The Twelve by William Gladstone Page A

glowed with excitement as he recounted his experiences and George, who wasn’t easily impressed, was caught up in Max’s youthful enthusiasm.
    George had agreed to produce a film for Ralph Cohen Productions entitled In Search of Ancient Mysteries, and was looking for someone to scout locations in South America. He liked Max, thought the young man had a good work ethic, and was impressed that he could speak Spanish and knew the Latin American culture.
    â€œWhat the hell,” he said one day, “It’s not brain surgery.” So there in the locker room, after a particularly challenging game, George offered Max the job.
    â€œEver heard of Erich Von Daniken and his book In Search of Ancient Astronauts ? ” he said as they sat over a cup of coffee.
    â€œNo,” was Max’s honest reply.
    â€œHe’s the guy who thinks that astronauts from outer space colonized the Earth thousands of years ago, and created some of the unexplainable mysteries from ancient civilizations. Rod Serling narrated an NBC television special based on his books. It was a huge success, and now they want to create a sequel. A lot of the locations he’s mentioned are in South America, and I thought you might be a good choice to help select the location list for the film.
    â€œDo you think you would be interested ? ” George asked.
    Without hesitation, Max jumped on the opportunity.
    â€œSure, sounds like fun,” he replied.
    ***
    The next day George handed Max a fourteen-page outline of the film, together with a preliminary list of locations that included Tiahuanaco in Bolivia, Cuzco in Peru, and other exotic places that boasted unexplainable mysteries that might be indications of the presence of ancient astronauts.
    George was quite blunt about the shakiness of the film’s concept.
    â€œIt could just be all smoke and mirrors,” he admitted. “There’s no telling if Von Daniken is right, or if he even believes it himself.”
    â€œWell, after you told me about his theory, I checked out his book from the library and I have to say that much of it seems far-fetched, to say the least—if not outright fabrications,” Max confided.
    â€œWell then, I guess this project doesn’t interest you,” George said with a tone of disappointment.
    â€œNo, exactly the opposite—I find this a fascinating project and would be delighted to help you out. I love exploring ancient myths and ancient civilizations. Working with you would be a blast.”
    â€œGreat!” George responded. “Your initial salary will be $125 a week, and I think you’ll do a great job. In addition to fleshing out and adding to the location list, I need you to figure out how we get our crew and equipment into each of the countries where we plan to film. Do you think you can handle that ? ”
    â€œAbsolutely,” Max replied confidently.
    So he took a leave of absence from his father’s book publishing company and threw himself into the project with intensity and enthusiasm. He began with basic research and within four weeks had read every issue of National Geographic ever published and had a location list that encompassed mysteries and ancient sites from Bolivia to England, Syria, Israel, Greece, India, and Japan.
    When next they met, George was impressed with the job Max had done thus far, and offered him the position of production coordinator on the project, which meant he would be involved in the everyday aspects of filming in all of the countries. George also bumped Max’s weekly salary up to $150.
    Suddenly word came down that the shoot dates for In Search of Ancient Mysteries had been moved up. They would be forced to scramble in order to meet the new dates and be prepared when the crew arrived.
    â€œCan you get down to Peru in the next two weeks ? ” George asked Max.
    In fact, Max was ready to go—but there was a problem. The necessary permissions hadn’t been