Page 32 (1/2)

“I know,” Albrecht said “I just don’t want to help the crireatest treasures in antiquity”

“All right,” said Sain to pack up to go home You and the others can release just the information you want to, on your own ti secrets have a habit of finding their oay out You and the other archaeologists aren’t the only ones who saw this So did hundreds of students Most of theh in their studies to interpret what they’ve seen But in a couple of years,research”

Albrecht threw his hands up in despair “What would you have me do?”

“What scientists and scholars always do, in the end,” said Re, with an openyour best interpretation of what you see”

“You’re right,” said Albrecht “I know it, and I feel asha so hesitant Please don’t leave us yet If you could keep Bako and his et the finds to the National Archives”

The next , the work at the river continued Sam and Remi dove in the murky water while Tibor’s friends and relatives continued to level and grade a straight roadbed from the road to the river All that day Remi and Sam scoured the riverbed for rusted objects of various sizes and shapes, lifting them onto the boat At the end of the day, as usual, they unloaded the boat and trucked the objects to a storage building at the University of Szeged, always covered with tarps so Arpad Bako’s watchers would be curious without being able to satisfy that curiosity

In the evening, Sa the objects found in the excavation at the field The reiven preliraphed with their possessions, and catalogued were being placed in wooden boxes, to be archived at the Aquineum Museum, part of the Budapest History Museue Károlyi Palace

Sa the skeletons that had been laid out on tables and tarps to be studied and photographed but which had not been professionally examined since they’d been exhumed At one point, Sa his neck to see the face frole

“What’s wrong?” said Remi

“Have you ever tried to get people to keep a secret?”

“Sure,” she said “That’s pretty rade”

“Ever succeed?”

“No Once you tell so is a secret, that makes it valuable, a commodity to be traded Once someone says he has a secret, ithiives it up”

“Here are a thousand people who had a secret Not one of them told?”

“Got to hand it to the Huns,” she said “They knew it’s hard to talk when you’re headless We didn’t have that option in sixth grade”