Read Online Humanity Unlimited 1: Liberty Station by Terry Mixon - Free Book Online

city.
    There were sketches of men and women she assumed to be Mayan. Not just the well-to-do, but workmen building a wall. Women tending to plants in a terraced garden. Even children playing some kind of game. The man had a good hand.
    A second map seemed to show a path away from the city. There were notations in the strange language that probably meant distances or landmarks. The end of the trail had a heavy circle around it. More text beside that might indicate what was there, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of the words.
    Jess finished taking pictures, synced them, and put everything except her tablet back into the pack. She shouldered her bag and walked out of the tent. The woman was waiting. Another man was slowly turning, watching the jungle. The rest were gone.
    “Is it safe out here in the open like this?” Jess asked. “If you think there are still some bad guys out there, maybe we should get under cover.”
    The woman shook her head. “We’ve already cleared the general area. We’ll withdraw down the trail as soon as Harry is ready.”
    He stepped out of another tent as she said that. He was dressed in dry fatigues, but still had his wet pack on his back. And his weapons, of course.
    She walked over to him. “What’s your plan?”
    “A couple of my people are looking to see if they can find any other bad guys, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Once they get back, we’ll move toward the river and meet up with the workers. We’ll call for the police when we get to the river.”
    Jess stepped closer to him and lowered her voice. “I took a few minutes to look over the artifacts. I found something you might want to see.” She handed him her tablet with the map of the area on the screen.
    He looked at it closely. “What’s this?”
    “A page from a book inside the satchel. I’m thinking it’s a journal. This is the Mayan city here. This path leads somewhere the dead man thought was important. The police will be all over this area. We should see what’s there before they accidentally destroy it. Or lead looters to it.”
    He gave her a stern look. “In case you forgot, there are people in the jungle that want to kidnap you. I don’t think wandering around where they might get a second shot is the smartest thing to do.”
    “I know it’s a risk, but this is important. Really important. Come on, surely even a man like you can see that the first extraterrestrial visitor and the things he brought with him need to be protected at all costs.”
    The corner of his mouth quirked up. “A man like me, huh? Perhaps it would surprise you to know I don’t grunt when I walk or drag the backs of my hands on the ground. And we don’t know this guy came from outer space.”
    Jess felt her face heat. “That wasn’t what I meant.” Actually, it had been exactly what she’d meant. It just wasn’t polite to rub his face in it.
    “There was a tablet computer in the satchel. Where else would someone with something like that come from? Atlantis? No. Humanity would’ve found some trace of a terrestrial civilization that advanced. This person came from space. With the condition of the body, he might not have been human.”
    Harry looked skeptical. “I’ve seen enough pictures of mummies to know that was a human being. An alien, even one that was bipedal, would almost certainly have some aspect of the face that was noticeably different. Unless, of course, you’d like to propose that humans were seeded all over the galaxy.”
    “I’m keeping my options open. Think of this from another angle. The artifacts we’re recovering could lead to any number of breakthroughs. The technology would have to be very advanced.” She thought of another angle. “It might even have military applications.”
    He shook his head slowly. “You really need to check your prejudices at the door, Miss Cook. I’m a warrior, not a warmonger. Perhaps you’re right, though. If there were weapons or technology that could lead to a