Archaeologist (Aeolus Investigations Book 9), page 1
Contents
Cover
Copyright
Chapter 1, Trapped
Chapter 2, Self-Help
Chapter 3, Exploring Deeper
Chapter 4, Finding the Prize
Chapter 5, Betrayal
Chapter 6, Remote Control
Chapter 7, Norma Jean
Chapter 8, PAS-23
Chapter 9, Marines
Chapter 10, Seduction
Chapter 11, State Secrets
Chapter 12, War Games
Chapter 13, The Death of PAS-23
Chapter 14, Pursuit
Chapter 15, Lexi Won't Wake Up
Chapter 16, Dr. Allie
Chapter 17, On the Beach
Chapter 18, Nano-tech War
Chapter 19, The Cage
Chapter 20, Lexi’s Back
Chapter 21, Jaguar
Chapter 22, Xeas
Chapter 23, Boarding Party
Chapter 24, Interrogation
Chapter 25 The Lost City of Cuba
Chapter 26, Secrets of the Cave
Chapter 27, Niches
Chapter 28, Lexi
Chapter 29, Nemesis
Chapter 30, Reinforcements
Chapter 31, A Disturbance in the Force
Chapter 32, Ziggurat
Chapter 33, Storm Gate
Chapter 34, State Secrets Revealed
Author’s Note
Books by Bob Colfax
ARCHAEOLOGIST
Aeolus Investigations (Episode 9)
by
Robert E Colfax
Cover artist: Dave Kirk
Editing/Proofreading: Dee Bullock, Rosemary Wright
Publisher: Robert C Kirk
Thank you
Copyright © 2021 Robert C Kirk
All rights reserved.
The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law.
Chapter 1
Trapped
Coughing out dust, Lexi asked, “Is anyone hurt?” She could feel the other two with her mind, but it didn’t hurt to ask. She was virtually certain her sister, Allie, wasn’t in any distress. Steve, their putative boss for the summer, on the other hand, was in a great deal of pain. With all three of their flashlights buried or broken, this small cave was in complete darkness. Dust from the cave-in was choking all three of them. Lexi was unable to move her legs.
“Bruises, maybe. I’m not hurt,” Allie answered, her voice, as was Lexi’s, a little raspy from the grit in the air. “How about you, Steve?” She could be heard stirring around as she asked.
Steve groaned. “I’m pretty sure my shoulder is dislocated. I think that’s my only injury.” By then, Allie found and lit one of the lanterns carried in each of their packs. Steve looked at the tumble of rock only a few feet away and added, “Better than being under that. I guess that’s where my flashlight ended up.” As the lantern attained full brightness, pushing back the darkness in what remained of the cave, he was able to see both of his companions. Allie looked fine, just dusty. “Ah, Lexi, what about you?”
In the glow of the lantern, it was clear that Lexi, face down on the rough floor of the cave, was partially buried under rock. “I wasn’t able to move fast enough to get the two of you clear and get out of the way myself.” Weird, I should have been fast enough. When did that change? Moving at less than what my full speed should be actually caused my legs to ache — even before I was pinned. “Something’s wrong with my legs.” Something over and above just having a couple of tons of rock sitting on them.
She considered while she looked over her shoulder at the mound of rock on top of her. “We can put your shoulder back in place, Steve, but Allie, unless you’ve taken the medical rubric, first you’re going to need to move these rocks off of me. Popping a shoulder back is easy enough to do and you’re more than strong enough, but I don’t want to try talking you through it if I don’t have to. Have you ever dislocated a shoulder before, Steve?”
He shook his head, trying his best to sound encouraging. He had led these women into the cave. He was responsible for them. There was no way he was going to let his concern for the situation show before he had to. Keeping his tone light, he said, “No. I’ve never been buried by a cave-in, either.”
Lexi nodded. “It will hurt less as soon as it’s back in place. Try not to move it until one of us can take care of it for you. You’ll need to wear a sling for a few days to keep it immobile. You won’t have full use of it for about twelve weeks. No heavy lifting during that time. You’ll still be able to work your dig, but no pitching in with a shovel like I’ve seen you do.”
Lexi certainly sounded like she knew what she was talking about. She and Allie had been working for him for only a few days. Other than the fact that she was rich, he had no clue as to her background. Maybe she had medical training? All kinds of people found being on an archaeological dig alluring. He hadn’t advertised this one as a tourist attraction. Frankly, most people couldn’t handle the grueling approach up dangerous waterways to get to the site. These two had made arrangements to join his team for a while, anyway.
While Lexi was talking to Steve, Allie stood and carried the lantern closer to where Lexi was pinned, face down, on the rock floor, her legs buried to mid-thigh. “Sorry, Lexi, medical training is still on my to-do list. Admittedly, it may have just moved up a notch or three. Can’t you pull yourself out, Big Sister?”
