Buried Treasure by Vincent Madison

Chapter 1

The Beginning

November 27^th 2004

The sound of silence was only slightly broken by the soft crunching of gravel as the unmarked, yet rather obvious law enforcement vehicle turned into the driveway of the Koffler Scientific Reserve at Joker’s Hill. The fact that one of the occupants was wearing a police uniform just confirmed the obvious. Detective Thomas Reid was the one wearing the uniform and in the driver’s seat. Sitting next to him, his partner Detective Kate Gibson more closely fit the image of a police detective, dressed in tight dressy jeans and a short black jacket.

   The car paused slightly and then proceeded up the driveway.

  “Why are we here?” Kate asked with a slightly sarcastic tone.

  “Umm… Because our boss sent us here?” Reid answered quizzically. Kate rolled her eyes in disbelief at Reid’s response.

 “Why do you still insist on wearing that uniform?” Kate asked. “You’ve been a detective for three years!”

  “The uniform commands respect…” Reid responded with pride, “…and it looks cool.”

Kate rolled her eyes again. “Whatever you say Tom.” Tom Reid was twenty years her senior, but Kate believed his mental age was less than her twenty-two years. Reid pulled the car to a stop on the side of the driveway.

  “So what’s the call description again?” Kate asked.

Reid glanced at the computer screen mounted on the center console. "Trespassing on private property. Apparently the perp is wearing a tin foil hardhat and has some weird electronic device."

  “ Yeah – that sounds like our case. Let’s go.” Kate opened the passenger door and got out of the car. The Koffler Scientific Reserve was a large reserve operated by the University of Toronto, located north of the city and used for scientific research and studies on flora, and other environmental and geological fields. It was mild for November, with temperatures slightly above freezing, but there was still snow on the ground in areas that were shaded. Reid and Gibson started to walk down the only obvious trail, following a set of footprints that could be seen where the snow still lay across the trail. The reserve was closed in the winter, although for some reason the gate at the entrance was open, and if the driveway was not blocked by snow, it did not stop anyone from coming in and exploring.

  Kate suddenly stopped and put her arm out to stop Tom from proceeding. She pointed into the woods. "I think that's our guy. I don't see anyone else around with a tinfoil hat."

The figure in the woods was a young man with long blond wavy hair. He was wearing what appeared to be a construction hard hat covered with a layer of aluminum foil, and he was holding what looked like a homemade metal detector of some kind, made of a Swiffer mop with an electrical multi-meter and an electronic stud finder duct taped on to the mop handle along with a jumble of wires.

Tom and Kate approached the man cautiously with guns drawn.

  “All right buddy. Hands up!” Tom barked as they approached. The man was startled and looked up at the detectives.

  “Whoa! Hold on officer! Don’t shoot!” he exclaimed, raising his hands in the air, but still holding on to his contraption.

  “Do you want to tell us why you’re trespassing on private property?” Reid asked the man, who appeared more startled than dangerous.

  “Uh, we… I mean.. I was… looking for….my… dog officer. Here Killer! Here Killer!” the man fumbled and looked around for what undoubtedly was an imaginary canine.

Kate looked on with a combination of disgust and disbelief. Reid paused and stared at the man for a moment, then exclaimed:

  “Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere?”

  “Here we go…” Kate muttered under her breath.

  “I don’t think so officer. A lot of people have my face.” the man responded.

  “I doubt that.” Kate muttered again. Detective Reid reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled up newspaper.

  “Yeah, I knew I had seen you somewhere before! Steve Dorland. You’re one of the LOST Gunmen!” Reid proudly held up the crumpled newspaper, which was a small tabloid called THE LOST GUNMAN, and had a photo on the top of three unlikely looking men, one of which was clearly the man standing right in front of them. The headline on the newspaper read: “Wind Turbine hit by UFO.” By now Kate’s very thin patience had pretty much evaporated.

  “The WHAT?!!” she said in disbelief.

  “The LOST Gunmen” Reid responded with a grin. “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of them?”

  “That’s it.” Kate replied. “I quit!” She turned in disgust and actually started to walk away. Reid called out to her.

  “Wait! These guys could really help us out!” Kate stopped but did not walk back.

  “Remind me - why I am still your partner? And why do I keep getting dragged into your crazy space alien investigations?”

  “Cause your boss assigned you to me?” Reid responded smugly.

  “You ever hear of a rhetorical question?” Kate was clearly not amused.

  “Actually…”

  “Guess that answers my question.” Kate interrupted. Tom turned to Steve.

  “So… do you want to tell us what you are REALLY doing here?”

Steve looked both relieved and nervous. He looked around, as if to see if anyone else was around, then explained:

  “Well, we picked up some strange magnetic field disturbances on our scanning equipment that marched the frequency and spectrum signature of a wormhole, so I decided to do a little field work.”

  “You are looking for a real wormhole?” Reid was getting excited as fast as Kate was becoming increasingly fed up.

  “You can’t be serious. This guy is a nut job. Look at his hat for crying out loud!”

Steve adjusted his tin foil covered hard hat and looked down sheepishly.

  “There is real scientific evidence that points to the existence of wormholes on earth.” Reid explained proudly.

  “That’s right!” Steve exclaimed, happy to have at least one supporter.

  “So… what did you find?” Tom asked.

  “Can we just lock this guy up and get the hell out of here?” Kate made a last attempt. Steve continued as if she didn’t exist, now that he had found an ally.

  “We found the motherlode!”

  “What?!” Tom leaned in excitedly. “What did you find?” Steve reached down and picked up an old rusted box, about a foot long and five inches wide and about six or seven inches tall. It was an army brown with a faded black logo on the side – a kind of octagonal Chinese I-Ching symbol with what looked like a sideways 8 in the middle.

  “This!” he proudly exclaimed as he held up the box.

  “Great.” Kate said. “A rusted old box.”

  “Not just any old box...” Steve announced. “…this box proves that time travel really exists!”

  Kate threw her hands up. Her patience was gone.

  “Now I’m really going!”

Tom was eager to hear what Steve had to say.

  “But, he was just about to tell us how time travel…”

  “Save it Tom. Bag the box, bag the nutbar and let’s get out of here. Who the hell do you think you are? Mulder?”

  “Well…” Tom started.

  “Oh, God help me.”