They discovered their first two spheres by happenstance. They weren’t unearthed in the initial excavation; they were noticed on top two alabaster plinths that marked the entrance to the former plantation great house. While the house had long been reclaimed by the wild forest, the two plinths remained spheres intact. Each was nearly meter in diameter and weighed close to a thousand pounds, much too heavy to load on the expedition boats.

With the permission of the National Museum, they were removed, photographed, weighed, measured, x-rayed and tested for radioactivity. When the new road was completed, they were taken out on the same heavy equipment trucks that had built the road and delivered to the Museum Nacional where they were put on permanent display by the national museum.

Eschelmann and Lowe co-wrote a paper on the spheres and subsequent funding was even easier to obtain. Before the end of the following academic year, each had defended his dissertation and both were young professors. The University of Chicago extended and offer to each to join the faculty which they accepted. Now, twenty-five years later, Eschelmann and Lowe seldom left the conditioned air comfort of their offices in Chicago, and left the digging to trusted graduate students and adjuncts that fought to get on their exploration team.

One of the undergraduates for this season was a typical appearing archeology wonk named Paul David from the University of Nebraska. He was paired with Kari Hatfield, a dedicated doctoral student from Duke who was anything but a typical looking archeology wonk. It took weeks for Paul become accustomed to working with the gorgeous Kari long enough to stop being tongue-tied and look Kari in the eyes when she spoke to him. Kari knew Paul had a crush on her, but she didn’t tease or flirt with him.

She let him work through his feelings as best he could until he could come to grips with the fact he was working with a former Miss America contestant from North Carolina and focus on his digging. Now that Paul was nearly immune to the physical attractiveness of his partner/mentor, they were getting along like old colleagues and good friends.

Kari was impressed by Paul’s work ethic. He dug without complaint or any chauvinism toward Kari. He asked the right question and listened to the answers. Occasionally he followed up with another question that would impress Kari. He was listening to her and taking her seriously. She thought of him more like a kid brother than peer or student. Kari grew attached to this bright and shy farm boy.

They ate nearly all of their meals together and frequently sat on together after hours to enjoy the stillness of the tropical nights and regale each other with stories of their families and hometowns. Each of the other male students had taken a shot at attracting the Kari’s attention, but she was as driven to be a successful archaeologist as she had been to be a pageant contestant. She was used to the attention and paid it no mind. She was gentle and kind in her rebuffs and they all went away wistful, not resentful or with wounded pride. She wasn’t interested in romance but she was interested in friendship and learning.

“Hey, look at this!” Paul exclaimed, uncovering what he thought was the top of a small sphere about seven inches in diameter. Kari knelt in the dirt beside him and the two put their heads together over the depression Paul was excavating. “I think we may have found one.”

The pair was working on the north end of the burial mound pit. They had spent five weeks slowly removing layers of dirt hoping to find that the mound extended further than was originally mapped. The use of ground penetrating radar had given indication that there was something worth digging for.

“I’ll get the camera and the tape,” Kari replied. “We need to document this properly.” She gave him a kiss on the forehead. “Good job Paul David! You may make a decent scientist yet.”

She got to her feet and climbed from the covered pit and crossed the site to the cataloging tent. She came back with a digital camera and steel measure tape that would be used to pinpoint exactly where the newest sphere was uncovered. A few of the other teams heard the commotion and climbed from their own excavation pits to look down on the new discovery. After a time they went back to digging. The other teams had found spheres before and weren’t impressed any longer. This sphere didn’t appear to be of any significance.

Paul and Kari took turns slowly shaving away the dirt around the sphere until the top third was exposed. “There’s something else here,” whispered Kari as she attempted expose more of the sphere and found part of it missing. “Get the sat phone and the laptop.” Paul felt his pulse quicken by the tone and urgency in his partner’s voice. He scrambled out of the pit and dashed to the cataloging tent, returning with the IBM ThinkPad and satellite phone that would connect them to Eschelmann and Lowe. Kari tapped a few keys on the keyboard and three thousand miles away, a different laptop chirped and twittered to get the attention of anyone nearby.

