Looking out on the sweeping lawns of McDonnell’s Methodist Children’s Home in the spring of 1974, eight-year-old Paul Wayne Buras had no idea of the implications those two words would have on his life. That day, Paul’s gruff, abusive father took his three youngest children to the nearest orphanage, herded them to the administration building, and drove away.
For many children, that act of abandonment would have signaled the beginning of a life of loss ending in poverty, severe dysfunction, prison, or worse. But not for Paul. At MacDonnell’s something magical happened—two humble nuns and their dedicated staff embraced this resilient boy and taught him about grace, love, and power of redemption. In the often rough-and-tumble atmosphere, Sisters Janice Buescher and Ellen Babin created an unconventional family for their forty young charges, with ties that, for many, would last a lifetime.
Young Navajo Kika Windsong and her daredevil boyfriend, Howie Parker, set out to recover the world’s most treasured archaeological artifacts. Twelve of the artifacts are incised with a code etched as an ideogram. The world’s top code breaker and a world renowned museum curator are recruited to crack it. Trace minerals link the artifacts to volcanic bedrock of Easter Island, 10,000 miles away. Other artifacts resemble enigmatic statues of that Pacific island. Clues surface which suggest a lost civilization migrated 18,000 years ago from the Island to the Colorado Plateau. New theories positing humans migrated northeasterly into the Americas from southern latitudes are introduced. Proof lies in deciphering the ideogram. Chilean scholars join forces with the American team in a race to announce the earth-shattering paradigm.
Characters vault from each page as tension peaks and the mystery untangles. Windsong narrates images of Navajo creation stories garnered from her youth. A Navajo Nation Policeman blends rich Navajo lore into the adventure. A covert intelligence agent weaves a treacherous web of deceit and espionage into the plot. The veteran National Security Agency sleuth is linked to a mole in a the US Department of Energy. Spy games detonate with his double-crossing Plan B. “Dirty bombs” threaten a major source of the West’s power and water. Those yearning for blood-thirsty action will satisfy their palate as archaeological looters slay anyone getting in their way of stealing the artifacts. An invincible foe is introduced to literature ---Whitey, whose global reputation crowns him with an ominous nickname: “Impossible to Kill”. Magnificent Southwest landscapes are viewed through a naturalist’s eyes. Life in the arid Southwest, its Native cultures and diverse archaeological ruins become ingrained in readers. A galvanized ending, orchestrated by NSA’s master spy at Fort Meade headquarters, occurs on Navajo land near sacred Navajo Mountain.
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