Part 15
The dock creaked under my feet as I stepped off, with my hand safe in Professor Silver's grip. Jordyn was already out and looking up at the high cliffs that towered over the jungle spread just off the wide sandy beach. We could hear the rumble of machinery in the distance, and saw several trucks parked along one edge, with a few motorboats and canoes docked along another pier several yards away.
Derrick let out a low whistle. "Wow, they've got quite the operation going here!"
Jordyn popped up alongside me and grabbed my hand. "Ooh, isn't this exciting?" she squealed, forgetting all about how weird it was that an island this size wouldn't show up on any kind of satellite imaging. "I never imagined it would be so huge!"
Alexandros handed our bags down to the professor, who directed us into bringing all the luggage to the rocky, packed-sand surface of the shore. I could hear the slight warble of a walkie-talkie over the racket, and as we waited in a hesitant cluster to make sure we all made it off the rickety dock and didn't leave anything behind on the boat, three people came out of the fringe of bushes just beyond the tree line above us. A woman wearing a blousy linen jumpsuit and thick-soled boots, a man dressed in a loose cotton shirt and cargo shorts, and a second man wearing a dark muscle shirt, bulky black cargo pants and cargo boots, toting a large gun and an expression that said he meant business.
As they got closer, I could distinguish their features better. The woman looked pretty fair-skinned, lightly tanned but not too sun-burnt around her fine features. Her light-brown hair was rolled and twisted up and fastened at the back of her head. I could see her counting with her eyes and consulting a clipboard in her hands, writing things down with a pen she kept tucked behind her ear. The man's face was craggy and dark like Alexandros, and the large nose gave away his distinct Greco-Roman heritage. The thick mustache bristling between his nose and lip was black and streaked with silver. I made a point not to examine the man with the gun too closely. I could feel his piercing eyes fixed on me anyway.
Alexandros waved to them as he made his way toward the newcomers. "Hello--we have arrived at last!"
The woman smiled. "Welcome! You must be the college group sent to join us this week. I'm Stephanie Jennings, the Director of Personnel for the Foundation. This," she gestured to the man standing next to her, "is Athanasios Marinos, the dig chief in charge of the actual archaeological space."
The craggy man's smile lifted his mustache slightly, and his eyes watched each of us. "Kalos Irthate!" he reached to shake hands with Professor Silver. "Welcome everyone. I hope your time on Fourtouna will be, ah, most educational!"
I inadvertently glanced off to the side, where the gunman stood, watching each of us with a face that looked like it was molded out of clay. A breeze blew past me, and my attention swapped to Stephanie, who saw the shudder and assumed I was disconcerted by the stoic man.
"That's Herrin," she said, as if knowing his name would humanize him at all. "He's part of the security outfit we have at the camp--just a handful of guys."
"Security?" I echoed, slipping into the role of excessively curious college student, "Are there a lot of threats to the site on this island?"
Stephanie shook her head and prompted me further up the beach, behind Athanasios and Alexandros. "On the island? Perhaps the odd animal or two, but not a whole lot. No, our threats sometimes come from the mainland--a too-curious boatman, or a passing tourist charter that thinks this is just another public beach in the middle of the ocean. They are more here to prevent anything from happening, not as a result of something that did. That's why there aren't many of them. They rotate--mostly for watching the dig teams, safeguarding the equipment, and scanning the beach, like Herrin, here." Stephanie made a point of pulling out the pen from behind her ear and running it down the paper on her clipboard. "Ah, so let's see, we have Professor Edward Silver--"
The professor waved in a manner he probably assumed made him look "casual and suave" but actually gave off a more "gangly and goofy" vibe. "That's me! I go by Ned, most of the time."
Stephanie nodded and noted this, then continued down the list. "Okay, and who's the archaeology student?"
I raised my hand. "That's me. Priscilla Del Vento-Thiele."
Stephanie tilted an eyebrow, but gave me a smile and nod. "Okay, Priscilla T... and the mechanical engineering student?"
"Yo!" Derrick called, standing between Tony and Jordyn. "Name's Derrick."
Stephanie nodded to him as well. "Thanks for that. Okay, Derrick on the engineering team... and then--" She squinted at the remaining three, and pointed at Jordyn. "Are you Chelsea?"
Jordyn blinked and shook her head, darting a furtive glance toward Professor Silver. "Umm, no I'm Jordyn--the geologist."
Athanasios snorted, muttering something under his breath, while Alexandros rubbed the back of his neck.
Professor Silver cleared his throat. "Ah, I can clear that up--Chelsea had to cancel at the last minute, so the university allowed Tony, here, to take her place." He clapped the young man on the shoulder.
I saw a brief look between Stephanie and Athanasios, and I wondered if they were going to be as uncomfortable with the change in situation as Alexandros was. But our guide recovered and pasted on a winning smile for our sakes, and said, "Okay, and what's your area of study, Tony?" She made more intense notes, crossing out text and scribbling words in the margin of her paper.
"I'm studying history," Tony answered.
Stephanie nodded quickly, "Okay, so you would be the historian--"
"Um," Kayce spoke up from beside Professor Silver, "but I'm studying anthropology, so I think I was supposed to be the historian."