“Good afternoon Kari, it’s always a pleasure to receive a call from you. You must have something special to call during digging hours,” smiled Wayne Eschelmann. Kari McCoy’s reputation for being all business was well-earned.

“I think we have something to show you,” she smiled in acknowledgement.

“Have a look.” She moved the laptop to the work area, adjusting it until the sphere filled the screen. What became apparent was that this was no sphere. It was stone bracelet made from a sphere and it had the last wearer still somewhat attached.

“Is that what I think it is?” Wayne whispered hoarsely. Kari didn’t answer, she turned the camera to her face and nodded, big grin splitting her face. “I’ll be there by Sunday evening. I’ll bring cold beer and other goodies. Tell no one. I want this to be a surprise. Does anyone else know?”

She shook her head but held up one finger. She panned the camera over to her dig partner.

“Paul David, isn’t it? From Whitney, Nebraska, correct?” asked the face on the computer.

Eschelmann knew the names and bios of every person on his site. Eschelmann and Lowe argued and fought constantly over who would be on the handpicked teams were permitted access. They had agreed early on that both had to endorse a candidate before he or she was invited to join. Paul David received an immediate endorsement from both men when they read his name and hometown. It was made easier because of Paul’s family history and made easier because had all the correct characteristics for being an excellent archaeologist including the ability to maintain his silence.

“Yes sir, professor.” He was a little impressed that Dr. Eschelmann knew his name and hometown.

“Excellent work. Excellent. This may be a find of startling significance. I must ask you to keep it to yourself for the time being. I am flying down there on Sunday to examine it myself. Can I count on you both to keep it quiet until then? Tell no one. Not even the other members of the dig. I don’t want to get anyone else’s hopes up if this isn’t the Jaguar.”

“Of course sir. We can keep a secret.” Paul asked no questions. He wasn’t sure what questions he should ask, so he kept his mouth closed.

“Don’t worry son. If this is what I think it is, you will get full credit for its initial discovery. You will have your pick of graduate schools, I suspect. Quite a coup for a Cardinal turned Husker.”

They closed the laptop and disconnected the cellphone and Paul returned the equipment to the main tent. When he returned, Kari was bent over the stone bracelet and the arm that it adorned was being freed from the earth bit by bit. Paul looked at her from behind and a flood of lusty memories came back to him. She was an incredibly attractive woman, no doubt about it. She was made all the more beautiful by her natural ease and confident nature. Now her khaki shorts clad ass was pointed at him and Paul felt a rush of blood in his face and groin as he reacted to her form in the genetically preprogrammed manner. He shook his head to clear those sexual thoughts and bent down next to her.

“Paul, what we may have here is The Jaguar. The last Brunka Shaman.”

“Brunka? You mean Boruca, right?” He was familiar with the known history of this region, recorded after the arrival of the Spanish. The Boruca people had inhabited this region from the time of the Conquistadors until today.

“No, the Brunka. There is evidence that the Boruca immigrated here after the Spanish wiped the Brunka from existence. There is also an obscure legend that the Brunka had a spiritual leader, a shaman with mystical powers, who was slain in defense of the village against the Conquistadors. The legend also describes the attire of the Jaguar Shaman including four stone bracelets worn at the wrist and ankles and a stone sphere necklace. They were described as combining to have other-worldly powers. They had the ability to change men and objects, influence winds and tides, even alter the weather. Eschelmann and Lowe have theorized that they hold the secret to whom or what created the Diquis Spheres, or at least a key to finding out more than we know now.”

“Why haven’t I you said about the Jaguar Shaman before?”

“It’s just a crazy theory that Professor Eschelmann dug up in the University of Chicago archives. It was first proposed in the mid-twenties. Back then, the professor who found the original Latin translation of a Mesoamerican codex explored twenty five years on this very site. I can’t remember his name. He didn’t know how close he had come to finding the prize he sought. Docs Esch and Lowe used that early work pinpoint a location to start their own dig. This site is so far from all the other digs, there has to be a reason. And here we are, ninety years later, maybe finding the pot of gold they were looking for.” She grinned excitedly.

“His name was Dr. Leonard David,” stated Paul quietly. “He was my great-grandfather.”

“What? Are you serious? You are related to the originator of this site?”
Paul nodded.