Jurassic Heart (9 page)

There was no point denying the mood on-site changed after Indiana Jones paid us a visit. Those who had been working for Eric were already a little nervous, and I wondered if I’d lose them altogether. It was a possibility I had to keep in mind; I couldn’t run the site with any fewer people than we I had. We were already at bare minimum. With that in mind, I contacted Sam and asked him to put some feelers out, see if there were any undergrads around who wanted to come up and boost numbers.

Even though I hated myself for doing it, I decided to keep closer tabs on Andre and Pete, the two grad students. They hadn’t been around when Eric got beat up, but there wasn’t any evidence the toy and Eric’s attack were related. They were the two members of the team I didn’t know as well as everyone else. For the sake of my dig and my friends, I had to watch them, even if the idea was distasteful. So far, Andre and Pete had mostly worked together and kept their heads down, doing good things and always logging everything with River. I liked them, even though Andre continued to be quiet and kept himself separate from the rest of the group. But there was no law against being quiet.

In an attempt to boost morale, I decided to do a show-and-tell day with children from the local elementary school’s summer program. There was nothing better than having kids around to cement our presence in the community as a positive one, and in my experience the boundless enthusiasm of young children created good vibes across the dig.

River was working miracles in our small, underfunded makeshift lab, and I used her findings as an excuse to sit inside during the afternoon, poring over the figures and graphs she’d produced.

“I knew there was a reason I asked for you,” I murmured as she set a mug of coffee, a glass of water, and two painkillers down next to the paper I was reading.

“My good looks?”

“That too,” I said with an easy smile and a wink.

River laughed and swatted my shoulder. “Have you seen this?” she asked, pushing a few wisps of hair away from her face and nodding toward one of the files.

“No. I’m trying to work through it all in some kind of order.”

“You’re going to want to look at it. Sam sent it over.”

I was curious enough to abandon the paper on soil samples (which was admittedly not that riveting) and open the file. A quick scan told me the lab had confirmed my initial identification of the partial skeleton as an Othnielosaurus. “Yes.” I allowed myself a little fist pump. It was the first good news I’d had in a while, and it was always nice to be right.

It also meant I could justifiably announce the find and start requesting more resources and funding, although since the file had come from Sam, I guessed he was already doing that for me. There was a reason I worked for him rather than freelancing. He made everything so much simpler.

“H
EY
,
BUDDY
,
whatcha working on?”

I looked out of my trench to where Boner was hunched down, elbows on his knees, peering in at me.

“I’m knitting a sweater, Boner, what does it fucking look like?”

He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Whoa. Sorry I asked.”

I sat back on my heels, reached for my bottle of water, and took a long pull on it. “Sorry. Just frustrated. I’ve been working this area for weeks now, and it’s not giving me anything.”

“You want to move on?”

“Not yet.”

I was still working the Indiana Jones trench, for reasons I wasn’t sure of. I’d been down in the mud and dust for too long, doing the hard labor part of the job, moving big hunks of dirt around in the hope I’d find something.

“You’re sentimental,” Boner accused, accepting my bottle of water when I offered to share. “If this area isn’t yielding anything, you should find a new spot.”

“I want another couple of days,” I said. “Then maybe I’ll think about it.”

He huffed a laugh and looked up the hill, then glanced back at me.

“What?” I demanded.

“Nothing,” he said quickly. Too quickly.

“What’s going on?” I said, allowing a warning tone to color my words. Suddenly his little visit for a chat was suspicious. We didn’t usually disturb each other unless we needed help.

“Nothing,” he repeated. “I just… oh fuck.”

I laughed then, wondering why he even bothered coming over. Boner was one of the worst liars I knew. He claimed it had something to do with his upbringing.

“Come here,” I told him, pulling him into a hug. “Tell Uncle Nick.”

“You’ll be mad,” he mumbled into my shoulder.

“I’ll try not to be.”

“Hunter Joseph is here.”