Stephanie stopped and blinked. "But the last remaining position is the computer technology--didn't you have a Computer Science major in your group?"
"We did," Jordyn started speaking up, but when everybody looked at her, she clammed up and didn't expand further.
Tony shrugged affably. "If the team needs to be divided evenly into the different roles, I am pretty competent around computer equipment--"
Stephanie gave a little shake of her head. "Oh... No, that's all right, we can be flexible. That's the name of the game on an archaeological dig!" She let us all start walking again, up to the top of the ridge and through the forest, closer to the revving motors and rumbling rocks. "We might make neat and tidy plans from our offices and lay out hypothetical, best-case scenarios, but in the end, we get what we get, and we work together to make things happen. Besides," she shrugged. "I don't think the computer technicians we have on site will have very much to do unless by some miracle we find what we're looking for!"
We emerged into the main camp of the dig site. Off to the left, closer to the middle of the island, was a bank of large canvas tents, with several people walking around them. Immediately to our right was what looked to be the motor pool: several ATVs, some boats loaded on trailers, and a couple large pickup trucks. Beside the motor pool stood the generators--large roaring things, with many cords hooked to them, and spider-webbing in all directions throughout the camp. Six floodlights mounted on tall poles ringed the edge of the camp, and there were several large RVs directly across from us.
Stephanie pointed to each of these areas as she gave us the quick visual tour.
"Sleeping tents, and you'll find the bank of portable toilets set up beyond that," she started on the left, "then we have the artifact storage van where we clean, tag, and store all the bits and pieces we find, and next to that the library, holding all our written records, with linguistics resources and anything else research-related. Next to that," she pointed to the RV with the most cords and antennas extending from it, "is our tech hub--all the computers, satellite feeds, digital docking stations, all the tech-related stuff."
Derrick tilted his head and nodded to the fourth and final RV in the lineup. "And what's that one for?"
Stephanie chuckled. "That one's my office, mostly--and the place where we let important guests stay when they come to visit."
A bug whined past my ear, and I flinched and batted the air beside my head. "So... where are we going to stay?"
Stephanie led us toward the tents. I noticed that Herrin wasn't behind us anymore, but I could see a few more black-garbed men with large guns, either standing at the edge of the camp or calmly walking through it, watching everything around them carefully. I had a feeling these guys didn't miss much--but would that be a good thing, or spell trouble for us?
Stephanie pointed out three tents that had blue flags hanging over the doors. "We've set aside a couple tents for your use. You can stow your bags in there, and rest assured, all your belongings will be very secure." She caught a few suspicious looks from Kayce and Professor Silver, and rolled her eyes. "We're all adults here--we know how to respect each others' stuff. Trust me when I say that everybody here knows that there are consequences when we go poking around in business that isn't ours." Here she leveled a glance toward Jordyn and I--but I couldn't figure out why.
"Stephanie! Hey, Steph!" A fair-haired man jogged up, pushing a pair of glasses back on his face with one finger every third step. He stopped when his eyes landed on our awkward little group. "Oh hey, are these the college kids?" His face broke out into a huge smile.
"Yeah, Greg," Stephanie answered. "These are them." She showed him her clipboard. "I've got everybody's name and group designation." She glanced back to the professor. "We can work on group-specific introductions over dinner, which will be in about an hour or so. That will give you guys time to get all moved in and settled. Any questions?"
"Oh!" Greg snapped his fingers before any of us could speak. "Yeah, I have a question--actually, it's more like the guys had a question for you, about that thing we were working on... The--"
"Yes, I know what thing you're talking about," Stephanie cut him off a little too quickly, I felt. She didn't look back at any of us. "Why don't I go with you?" She looked back over to us and gave her welcoming grin. "If you have any questions about our progress on the dig, or about the camp," she nodded to the grumpy-faced man that had been kind of lurking behind us the whole time. "Athanasios can answer them. I'm sorry, but I've got to take care of this." She stomped off together with Greg, never bothering to elaborate on what "this" was.
Professor Silver regarded Athanasios. He was busy looking every single one of us over, squinting as he watched us.
"Okay!" Our intrepid chaperone declared. "We'll do this just like the hostel, girls in one tent, guys in the other two."
Both Kayce and Derrick grabbed the same flag. "Dibs!" they cried in unison.
Jordyn snorted, and Kayce caught the sound. He looked over. "What?" he muttered, as Tony and the professor broke away to their tent. "Silver has this really annoying snore that he does--we'll all still probably hear it tonight, but it'll be easier to block it out if we're not in the same tent, I think!"
I followed Jordyn into our tent. There was a bare cot on either side, with space underneath to stow our suitcases. I pulled out the sleep sack I'd brought, spreading it out over the cot.
Jordyn followed suit, and after just minutes in the stifling canvas, she was wiping sweat from her brow.
"Whew! These tents sure bottle up a lot of heat!" she sighed.
I wagged my head, feeling the the wet, sticky beads forming along my scalp as well. "Sure it's hot now," I mused, "but once that sun goes down, I imagine it gets pretty cold out here."
