and went to the water basin to soak his handkerchief to wipe the ashes of Tarkiz from his face and hands. He sank into a seat across from Gale and Jocko. 'Tell Will to pick up his course,' he asked Gale.
The Ford set its nose for Bangor.
Gale took sandwiches and coffee to the cockpit as they flew across New England, the sky spotted with puffy clouds.
She returned to her seat to join Indy and Jocko in a conversation she'd wanted for days to hear.
'Let's have it out on the table, Jocko,' Indy was saying. 'I need to know as much as I can about my people.
Otherwise I'm liable to miss opportunities when they arise.'
'You mean this isn't a job interview?' Jocko smiled.
'I thought you worked for the museum,' Gale said between bites of her sandwich.
'I do. But I'm on this airplane because I was instructed to go along with what the professor needs. Or wants,' he added as an afterthought.
'What's your background, Jocko?'
'Tell me what you know already, Boss. It will be easier to fill in the blanks, perhaps.'
'For starters, you're a hell of a lot smarter than you show with that Jamaican jingo you present to the world.'
'That real kind of you, mon,' Jocko mimicked his singsong tone.
'But why do you do that?' Gale asked.
'You can hide that you are a witch, Miss Parker—'
'Gale, please.'
'Thank you. As I say, you easily conceal that you are a witch. You even change your name. There is Arab blood in you. I see it in the bone structure of your face, the small differences in your skin—well, call it shading instead of color.' Jocko smiled with tolerance born of severe experience. 'How long can you hide your family tree if you are as black as me?'
Gale studied the big man before her, beginning to understand his true depth.
'Not long at all,' she admitted.
'Why do you hide yours?'
Gale shrugged. 'It unnerves people. Upsets them. Even frightens some. So I changed to a name with which people are more comfortable.'
'It is much easier to change your name than it is for me to change my ebony appearance,' Jocko offered. 'Being black, and being intelligent, is acceptable only under certain conditions. And only with certain people.'
'You have that much trouble?' Indy asked.
'Being a smart black man in certain places means a very short lifespan. I know.' He leaned back and smiled, but with little humor. 'Let me explain. It is not just the black that matters. It is the difference in color. It is even the difference in the black. Those blacks of African descent, or from the islands, or anywhere, for that matter, if they are light-skinned, they hate people like me. Because I am so different from them. It is foolish. It is even stupid. But it is the real world.'
'You have your degree in geology from the university in Caracas,' Indy slipped into the exchange.
'Yes,' Jocko said, offering no further information.
'And you took marine biology at the University of Miami.'
'I did not obtain my degree there.'
'How many did you get?' Indy asked.
'You know many things, Professor,' Jocko said without smiling.
'You don't need to tell us, Jocko. But the more I know the stronger we all are.'
'Four,' Jocko said.
'Four white men,' Indy answered for him.
Jocko shook his head, but he seemed glad this was in the open. 'They had a meeting. I guess it was the Klan. Got all liquored up. My teacher, Veronica Green, she was white. She wanted to talk to me about underwater work in the Caribbean—'
'He's a qualified skin diver and deep-sea diver,' Indy interrupted. 'Searches for old wrecks for the museum. Their treasures are more than gold and silver.
Artifacts from an age long gone.'
'That's what this woman wanted to talk about. She taught in a classroom, I lived in the world she dreamed about.
But we made a mistake. We had hamburgers together at a beachfront joint in Miami Beach. These whites came in, drunk, angry, filled with hate. They said not one word, but suddenly they were coming at me with knives and brass knuckles. They were no problem for me—'
'Four against one and it's no problem?' Gale couldn't hold back the question.
Again Indy answered for him. 'He'd never tell you this himself, but Jocko is a martial arts master. Judo, jujitsu, karate, to say nothing of a year he spent in India with the Ghurkas.'
