The Sean Wyatt Series Box Set 4: Books 10-12
A Sean Wyatt Adventure
Ernest Dempsey
138 Publishing
Contents
THE ULURU CODE
JOIN THE ADVENTURE
Prologue
1. Sydney, Australia
2. Adelaide, South Australia
3. Atlanta, Georgia
4. Sydney
5. Atlanta
6. Adelaide
7. Sydney
8. Sydney
9. Sydney
10. Sydney
11. Milbrodale
12. Milbrodale
13. Milbrodale
14. Richmond, New South Wales
15. Sydney
16. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory
17. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
18. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
19. Sydney
20. Alice Springs, Northern Territory
21. Sydney
22. Alice Springs
23. Watarrka National Park, Northern Territory
24. Watarrka National Park
25. Watarrka National Park
26. Watarrka National Park
27. Watarrka National Park
28. Northern Territory
29. Northern Territory
30. Sydney
31. South Australia
32. Flinders Ranges
33. Sydney
34. Yengo National Park
35. Yengo National Park
36. Yengo National Park
37. Adelaide
38. Hong Kong
Thank You
Author’s Notes
Other Books By Ernest Dempsey
Acknowledgments
Copyright
The Excalibur Key
JOIN THE ADVENTURE
Prologue
1. Bellevaux, France
2. Aachen, Germany
3. Venice, Italy
4. Pyongyang, North Korea
5. Atlanta, Georgia
6. Atlanta
7. Aachen
8. Aachen
9. Aachen
10. Cologne, Germany
11. Cologne
12. Cologne
13. Cologne
14. Cologne
15. Cologne
16. Brussels, Belgium
17. Cologne
18. Frankfurt, Germany
19. Bellevaux
20. Thonon-les-Bains, France
21. Thonon-les-Bains
22. Geneva, Switzerland
23. Glastonbury, England
24. Glastonbury
25. Glastonbury
26. London, England
27. Glastonbury
28. Rome, Italy
29. Vatican City
30. Vatican City
31. Vatican City
32. Rome
33. Mount Nebo, Jordan
34. Mount Nebo
35. Mount Nebo
36. Pyongyang
37. Mount Nebo
Thank You
Author Notes
Other Books By Ernest Dempsey
Dedication
Acknowledgements
The Denali Deception
JOIN THE ADVENTURE
Prologue
1. Upstate New York
2. Upstate New York
3. Washington
4. Upstate New York
5. Atlanta, Georgia
6. Atlanta
7. Atlanta
8. Fairfax, Virginia
9. Cartersville, Georgia
10. Washington
11. Ringgold, Georgia
12. Washington
13. Ringgold
14. Ringgold
15. Bowie, Maryland
16. Chattanooga, Tennessee
17. Washington
18. Auburn, New York
19. Auburn
20. Washington
21. Auburn
22. Washington
23. Washington
24. Washington
25. Washington
26. Atlanta
27. Washington
28. Clinton, Maryland
29. Clinton
30. Clinton
31. Washington
32. Washington
33. Clinton
34. Anchorage, Alaska
35. Washington
36. Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska
37. Denali
38. Denali
39. Juneau, Alaska
Thank You
Other Books By Ernest Dempsey
From the Author
Acknowledgments
THE ULURU CODE
A SEAN WYATT THRILLER
THE ULURU CODE
ERNEST DEMPSEY
Copyright ©2016 ernestdempsey.net
ISBN: 978-1-944647-11-7
Created with Vellum
JOIN THE ADVENTURE
Visit ernestdempsey.net to get a free copy of the not-sold-in-stores short story, RED GOLD.
You’ll also get access to exclusive content not available anywhere else.
Prologue
Milbrodale, Australia: 1893
It couldn't be coincidence.
At least that's what Robert Mathews told himself.
He peered over the top of his theodolite with suspicion, rechecked his position, and then looked through the instrument again.
"That doesn't belong there," Robert said under his breath.
A tall, lanky black man stood nearby with arms crossed, watching curiously. His name was Charley, and he'd been assisting Mathews with his research. At present, he was trying to understand what had the anthropologist so befuddled.
Mathews craned his neck to make sure his angle was right and then stood up straight. He turned to Charley, who'd taken off his wide-brimmed hat and was wiping sweat from his forehead. Even though Charley was an Aborigine and had lived in the area his whole life, the blazing summer heat was clearly taking its toll.
