field,” he began, but Deborah cut him off.
“It’s nobody’s field except theirs. Who do you know who’s good?”
“There’s Rylands at Texas A&M,” said Aguilar. “Pain in the ass, but good at his job. Penn State has a good program. I think Keri Havers is there. She published a piece in
American Archaeology
on dentition and diet that got a lot of attention. She’s cute too.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I’ve got to call Powel. Again.”
“I guess I should stay here, anyway,” he said, regretfully. “There’s too much to do. Just make sure they’re careful, and photograph everything
in situ
. Everything. And get some experts down here soon or we’re going to be in serious trouble.”
Deborah smiled, pleased by his earnestness.
“Doing my best,” she said.
He glanced at his computer. “Wait,” he said, looking up. “Just got a preliminary chemical composition report on that crystal I sent to the lab.”
“Go on.”
“OK,” he said. “Let me see. This isn’t really my field...” He caught her glance. “It’s corundum, specifically ruby. The usual aluminum is replaced with chromium once every fifty thousand atoms or so, which is what gives it its red color and changes the way the stone interacts with light. That’s not that uncommon, but this is.”
“What?” said Deborah.
“See there,” said Aguilar, pointing to the data breakdown on the screen. “In addition to the chromium plus three, we’ve got Fe plus three: ferric iron.”
“That’s unusual?”
“A combination of chrome and iron?” said Aguilar, frowning. “Very rare indeed.”
“And what does that tell us?”
“Other than the fact that our lab isn’t equipped to handle whatever is in that tomb?” said Aguilar. “I have no idea.”
Chapter Thirteen
Bowerdale hadn’t left the dim, silent tomb in over three hours. He denied that he was guarding the find, but he was and even Miller knew he was right. He didn’t think anyone would deliberately break in to plunder the tomb, but he didn’t want curious tourists messing things up or helping themselves to a few shiny souvenirs. The locals knew better than to mess with their cultural legacy, but they were dirt poor and you could only expect so much loyalty to abstractions like heritage. This sort of find needed a watchful eye at all times to keep it secure.
Bowerdale scowled to himself. It was taking far too long for Eustachio and the Mayan laborers to get the access stairs finished, and it was likely to be at least another day before they could even begin moving stuff out of the tomb, probably more. They had built a framing scaffold over the hole and had been able to anchor a ladder down to the passage opening, which made getting in and out easier than swinging on ropes like a bunch of apes, butthey wouldn’t be able to move artifacts until they had a real staircase or ramp system in place. They didn’t have enough lumber with them and had already wasted half a day trying to recover a piece of tube steel scaffolding that had been dropped into the
cenote
. When Miller got here, he’d have some choice words for her in regards to her choice of workers, and if she chose to fire him, so be it.
Except, of course, that this wasn’t a find he could afford to let slip through his fingers. There were going to be articles and photographs and TV shows, and he had to make sure he was front and center in all of them. His tenured faculty performance review at Princeton had not gone well, and his chair had quoted the committee as suggesting that he was “sitting on his laurels”: a polite way of saying he hadn’t done anything in the last three years. And there had been that messy business with one of his undergraduates when she’d recast their little dalliance as something predatory, something less than entirely consensual. It was a lie or, more accurately, a trick to pay him back for moving on so quickly to another student he found more enticing, but the chair
“It’s nobody’s field except theirs. Who do you know who’s good?”
“There’s Rylands at Texas A&M,” said Aguilar. “Pain in the ass, but good at his job. Penn State has a good program. I think Keri Havers is there. She published a piece in
American Archaeology
on dentition and diet that got a lot of attention. She’s cute too.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I’ve got to call Powel. Again.”
“I guess I should stay here, anyway,” he said, regretfully. “There’s too much to do. Just make sure they’re careful, and photograph everything
in situ
. Everything. And get some experts down here soon or we’re going to be in serious trouble.”
Deborah smiled, pleased by his earnestness.
“Doing my best,” she said.
He glanced at his computer. “Wait,” he said, looking up. “Just got a preliminary chemical composition report on that crystal I sent to the lab.”
“Go on.”
“OK,” he said. “Let me see. This isn’t really my field...” He caught her glance. “It’s corundum, specifically ruby. The usual aluminum is replaced with chromium once every fifty thousand atoms or so, which is what gives it its red color and changes the way the stone interacts with light. That’s not that uncommon, but this is.”
“What?” said Deborah.
“See there,” said Aguilar, pointing to the data breakdown on the screen. “In addition to the chromium plus three, we’ve got Fe plus three: ferric iron.”
“That’s unusual?”
“A combination of chrome and iron?” said Aguilar, frowning. “Very rare indeed.”
“And what does that tell us?”
“Other than the fact that our lab isn’t equipped to handle whatever is in that tomb?” said Aguilar. “I have no idea.”
Chapter Thirteen
Bowerdale hadn’t left the dim, silent tomb in over three hours. He denied that he was guarding the find, but he was and even Miller knew he was right. He didn’t think anyone would deliberately break in to plunder the tomb, but he didn’t want curious tourists messing things up or helping themselves to a few shiny souvenirs. The locals knew better than to mess with their cultural legacy, but they were dirt poor and you could only expect so much loyalty to abstractions like heritage. This sort of find needed a watchful eye at all times to keep it secure.
Bowerdale scowled to himself. It was taking far too long for Eustachio and the Mayan laborers to get the access stairs finished, and it was likely to be at least another day before they could even begin moving stuff out of the tomb, probably more. They had built a framing scaffold over the hole and had been able to anchor a ladder down to the passage opening, which made getting in and out easier than swinging on ropes like a bunch of apes, butthey wouldn’t be able to move artifacts until they had a real staircase or ramp system in place. They didn’t have enough lumber with them and had already wasted half a day trying to recover a piece of tube steel scaffolding that had been dropped into the
cenote
. When Miller got here, he’d have some choice words for her in regards to her choice of workers, and if she chose to fire him, so be it.
Except, of course, that this wasn’t a find he could afford to let slip through his fingers. There were going to be articles and photographs and TV shows, and he had to make sure he was front and center in all of them. His tenured faculty performance review at Princeton had not gone well, and his chair had quoted the committee as suggesting that he was “sitting on his laurels”: a polite way of saying he hadn’t done anything in the last three years. And there had been that messy business with one of his undergraduates when she’d recast their little dalliance as something predatory, something less than entirely consensual. It was a lie or, more accurately, a trick to pay him back for moving on so quickly to another student he found more enticing, but the chair
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