The Dig (24 page)

The line continued, wrapping around the safer slope to reach the bottom. It was good that they had had a short rest, Irin thought, because the hill ahead would be a bit of a push.

Wil fell into step beside him. “I still have something to tell you, Irin. I had a new dream last sleep.”

“Yes, I had forgotten… hold a moment.”

M
ATT PRESSED THE STOP BUTTON, ENDING
the buzzing of his armband. His hearing cleared, and he noticed a new ordering of sounds: activity outside—a backhoe, most likely—and people shouting back and forth across some distance. His eyes adjusted to the light as he fumbled for his gloves.

“Matthew,” Tuni said softly, “Peter and Dr. Rheese are outside, but I’m afraid you’ll have to tell me everything quickly—right now.” She spoke bluntly but with a playful note in her voice. “Peter said you could write everything down on the jet and e-mail it to him, but the helicopter will be here any minute, and it will be far too loud in there for you to tell me anything—and I simply will not wait.”

“Yeah… ,” Matt said groggily. “I gotta go.”

“Damn! Well, hurry it up, sir.”

Matt slid out and walked unsteadily to the loo, closing the door behind him. When he returned a few moments later, he said matter-of-factly, “They’re already on their way over the mountains. Lots of monster poo everywhere, and Wil had another vision.”

When he said no more, Tuni said impatiently, “Well, go on—what’s it about?”

“Don’t know. The timer buzzed before he could tell me.”

“Well, um… crap!” she muttered. “Can you jump back in real quick and just get that part?”

“Hmm… it’s a good idea,” he said. “I’m a little shaky, though. Well, actually, no—it’ll take too long.”

“Why? Can’t you just set your timer for a minute, hear what he’s got to say, and buzz right out?”

“No. I have to fast-forward through everything I’ve seen. It’s quick, sort of like jumping through chapters in a DVD, but it still takes a couple minutes just to get back to the last part. Reads always start with the strongest imprint.”

“What if we take the artifact with us?” she said half jokingly.

“Right. Then we get put in some scary Kenyan prison basement to eat rats for the rest of our lives and pass each other notes through a little crack in the wall between our cells. Not for me.”

“You’re no fun.”

They heard the approaching helicopter, and Matt and Tuni hurried outside. The new team was bustling about all over the site, and a backhoe had taken off most of the topsoil over the corner of the pit where the artifact was found. Several team members were clustered in the corner, carefully picking away at the rocks with small hand tools.

As the helicopter came to a hover overhead, Enzi came trotting up to move the RV so the bird could land. Matt and Tuni were walking toward the pit to allow the helicopter a wide berth, when Peter came up behind them and clapped his hands onto their shoulders, making them both jump.

“So this is it, huh?” he said with a hangdog look.

Matt nodded gravely.

“’Fraid so, Peter,” Tuni replied for them. “Time for me to get the lad home.”

“Nothing I can do to convince you to stay another night, right?” They looked at each other and shook their heads as the helicopter began to descend into the clearing. “I’ve got all sorts of tents and sleeping bags—all
new
stuff, Matt, so you’ll be comfy…”

Tuni watched Matt carefully.

“Just one more night?” Peter shouted over the deafening
whop
of the helicopter rotors.

Dr. Rheese came toward them and reached out to shake Matt’s hand. Matt shook, then leaned forward to yell near Peter’s ear, “I’m really sorry, Pete!”

“It’s okay,” he shouted back. “I didn’t really think you’d change your mind, but I had to try. Hopefully we can get you and the piece back together again soon so we can find out what happens. And please don’t wait to jot down everything from this last session, okay? I need notes for all of it.”

“Mr. Turner, Miss St. James, it was lovely having you out here,” Dr. Rheese shouted without a hint of sincerity.

Matt nodded dismissively and leaned forward to Pete again. “Don’t forget, it doesn’t have to be the whole artifact. To keep reading, all I need is a tiny piece of it, okay?”

