Page 12 (2/2)

The fleshy lips seemed to curl as if in speech

Touch me 1 have much to tell you

Nina drew back and stared at the impassive face The features were as before She listened for the voice Touch oing through the regulator

Girl, you've been underwater way too long

She pressed the valve on her BC Air hissed into the inflatable vest Heart still pounding, she ascended slowly back to her oorld

2 THE SWARTHY THICKSET MAN SAW Nina approaching the circle of tents and ran over with his hand extended In his thick Spanish accent, Raul Gonzalez said, "May I help you carry your bag, Dr Kirov?"

"I'ear around, and in fact preferred to keep a tight rein on it

"It would be no trouble," he said gallantly, displaying his painted on grin to the fullest Too weary to argue and not wanting to hurt his feelings, Nina handed the load over He took the heavy bag as if it were full of feathers

"You had a productive day?" he said

Nina wiped the sweat out of her eyes and downed a swig from a warm bottle of lime Gatorade Nina was no absentminded professor In a field where a bead or a button can be a ist is trained to look for the tiniest of details She couldn't figure Gonzalez She had noticed little things about hiht hirin absent, the eyes under the fleshy brow as hard asglances froazelle Finally, there was just the way he was always there looking over your shoulder Not only her He see everyone on the expedition

Nina's elation at her discoveries overcame her normal caution "Yes, thank you," she said "It was productive Very productive"

"I would expect no less of such a knowledgeable scientist I' about it" He carried the bag over to her tent and placed it out front, then wandered about the enca his rounds

Gonzalez told people he had retired early on theSouthern California real estate and was indulging his lifelong ay He looked to be in his midforties or early fifties, shorter than Nina by several inches, with a thick, powerful blacksmith's body His slicked down hair was as shiny and black as a bowling ball He had joined the expedition through Ti volunteers on archaeological digs Anybody with a couple of thousand dollars could get a week's worth of spooning dirt through a sieve with a child's plastic shovel The third degree sunburn was thrown in at no extra cost

Counting herself and Dr Knox, there were ten people in the party Gonzalez, of course, and Mr and Mrs Bonnell,

an older American couple froanization And to Nina's regret, there was the insufferable Dr Fisel from the Moroccan Depart Co assistant, Kassi on the dig