do you want to turn more of your friends into Hammers? You want to be a martyr? Find a place to settle down! Maybe become an archeologist and help out Alec!"

"If you don't do something, the evil of the Convocation will overwhelm the world!"

"Run away, Jardin! You're not hero material!"

"Fight, Jardin! You're the only one who can help!"

Jardin opened his eyes. Run away? No, that wasn't his nature.

"Alright, Alec. We'll do it." He concurred quietly.

"Haha! Alright!" Alec laughed, slapping Jardin's shoulder. "Tomorrow we go into battle!"

The following night, Jardin found himself sitting on a lump of cold earth, his chin resting on his fists. Surrounding him was "the dig"- an enormously deep hole around 1,000 by 500 yards in size. A few hours before in the daylight, Jardin had gazed into the cavernous depths, noting the various parts of broken machinery scattered at random amid the grainy earth. Several tunnels and fissures had been cut into the walls, which Jardin guessed led into underground caves. Now, as the last rays of the setting sun fell across the desert, shadows enveloped the chasm in darkness, and Alec had lit torches strategically placed so that, should their enemies happen to show up, they would not be surprised.

Jardin stood up off his earthen seat and walked to the excavation. Oddly enough, the big ol' hole (as Romo put it) intrigued him. Staring into it for the umpteenth time, he saw several objects lying on the excavation floor and imbedded in the walls shimmering faintly. Romo had told him that that was materia reflecting the torchlight a few moments ago.

Tearing his gaze away from the shining things, he glanced over his shoulder back at his companions. Romo was checking his equipment very carefully, inspecting the crossbow drawstring with utmost precision. Shaking his head bluntly, he produced a small vial of oil from his pocket and saturated the string with a few drops. Alec was pacing back and forth nervously, occasionally drawing a gun and holding it straight out, taking aim at unseen apparitions. Finally, he collapsed to the ground abruptly, and, stretching his legs out in front of him, he leaned backwards and sighed.

Jardin refastened his small silver brooch so that his cloak covered his torso instead of hanging behind him. As he had learned last night, the desert could get very, very cold. He wished that these claim jumpers would come quickly so they could be done with this.

A jangle from one of Alec's clever alarms he'd rigged up the day before broke the grim silence that had shrouded the threesome. Alec's head shot up in alertness. "If I'm not quite mistaken, that would be them," he said somberly, turning to Jardin. And sure enough, several dark silhouettes appeared in the torchlight. The three hid behind the various boulders that speckled the desert sand. As the enemy drew near, Jardin was able to observe them. There were ten of them, all male- two armed with longbows, two armed with small guns, and four armed with short swords. They wore sand colored clothing, providing them a camouflage of sorts, and on their arms they bore a black wool band with a peculiar symbol stitched in the material. Jardin observed them the best he could without revealing his presence, peeking over his shoulder and above the dusty boulder turned hiding place. The crooks had found the long ropes used to scale the daunting height of the excavation and were carefully repelling down the wall face.

With the corner of his eye, Jardin caught Alec waving him a signal of advancement. It made sense. The enemy was vulnerable and unable to counter the attacks. After taking into accounts the darkness and difficult angles of the enemy position, Jardin judged that, at best, they could eliminate half the enemy before they could get close enough to attack.

Slowly, the threesome crept forward, weapons in hand. They reached the edge of the chasm, and, peering below, found their adversaries were three-fourths of the way down. Alec aimed and fired a few rounds from his left pistol, the reports ringing into the clear desert air. Cursing at the misses, Alec holstered the gun and whipped out his rifle. He opened a leather pouch at his belt and withdrew a materia, quickly inspecting it. "Hehe, it's a "contain". This should be interesting," he snickered wickedly. Loading and firing it, the three watched in awe as the green wind of Tornado lashed six of the claim jumpers violently against the wall, knocking three to the ground. These Romo, who had been firing a few ill- aimed bolts, finished efficiently with his crossbow.

Meanwhile Jardin, finding he wasn't close enough to hit any with his sword arts, climbed down to ledges in the dig wall. By this time, most of the enemies were making good progress in climbing back up, especially the six that had been out of Tornado's range. One of the stronger ones, a samurai wielding a short sword, had reached Jardin's ledge and attacked from the back. Careening from the blow, he stumbled toward the edge, lost his balance, and tumble down into the chasm. Thinking quickly, Jardin shot his arm out and managed to grab a small outcropping. The samurai chuckled evilly, grabbing a sizable rock and hurling it at the former captain's head. Jardin twisted his head to the left only just in time, and the rock bounced off his armored shoulder, doing minimal damage. With his left hand hanging to the wall, and his right still locked with a death grip on to Excalibur, Jardin was in no position to attack, and yet it would be the death of him not to. Carefully, he slid his feet between his body and the cliff, then he stretched his legs out, putting a good distance between himself and the sandy wall. With this added space, he was able to swing his sword toward the samurai. The icy blue arch of Shellbust Stab shot up from under the claim jumper's feet, knocking him against the cliff from the force. As he recovered from the blast, he watched in horror as his corselet of ring mail burst from his chest into a thousand pieces (an unfortunate side effect that survivors of Shellbust Stab face). Turning his head, he looked just in time to see on of Romo's bolts heading straight for his chest; just as the bolt struck home, several rounds from Alec's pistols riddled his torso and neck, sending an unpleasant amount of blood raining down on Jardin's head. The samurai fell over, dead as a doornail.