"What you make of that rock over there, Charley?" Mathews asked in his sharp Aussie accent.
Charley shrugged. "Looks like a rock, Bob."
Very few people called Mathews Bob. Most called him Robert or R.H. Oddly, Mathews liked the fact that his friend used the shortened version. He felt it sort of symbolized their unique friendship.
Mathews had been studying the Aboriginal tribes as an outsider when the two met. Charley was a half-caste and a native of Broke, not far from Milbrodale. Thanks to Charley, Robert's learning of their culture, customs, and history was greatly accelerated. The man Mathews paid to be his assistant had become a trusted friend.
A gust of wind rolled across the grassy hillside leading up to the rock formation. Specks of dust kicked into the air, forcing the two men to shield their faces with their forearms. A moment later, the wind was gone.
The rock he'd noticed was about fifty feet down the hill, tucked away in a stretch of tall grass. He'd probably walked right by it a few times and not even realized it. From his current vantage point, it stood out against the backdrop.
Mathews stepped out in front of his theodolite and raised a hand to his forehead, shielding it from the bright sunlight. That rock was put there by someone. But why?
The thought pulled at his mind. He'd not really noticed the stone before because all his focus was on the cave drawings of the ancient Aboriginal creator god called Baiame.
Since Mathews had been a surveyor in his previous career, he'd thought it might be interesting to do a little work on the surrounding area to see if there was anything worth noting. "How did I not notice that before?" he said to himself, a habit of his when deep in thought
.
He turned to Charley again. "Let's give it a look, Charley."
The other man gave a curt nod and joined his friend. The two walked across a patch of dirt and back onto the path leading down the hill. When they were almost perpendicular to the rock, the two veered off the trail and waded through the long grass until they reached the anomaly. The rock was much darker than the surrounding sandstone, and it jutted out of the ground to a height just shy of four feet. It barely stood out over the tips of the grass. Still, its displacement had caught Mathews's eye.
"Just a rock, Bob. What you thinking?" Charley asked. He put both hands on his hips and glanced over at Mathews with probing dark eyes.
Mathews squatted next to the rock and ran a hand over it. "It's a different kind of rock than that over there." He flicked his head back toward the cave. "It didn't come from around here."
"What you mean, it didn't come from here? What's it doing here then?"
Mathews's head shook from one side to the other. "Not sure, mate. But it didn't come from here. See how the color of this sandstone is different than that?" He pointed at the rock formation above.
Charley looked up at the cave entrance and then back at the little rock near Mathews's feet. "Sure. I suppose maybe a little more red to it."
"Precisely. That subtle difference is probably why no one has noticed it before."
"We didn't notice it when we walked by it before."
"Indeed. To the untrained eye it looks like it's just another random rock."
Charley peered at his friend. "You sayin' my eye isn't trained?"
Mathews chuckled. "I said we both missed it, mate."
Charley's lips parted in a friendly smile. "I know. I was just messin' with you."
"You're a dag one, aren't you?"
Charley shrugged. "I try." He motioned to the rock. "So what you figure, Bob? If that rock isn't from here, who put it here and why?"
Mathews leaned closer to where the ground and rock merged. He turned around and took a brush from his tool belt and started scraping away some of the dirt. He worked for a few minutes while Charley looked on with intense curiosity.
The native had seen his friend do that sort of thing a hundred times or more. Over the course of their friendship, Charley had performed the same kind of work in several locations. At the moment, he wasn't sure what Mathews expected to find under a stone that was easily half a ton.
About five minutes passed when Mathews, sweaty from his work, stopped and sat up straight. "That's what I figured," he said.
"What?" Charley didn't see anything unsual.
Mathews took a rag from his back pocket and wiped the sweat from his brow. He shoved the kerchief in its place and pointed at the rock. "That rock only goes down a few inches into the ground."
"So?" Charley asked with a shrug.
"So that means it's much more likely it was put here than indigenous."
"You know, mate, I think the heat might be getting to your head. Let's go back to the cart and get something to drink. Your fascination with this rock is starting to worry me."
"No, I'm fine." Mathews shook his head. "Someone put this here for a reason. Maybe it was ceremonial. There are lots of stones like this all over the world that were put in places just for sacred meaning or for some kind of ritual."