Jordyn pulled out her pillow and journal--she'd already begun chronicling our experiences, even on the plane ride out here. She scribbled a few notes on the next blank page. "True that. I think we'll be grateful for the residual heat when it's time for bed!"
I glanced at my own bag, with the history book from my mom's office waiting just under the top flap. Would I even need to use it out here? What were the odds that this group already had their own copy in the library?
Jordyn finished writing, and looked up, meeting my gaze. I smiled. "Ready to see what this place has to offer?"
She grinned. "Ready!"
We exited the tent. The guys had already moved in, and I saw Kayce and Derrick heading toward the RV with the tech equipment.
I saw Athanasios coming from around the far side of the artifact storage trailer. As the dig chief, he would no doubt have all the information we could want about this place--whether or not he was affiliated with FRED, I couldn't say. Jordyn followed me as I walked over to intercept him.
"Hello," I said, waving as we approached.
Athanasios looked up, and the frown on his face only relaxed somewhat. "What can I do for two such omorfes kyries?" he asked.
Jordyn tilted her head. "Alexandros used that word, kyries," she pronounced the word to rhyme with "curious." "What does it mean?"
Athanasios lifted his bushy eyebrows, impressed. "Despoinida has a good ear for the Greek tongue! It means lady." He nodded his approval, and directed his gaze to me, just as I was about to form a question. "And the word Despoinida simply means Miss, our word for young, unmarried girls." He glance between us. "You are unmarried, are you not?"
I nodded. "Yeah, we're single!" I logged the two terms away in my head, and continued onto the subject I actually wanted to discuss. "My name's Priscilla, and this is Jordyn. We wanted to find out more about the archaeological experience, and this camp, if you don't mind." I gave him a big smile to prove I wasn't looking for trouble, and I suspected nothing, even though every other thought through my head was What if the demon is here in the camp? How would I even know? For crying out loud, I didn't even have a clue that my parents were ACTUAL GODS and I lived with them for most of my life!
Athanasios dug his hands into his pockets, glancing around at the few people still milling about between the RV's. I could hear sizzling and see smoke coming from a tent a ways off, behind Stephanie's RV and closer into the forest.
"I suppose I have time," he answered. "Dinner is not for another hour at least, so things are winding down for the day."
I nodded. "Great, because I have a lot of questions! After all, archaeology's kind of the thing I'm studying."
Athanasios raised his eyebrows again, and he nodded along with me. "Is it now? I have not seen many young people your age so fascinated with my culture, unless they had come from a Greek heritage. Is your family Greek?" He turned from me to Jordyn, with her dark skin and thick, frizzy hair.
She shook her head. "No, my family is American."
I tilted my head. "I'm actually not sure where my family comes from, besides America. I'm adopted, so I don't know much about my birth parents."
Athanasios must have sensed the discomfort I felt, because he pulled his hands out of his pockets and held them in front of him. "Well, it is wonderful to see such eagerness to learn in two young kyries," he winked at Jordyn as he repeated the word from earlier. "I will try to answer your questions as well as I can."
"Great!" I said, glancing down at my notebook page where I'd written some questions.
"So tell me, how long has this specific dig been going on? When did it first start?"
Athanasios shrugged. "This site isn't exclusively owned--a few other groups have dug here in past centuries, but this particular group of Americans began digging in the middle of March--two months ago."
"How long does an average dig usually last?" Jordyn added.
Athanasios rubbed his chin. "I've been a dig chief for several historic sites around Greece for many years now, and I've never seen one group dig in a certain site for longer than a few weeks--but these people," he waved to indicate the RVs and the workers just starting to filter back in from somewhere deeper into the forest, "keep coming back, again and again, and each time, they contract with my company, and that company sends me to be their dig chief--I'm the one who directs the workers, makes sure things are done safely and we do not exceed the permits or infringe on any boundaries."
"So you're like the local liaison for these archaeological groups," I mused.
Athanasios nodded. As I scribbled down a few notes, I saw his gaze sliding over to me, with that strange glint--almost like the way Alexandros looked at me.
Jordyn piped up before he could say anything.
"Why do you suppose this dig has lasted so long?" she asked.
Athanasios shot Jordyn a glance. Was he suspicious of her, or something? If so, why? After a moment, he shrugged his burly shoulders. "Who knows? They keep researching and digging, further and deeper--almost like they are looking for something, but they have not yet found it."
Jordyn squinted against the setting sun, up to the peak of the cliff looming over the forest. "Our guide, Alexandros, was saying that this island used to be a place of worship--could they be looking for the temple, then, or something more specific?"
Again, I saw the weird tension flicker across the dig chief's face, and his eyes wandered a little as he replied, "They have found remains of what might have been the temple already--a few small altars, some remains of pedestals where the statues of the gods once stood. But..." His voice trailed off, and he stared off toward a wide path that led further into the trees. I could see lots of tire tracks, which meant that was probably the way to the main dig site. When Athanasios turned back to us, there was something almost secretive in his expression. "I do not believe that is all they are looking for. They seek something else, something deeper and more hidden, according to the research they have gathered. Every time, there seem to be more riddles to solve, or something prevents them from going as far as they want--and when they return, they seem to know more about the region, and its history."
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