I dropped my head back and a thump of annoyance pulsed through me as a deep sigh escaped. I’d done some research since he had last turned up on-site, not wanting to be on the back foot if it came to another battle of wits. According to his blog, his whole raison d’être
was to change the way archaeologists and paleontologists dug. The way he did it, as I understood it, was to bug people until they were so sick of the sight of him they conceded a few points to get him off their backs.

“Okay,” I said wearily and struggled to my feet.

“No,” Boner said quickly. “I was supposed to come down here and stop you going up there.”

“Why?”

“Because you promised Sam you wouldn’t get into any more fights. And if you punch him again, he might press charges, and then Sam would have to fire you, and he really doesn’t want to have to do that.”

“You called him?”

“Yeah. Well, River did, when Joseph turned up. She asked him, very politely, to leave.”

“And did he?”

“No, of course not.”

Anger welled up inside me, scaring me a little because I wasn’t an angry person. I was cool and calm under pressure. It was what made me a good scientist. But this guy—
this fucking guy
—really got under my skin.

“This is why we don’t dig on this continent!” I yelled at Boner, throwing my arms in the air. He knew I wasn’t yelling
at
him, I was just yelling in his general direction. And it was better for me to get my anger out at him in a creative way rather than punch someone again.

“Do we have to deal with this shit in Mongolia?” I continued. “No, we fucking don’t. I’m taking a job in China next.”

“I know,” he murmured reassuringly. “I know, Nick.”

The team were popping their heads up from where they were working, looking like meerkats. In any other situation, I would have been amused. Instead, I rubbed my hands over my face in frustration.

“I get it, though, that’s the worst thing,” I said, turning back to my trench and sitting down, letting my feet dangle over the edge.

“His beef?”

“Yeah,” I said. “We do fuck up the landscape. We do scare off the wildlife and mess with breeding sites and all that shit. There’s no point in denying it. All we can do is be aware and try to restore what we can when we leave.”

“Don’t let Joseph hear you saying that,” Boner said, bumping my arm with his to tell me he was joking. Sort of.

“I know,” I said and dropped my head to his shoulder. “I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of telling him he’s right.”

Boner gently combed his fingers through my hair, a comforting gesture he did at night sometimes.

“I should talk to him.”

“Nick, no,” Boner said, injecting just a tiny bit too much sarcasm into his voice for my liking.

“It’s the responsible, grown-up thing to do,” I said, matching his level of drama.

“Don’t punch him. Please.”

I allowed Boner to grab my shoulders, force me to straighten my spine, and then plant a sloppy kiss on my cheek before I started the long walk back up the hill. The one rather amusing thought running through my mind was that Sam would flip if he found out Boner’s attempt to keep me away from Hunter Joseph actually ended up with me going to talk to the guy. Of course, Sam would never believe that I wanted us to talk like adults.

River was back in the trailer, and I went to her first. She took one look at me, sighed, and told me Joseph was sitting out by his car.

“Boner’s a waste of space, isn’t he?” she said as I turned to leave.

“Yeah,” I said. “But we love him.”

It didn’t take long to find Joseph; he was, as River had said, leaning against the hood of his car, working on a small tablet computer. He glanced up as I approached, finished what he was doing, and locked the screen.

“Here to start another fight?” he asked.

A very small part of me was pleased to see the faint bruising on his jaw, discoloring the skin. Because I was pale, I had a black eye from where he’d hit me, although there was no arguing I’d deserved it.

“No,” I said honestly. “I wanted to talk to you.”

Joseph’s eyebrows rose even farther. “Not bringing your dreadlock boyfriend for backup?”

“Boner isn’t my boyfriend,” I said calmly.

“Whatever.”

“Someone needs to look after the site while I’m not there. He’ll do that.”

Joseph stood and walked round to the side of his car, then opened the passenger door for me. I hesitated, apparently long enough for him to notice.

“I’m not going to murder you,” he said.

I nodded, climbed into the car, and buckled up, slightly wary about being in such an enclosed space with him. My heart started to beat a little faster.

“We’re probably not welcome at Joe’s just yet,” Joseph said. “Especially not together.”

