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 mountians 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 drwan around his shoulders to ward off the earlier morning chill takeing the cup of coffee that his sn had brought out to him.His son,MIke having traveled down for the week from Little Rock where he now lived with is wife and 3 children,at his fathers request.After handing his aged father the coffee he took a seat half standing half setting on the porche railing and said"Guess ill be heading back to the city today.Its a long ride and Ill have to get back to the office in the 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 good career there working at the capitol the kids have good school and the city is growing by leaps and bounds,there not much here in the mountians for me to do and besides it would be a shame to waste all the effort you put in all those years telling me use my good senses and not my strong back"Mike replied curious at his fathers apperant change of heart about his liveing in the city.
"There may be more here for you that 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 doenst live anymore.I learned this about him since that i never would have guessed about him when he was still alive.And knowing what i do now about him,well i think you better desrve to have this than anyone else that might be able to lay claim to it"
Looking at the large very 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 kept it hidden dont let anyone talk you out of itand be careful who knows that you have it."his voice feeble with age he said"Its the only thing of value that i have and i am trusting you to keep it safe from now on.There is a story behind that watche son that you would not believe.When you come back in the summer bring the watch with you and ill show you somethings,might change ur mind about living here again son."
"Ok dad i will but i gotta be going now its a long drive"
leaving the porche and his father setting in the rocker he walked the pathway down to the road where his horse and buggy wear standing ready for the long journey back to where he now called home.While he walked he considered what his father had said to himand thought to himself,what could be so imortant 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 monthes later before he got the chance to finish telling his son the story behind the watch,the watch that now was put away in 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 unrecognizabley 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

After the meeting with the Italian men of Montalvo Industries, Bruno Tyson was hungry and headed to Ben's Chili Bowl and was welcomed by it's owner, Nizam Ali, who was happy to see his friend Bruno. Located at 1213 U street in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Bruno ordered two Chili Dogs and finished them off with a cold and sweet Chocolate Milkshake. Niizam was the son of the founders of the Chili Diner, Ben and Virginia, who had established the venerable Diner in 1958.

Kneeling in the streambed Al Giordino was starting to nod off because the drudgery of panning and sluicing was getting to him. His legs were getting weak too and without much thought, Al just plopped down into the streambed to do the work. Everyone heard Al and turned to look. Dirk just smiled knowingly at his best friend. Al grinned back. Keitha shook her head and muttered under her breath. All of them had been at work now for over four hours and it was still not lunchtime as Al realized. Dirk stopped and walked into the stream and looked down at his friend then offered his hand, Al looked up and grabbed Dirk's hand as he was lifted by his six foot three friend hauled him out of the stream. Dirk and Al walked over to their trailer and "Strip before you step in the trailer" blurted Dirk. Al looked at his friend stupefied at the request then began to strip as the others watched. Keitha turned her head when Al got down to his skivvies. Dirk took the clothes and walked over to a makeshift laundry line strung between two trees. Dirk stepped into the trailer and heard the shower running and Al faintly singing. After fifteen minutes passed Al stepped out and toweled off and walked over to his clothing drawer and took out some underwear, sweatpants and a T Shirt. Al strode to the refrigerator and grabbed the last can of beer. Sitting down at the small dining table, Al smiled nonchalantly. "Thanks partner" he said. "I can fix you something to eat if you want" Dirk said. "That's okay, I feel better now and will fix it myself".

After spending the whole night with Nick, Willa was tired and had to rest while Nick got ready for a slew of appointments with politicians, lobbyists and advisors that would take up the entire day. Finishing up, Nick walked to the bed, smiling and "You going to spend the day sleeping, dear?" "No, of course not, Nick. I have a salon appointment, a meeting with my agent and a luncheon with a couple of friends. What time do you think you will be back, honey?" "Probably after 8 or 9pm this evening. See you later, my sex bunny" says Nick. After Nick leaves, Willa sets the clock to wake her up after a while and falls asleep. After getting up nearly ninety minutes later, Willa goes to Union Station to meet her agent who had taken the train down from New York City and they take the car Willa had leased to a nondescript restaurant with little business and talk about her singing/acting career which had been a bit slow lately. Finishing up over an hour later, Willa took her agent back to Union Station. Then she went to a salon one of her friends had recommended. Later after One O'clock, Willa met her friends for a nice get together, enjoying the time with them. Later, after leaving her friends, Willa met up with a plain looking man wearing dark pants, coat and white shirt with dark tie. Typical of these agents, she thought, of wearing generic outfits and reported what little Nick had to say about his business. After meeting the agent, Willa felt disgusted and returned to the hotel and took a long bath including some bath salts & lotions.