“Yes, I probably can. But I’ve never been this severely damaged. Nothing is actually crushed, but I have multiple fractures in each leg. I don’t think any of them are compound. I’m don’t seem to be losing any blood. I didn’t think I could be this badly damaged anymore, Allie. Since I am, I’m not sure I wouldn’t rip my legs off. Then you’d have to carry me until they grew back.” My bones shouldn’t break this easily. Sometimes I hate being my own guinea pig. It has to be the new nano-cell technology making me more fragile than I am without it. Hate it when that kind of thing happens. Still, this doesn’t compare to my first use of the hulk meds. That one nearly killed me. She looked again at the rocks holding her in place. I suppose this nearly killed me too. Damn.
“What?” Steve asked, still keeping his voice light. “Legs don’t grow back. And those rocks are far too heavy for Allie to move. I don’t think the two of us together could shift the bigger ones, even if I could use both shoulders. I don’t like this, Lexi. I’m just being realistic, but we might not have a choice other than to leave you under there until help can get to us. You’re sure you’re not bleeding out?”
Lexi looked up at him. She wasn’t exactly glaring, but he translated her look to mean, “Shut up.”
As Steve was speaking, Allie was surveying the pile of rocks pinning Lexi. She knew if she pulled out the lowest ones, those above would roll down onto her sister. If one of them smashed Lexi’s spine, that would be far worse than the current bad situation.
She reached out for a boulder at shoulder height that didn’t look like it was holding anything else in place. It probably weighed in excess of a thousand pounds. Two years ago, Allie had watched as her sister easily bench pressed over twelve hundred pounds at the gym. True, that had been in a simulated reality, but, still, twelve hundred pounds was twelve hundred pounds. Lexi was fourteen years older than her and four inches taller. In some situations, the extra height would give her better leverage. Leverage asied, Allie had no reason to think Lexi was any stronger than her. She was pretty sure she could pick this rock up if she braced herself — there were plenty of handholds. While she was positioning for that, Allie asked, “You ever been trapped in a cave-in before, Lexi?’
“No, can’t say that I have.” Allie noticed Steve, wide-eyed in the glare of the lantern, looking from one to other of them. I suppose we are both coming off as overly casual about this situation. Actually, he is too. Good for him.
Allie remarked, “So, goody, I guess we found something else you haven’t done before.”
As she lifted the chosen boulder off the pile and walked it several feet away, she saw Steve’s still wide-eyed expression and winked at him. As she went after a second, slightly less massive stone, she heard Steve comment, “So is this your way of telling me that maybe legs do grow back?” No one answered him, but that was OK. He didn’t really expect an answer.
Lexi did say, “Working on an archaeological dig isn’t something I’ve done before, Allie.” She looked back over her shoulder at Allie and the pile of boulders as she added, “That should have been good enough for this vacation.”
Chapter 2
Self-Help
It took Allie almost ninety minutes of painstakingly careful work to remove enough of the rocks trapping Lexi so that she could extract her from under the pile. Once Lexi was carefully turned over and sitting with her back against one of the boulders Allie had relocated, Lexi said, “Steve, come sit next to me. Let’s fix your shoulder next.” As he complied, he thought that sitting her upright must have been agonizing, considering the shape her legs were in. They didn’t even look straight. She hadn’t made a sound, though.
The relief he felt wasn’t total, but it was instant once Lexi was done. It took only seconds for her to pop his shoulder back into its socket. He had seen people on TV fix their own
Steve looked at Lexi’s obviously shattered legs and said, “You should be in traction. The pain must be incredible. How can you even still function?”
“I’m blocking the pain. The purpose of pain is to let you know something is wrong with your body. I can tell that without suffering through it. Allie, help him get his shirt off and use it to make him a sling. Then I’m going to need your help again.” No one said a word while they got Steve out of his shirt. Allie knew even those careful movements must be hurting him. He didn’t make a sound other than a sharp intake of breath when she started. Lexi said, “You should take pain-killers, Steve, if you have any.”
He agreed. Even simple movement hurt. He said, “I have acetaminophen in the first aid kit. I’ll take a couple.”
Allie couldn’t help noticing the musculature of his upper body was as sculpted as she imagined it to be. She smiled. Unlike some of the other men in the camp, Steve didn’t roam around with his shirt off.
Once Steve was taken care of, Allie moved back to her sister. Lexi said, “We’re going to fix my legs now, honey. Take off your boots and sit across from me me.” Once Allie was sitting, Lexi said, “You’re going to pull my legs straight toward you, one at a time.” She glanced at Steve. “Steve had the right idea. You’re putting me in traction.”
“I’ll just drag you across the floor if I do that, Lexi,” Allie protested.
“No, that’s why I wanted you to take off your shoes. One foot in my crotch to brace yourself.”
“Really? Yeah, that should work.” She positioned herself as instructed. “OK, now what?”
