Jake bent to the glass to examine the piece more closely. It certainly looked like part of the Tree of Life, but it still made little sense as a map. They would need help to figure out what it meant and whether it led to an actual physical location.
His own faith was rooted in the Christian tradition with the Bible as the literal word of God. But violence had shaken Jake’s belief after the m******e of his family in a drug-fueled frenzy by a gang in Walkerville near Johannesburg. He had spent years in the military as part of the struggles of the nations of Africa to escape their colonial past, but also to free themselves from internal rivalry, tribal allegiances and corruption.
As a white South African, Jake understood the struggle of race. The color of his skin made many people dismiss h
