ok people i ahve no idea where this is gonna lead to but i have had this idea swimming around in my head for awhile, after i start the rest of you please feel free,ill start the story and we can all keep it going

1901 in a cabin nestled in the foot hills of the Ozark mountains in Arkansas. Over looking the Little Missouri River,93 year old, Jessie Tate or Colonel Tate as he was called by all who knew him. He had after all served as a colonel in the Conferate army under Brigader General Albert Pike.
The Colonel sat in his well used rocking chair over looking the still fog shrouded river with a wool CSA army blanket over his shoulders drawn around his shoulders to ward off the early morning chill taking the cup of coffee that his son had brought out to him. His son, MIke having traveled down for the week from Little Rock where he now lived with his wife and 3 children, at his fathers request. After handing his aged father the coffee he took a seat half standing half sitting on the porch railing and said "Guess I'll be heading back to the city today. Its a long ride and Ill have to get back to the office soon."
"Why dont you give up the job you have working for the state, son, and move back down here?"asked the Colonel.
"Dad I have a good career there working at the capitol, the kids have a good school and the city is growing by leaps and bounds. There's not much here in the mountains for me to do and besides it would be a shame to waste all the effort you put in all those years telling me, to use my good senses and not my strong back, Mike replied, curious at his fathers apparent change of heart about his living in the city.
"There may be more here for you than you know son" giving his son a knowing look from eyes that had seen a lifetime of hardships, and secrets that he had yet to reveal."I want you to have this, it was given to me for safe keeping by a man that does'nt live around here anymore and knowing what I do know about him, well, I think you deserve to have this more than anyone else that might be able to lay claim to it"
Looking at the very large old gold watch with worn down symbols on the outside case Mike said "I have never seen this watch before. Where did you get it?"
" I have had it since the war and have kept it hidden until now. Don't let anyone talk you out of it and be careful who knows that you have it. The Old man's voice, feeble with age, said "Its the only thing of value that I have and I am entrusting you to keep it safe from now on. There is a story behind that watch, son, that you would not believe. When you come back in the summer bring the watch with you and I will show you something that might change your mind about living here again son."
"Ok, dad, I will but I have to be going now, its a long drive"
Leaving the porch and his father sitting in the rocker, he walked down the pathway to the road where his horse and buggy were standing ready for the long journey back to where he now called home.While he walked he considered what his father had said to him and thought to himself, what could be so important about an old watch, thinking that his father was just getting senile in his old age, he pocketed the watch and never thought of it again.
Colonel Jessie Tate died 2 months later before he got the chance to finish telling his son the story behind the watch, the watch that now was put away in a shoe box of what little heirlooms Mike had of his father.
It would be years, 100 years in fact, before anyone discovered the truth behind the watch with the unrecognizable worn symbols.

As it turned out, Mike's boss, the Governor knew something about the story of the gold watch because his father had been in the War Between the States too. When Armey Troutwine left the Governor's Mansion in 1905, he traveled to a secret cave where he knew a secret chest had been left behind by his father, Andrew Troutwine and Jesse Tate and managed to open it but was left with many questions because he did not know the significance of the contents. The location of that secret cave now lies within the borders of Fort Leonard Wood, the training camp for the Army Corp of Engineers. Armey wrote a small journal about his finding of the chest and of it's contents. Armey hid the journal in the attic of his house and it would not be found until the late 1990s.

The contents of the chest included a Burberry Coat, a Dagger, a Derringer gun, an old Mortar round, a metal replica of a family coat of arms, a ceramic pot from ancient times and a ball of twine. Only Jesse Tate and Andrew Troutwine knew the significance of these objects.

Nicky Tate stared at the contents of the chest and despite the U.S. Army's help in searching their civil war records of his great-great grandfather, Jesse, he was still curious about the importance of these items. When the U.S. Army accidentally discovered the cave in October of 2001 while building an underground shelter after the 9/11 attack, the U.S. Army did not contact the Tate family until early 2006 because of bureaucracy. Nick decided to create a website and prayed it would attract attention and answers. In October 2006, Joseph Troutwine was doing his own research on the mysterious journal he found a few years back when he was 10 years old while playing in the attic. He decided to contact the U.S. Army to help and despite several months of bureaucratic shuffling of the matter to different sections they believed would be of importance in the matter. Finally, a letter was typed with what information could be found on Andrew Troutwine and Jesse Tate during the civil war. Joseph was temporarily satisfied but still wanted to know more. He did an internet search of many keywords until he came across Nick Tate's website. Joseph decided to travel to Arkansas and meet Nick.

