The Malediction

The next few seconds seemed to be played out in slow motion. Achmaed couldn?t avoid the collision, but he did manage to turn enough so that the container occupied the space between him and the two onrushing antagonists. They slammed hard into its surface, driving Achmaed backwards and loosening his grip on the package. The container twisted in the air and smashed against the edge of the yacht yielding a loud cracking noise. Before anyone involved in the scuffle could react, the container popped open and a Grecian urn, which had been its contents, flew out, rolling end over end in the air like a large football. Achmaed felt himself gasping involuntarily as the priceless piece of antiquity smashed against one of the sizeable steel spars that projected from the side of the Aquarius. It was the last Achmaed would see of Asan?s prized treasure. The gritty contents of the urn sprayed into the air as the urn split into a thousand pieces. Achmaed watched with his last moment of consciousness as the debris spread into the air like a flock of migrating birds and then fell into the waters of the Aegean Sea.