Veronica's eyes flashed with unbridled excitement, her voice an open book to her emotions. Connell felt a pang of attraction, one that he quickly put in its proper place by glancing at the picture of his wife.
"If there's a city here, there will be tunnels in that mountain,” Veronica continued. “A lot of tunnels. You haven't found any tunnels, have you Kirkland?"
"Please, call me Connell, I—"
The phone beeped. Connell smiled apologetically as he answered.
"Kirkland here."
"Hello, honey,” Barbara Yakely said. The fact that she'd taken the time to call him meant it was serious. “Good news and bad news. Good news is they check out fine with their respective universities."
Connell breathed a sigh of relief. Veronica and Sanji were for real, which hopefully meant the platinum remained a secret. At least for the moment.
"The bad news?"
"Reeves is a big name. I don't suppose you read National Geographic, but her work was on the cover three years ago. She's been on PBS, the Discovery Channel, and in just about every major scientific magazine. The woman can bring loads of heat down on us if she thinks you're disturbing an important area. She shut down a mine in the Tierra Del Fuego region through political pressure."
Connell's mind whirred with possibilities. Reeves could make good on her threats. That changed everything. He simply couldn't have her talking to the press. “Thanks, Barbara,” Connell said quickly, then hung up. He looked at Reeves, who beamed at him with a haughty, victorious smile.
"Good news from home, I hope?"
Connell grew increasingly annoyed by her attitude. He hated to lose. But the fact remained that she held the upper hand. He needed to keep her in camp. There were only two ways to do that, and kidnapping was one dirty trick to which even he wouldn't stoop.
What's your button, Dr. Reeves? What will make you play along?
"Doctors,” Connell said, switching to a smile and a warm voice. “I'm in a bit of a predicament here. EarthCore doesn't want to disturb a site of this importance, but we have certain financial obligations to the stockholders, not to mention the amount of time and money we've already invested here."
Veronica's smile turned into a sneer. She'd obviously heard all this before, and heart-wrenching tales of financial despair from a Fortune 500 company weren't going to win her over. Sanji continued to lean back in his chair, watching the mental tennis match. Connell opted for the direct approach.
"We can't stop mining, but to be honest, we don't want the kind of bad publicity you can bring down on us. I know you might be able to shut us down, at least for a while. I won't kid you — I don't really give a rat's ass about your lost culture or your lost city. All I care about is the mine.” Connell saw her expression change. She appeared surprised by his overtness.
"So,” he continued, “I'm going to bribe you. EarthCore will cover all expenses for your research here and provide you with whatever equipment you need. In addition, anything unusual we find while mining will be immediately brought to your attention. I offer this, because as part of the deal, you can't bring in any outside people."
Veronica stood up angrily, ready to lay into Connell. He cut off her outburst with a pleading look.
"Please, Doctor Reeves, hear me out. I'm sure that a dig of this nature requires a large staff, but I have matters of secrecy to attend to. I'll make sure you have as many people as you need, but we can't have any outsiders in here. We've reported this as a coal mine test site when we're actually looking for platinum. We can't afford attention. In order to avoid that attention and keep you quiet, you'll have full access to our research. Not only will that make your job easier, but you'll know what we know. There's no way we'll be able to hide anything from you.
"In addition, we've developed several advances in technology that put us far ahead of current academic standards. All I'm asking is that you take a look at the facilities and tools I'm offering."
Veronica looked skeptical, but he had piqued her interest. He knew most archaeologists worked with paltry budgets and were often years behind the technology of the private sector. He was offering her state-of-the-art technology and an open checkbook.
"The last condition of this deal is that neither one of you may leave the camp for at least seven days. You're not a prisoner, but you can't leave during that time, and we'll have to monitor all outside calls. After the seven days, we can renegotiate your need to leave the camp."
Veronica looked at Sanji. He shrugged. She turned back to Connell.
"We'll take a look at your equipment, but I'm not promising anything. And if we do go for your little deal, which I doubt, you'll have to put it all in writing."
"Of course, Doctor Reeves."
"Call me Veronica."
"Not yet,” Connell said. “We keep all vehicle keys locked up in the garage, and if you decide to take me up on my offer, that's where they will stay. No one leaves without my permission."
Thirty minutes later, after a trip to the lab and examination of Angus's mobile GPR equipment, Veronica eagerly accepted the deal. Internally, Connell relaxed. He'd bought himself at least seven more days of privacy. Mack was pushing everyone with triple shifts. Hopefully they'd hit the tunnels within three days and reach the Dense Mass within four.
He was close. He wasn't going to let anyone stop him.
Bertha Lybrand sat in the cafeteria Quonset's air-conditioned comfort, poking at her can of Pepsi. O'Doyle sat across from her, staring at the table, toying with his own can. Their shift had just ended, and besides two other guards, they had the mess hut to themselves. She wasn't going to take any shit for this, no way, not when that blond bitch had it coming.
Lybrand spoke, her animated New Jersey accent betraying her annoyance. “If you wanted to reprimand me for how I handled the trespassers, you could have done it out there. You don't need to coddle me, sir."
"No! That's not it,” O'Doyle said. “I… I wanted to compliment you on that. I liked the way you took the fat man out first and then detained the woman. You negated the obvious primary source of danger. Really nice work."
"Thanks,” she said guardedly, staring at the faded eagle tattoos on O'Doyle's left forearm. Another tattoo, a brighter one, graced the bulging biceps of his right arm. It was mostly obscured by his blue uniform sleeve. Lybrand thought it looked like a blue flag with a horizontal white stripe — possibly the Argentinean flag, but she wasn't sure.
"So if you're not pissed, then what's this about?"
O'Doyle cleared his throat. “I… uh… I don't know. You've only been with the company a couple of months. I thought we could talk. You know, swap war stories."
"War stories? I'm not too hip on those, you know? I'm not too good at that soldier-to-soldier stuff."
O'Doyle shifted in his seat and wouldn't look her in the eye.
She didn't know him well, but she'd seen enough of his take-charge attitude to recognize a change in behavior. She'd hired on with EarthCore back in March, working security for a northern California mine. Shit wages, but it was all she could get. Just over a month after she started, her boss told her to pack a bag. Singular—a bag. Some EarthCore employee computer scan turned up her desert military experience and days later she was helping set up base camp in the Wah Wah Mountains. That desert experience was hard earned in the mountains of Afghanistan.