Page 26 of Mace

I pulled out my cell phone, snapped a picture of the stone artifact and sent it to our elders’ group chat. Within seconds I began to get feedback from different tribe members. It was clear that they’d opened their group chat to everyone, and word was spreading fast.

Finally, my phone rang. It was our chief, which is simply the honorary title given to the head of our elder council.

“Hello, Jonas. What do you think? Is this the real thing?”

“Without inspecting it firsthand, I can only say it is highly likely.”

Our chief was always hedging his bets and always reluctant to speak in certainties until he’d triple checked his facts.

“How do you want to proceed?” I asked him cautiously. “I don’t want to do any digging in case I damage anything.”

“Jake has agreed to drop everything in favor of leading a team. There are two other archaeologists from Masa University who have agreed to help him.”

Jake was his eldest son, he was the main driving force behind this search, but his full-time job meant that he couldn’t take the time out to do the initial searching. “That’s great but there’s something you should know.” I told him.

“What’s that?”

“I found some members of a Mexican cartel setting up camp about seven miles east of this location a few weeks ago. They disappeared but left five dead bodies behind. We believe they were Latino gang members.”

“Are you saying it’s not safe for my son and the university professors to be out there alone?”

“Yeah. That’s definitely what I’m saying. I’ve not seen any more activity in the time I’ve been out here, but I think it’s best to be cautious—especially now I’ve made this find. My club brother and I can hold the site until they get here, but you’re gonna need to hire security to keep them safe while they work this site.”

A short silence spun out between us and finally he spoke. “I’ve been texting the other elders. We’ll get some volunteers from our tribe in place within the hour as a stopgap measure until we can hire proper security.”

“That would work, my MC has a security business so if you want to use them, I could probably get you a good discount. I’ll drop you a location pin along with some general images of the site. The bit of land I’m on looks to be about fifteen or twentyacres. I don’t know how much of it was used by our people for the burial ground.”

“The archaeologists will figure that out and our attorneys will have hard evidence of our tribe’s heritage in this area. You’ve done good work, Huri.”

“I just sent you the location pin. We’ll be here until your men arrive. I hope this is the missing piece of evidence we need to get tribal recognition.”

“So do I. This has been a long and hard-fought battle.”

When the call ended, I took a moment to put a marker where I’d found the piece of pottery so the archaeologists could document everything correctly, before walking over to Coyote and Nine. “Sorry about that. I had to contact Chief Jonas. They’re sending people to process the site. As soon as they get here, we’re free to leave.”

“No problem. I’ll bet they were excited.”

“They were excited but more concerned about securing the site.”

I sat down beside Coyote and we both looked over the tablet in my hands. I probably should have put it back where I found it, but I didn’t want to mess anything up. I could see other bits from the same piece on the forest floor, so that should be enough for them. Coyote ran his fingers over the intricate carvings. “Can you read this?”

I snorted a laugh, “Not really. I recognize some of the symbols for death and a few more, but it doesn’t really make sense to me.”

Coyote shrugged. “I don’t read my people’s ancient languages either so don’t feel bad. Hell, I’m not sure I know exactly who my ancient ancestors were. I’m Puerto Rican so I know I’m gonna be a mix of European, Native, maybe Black, but I never really had an identity other than being me.”

I gave him a lopsided grin. “You could take one of those DNA tests and let the scientists figure it out.”

His hand drops away from the artifact. “To be honest, I’m not entirely certain sure I want to know who my ancestors were. I’m just gonna leave that shit alone. I’m not even close with my extended family, just my sister and mom really.”

“I guess it’s different for my tribe because even though there’s been a lot of marrying out, like my parents, we still have a strong identity of who we are.”

“I think that’s really cool,” he responded sincerely.

Coyote and I talked for almost two hours while we waited for my tribe to show up. When they did it was a sight to see. They parked well back from the area and swarmed me to get a look at the artifact, particularly the archaeologists. The minute that I could extricate myself from the large group, Coyote and I took off. Nine was happy to be back in his side car and darkness fell.

***

I walked into our room at the clubhouse to find Alicia knee deep in a book. Her face lit up when she saw me. Of course I reciprocated because Alicia had come to mean so much to me in the short time I’d known her.

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