When Joseph showed up at Nick's doorstep after a phone call to arrange the meeting, the two young men compared notes and began to piece together the story. Apparently the mortar round had injured both Jesse and Andrew during the war between the states at the battle of Ivy Mountain in eastern Kentucky in November of 1861. Unfortunately, Andrew took the most injury and Jesse was left with several broken ribs, internal bleeding and his lower left leg shattered. Andrew had used the burberry coat to keep Jesse warm despite his own serious injuries and when both were carted off the field for medical help it was not until March when both of them were able to participate in the war again and together. Andrew wanted his burberry coat back but Jesse was too familiar with it now to let it go and the two fought over it. A duel took place but both of them were only slightly injured. Andrew's derringer had been involved in the duel, as well as Jesse's dagger. It was in February of 1864 at the Battle of Meridian in Mississippi when the two men were scouting an area when they got caught and bound together with twine by some confederate soldiers. It was during their harrowing escape with bullets flying at them when Andrew slid on some mud, falling down just as a bullet whizzed over him that would have struck a mortal blow to him if he had not gone down. While lying on the ground the metal coat of arms that hung from his neck came off and while scrambling to get back on his feet he saw it lying on the ground and scooped it up, pocketing it. Jumping over a hill rise, Andrew slid down aways until his butt landed in a cold creek. Andrew immediately stood and ran. While running in the stream quite aways he nearly tripped over a ceramic pot that was half buried in the stream. He dug it out and carried it with him until he reunited with Jesse over three miles from where they had been held hostage. The two men opened the ceramic pot and found some dried food and ate. It was then that Andrew recognized the ceramic pot as an ancient one from England and the area where his family had come from. The Ceramic pot had a replica of his family coat of arms on it. Andrew was curious as to how it came to be in America.

This post has been edited by tonym5 on Oct 9 2006, 07:59 AM

The stream had at one time been a small river that had changed it's course and had left the ceramic pot behind. The river had led to the gulf coast at one time just before 1000 AD. It was in 974 AD when a small ship had sailed up the river after sailing across the Atlantic ocean from England. Several English wealthy men had invested in an exploration that was captained by Ethan Ramsey. One of the wealthy investors had given a ceramic pot that had been made by one of his servants as a vessel for water or food to be used on the exploration. The wealthy landowner was James Troutwine of the small town of Ewen in Glucestershire county.

This post has been edited by tonym5 on Oct 9 2006, 08:24 AM

Aiden Castle, the surveyor for NUMA sat down on the ground after an exhaustive job of plotting out the area to be dug by the team of archaeologists along the banks and of the stream itself. Keitha Kingery, his assistant and Geographer looked at him dumbfounded but realized she had no choice but to take a break herself. Keitha walked over to Dave Ludlow, the regional representative for the U.S. Geological Survey, who had come along to advise on the project. Dave had wavy dark hair and always drew attention from women, Keitha included. Keitha, with her grey eyes and brown hair walked with confidence, showing off her willowy figure in her pantsuit. Dave admired the young woman and hoped something may happen with this most attractive woman. Dirk Pitt stepped out of the NUMA trailer and certainly appreciated Keitha's fine figure. Al Giordino stepped out of the trailer behind Dirk and smiled at the attention Keitha was getting by the men, including himself.

This post has been edited by tonym5 on Oct 9 2006, 04:36 PM

Willa Kingery stepped off the commercial airliner and walked down the passageway to the waiting area and strolled out into the large hallway that led towards the main building, attracting all the male eyes and a few female ones. Willa knew she looked like a movie star and had the confidence of one. With her blonde hair, blue eyes and a figure that many women wished they had. Reagan National Airport was now behind her as she rode in a taxicab towards the city. The taxicab stopped at 1331 Pennsylvania Ave. NW where she stepped into the J.W. Marriott Hotel and walked up to the desk and asked for the key to Nick Castle's room. The man looked at the register and handed the key to her without questioning her.

This post has been edited by tonym5 on Oct 12 2006, 05:39 AM

Nick Castle came out of the bathroom wearing a towel around his midsection when he noticed his blonde girlfriend lying on the bed, admiring him. Nick strode over and gave Willa a deep, long kiss that took her breath away. They were soon making passionate love. At 32 Nick was certainly handsome with his curly dark hair that women just wanted to run their hands through. With his hazel, bedroom eyes women adored him. Born Niccolo Cristiano in Montalcino, Italy, Nick was a world traveler because of his family's company, Montalvo Industries. When Nick was in his early 20s he had made his reputation worldwide as a race car driver in formula one races.

This post has been edited by tonym5 on Oct 12 2006, 05:57 AM

Andrew and Adrian Montalcito were cousins of Niccolo and Aiden Cristiano and were flying to the United States to join Niccolo for a meeting with one of America's richest men. Aiden was happy with his own career at NUMA, proud of the work he did for the organization founded by Admiral James Sandecker and wanted nothing to do with the family company. Andrew, Adrian and Niccolo were dumbfounded several years back but accepted that Aiden would not bother them with any ambitions from one of their own in the family company.

Bruno Tyson, of the famous Tyson Chicken company in Arkansas strode into the meeting room at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Washington, D.C. and shook hands with the young men from Italy and their Montalvo Industries. "Gentlemen, I would like to get down to business, right away please". "But of course, Mr. Tyson" replied Adrian Montalcito.