Hunt at the Well of Eternity by Gabriel Hunt, James Reasoner Page B

town.
    “Hello,” he said. “My name is Gabriel Hunt. I’m supposed to meet with Dr. Almanzar—”
    “I know.” She closed the book with a snap of pages and set it on the desk. “My assistant told me about your brother’s call. I’m Cierra Almanzar.”
    Well, thought Gabriel.

Chapter 7
    “I don’t have much time, Señor Hunt,” Dr. Cierra Almanzar said. “What can I do for you?”
    “I’m here about General Granville Fordham Fargo.”
    She nodded. “Carlos mentioned as much. We have the battle flag of General Fargo’s cavalry regiment here at the museum. It’s not on display at the moment, but I can arrange for you to see it.”
    “That would be helpful, thank you. But what I’m especially interested in is how it came to be here.”
    “In a Mexican museum, you mean?”
    “That’s right.”
    “We have numerous American artifacts and documents in our collection. Any time one of your countrymen came down here to my country to live, he brought at least some of his possessions with him. Over time certain of those items find their way into museums. Quite a number of Confederate military men came to Mexico after the Civil War, I understand, including your General Fargo.” Dr. Almanzar ran her eyes up and down Gabriel’s rangy form. “You are doing research on the American Civil War?”
    “You could say that.”
    “I mean no offense, Señor Hunt, but you do not strike me as the scholarly type.” A smile spread over Gabriel’s face. “What?”
    “Nothing,” Gabriel said. “It’s just that I was thinking exactly the same thing about you when I first saw you.”
    She returned his smile. “I have an event I am expected to attend tonight. I do not normally dress like this.” A crease suddenly appeared on her forehead and she snapped her fingers. “Wait a moment. Gabriel Hunt. Of course. You were the one who located the Dumari Temple in Indonesia a couple of years ago!”
    Gabriel shrugged.
    “Michael Hunt’s brother,” Dr. Almanzar went on. “Of course.” She pushed a lock of raven hair back from her lovely, olive-skinned face. “I read your parents’ book. I was sorry to hear about what happened to them.”
    Gabriel shrugged again, his smile fading. Nine years had passed since their disappearance at sea, eight since they’d been declared dead. With everything he’d managed to find in that time, all the headline-making discoveries, he’d been able to make no headway at all on what had happened to them, and it continued to gnaw at him.
    “I’m sorry, Dr. Almanzar, but if you have another engagement, perhaps we’d better get started…”
    “It’s just a fund-raiser for the museum.” Her tone of voice made it clear that she considered the event a chore. “I can be a little late if I need to. You wish to see the general’s flag?”
    “Yes, and I’d like to know as much about its provenance as I can.”
    She gestured with an elegant hand toward the computer on her desk. “I’ll check our records and see what I can find out. While I’m doing that, you can ask Carlos to let you into the Special Collections room. The flag is stored there.”
    “Carlos is your assistant?”
    “That’s right.” Dr. Almanzar sat down at the keyboard and began clicking away. “I’ll join you there in a few minutes.”
    Gabriel nodded and left the office.
    Carlos turned out to be the man he’d thought was a security guard. He led him down another short hallway to a locked door, produced a ring of keys and unlocked it. The large room on the other side of the door was full of shelves and display cases. Gabriel saw pre-Columbian statuary and pottery, stone knives and axes, some sort of feathered headdress, tapestries and paintings, and glass-topped cases full of documents.
    When Gabriel asked, Carlos said, “The American Civil War stuff is over there,” pointing to the left-hand wall. “Your country is very fortunate, amigo .”
    “Why do you say that?” Gabriel asked.
    “You’ve only had one