“You want to go to a bar?”

“Nah. Let’s go get coffee.”

His nonchalance surprised me, but I didn’t say anything, letting him drive down into town to the coffee shop Boner went to most mornings. Part of me was relieved we were in a place where the girl serving coffee recognized me. Another part was slightly wary. The thought of being banned from two local establishments was not particularly comforting.

“I’ve got it,” I said as we approached the counter. “What do you want?”

“Soy latte,” he said. “Please.”

“Soy latte,” I repeated to Cherry, the sweet redheaded girl who knew what I liked. In regards to caffeinated beverages, anyway. “And my usual.”

“Sure thing,” Cherry said and turned to start putting the order together.

“Do you want to find a seat?” I said to Joseph, not particularly wanting him hovering over my shoulder while I paid for the drinks.

He nodded and wandered off into the shop, and I let out a little sigh of relief.

“New boyfriend?” Cherry asked with a wink.

“No,” I said. “God, no.”

“I’m glad. You’re much better suited to the blond guy.”

“He’s not my boyfriend either!” I said, laughing and handing over money for the drinks. “Just a friend. Colleague. Sort of.”

“Maybe you should go for him, then,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows at me.

I dropped a tip in her jar and shook my head. “Thanks for the drinks, Cherry.” She giggled as I walked away.

Joseph was back in a corner, slightly out of the way but still visible in case things got hot and heavy again. I guessed he wanted witnesses too.

“Thanks,” he said as I passed him his latte. “What did you want to talk about?”

I took a sip of my coffee. “How we can try to coexist without killing one another?”

To my surprise, he laughed. “That sounds like a noble cause.”

“The one thing I just don’t get,” I said, “is why you’re picking on
us.”

“What on earth makes you think I’m picking on you?”

“Not just me,” I said. “All of us. Diggers.”

He pulled a quarter out of his pocket and turned it over and over in his fingers, in what I guessed was a nervous gesture. “It matters to me,” he said simply. “And if I don’t fight for it, who will?”

I sighed. “But there are so many other important things to fight for,” I said. “Surely, in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t such a big deal? You know that right now, fewer Americans believe in global warming than they did ten years ago? And we’ve got more evidence than ever before. And fewer and fewer girls are electing to study the sciences.”

He nodded and set the quarter spinning on the table. “I’m not denying it’s a problem,” he said slowly. “And yeah, I get involved in global warming projects and educational projects and whatever else they ask me to do.”

“It’s just landscape,” I said and immediately regretted it.

“See, that’s the attitude everywhere,” Joseph said, stabbing an emphatic finger at the table. “Just the desert, just the badlands, just Outer Mongolia—”

“Actually, there’s no such place as Outer Mongolia,” I said, hoping to defuse his rant with humor. It didn’t work.

“Whatever,” he snapped. “People don’t want to take responsibility for the world around them. We continue to build on areas of natural beauty, and they’re getting more and more scarce. We’ve done more destruction to our planet in the past century than in the preceding four billion years.”

“So, we’ll restore,” I said. “I’ll cut the dig short by a week, and we’ll spend that time putting things back the way they were when we started.”

He smiled cynically. “This time,” he said. “You will this time because I’m here, because I’m harassing you into doing it. But the next time you pick up a job in Mongolia or Argentina or wherever and I’m not there to put the pressure on you to do it, you won’t bother. You don’t get why it’s important.”

“No,” I admitted. “We do what we can, but sometimes sacrifices need to be made in order to discover, to progress. I understand your viewpoint, I just don’t necessarily agree with you.”

“Then I need to stay,” he said simply.

I sighed. There was no reasoning with this man. “Okay,” I said. “But if you give me any hassle at all, I’m calling the cops.”

“Same.”

I nodded and then sipped at my rapidly cooling coffee. I wondered if the two of us would ever be able to figure it out—how to coexist without bumping up against each other. Still, this felt like an opportunity to iron out some of the problems we both had, and I wasn’t about to waste it.