Later that night, Willa was most relaxed after making love with the man who was the best lover she had up to this time. "How about coming back to Italy with me, my love?" asked Nick. "But of course" smiled Willa winningly. "Good, the flight leaves at 6AM" Nick announced and rolled over, snoring instantly. Willa was mortified at getting up at such an ungodly hour. But she had no choice. Later, that afternoon in Rome, having signed in at the Westin Excelsior and taking the Ville de Cupola suite that was on the top floor. Willa explored the huge suite and it's upstairs library, bedrooms and sauna. From the balcony of the upstairs library, Willa looked down on the lower library room. Then she looked up at the dome above her and the frescoed painting on the inside wall of the dome. Such opulence, Willa thought. Nick came up behind her and sensing her thoughts, revealed the price of $14,000 a night to stay in this majestic suite.

The Moon shone through the window of the RV that Aiden Castle had rented for the NUMA trip to Mississippi. Aiden turned over towards Keitha and admired her form as she lightly snored. Their encounter was passionate, explosive and yet tender, Aiden recalled. He knew the other men would find out by noon at the least, considering the closeness of the RV's and Trailers parked in such close proximity. Oh, well, he thought and began to think ahead for the day's activities.

A general meeting was being held at corporate headquarters in Montalcino where Montalvo Industries was located as Nick rushed to Montalcino leaving Willa back in Rome to have a grand time exploring the city. Andrew, Rafe' and Adrian Montalcito were already in the meeting room when Nick stepped in and ordered the meeting to begin. Several centuries before, during the 16th century, the descendants of Salvatore' Montini-Cristi had split into two families; the Montalcito and Cristiani. Salvatore' Montini-Cristi was the ruler of Montealagre' back in 1026 AD. He was the grandnephew of the founder, Montealagre', a great warrior and leader.

As the board meeting was drawing to a close, the cellphone in Nick's pocket vibrated. Nick pulled out his cellphone and listened. After putting his cellphone back in the pocket, he announced that a guest will be addressing the board. A tall, statuesque woman with long flowing red hair stepped through the doors of the boardroom and every man inside sucked in their breath at the sight of the beautiful woman who commanded such presence. "Gentlemen, I have news of the discovery by agents of NUMA of the ceramic jar that holds the seeds of the tree of knowledge that was thought lost ages ago by our english agents back in the tenth century. It is of utmost urgency that this jar is recovered immediately before they learn of the contents of the jar. I urge you or someone hired by you to recover that jar. The company I work for will be most grateful and will pay handsomely for that jar. Good day, gentlemen." With that, Toni Pierson stepped out of the boardroom leaving the gentlemen with their mouths open at the beauty that had just graced their boardroom.

Off and on over the following year and a half Dirk and Al had come and gone while the others stuck it out mucking in the stream and the streambed for many yards up and down the stream. It was during the 17th month of the dig that Keitha and Aiden were digging into a hillside near the stream that Keitha's short shovel struck something. With care and ease she grabbed a trowel and dug around the object and eventually pulled from the hillside the jar that Keitha knew just had to be the one from the ancient ship from England. When she pulled it out of the dirt and twisted it around she saw the Troutwine coat of arms and immediately knew it was an English family from the Gloucestershire area. Unknown to her, the jar had a pouch of the seeds of the tree of knowledge in Persia encased in the clay wall of the jar. Later when Aiden cabled NUMA of the discovery, news of the find had already been received by powerful interests that sought the jar. Aiden, along with jar and security agents took the jar to NUMA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In less than 72 hours after it's arrival in the nation's capital the jar had been stolen and everyone at NUMA was stunned at the breach of their security. Admiral Sandecker called in the FBI and despite their lackadaisical attitude about a missing jar, the Admiral called the Director of the FBI and informed him of the importance of finding the jar.

Keitha was saddened at the loss of the jar and could not understand it's importance despite her pleas to Admiral Sandecker to let her in on its importance. Finally, she had enough of the stonewalling and decided to contact Joseph Troutwine to learn more of the story that she only knew part of. When she arrived at Joseph Troutwine's home in the outskirts of Little Rock, she was stunned not just by the sight of the handsome man but in her heart as well. As the two of them got to know each other and Keitha learned about the civil war soldiers Andrew Troutwine and Jesse Tate.

"Admiral Sandecker why did you not tell Keitha the importance of that Jar and the seeds of the tree of knowledge. She knew the jar had some kind of importance to the English family Troutwine and that they were English agents of a powerful European family in the quest for technological superiority. Let me tell her the story about this family and how her own sister Willa is involved with a member of that family. Okay?" A long pause and Dirk knew that the Admiral was going to give up the information grudgingly. "Very well, Dirk" Dirk turned and walked out of the Admiral's office.