“Understood,” Pete replied. “We’ll see if we can get clearance from Nairobi. It would still be considered destruction of historical materials, though. And who knows when—or
if—
we can ever get it out of country.”

Peter turned and looked back toward the pit, where some sort of commotion was going on. Colette and Graham were waving their arms and shouting, “Pete! Pete!”

They were pointing excitedly at the corner as the others hurried toward the pit from all over the site. Rheese turned and hurried away to join them. Dust and particles filled the air as the helicopter descended nearby.

“Did they find something new?” Matt shouted, his head cocked away from the onslaught of debris.

“Looks like it,” said Peter. “Well, I’ve got to go—you guys have a safe trip, okay?” And off he loped down the slope to see what the stir was about.

“Sir, miss, we must be going,” the Kenyan pilot shouted from behind them.

“Matthew?” Tuni said in a mother’s admonishing singsong.

“Yeah… let’s go.
Damn.
” He shook his head. As Tuni jogged to her tent to get her suitcase, Enzi appeared with Matt’s duffel bag in hand. Handing it off, he shouted in Matt’s ear, “It was crazy have you here, Mr. Matthew. I hope you come back, meet people. You nice man for a wizard!”

Matt smiled and patted Enzi’s shoulder, then handed his duffel to the pilot, who stowed it behind the seats. Tuni handed her bag to the pilot and pulled herself up, and they buckled into their harnesses. Hands over his ears, Matt leaned in front of Tuni and tried to peer down into the pit.

“What do you think it is?” she asked. “Another piece from the k’yot?” She, too, was trying to catch a glimpse of whatever had the camp in such an uproar. As the pilot slid their door shut and stepped up into his seat, all they could see was Peter, holding his hands to his head, crouched down and leaning into the corner.

The pilots began flicking switches, and the chopper shook as it lifted off. The ground slowly descended below them.

Matt and Tuni saw through her window that the entire team was now crowded into the corner, and Peter was no longer visible. The chopper rotated northward, and Matt could see now. Pete was standing away from the group, waving up at them! What was he trying to say? He held something in his hand. It glinted in the sun.

Matt’s eyes grew wide with awe, and he turned to Tuni, who had her face plastered to the window, trying to see down. He smacked her leg, and she turned to him and mouthed, “What the… !” as he leaned over and pulled her neck to him.

He shouted something to her, but she couldn’t hear. The site was no longer visible, and the helicopter accelerated northward over the forested hills.

He shouted excitedly, a single word. She lifted one of her ear protectors and leaned in.

“One more time!” she shouted.

“Cutter!” he yelled into her ear.

She snapped the ear protector back on and grabbed his shoulders, her face alight. “A
cutter
?” she shouted back to him. “The knife thing?”

He nodded.

She shook her head in wonder and tried to look back out the window, but they were already miles away.

Matt was gazing outside and thinking. Tuni put her hand on his knee, and he turned back to her. He mouthed, “What?” and she turned her palms up and gave him a questioning look.

“Well?” she mouthed.

Matt looked at her and groaned, then let out a little defeated laugh. He tried to reach forward to tap one of the pilots’ shoulders, but his harness was too tight. Tuni touched his knee and pointed up at the red call button above them. Matt pressed it, lighting a button in the pilots’ center console.

The pilot on the right looked back at them. Matt mouthed “Sorry” as he twirled a finger in the air, then pointed backward with his thumb. The pilot stared at him for a moment, then made the same gesture with his hand to verify. Matt nodded.

Speaking into his mic, the pilot turned forward again. Now the copilot’s head popped around. Looking hard at his two passengers, he shook his head in annoyance.

“Unbelievable!” Rheese shouted as he watched the helicopter descend. “Bloody Yank.”

“I knew it!” Peter shouted as he ran up the slope. “No
way
he could resist a new find!”

The skids touched down, and Tuni gave Peter a smile and a wink as he ran to the door. One of the pilots got out and gave his two passengers an evil look as he set their bags down. Peter shouted in the pilot’s ear that he’d call when they were ready again.

