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The health inspection was brief, as proate The crowd of survivors, relatives, and friends had surged from the steamship dock onto the street There was a traffic ja trafficcars, buses, and taxis He stopped at the curb and scanned the faces around him until a pair of eyes e that he had seen his comrades, before they headed off' in different directions:
He ed down a taxi He eary froht's exertions and looked forward to the chance to rest
Their as done For now
June 10, 2000
The Moroccan Coast
1 NINA KIROV STOOD AT THE TOP OF the ancient stairway, eyes sweeping the nearly stagnant green waters of the lagoon, thinking she had never seen a coast more barren than this isolated stretch of Moroccan shoreline Nothing stirred in the oppressive, ovenlike heat The only sign of human settlement was the duster of puttycolored, barrelroofed tooon like seaside condoh the arched portals had ht of a child seeing presents under the Christs were more beautiful than the white sands and palm trees of a tropical paradise The very awfulness of the est fear: site contamination
Nina vowed to thank Dr Knox again for persuading her to join the expedition She had refused the initial invitation, telling the caller froy department that it would be a waste of time Every inch of Moroccan coastline must have been explored with a fine-tooth comb by now Even if someone did discover an underwater site, it would have been buried under tons of concrete by the Romans, who invented waterfront renewal Asskills, she considered the Rorand scheme of history ,
She knew her refusal hadto dig herself out froenerated by a shipwreck project off the coast of Cyprus in waters claiested the wreck was of ancient Greek origin, triggering conflicting claims between these old enemies With national honor at stake, the F16s froines when Nina dove on the wreck and identified it as a Syrian ht the Syrians into the mess, but it defused the potential for a bloody encounter As the owner, president, and sole eical consultancy firm, MariTime Research, all the paperwork ended up in Nina's lap
A few minutes after she told the university she was too busy to accept the invitation, Stanton Knox called
"My hearingbad, Dr Kirov," he said in the dry nasal tones she had heard a hundred tiht I heard someone tell me you were not interested in our Moroccan expedition, and of course that can't be true"
Months had passed since she had talked to her oldthe, snowy shock of hair, the near leam behind the wirerimmed spectacles, and the roue's mustache that curled up at the ends over a puckish mouth
Nina tried to blunt the inevitable char
"With all due respect, Professor Knox, I doubt if there's a stretch of the North African coast that hasn't been overbuilt by the Romans or discovered by somebody else"
"Brava! I'lad to see that you recall the first three lessons of Archaeology 101, Dr Kirov"
Nina chuckled at the ease hich Knox donned his professorial robe She was in her thirties, owner of a successful consulting business, and held alrees as Knox did, Yet she still felt like a student within his aura "How could I ever forget? Skepticism, skepticism, and more skepticism"