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In the small dig pits, he saw what had caught the attention of the CoDevCo surveyors, and what one naval officer-a j.g. who had minored in forensic archeology...
Caine sidestepped up the final embankment of dirt, backsliding slightly, finally digging in with a quick sprint to get him over the lip-
-and which nearly propelled him into a pit where something vaguely like a partial floor plan of a half-sized Greek temple lay exposed to the sun. After severa...
Caine sidestepped down to the base of the embankment, stretched his foot out onto the marble esplanade, thinking ridiculously, "One small step for a man-" Rid...
Starting at the extreme left hand of the facing colonnade, four one-meter-high remains of columns were the only vertical objects protruding up beyond the late...
Movement to the left, from around the corner. Caine pulled his foot back, put his hands in his pockets. An unusually short man of late middle age seemed to em...
"Yeah. Something. Look. There might be a hurricane coming. I've gotta do an assessment for flood control: drainage, sump placement-"
"Good, good," said the Gnome, "glad to hear they're taking the value of the find seriously. Although,"-he stopped, eyes dim through his round, dust-smeared gl...
"And what is it that they hope to find?"
Gnome-who had been standing arms akimbo, admiring the structure-turned to look at Caine again, eyebrows raised, "What else? Artifacts."
"Why? For sale on the black market? Alien antiquities, that kind of angle?"
"No, no, no." Gnome shifted into a professorial head-wagging remonstration; he was doing his best to be patient with a slow student. "Not primitive artifacts....
Caine shook his head. At first, he couldn't speak; he was simply glad he wasn't gaping. Then, hoarsely: "So, how long-?"
"How long has it been here? Can't be sure; we're still waiting for the radioisotope dating equipment. But I'm guessing-judging from the depth of overhead sedi...
"And you found their machines?"
"Not yet. Frankly, I don't think there's anything to find. Stone weathers better than almost anything else. Intricate machines and objects-well, they are the ...
Caine had recovered enough to actively steer the conversation. "CoDevCo wants toys that work, huh?"
"Yes, indeed. Weapons applications, I suspect-the blackguards. But I accept their pay, so I suppose I should remain a bit more philosophical about it all."
"They're looking for weapons?"
"Oh, no-not directly. But there are plenty of indications that-" Gnome stopped himself, mouth open in mid-syllable, as if he had checked his didactic enthusia...
"Yep: it's tough." Caine wondered what Gnome had almost revealed, but a deep animal instinct told him not to exert any pressure.
Gnome had evidently forgotten his near-misstep. "It is not merely 'tough': it is crippling. I am not permitted to submit reports, articles, or get proper equi...
"Thanks," said Caine. He turned and walked back the way he had come, bypassed the embankment, continued up out of the far side of the dig site and kept walkin...
But that jungle was, for all intents and purposes, still terra incognita: a heart of alien darkness. He stared into it, trying to see further, thought: And pe...
Alone.
Chapter Seven
ODYSSEUS
Consuela didn't meet him at the pool. Didn't join him for drinks. Was not in sight when he entered the executive refectory-which appeared comparable to a three-...
"Very well-oh, you are Mr. Riordan, are you not?"
"I am."
"I have a private alcove reserved for you. Courtesy of Mr. Helger. Would you please follow me?"
The alcove was paneled in the same faux-ebony as Helger's office. It felt like wood-but with a faint hint of increased surface flexibility. The maotre-dg' smi...
Cheerful subservience accompanies all entrees. The house special both within and beyond the refectory. "Nothing, thank you." He reached for a chair himself, f...
He ran the real-time aerial surveys collected by the USSF. The best of the thermal imaging scans-from a recon VTOL's FLIR-was partially degraded by the foliag...
The Navy had landed, looked around, found nothing definitive. In the hollow of a dense thicket of helical tubers, a rating-apparently seeking privacy for a mo...
The results of that haphazard monitoring effort were not encouraging. There were one or two possible contacts, but they were recorded by automated sensors: by...
Dee Pee Three's size wasn't the only variable that complicated the search. Despite being further from its star than Earth was from the Sun-1.14 AU-Dee Pee Thr...
Caine read this story of a planet wobbling at the edge of meteorological stability and wondered: is this why the local civilization collapsed, why they almost...
The Navy had expressed similar uncertainty about the climate, but not from the standpoint of forensic anthropology: they were concerned with long-term habitab...
Later travelers' tales had been appended to the official Navy reports. Ruins (but it failed to say which) were first reported by a mixed group of Canadians an...
"Did you find your independent excursion illuminating, Mr. Riordan? I'm sure you would have found it more informative-and enjoyable-had you remained with your...
Caine looked up: Helger and a companion. "The guide left the final, very illuminating site off my itinerary."
"An unfortunate oversight." Helger sat, signaled for wine, looked to Caine, who shook his head. Helger did not extend the offer to his companion: an immense, ...
Helger continued his unapologetic apology. "Had you so wanted to see that site, you could have simply requested it."
"So Ms. Rakir could call ahead and confabulate a closure, or flood the dig site, or report a quarantine? Thanks, no: I felt I was more likely to get a good lo...
"Your suspicions are hardly flattering to me, Mr. Riordan-or consistent with the agreement we made yesterday. Cooperation is a two-way proposition, and one th...
"Oh-you must mean the kind of openness that Ms. Rakir exhibited when she assured me that a couple of half-buried wall remains at the oil field were the only e...
"Prior habitation," Helger corrected. "And I think you must have misunderstood Ms. Rakir-or she was unclear. We would never have claimed such a thing."
"No? Then why did you leave the main ruins off my itinerary? You presumed that I'd be uninterested? Strange presumption, considering that this is just the kin...