“Not tomorrow or Thursday,” the pilot replied. “Schedule booked till Friday.”

“Fine, fine,” Peter replied, and apologized for the wasted trip.

“No problem,” he replied. “You pay either way.”

As the chopper rose away, Peter clapped Matt on the back a little too exuberantly. Matt smiled and nodded a “yeah, yeah.” Feeling a tap on the shoulder, he turned to see Tuni beaming at him. She threw her arms around him and planted a quick kiss on his mouth.

She pulled away from him, her light brown eyes shining. “I’m going to go claim a tent of my own so Pete can have his back,” she said, and dashed away, leaving him with an intoxicating minty taste on his lips. He suddenly felt like a thirteen year old.

Peter gave him a crooked little knowing smile. “Come and see!” he said, waving eagerly. “It was only another foot in, just a meter from where the original artifact was found.”

Kneeling down by a Plexiglas box, Peter took something from it and turned toward Matt. “The handle’s gone, of course,” he said as Matt marveled at the find.

“Go ahead, man, hold it! I know you’ll be careful.”

Matt took it from him and rolled it over in his hands. Its surface was pitted but free of rust. The cutting edge was dull, and the metal no longer held any luster. The blade was straight rather than curved, though it had been kinked in two spots, so that it bent in a slight zigzag.

Could this be Irin’s, too? He looked at the thin cylindrical section at the butt end of the blade. Apparently, the craftsman had bored a hole in the wooden hilt and slid it over this part.

“The tang is broken,” said a voice with a working-class English accent behind him.

Matt turned to find the tall, hairy fellow—what was his name? Roger?

“Rodney,” he said as if reading Matt’s thoughts. “I don’t b’lieve we met formally, Mr. Turner.”

Matt shook his hand. “What’s a
tang
?” he asked.

“It’s that part you’re touching there. Never seen a cylinder like that before, though. The hilt would go over it and be secured with pins or the like. See there?”

Matt held the base of the tang up. It was somewhat rough and angled ever so slightly. Perhaps an inch of it was missing.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said. “Cool.”

Peter smiled and nodded. “So you get what that means?”

“Um… that it broke—what about it?”

“Well, normally when you find a weapon or implement with no handle that’s really old, you assume that whatever material it was made from simply deteriorated over the centuries. In this case, there’s no question that the handle is long gone, but
how
it got separated from the blade—that’s the interesting question. Some sort of violence, no doubt.”

“Well the blade is crooked, too, so it just seems to me like the whole thing is jacked.”

“Um, sorry, sir,” Rodney interjected. “Actually, that ‘crookedness,’ as you call it, is warping from the weight and pressure of the rock it was in. Lots of shifting and compression. It’s actually nothing short of amazing that it’s in such good condition. Must be a superior alloy.”

“Interesting stuff,” Matt said, trying not to sound as uninterested as he felt. “So, Pete, can we… er… talk about this in the RV?”

“Man after my own heart, Mr. Turner,” Pete replied with a clap.

They climbed out of the pit to find Tuni wrestling with a tent. Two unshaven young men, one with his hair pulled back in a frizzy ponytail, stood by, chuckling over something.

“You need some help over there, Tuni?” Peter called out.

“No, thanks. Your friends here have been gracious enough to offer, but I will have the bloody thing licked on my own in just a moment—it’s become a point of pride.” Then, as they continued to the door, she called out behind them, “Wait—are you doing it now?”

Matt grinned. “Time’s a-wastin’.”

Dropping the tent pole, she joined them at the RV’s doorstep. The door swung open, and they could hear Dr. Rheese speaking to someone on the sat phone.

“. . . to thirty strong men, and Enzi will start it all off. He knows ev…” Rheese shot a glance at the faces in the open doorway and paused. “Right… yes—sounds great, sirs. Have a lovely time.” He pushed the end button and set the phone down.