The Artifact by Brian Hill

Author:Brian Hill [Hill, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

Back outside, the excitement of the chase, which had kept me functioning since I arrived in Atlanta, was wearing off, and I felt empty and depleted. I needed food and rest, in that order.

I found a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant near the motel and ate my way through a quinceanera’s worth of food. Dragging myself back to the motel, I called the answering service (no messages, of course), and dropped into bed like a downed buffalo.

I stepped out at eight A.M., squinting in the morning sun. Today was the first day since my run-in with Turbo that my eye looked relatively normal, so I had left the shades in my pocket. After experiencing our friendly neighborhood nuclear fireball without protection, I put them on anyhow.

Piling into the Caprice, I made my way to a budget grocery on the corner and loaded up with cancer-inducing food products. Beef jerky, lunch meat, pickled hot sausages; anything loaded with protein, salt, and nitrites. I added three six-packs of Coke and called it good.

Back out in the car, I stowed the purchases in the passenger seat and drove to the address listed for the Society for Esoteric Knowledge.

The location was a single-family home in a recently gentrified neighborhood in South Atlanta. Covered in white siding with burgundy trim, it had a small, well landscaped yard, with an old maple standing guard over the tidy brick front porch.

There was no signage I could see. The only clue that the building wasn’t a residence was the backyard, which had been paved and converted into a parking lot.

It was empty.

I drove around the block a few times, trying to get a feel for the area and looking for anything out of place. Most of the surrounding properties were residences or converted residences now housing professional services; accountants mostly. A Baptist church was nestled on the corner, and a public park with slides and swing sets was a few blocks over. Nothing struck me as off-kilter… except the lack of a sign.

I parked a few blocks away on the street, sheltering in the shade of a huge magnolia. I rolled both front windows down and shut the car off, settling in for a long day of observation.

I sat there throughout the day, Master and Commander in paperback in one hand and the other alternately jamming food in my mouth or plastering binos to my face.

I left the stakeout twice, both times to relieve myself at a nearby McDonald’s. When the sun finally set, I left. No one had showed up all day, and no lights had come on as the sun went down. The house’s exterior lights were dark.

I filled up on gas, then made my way back to the motel to get a few hours of sleep before kicking off the festivities.

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