"That would make sense. This is a very sacred place to the native people."
"Right. But what if it's something else?"
"Like what?"
"I dunno," Mathews said. He put his hands out to the side. "What if the people who put it here buried something underneath it?"
Charley's dubious expression said it all. "Seems like an awful lot of work to drag a rock like that from somewhere else just to hide something."
Mathews nodded. "It does. You're right about that."
He glanced around the area. No one else was around. He looked farther down the hill at the two horses. "You know, I don't think it will hurt anything if we just take a look underneath."
Charley held up a hand. "Now wait a minute, Bob. You're talkin' about destroying something that might be sacred to my people."
Mathews tilted his head to the side and shot his friend a sarcastic glare. "Five minutes ago you didn't know this rock was here. Now you're saying it's sacred?"
"You make a good point," Charley said. "But still."
"Come on, Charley. Where's your sense of curiosity? Don't you want to know if there's something underneath there? It might be a relic from your people's past."
"Or it might be something we shouldn't bother."
Mathews put his hands on his hips. "If I'd dug that rock out of the ground two days ago when you went for supplies, you would have never know the difference."
He made a convincing point. Good enough that Charley finally caved.
"Okay, fine. But we have to put it back. If that is a sacred rock, I don't want my ancestors getting angry at me about it."
Mathews grinned. "We'll put it back exactly where it was. Now, let's get the horses."
It took almost forty minutes for the two men to harness two ropes around both the jagged rock and the horses. The latter proved to be the more troublesome chore. Both horses weren't keen on standing on the slope and had to be settled down three times before the men could finally get the ropes the way they wanted.
Using gravity to assist the horses seemed like the obvious decision. Putting the horses downhill from the rock would make their job easier. If Mathews's assessment of the stone was correct, it wouldn't take much for the animals to pull it over. He hadn't thought through the part about putting the rock back where it was. Mathews had no intention of telling Charley that yet. They could figure it out later. Right now, he wanted to know what—if anything—was under the stone.
"Ready, Charley?" Mathews said to his friend.
Charley was standing fifteen feet away, tending the horses. "Ready, Bob!"
"Okay, go ahead!"
Charley clicked his tongue, and the animals started clomping forward. The second they did, the ropes slid over the top of the rock and fell to the ground. Charley saw the ropes dragging through the grass and stopped the horses with a gentle, "Whoa."
Mathews sighed. "Well, that didn't work."
"Maybe it's my ancestors telling you to leave their rock alone."
"Or maybe I just need to pin the rope in place. Back the horses up, and let's try it again."
Charley's head turned back and forth, but he did as requested, moving the animals backward until Mathews had enough slack to loop the rope around the rock once more. He lifted his foot and pressed the boot heel hard into the rope, pinning against the stone.
"Okay, try it again. We'll see if this helps it stay in place."
Charley raised an eyebrow at the idea but said nothing. The idea of his friend somehow ending up on the ground was humorous enough to let him try.
"Ready?" Charley asked.
"Yep. Go ahead."
Charley clicked his tongue again, and the horses started moving just as they had before. This time the rope held, and within seconds the big rock toppled over onto its side with relative ease.
"Whoa!" Mathews shouted. He almost sounded ecstatic, though Charley wasn't sure why.
The stone's fall had kicked up a small cloud of dust, and Mathews waved both hands around to dissipate it. "Well done, mate," he said to Charley who'd left the horses and rushed over.
Mathews joked with him. "For someone so concerned about this being sacred, you sure seem interested to see what's under it."
"Might be a curse waiting for you, Bob. I'm hoping it's a funny one. Nothing too hurtful. Maybe you get kangaroo ears or something."
Mathews snorted a laugh and kept waving his hands around. It didn't take long for the breeze to pick up and blow away the dust, leaving a clear view of the impression the big rock had left in the ground.
"Doesn't look like there's anything there, mate," Charley said. He didn't try to hide the disappointment in his voice.
&nb
sp; Mathews let out a long sigh. He put his hands on his hips. "No, it sure doesn't. Well, it was worth a look. I guess now we need to figure out how to get this thing back in place."
Charley's eyebrows lowered. "You're not gonna dig or anything like that? How do you know there's nothing buried in the ground right there? It might be a marker or something."