AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As he dropped cross-legged near one corner of the blanket with his back to the bed, Ed thundered up the stairs and popped into the room. He laughed to see Max seated on a blanket on the floor.
“We’ll have to do a real picnic sometime, outside, when people don’t want to kidnap me or kill me.”
Ed nodded as he dropped onto the blanket next to him. He put the plate in front of him and took a bottle of water out from where he had it tucked under his arm. “Will the scenery include ancient ruins?”
Max snorted. “Knowing me, probably. But I’ll admit, when someone mentions a picnic, my first thought is green grass, a big shady tree, and a lake with ducks. Pretty mundane stuff.”
“Sounds nice all the same.”
They dug into their food. He didn’t know if it was that great or if he was simply starved. He’d barely looked up from his work since Ed had left him yesterday. He was so close to his answer. There was simply no stopping now.
But his body demanded food, sleep, and bathroom breaks, which sucked.
It was demanding Ed breaks too, but he wasn’t allowing himself that luxury on its own. He needed to hurry, not just because he was eager to find the tomb, but the longer it took, the longer Ed and his friends were in danger.
However, this time he was combining his Ed break with his food break. That was smart.
“How goes the hunt?” Ed asked between bites of his lamb-stuffed goodness.
“Good. Slow, but good. Thanks to what I know of that time period, I could narrow down the likely locations well in advance. The scarab held some more landmark keys that allowed me to take a few other places off the list. I’ve got requests out to a couple of people I’ve used on projects who should be able to give me some more data on the geological aspects of the region. Once I have it narrowed to two or possibly three sites, we can go in with some ground-sounding equipment and take some pictures.”
A slow smile spread across Ed’s lips. “You’re searching for holes that would indicate tombs.”
“Particularly man-made holes based on the shape. The ground has plenty of holes in terms of underground caves, but a lot of Egyptian tombs from this time period have very specific lines and curvatures to their tombs. It helps us determine what came from nature and what came from man. We’ll still mark everything we discover in case another archeologist comes behind us years later, looking for something slightly different. It will save them some time.” He paused with a cherry tomato speared on the end of his fork, hanging just in front of his lips. Max chuckled softly and shook his head. “How do you even do that? When I talk to you, I instantly go on a ramble far longer than anyone wants to hear. I’m usually much better at keeping my answers short and high-level. But with you, everything gushes out.”
Ed grinned at him in response. “Are you worried I’m going to be bored?”
“Unless you’re an archeologist or an Egyptologist, I guarantee you’re going to be bored. Most people just want to hear about the treasure and the mummies, but it’s honestly a lot of talk about rocks. It’s why archeologists and geologists get along so well. No one cares about the rocks showing that such-and-such region suffered a horrific flood or drought four thousand years ago, which would have impacted the traveling herds and thus moving the nomads farther west, making it impossible for blah blah blah to happen. People want the treasure. Archeologists want the complete story.”
“You’re in it for the people,” Ed filled in.
“And the story of how they lived and grew.”
“That’s why you wanted to become an archeologist?”
Max’s gaze darted down to his half-empty plate. He could feel the wry smile forming on his lips. He chewed and swallowed the tomato before looking over at Ed again. “Not quite.”
“What? Tell me! I want to know. Why did you choose this when you had a fresh start? You could have been anything.”
Max rolled his eyes and dove into his food. He ate several bites and murmured, “You would think that I’d stay away from archeology and all that stuff, thanks to my family, but I couldn’t. A smart person would at least, but it was too late for me. I was already addicted to the glamour of finding something that was lost for centuries. I wanted to be the one who located all the lost cities such as Atlantis, El Dorado, the Lost City of Z, and Chicomoztoc.”
“So, you’re more than an Egyptologist?”
“Oh, yeah. Egyptology just pays the bills. Well, for the most part. When I’m teaching, I do some Egyptian history, but a lot of it is theory and overseeing fieldwork. All these kids going through school have the wrong ideas of what happens when they get into the field, and it’s been my job to show them how to oversee a team, how to hire managers, make contacts in the field. A dig can take dozens of people who are on-site and off, conducting research for you on the things you just might be lucky enough to pull out of the ground. You have to coordinate all of that as well as deal with local officials. I’ve spent way more time in the field than in a classroom. Because of that, I’ve helped a lot of other archeologists around Europe and even some in South America with their digs to make sure everything goes smoothly.” He paused and chuckled. “Man, you don’t want something going missing from a dig. It all comes down on the head of the archeologist. It doesn’t matter if it wasn’t their fault. That shit follows you, and it gets hard to acquire new permits to do more digs.”