“A steady pull on the leg. No jerking.” As Allie did as instructed, Lexi said, her voice strained, “That’s good, honey. Don’t worry. You aren’t going to hurt me. Use a little more force.”
Allie gradually increased the pull on Lexi’s ankle until Lexi said, “OK, that’s got it. You’re going to have to hold it, keeping the pressure steady for the next ten minutes or so. My eyes are going to be closed. I’m concentrating, not passing out.”
The ten minutes passed in silence. Steve wanted to talk but didn’t want to break anyone’s concentration. He did note that it looked like Allie was exerting far more effort stretching her sister’s leg than she had when moving impossibly-sized boulders. Both women looked pale and sweaty as Allie worked. He didn’t for a moment think it was just from the harsh glow cast by the lantern or the temperature in the cave.
Having time to think while the two women were busy, Steve realized that Lexi must have been in motion before he had even realized the ceiling of the cave was coming down. The thunderous boom preceding that event momentarily distracted him. Based on how close to the back of the cave they had landed, Lexi had tossed both him and Allie a good sixteen feet from where they had been standing. He was two hundred pounds, give or take, and she tossed him with one arm at the same time she tossed Allie with the other.
Both of these women were well built — not stacked, but muscular. That was obvious. When work was done for the day and the sun went down, they tended to change into halter tops and cargo shorts. But even those muscles shouldn’t have been capable of tossing him like a child or, for that matter, of relocating boulders that weighed as much as those he watched Allie pick up and carry.
He originally thought they were just rich people out for a lark. He now realized he didn’t know who these people he was trapped with were, but if he had to be trapped with anybody, he was beginning to suspect he couldn’t have chosen better.
Eyes still closed, Lexi said, “Now rotate it three degrees counter-clockwise.” Eight minutes later, she said, “Good. Set it down, gently, please. Do you want to take a break before straightening the other one?”
“No, I’m good. This has got to be harder on you than on me. Do you want to take a break?”
Lexi smiled. “What? Me? I’m just sitting here.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “OK, then, same thing on the other side.” As Allie pulled, Lexi said, “Move it slightly further out and twist four degrees clockwise. The breaks are angled differently on this side.”
Twelve minutes passed before Lexi said, “OK, you can relax now. Thank you honey. I’ve got them sealed back together.”
Steve asked, “Can I talk?” As far as he could tell through Lexi’s pants, he was looking at two normal legs.
Both Lexi and Allie smiled at him. “Go ahead,” Allie said.
“Did you just set two legs that should have required surgery and pins and a stay in traction in a hospital bed?”
“Yes, she did,” Lexi explained. “We don’t have a hospital bed handy. This was more practical. We also might be short on time. Also, before you ask, she was lifting stones that weighed, what, a thousand pounds, Allie?”
“I don’t think most of them were that heavy,” Allie said, adding, “although a couple were more than that.”
“I see,” Steve said, looking from one of them to the other. “How long before you’re able to walk on two broken legs?” He didn’t mean it as a serious question.
Lexi laughed. “Don’t be silly, you can’t walk on broken legs. However, I’ll be mobile again in around two hours, maybe less. Why? You have somewhere else you need to be?”
Steve shook his head. “You can’t be serious. Who are you ladies? Or should I be asking ‘what are you?’” He hesitated a minute, thinking about the miracles he had witnessed. “Ah, if you’ll have to kill me if you answer that, I’ll stay in blissful ignorance, I think.”
Before saying anything, Allie glanced at Lexi. Getting a go-ahead nod, Allie said, “If there’s something we don’t want you to know, we won’t tell you. So you should be safe enough.”
She paused momentarily. “She’s completely serious, Steve. My sister, Lexi Stevens, is Marshal of the Accord. You can’t not have heard of her. Both of us are genetically modified to be stronger than normal. We heal faster too. In Lexi’s case, apparently, much faster. Although I think we’re lucky the impact was to her leg bones and not her knees or ankles. That would have crippled her.” She looked back at Lexi, and added, “At least for a day or two. I’m surprised at how quickly she expects to be able to walk. Anything else you want to know?”
He considered that. “I should have recognized her. Although, you were both kind of dirty and sweaty when you got here. Like the rest of us. So, no, not at the moment, but that’s good news, right? If you’re missing, people will come looking. I was trying to figure a way to get us out of here, but that might not be necessary.” He paused. “If you’re a high government muckity-muck, shouldn’t you have a protection detail traveling with you? Is the air getting stuffy?”
Lexi looked from him to Allie. “The problem I have with having a protection detail is that protecting them slows me down. This issue with my legs shouldn’t have happened. I’ve been experimenting with what’s termed nano-technology. I’m not sure why yet, but the nano-cell culture I inoculated myself with seems to have weakened my bones. On the plus side, they cooperated with sealing the breaks back together while Allie had me in traction. They’re also holding everything in place while my leg bones are regrowing.