As all this went on above, poor Jardin was still hanging on for dear life, when he noticed something moving to the left. Peering through the darkness, he realized it was one of the ropes, swaying back and forth as one of the pistol bearers struggled to climb up. Jardin braced himself, sheathed the Holy Sword, and jumped for it. He caught it firmly with both hands, and drawing his sword, he cut the rope just below his grasp, grinning as he heard the yell and inevitable thud of the enemy below.

Finally, two knights had reached the top, and one went running toward Romo. Just as Romo had put away his crossbow and had drawn his sword, the knight attacked. Romo partially parried the blow, but the tip of his enemy's sword managed to break free and stab into his ring mail- the armor saved him, but a few rings broke and were driven through his shirt into his flesh. Roaring in pain, Romo delivered a flurry of attack born out of pure rage. The knight found the powerful blows hard to block or counter, and soon screamed a last scream as Romo's blade plunged through his throat.

The other knight had run toward Alec. Aiming both pistols at his assailant, he began firing them consecutively; the knight, however, had a well-crafted shield, and managed to deflect most of the bullets, though he did take a direct hit in the left leg, as well as nicks in the lower neck and right arm. Alec was swearing like a sailor by now, cursing his gun for not firing more powerful shots and himself for choosing rapid fire over raw power. The knight had finally limped toward him, and thrust his sword toward Alec viciously. However, the attack had not been aimed at the archeologist but at his left pistol, and the weapon went flying from his grasp, the barrel breaking off as it hit the ground. "Oh, man! You're in a world of crap, you #%$@ piece of *&^#$!" the gunfighter yelled, ramming his knee into the fighter's groin. The knight, given a very painful reminder of his manhood, doubled over. "Do you know how rare those things are?" Alec added, slamming his remaining handgun into the man's jaw. The knight fell over, and Alec kicked him sharply in the thigh, but elicited no response. The soldier was out cold.

Jardin was climbing up the rope with incredible speed, reaching the summit of the chasm in a mere five minutes. He noticed that the last three had reached the top as well, and, finding their companions dead or otherwise incapacitated, ran off into the desert like madmen. He found Romo stripping off his shirt and armor and fingering a nasty gouge below his ribs. Alec was standing near him, shouting various threats and oaths at the surviving crooks, as well as firing his handgun at them, primarily aiming for the buttocks. Then he sighed, saying, "That one right there, he broke my other gun. The filthy $%#@!!"

Jardin and Romo really couldn't sympathize with him, being grateful for just being alive. Alec stripped all the accessible dead of all weapons, armor, and bags of interest before the three went back to the shack, bearing the still unconscious knight.

Back at the shack, Jardin was faced with the problem of what to do with the knight. At a loss, he asked Alec. "Oh, him?" Alec replied. "Just lock him up in the cellar."

"Cellar? Yeah, that's actually pretty funny!" Jardin chuckled.

"No, what's funny is that you think I actually live in this shack! Ok, remember the blackened frame that surrounds this shack? That was my family's mansion, but a while ago it burned to the ground. Not to worry, though! The house also had two basements that came out unscathed, so I live down there and store everything in this shack. Go lift up that board to your left to find the staircase."

Jardin did so, and Alec helped him drag the soldier down the stairs. Jardin found himself in a long hallway, carpeted red, full of doors, with another staircase at the end. Through one of the doors on the left they went, and entered into a cool cellar void of wine. "All my wine's in the cellar of the second basement," commented Alec as they dumped the knight in a heap and, exiting the chilly room, locked the door. They returned to the shack where Romo was tinkering with some ancient crossbow, admiring it. "Now it's time to relax, and then I'll look at you're artifact," quipped Alec as he plopped into a dusty rocking chair.

As he reclined in his chair, Alec rummaged through the spoils won from the battle. Most of it was mediocre weapons and armor that had a decent resale value. All the bags and pouches contained items pillaged from other digs. Suddenly, he whooped as he drew out a large, beautiful crystal as big as a man's head.

"This is perfect!" he cried. "I see now! The glued materia wouldn't function properly, because the energy can only run through the crystal. The glue was disrupting the power!"

He ran to the robot, throwing the crystal into his head and clicking the eyes over. The robot suddenly came to life, booming with a familiar voice "Z-83 online! What is your command?" Alec waited a moment, and when the robot remained standing, he let out a cheer. "See, this robot runs on Huge Materia, rare materia that is valued in modern society because of its beauty. This is great!" he triumphed joyously.

Jardin was glad Alec had got his robot to function, but time was of the essence. "Alec," he insisted, "I really need you to look at my medallion."

Alec was slightly annoyed, as he wanted to spend the day inspecting the robot, but then shrugged and said, "Fine, bringgit here."

Jardin tossed him the silver medallion, and Alec caught it, collapsing into a chair by his desk. He pulled out a magnifying lens and examined it closely. "No way." he muttered. Jardin and Romo stared at him eagerly. Alec jumped up from his desk, running to his bookshelf and pulling out a dusty green book. He flipped through the yellowed pages full of scribbley text and illustrations. Finally, he stopped and looked from the book, to the medallion, and back to the book. Then he shot a piercing glance up at Jardin and Romo. He enunciated his words exactly, speaking slowly and clearly as he said, " This medallion is the key to military invincibility."